Need a Basketball Coach? Take Your Team to Tara

Any list of great basketball coaches now must include Tara VanDerveer of the U.S. women’s team that won 60 consecutive games before and during the Olympic Games. . . .

Under the guidance of VanDerveer, who will resume her duties at Stanford next season, Lisa Leslie became a much better player than she was even during her All-American days at USC. . . .

David Reid’s come-from-behind knockout victory in the third round over Alfredo Duvergel of Cuba for the light-middleweight gold medal on Sunday was straight out of “Rocky.” Those Philadelphia fighters sure have a flair for the dramatic. . . .

Any closing ceremonies that feature Gloria Estefan have to be enjoyable. . . .

During a lull in the action one day last week and with Alexander Memorial Coliseum nearly silent, promoter Bob Arum yelled out to Alcides Sagarra, the Cuban boxing coach, “Cigar, you stink!” . . .

The New York State Athletic Commission is being unfair by deducting $1 million from Riddick Bowe’s $5 million purse for his fight against Andrew Golota last month at Madison Square Garden. . . .

Bowe shouldn’t be penalized for the riot that ensued after Golota was disqualified for low blows. . . .

The blame goes to the people who worked Bowe’s corner and charged the ring. . . .

When the New York Yankees traded for Cecil Fielder, they ranked 26th in home runs among the 28 teams in the major leagues. . . .

After the trade, two New York papers had the identical headline, “FAT CITY!” . . .

The Atlanta Braves had the first pick in the 1990 amateur draft and would have taken Todd Van Poppel if the high school pitching phenom hadn’t announced that he was going to attend the University of Texas. . . .

Instead, the Braves selected Chipper Jones. . . .

Jones is one of the best young players in the National League and Van Poppel, who signed with the Oakland A’s instead of going to college, has been a flop. . . .

The Angels, who are 52-59, were 67-44 after the same number of games last year before losing 23 of their last 34 games, including the AL West playoff at Seattle. . . .

The Dodgers, who are 58-54, were 59-53 before winning 19 of their last 32 and winning the NL West title by a game over Colorado. . . .

If the Dodgers had beaten the Braves on Sunday, Billy Ball would have been responsible. L.A. took the lead in the seventh inning on Tom Prince’s squeeze bunt after Wayne Kirby had stolen second base and reached third on a sacrifice. . . .

The 16 hits Friday at Dodger Stadium were delivered by 15 different batters. . . .

It didn’t bother me in the least that a politician, Jim Bunning, campaigned for baseball to hire a “real commissioner” during his Hall of Fame induction speech. . . .

The acting commissioner, Bud Selig, was not at the ceremonies at Cooperstown, N.Y., but the suspended Cincinnati Red owner, Marge Schott, was. . . .

Those of us who belong to the Nov. 19 birthday club were happy to learn that Kerri Strug is a member along with Meg Ryan, Jodie Foster and Larry King, among others. . . .

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Ed Olczyk, the Kings’ newly acquired center, worked with Bob Miller on the radio network broadcasts of the NHL Western Conference championship series between Colorado and Detroit. . . .

“Ed was terrific on the air, especially for someone who had no experience,” Miller said. “He’s excited about joining the Kings. The other day he came into our community relations office and volunteered to help out. Imagine that.” . . .

Washington Coach Jim Lambright was delighted when the Rose Bowl joined the bowl alliance. . . .

“The alliance gives us talking rights when we go out to recruit,” Lambright said. “Schools from other conferences had the advantage when they could tell a kid that he had the opportunity to play in a national championship game.” . . .

Arizona State Coach Bruce Snyder said, “We had an exciting defense last year . . . way too exciting actually.” . . .

Asked the difference between UCLA spring practices coached by Terry Donahue and Bob Toledo, defensive end Travis Kirschke said, “This spring’s were more physical. We hit more and went one-on-one against the first-string offense more often.” . . .

If the Pacific 10 and Big Ten Conference media polls prove to be accurate, USC and Penn State will play this season in the Rose Bowl as well as the Kickoff Classic.