Basketball Teams Have Nothing on These Guys

Middle Tennessee State defeated Idaho, 70-58, Saturday night.

A routine basketball game, you say?

No, it was football.

The 128 points set an NCAA Division I-A record.

Middle Tennessee’s Wes Counts threw for 459 yards and six touchdowns, completing 23 of 28 passes.

Incredibly, his stats were second best.

Idaho’s Brian Lindgren completed 49 of 71 passes for 637 yards with five touchdowns.

Idaho Coach Tom Cable gets the award for understatement of the year. “We’ve got to find a way to slow somebody down,” he said after the game.

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Trivia time: Who holds the Pacific 10 Conference record for field goals in a game?

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Easy Rider: Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Isaiah Rider is a no-show for the first day of the Denver Nuggets’ training camp. And you have to admire a player, who in one day, is in midseason form.”

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More Ostler: “Allen Iverson has decided not to release his rap album. He said he thought it was good, ‘But I feel like people took it the wrong way.”’

Absolutely. In this uptight age, too few of us were willing to relax and enjoy Al’s lighthearted tribute to gay-hating, murder and assorted domestic violence.”

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Pitchman: Kevin Kernan of the New York Post is lobbying for Barry Bonds, now a free agent, to join a New York team:

“If home runs could talk, the two majestic shots he hit Friday to oust Mark McGwire from the record book were screaming, ‘New York! New York!’ as the balls flew out of Pac Bell Park.”

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Penthouse to outhouse: Skip Bayless of the San Jose Mercury News acknowledges Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones once took the franchise to great heights, but now “is the biggest joke in sports.”

Writes Bayless: “As an NFL personnel director/coach, he’s as laughable as the hoghats worn at Arkansas, his alma mater.

“He fired the coach [Jimmy Johnson] who won him back-to-back Super Bowls, and now Jerry Jones’ Dallas Cowboys are seeking their level like pigs in slop.”

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Northwest bias: Gene Frenette in the Florida Times-Union:

“Many people are ridiculing the Anderson and Hester computer rankings, conducted by two University of Washington graduates and one of eight used by the Bowl Championship Series, because it lists the Huskies as No. 1 and Washington State at No. 9.

“That’s nothing. Word is, Division III Puget Sound may soon crack the A&H; top five.”

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Calling all personnel: Arizona has lost seven consecutive Pac-10 games, and Coach John Mackovic said the Wildcats just don’t have enough talent.

“It’s tough for us and it’s going to be tough for us until we get some personnel playing in here. We don’t have a lot of personnel.”

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Trivia answer: John Lee of UCLA, six against San Diego State in 1984.

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And finally: Reggie Jackson said of Barry Bonds, “His arrogance is legendary,” prompting this comment from Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle:

“That’s like Bob Davie telling Marty Schottenheimer he is in over his head.”