It Wasn’t Pitino’s Coaching That Was to Blame

Truly persistent people don’t give in, period.

--Rick Pitino, “Success Is a Choice,” page 200

Comment from Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe: “But Rick has given up, walking away from approximately $27 million in order to stop the relentless hemorrhaging that was endangering both his mental health and professional reputation.

“Moral of the story? There is none, other than ‘players still win the games.’ Rick Pitino didn’t have enough good players to win in the World’s Greatest Basketball League, and the fault for this is his alone.”

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Trivia time: What is the lowest-scoring game in the UCLA-USC basketball series?

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Fuzzy math: From the SportsLetter of the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles: “The current issue of UCLA Alumni magazine proudly listed all of the students who won medals at the Sydney Games, noting that Bruin students and/or alumni took home eight gold, four silver and five bronze medals, for a total of 17 Olympic medals.

“The magazine concluded that ‘if UCLA were a country, it would have placed 14th in the world.’ Actually, the total should have been far less because the magazine counted team medals as individual medals (in women’s softball and volleyball).

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More fuzzy math: Steve Rosenbloom in the Chicago Tribune: “How big an idiot is Juan Gonzalez? He blows off a seven-year $140-million contract from Detroit last year and settled for one year at $10 million with Cleveland.

“The Indians say he passed the physical, but what about the mental?”

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Still barking: Seattle SuperSonic Coach Nate McMillan recalled his first impression in 1990 of rookie Gary Payton, who recently became the team’s all-time leading scorer: “He reminded me of a dog with a big bark, but he was behind the fence.”

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Lucky stiff: Depressing note for golfers who have never made a hole in one. Steve Keller, who has an 11 handicap, got two in one round Friday at Southwind Country Club in Garden City, Kan.--on the par-three, 137-yard sixth hole and the 154-yard 16th hole.

The odds of a player making two aces in the same round are 67-million-to-1, according to a representative at Golf Digest.

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Business as usual: Michael Ventre of MSNBCsports.com: “United Parcel Service has ended its six-year sponsorship with the International Olympic Committee. It will, however, continue to deliver packages of money to corrupt officials.”

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Tongue twisters: Announcer Scott Davis will be challenged at the L.A. Invitational indoor track meet Jan. 20 at the Sports Arena.

Entered are Santosh Bwamidass, Bonghabib Sley, Ufa Kretschrer, Kierstejah Ferguson and Na’Orka Mixon.

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Looking back: On this day in 1987, quarterback John Elway led the Denver Broncos to a 23-20 overtime victory over the Cleveland Browns to win the AFC championship.

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Trivia answer: The Bruins won, 19-17, in 1932 at the Olympic Auditorium.

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And finally: A standardbred horse escaped from Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey after a morning workout Monday and traveled more than a half mile down the road with his sulky, against traffic, before crossing at an intersection and heading into a restaurant parking lot where he was captured, police said. Nobody was hurt.

Maybe he was hungry.