This Coach Has Made His Points Before

Troy State earned its first NCAA men’s basketball tournament berth this week, but the Trojans are no strangers to the record book.

On Jan. 12, 1992, the Alabama school established the record for most points in a college game -- in a 258-141 victory over DeVry Institute.

The Birmingham News recalled that Don Maestri, who is still Troy State’s coach, was asked after the record-setting night: “Coach, did you in your wildest dreams ever imagine that you’d score 258 points in a basketball game?”

Maestri merely smiled and said: “Son, my wildest dreams don’t have anything to do with basketball.”

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Trivia time: When did UCLA first win 20 or more games in a basketball season?

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Dream on: Michigan State basketball Coach Tom Izzo told the Lansing State Journal that he still dreams his team suddenly will live up to preseason expectations.

He added, “Sometimes I wake up and think Halle Berry is right around the corner, too.”

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Tough guy: Roy Peterson, head of security at the Nissan Open, to Andy Prodger, Colin Montgomerie’s caddie:

“If anyone starts chippin’ your man, you just let me know and I’ll put the beef on ‘em.”

Montgomerie had no apparent run-ins with the galleries.

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Brawlball: From comedy writer Earl Hochman: “With a number of brawls taking place during the exhibition season, don’t be surprised if major league umpires, besides wearing the standard mask and chest protector, appear on opening day adding another item -- night sticks.”

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David who?: PGA golfer David Toms, telling the Miami Herald about the benefits of appearing with his bikini-clad wife, Sonya, in Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition: “I’m in 56 million copies of a magazine that everybody’s going to look at. They might wish they knew my wife, but at least they’ll know my name.”

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Horsin’ around: Bobby Hurley, the former Duke star and Sacramento King guard, now deals in racehorses.

He recently sold 40% of Songandaprayer for more than his initial investment in the 2-year-old, and has two foals from the stud. But when he originally bought the horse -- for $1 million -- and called his wife, Leslie, to tell her, she hung up on him.

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Good thinking: Connecticut women’s Coach Geno Auriemma might have been a little frustrated by the slow-down tactics of Villanova, which used brainy ball to end his team’s 70-game winning streak, 52-48, on Tuesday.

“Teams with tremendous athletic ability don’t do that to you,” he told Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant. “Villanova makes you think about what you have to do and after a while you just get tired of thinking.”

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Trivia answer: In 1948-49, the Bruins were 22-7 under Coach John Wooden.

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And finally: Phoenix Coyote General Manager Mike Barnett rejected a trade offer from the St. Louis Blues for goalie Sean Burke.

“We said from the start that it would take an offer that would have to knock our socks off,” Barnett said, “but it didn’t come close to that. It didn’t even knock a shoe off.”