Now, Tell Us Something We Don’t Know

NBC golf commentator Roger Maltbie, discussing Tiger Woods with Jerry Greene of the Orlando Sentinel: “Twenty years ago I would have said you are out of your mind if you ever said a golfer could be the greatest athlete in the world--but Tiger is the greatest....

“Tiger doesn’t play at his top every week. But the truth is that when Tiger plays at his best, the game is over. Nobody on earth can play with him. So what happens when one of these other guys plays at his best--and still gets his butt handed to him?”

He didn’t answer his own question, but you get the drift.

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Trivia time: Who holds the NCAA men’s championship game record for free throws made?

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Not the first time: Ron Rapoport in the Chicago Sun-Times: “The actions of Ruben Rivera, who was released by the Yankees after being charged with stealing Derek Jeter’s glove, were reprehensible but not unprecedented.

“In his autobiography, former pitcher Eldon Auker tells how Babe Ruth beat Leo Durocher to a pulp after setting a trap for him that proved Durocher had stolen money and a watch while they shared a hotel room. Durocher recovered and so did his baseball career.”

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It’s their game: Gary Shelton in the St. Petersburg Times: “More than any other sport, and more than any time, college basketball is ruled by the men with the scowl on their faces. It’s their personalities that define programs, their standards that define success.

“The players are important, of course, the way queens and rooks are important to chess masters. But it is the coaches who turn successful teams into programs, and programs into self-perpetuating fiefdoms.”

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Why not all of them? PGA Tour player Frank Lickliter on his solution for speeding up the game in an interview with Bob Verdi in Golf Digest magazine: “Rocco [Mediate] and I would like to see one PGA tournament a year in which you have 4 hours 15 minutes for 18 holes. If you don’t finish in that time, you’re gone. No warnings, no fines. Have it be sponsored by a watch company. ‘The Better Be Ready Open.’”

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Clever: Headline in the Chicago Sun-Times on a story about Texas Tech’s surprising season in Bob Knight’s first year as coach: “The surgin’ general.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1995, UCLA beat Florida International, 92-56, in an NCAA West Regional first-round game in Boise, Idaho.

The Bruins won five more games, climaxed by an 89-78 victory over Arkansas for the national championship in Seattle.

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Trivia answer: Gail Goodrich of UCLA, 18 (of 20) against Michigan in 1965.

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And finally: Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune on Mark Prior, the former USC star pitcher, now a rookie with the Chicago Cubs: “[He] doesn’t need to go to West Tenn or any other minor-league stop. He’s ready to win at Wrigley Field, and might as well be there April 5 when the Cubs will be introduced along the third-base line before the opener against Pittsburgh.

“Said one veteran scout who has watched Prior’s development since he was at Southern Cal: ‘The Cubs don’t have five starters better than him. They might not have two.’”

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Mal Florence