What to Do When Jumpers Don’t Go In

The International Basketball League (IBL), a new professional men’s basketball organization, intends to begin play next year in San Diego and seven other cities. Although the league has no players yet, it has an educational program in place.

“The IBL values education and will implement a program which will further develop players’ skills on and off the court,” said Richard Lapchick, who created the program. “Keeping in mind that less than half of collegiate players actually graduate, this program offers five distinct elements that will ensure their success with or without basketball.”

The program includes rookie orientation, life readiness, community service, career consulting, educational trust and scholarship.

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Trivia time: Who are the only brothers to win the PGA Championship?

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Discipline lesson: Fights in training camp are a way of life in professional football, but Coach Jim Fassel of the New York Giants has found a way to at least cut down on scrapping.

Whenever players scuffle, the entire squad must run five wind sprints after practice. The result: almost no fighting among the Giants.

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One of a kind: Blackie Sherrod, in the Dallas Morning News, recalls the time Bear Bryant imposed cash fines on himself and his Alabama assistants for cursing. One day when the Crimson Tide more resembled a dry creek, the Bear climbed down from his tower, spouting profanities as he handed his money clip to a team manager.

“And when that’s gone, run me a tab!” he shouted.

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How others see us: In the London Daily Telegraph, cricket writer Quintin Letts tried to explain how Americans reacted to a bad call by an umpire in a baseball game:

“Every now and then a baseball umpire will make a duff call which, almost immediately, causes a brawl. The coaches spring out of the dugouts, chewing tobacco squirts in all directions and before long the players are thumping the pastrami out of one another. It is ferociously good fun to watch, and the best fights are always broadcast on the evening news bulletin.”

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Tough critic: Actor Dennis Quaid has been studying the form of the San Francisco 49ers’ Steve Young to prepare himself for a role as left-handed quarterback in a movie called “Any Given Sunday.”

Asked what he thought of Quaid’s passing style, 49er Coach Steve Mariucci snapped, “He can’t throw a cat out of the house.”

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Trivia answer: Lionel Hebert, 1957, and Jay Hebert, 1960.

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And finally: Oakland Athletics’ catcher A.J. Hinch has revealed how hard knuckleballer Tom Candiotti was throwing when he defeated the powerful New York Yankees, 3-1.

“He kept them off balance with three knucklers--the hard one, 65 to 68 mph; medium one, 55-65 mph; and the slow one, 48-55 mph.”