He Has Incentive to Win, but What About Talent?

From the incentives the University of Iowa is giving basketball Coach Steve Alford, it’s no wonder he isn’t going back to his alma mater, Indiana.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that in addition to his annual estimated salary of $585,000, if the Hawkeyes win 22 regular-season games, the Big Ten regular-season and tournament championships, the NCAA championship and maintain a 70% graduation rate, Alford would earn $950,000 in bonuses that would bring the one-year total to $1.535 million.

For every NCAA title he wins, Alford gets an extra $250,000. For every Big Ten regular-season championship, he gets $50,000. He also has one-time incentive bonuses that give him $200,000 for winning 18 of 27 regular-season games, $400,000 for winning 20 of 27, and $600,000 for 22 of 27, all conditional on a 60% graduation rate.

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More Alford: It’s not as if the school is taking a big risk. The Hawkeyes have never won a national title, last won the Big Ten championship in 1979 and last made a Final Four appearance in 1980.

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Trivia time: Who holds the major league record for home runs by a player who participated in fewer than 100 games?

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Are you sure? Arizona Diamondback pitcher Curt Schilling apparently doesn’t care much for Barry Bonds.

“He’s a Hall of Famer. First ballot. I’d say that every day of the week and twice on Sundays. But he’s the biggest [jerk] who ever played the game. Ask guys who play with him or guys around the league. It’s a universal opinion about him.”

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The other side: Replied Bonds, “I’ve never played with Curt Schilling. For him to make that kind of statement is ridiculous.”

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Lessons to learn: After Carolina Panther cornerback Doug Evans fell into the end zone after recovering a fumble at Carolina’s three-yard line, believing it would be a touchback only to be properly ruled a safety, Coach George Seifert gave each player a gift.

When the team arrived for meetings Monday morning, Seifert had left a copy of the NFL’s Digest of Rules at each locker.

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Hard sell: The NHL is finding that introducing hockey into Columbus, Ohio, where the Ohio State Buckeyes rule the roost, is not easy.

For instance, the local all-sports radio station, WBNS-AM, canceled the first hour of an exhibition hockey game to air Ohio State football Coach John Cooper’s weekly call-in show.

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Trivia answer: The St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire, 32 home runs in 89 games this year.

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And finally: Receptionists hear the darnedest things. Maeve Drake, who works the front desk for the Denver Broncos, told the San Jose Mercury News about the time a guy called, saying he wanted to replace Karl Mecklenburg, a former linebacker/defensive lineman.

“He said, ‘I’m really big. I weigh 175.’ ‘Hey,’ I told him, ‘half our secretarial staff weighs more than that.’ ”