At Least One Rave Review for T.O.’s Show

Terrell Owens elicits emotions from friend and foe alike for his brand of celebration, be it spiking the ball on the Dallas Cowboys’ midfield star, pulling out a Sharpie or grabbing a cheerleader’s pompoms. Skip Bayless of the San Jose Mercury News on the San Francisco 49er receiver:

“What next, pulling a live mike from his sock and performing an upcoming rap release called ‘Another Cornerback, T.O.A.’? Or summoning ‘Up With People’ from a stadium tunnel for a halftime-style extravaganza titled ‘Me!’?

“I’ll admit I’ve gotten a kick out of Owens’ premeditated celebrations. Millions have. Owens is as amazed by the national reaction as many fans are by his line-crossing audacity. The more we gape, the bolder he gets.”

Trivia time: What are the last two NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams to be undefeated through a regular season?

Say what? On a recent “Best Damn Sports Show Period,” Michael Irvin was lauding Desmond Howard for being “the only man on the planet” to win both the Heisman Trophy and Super Bowl MVP. Apparently, Jim Plunkett and Marcus Allen were in orbit aboard the international space station that day.

Looking back: On this date in 1951, Norm Van Brocklin’s 73-yard touchdown pass play to Tom Fears in the fourth quarter gave the Los Angeles Rams a 24-17 victory over the Cleveland Browns for the NFL title.

From Phoenix to Philly? Pedro Gomez of the Arizona Republic has an inkling that Arizona Diamondback starter Curt Schilling covets a return to the Philadelphia Phillies.

“He hears how [Philadelphia] management wants a veteran No. 1 starter to anchor the staff and mentor the younger pitchers. And that’s a role he’ll never have in Phoenix,” Gomez wrote. “It’s fairly well known throughout the Diamondback clubhouse that Schilling is bothered to no end that he has had the two greatest seasons of his career and still hasn’t been able to unseat [Randy] Johnson as the staff’s ace.

“Schilling, always the manipulator, has worked this angle before. He belly-ached his way out of Philadelphia in 2000 and wound up exactly where he wanted, with the Diamondbacks and with a chance to win the World Series. He knows what to say to whom and how to act when he wants things a certain way, which could turn this into a drawn-out soap opera.”

Trivia answer: Indiana State, which went 29-0 in 1979, and Nevada Las Vegas, which was 30-0 in 1991. Both schools, though, lost in the Final Four. The Larry Bird-led Sycamores fell to Magic Johnson and Michigan State, 75-64, in the championship game; the defending champion Rebels were upset in the semifinals by Duke, 79-77.

And finally: Ron Kantowski of the Las Vegas Sun on David slaying Goliath in college basketball: “The Big Sky fell on the Pac-10 this week. In what had to be the biggest news to hit Big Sky Country since Mark Fuhrman of the LAPD ran away to his own private Idaho, Montana beat No. 17 Stanford 70-68 at Maples Pavilion ... followed ... by Northern Arizona’s equally stunning 67-63 victory over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. All I know is I wouldn’t want to be playing Eastern Washington in a pavilion.”