He Is Half the Coach He Used to Be

Joe Lapointe of the New York Times on Dallas Star Coach Ken Hitchcock:

“No other coach has reduced his weight from almost 500 pounds a decade ago to about half that today.

“No other coach, especially one from Canada, has been known to dress up in the blue uniform of a Union soldier to participate in battlefield reenactments of the United States Civil War.”

Trivia time: What is the NBA record for points scored by a team in a playoff game?

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Confused: From reader George Kiseda: “I know a jogger who is so dumb he went to the Y to sign up for that 2K he has been hearing so much about.”

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Empathy: Brad Rock of Salt Lake City’s Deseret News on Robby Gordon’s running out of gas on the last lap of the Indy 500: “The Jazz know exactly how he feels.”

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A know-it-all: Steve Rosenbloom in the Chicago Tribune: “My guy Bill Lankhof in the Toronto Sun, on Tribune baseball writing legend Jerome Holtzman leaving to work for Commissioner Bud Selig after more than 50 years in newspapers:

“ ‘He has been around so long he not only knows where the skeletons are buried, he personally knows the guys who buried them.’ ”

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Puzzling: Garry Hill in Track & Field News: “One of the great rules in any sport has to be the NHL’s 46(a): . . . ‘A player whose stick is broken may participate in the game provided he drops the broken portion.’

“How do you know which one of the pieces is the broken one?”

And what does that have to do with track or field?

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Courageous: Michael Wilbon in the Washington Post: “I have to steal a line from my friend and colleague Mike Lupica, who said to me Sunday: ‘At the risk of being blasphemous, Willis Reed limped into the Garden one night [against the Lakers]; Patrick Ewing’s been limping into the Garden every night for two months.’ ”

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Trivia answer: 157, by Boston against New York, on April 28, 1990.

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And finally: Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle on pitcher Curt Schilling of the Philadelphia Phillies and his preparation:

“He has a computer video program containing every pitch he has thrown for the last five years.

“His 96-hour preparation for the next game begins the day after he starts.”