Honeymoon Seems Over for Van Exel

Woody Paige of the Denver Post trashing former Laker Nick Van Exel: “He is little more than a self-centered [or self-point guarded] enfant terrible. The Nuggets should excise Van Exel--sooner than possible.

“The draft-day acquisition of Nick the Reek was a faux pas waiting to occur, and it has. There is no C in the middle of Exel, but, to him, there is an I in team.

“The Nuggets’ point guard is supposed to set up his mates, but Van Exel always has been a rogue, who, on a three-on-one fastbreak pulls up and shoots the three- pointer.

“Which wouldn’t be so awful if ‘Mr. Elevator’ [he’s always going up with the ball] occasionally made a shot.”

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Trivia time: When was the last heavyweight championship bout that was scheduled for more than 15 rounds?

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Orange-man: Before Thursday’s NCAA first-round game against Syracuse, Oklahoma State’s Doug Gottlieb revealed that his past, present and future all seem to be tinted orange.

“I’m from the city of Orange, in Orange County, and I play for Oklahoma State, which is Orange Power, and now we play the Orangemen of Syracuse,” the former Tustin High player said. “So if I get any more orange I’m going to have to dye my Jockey shorts orange.”

Orange Power prevailed as Syracuse lost, 69-61. Gottlieb scored only one point but had 11 assists.

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Silver lining: Darrick Martin of the Clippers, commenting when his team had a 0-15 record: “If those games were 12 minutes as opposed to 48, we’d at least be 8-7.”

He’ll have to settle for 1-17 as the Clippers finally ended their losing streak by beating Sacramento on Thursday night.

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Now it’s different: Ron Rapoport in the Chicago Sun-Times: “Jack Nicklaus was one of several golfers opposed to allowing Casey Martin to use a cart on the PGA Tour, but now that Nicklaus has had hip-replacement surgery he says he may use one on the Senior Tour.

“Martin, who has a rare circulatory disease in his right leg, told CBS’ ‘SportsLine,’ ‘I just want him to play. In the back of my mind, I’m chuckling.’ ”

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More Rapoport: “You think maybe Fluff Cowan first got into trouble when he started referring to Tiger Woods as ‘we’?

“The moral of the story is, no matter how much air time he gets, how many interviews he gives or how many endorsements he has, a caddie is just a caddie.”

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Trivia answer: On March 21, 1941, Joe Louis stopped Abe Simon in the 13th round of a scheduled 20-round bout in Detroit.

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And finally: Were it not for a couple of humorless Wisconsin Green Bay administrators in 1970, today’s UCLA-Green Bay women’s basketball game would have had a far greater marquee value.

It could have been: the Bruins vs. the Fighting Tomatoes.

When Wisconsin Green Bay was founded in 1965, the first student body voted in “Bay Badgers” as a nickname, affiliating the school with the primary state university.

But in 1970, seeking its own identity, Fighting Tomatoes came in first in a vote for a new nickname. Phoenix was second.

No way, administrators ruled.

Fighting Tomatoes was dropped even before they could order a mascot’s tomato suit, and Phoenix was adopted.