Winter Olympics Can Be Yours if the Price Is Right

The Washington Post’s Kevin Sullivan recently returned from a one-year-away inspection of the 1998 Winter Olympics city, Nagano, Japan.

Before you book reservations, he suggests, check these prices:

--One cup of coffee: $4.50.

--Air fare for family of four: $6,000.

--Bullet train fare from Tokyo to Nagano: $400. One way.

--Two Nagano hotel rooms for one week: $1,400.

--Tickets to most popular events: $300.

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Trivia time: How long was USC basketball Coach Henry Bibby’s NBA career?

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And not a pound more: Former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe, who recently enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve, went through an indoctrination session with Master Gunnery Sgt. Larry Parks.

Bowe is scheduled for three months of boot camp at Parris Island (S.C.) beginning today. He weighed in Friday at 252 pounds, which the Marines found acceptable for his 6-5 frame.

But, Bowe asked, what would happen if he reported at, say, two pounds heavier?

“You’d be in trouble!” Parks barked.

Bowe: “Trouble?”

Parks: “Trouble!”

Bowe: “Sir, yes, sir!”

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Just the ticket: The Washington Post’s Michael Wilbon, speculating on the next Washington Bullets’ coach:

“Boy, I wish Chuck Daly were just five years younger--he’s 66--and up to one more challenge.

“When Chris Webber and Juwan Howard got to Ann Arbor, Mich., Daly was a god, fresh off back-to-back championships with the Bad Boy Pistons. . . . Chuck took the Nets to the playoffs, so these Bullets wouldn’t even be his toughest challenge of the decade.

“Players still hang on his every word. [Dennis]Rodman would take the dye out of his hair if Daly asked him. Problem is, Chuck says he’s too old to do it.”

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No, not a typo: It was the most lopsided game in the history of Texas high school basketball, yet the winning coach in a 144-6 rout insisted his players hadn’t tried to pour it on.

The recent game matched two small schools from Texas’ East Piney Woods region, Goodrich and Chester. Each school has about 80 students.

Goodrich led after one quarter, 44-2.

Said Goodrich Coach Lester King: “It was homecoming. . . . I don’t know, maybe they were fired up because I gave them the day off the day before.”

Chester Coach Jesse Watson did not return calls.

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Did anyone notice? When the USC men beat Stanford last Thursday at the Sports Arena, attendance was 4,114. On the same evening, 5,101 watched the Stanford women beat USC at Stanford’s Maples Pavilion.

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Trivia answer: Nine seasons (1972-81), with New York, New Orleans, Philadelphia and San Diego.

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And finally: Senior golfer Bobby Nichols has two new titanium pins in his two hip replacements, and plays with pure titanium irons, the Armour Ti 100s.

His analysis of his game: “Both my hips and my Ti 100s swing smooth and natural.”