Capturing the Years After the Glory Days

They were a kinetic quintet, the starting five of Morningside High’s 1993 state championship basketball team. Stais Boseman, Dwight Curry, Dominic Ellison, Sean Harris and Corey Saffold had the city of Inglewood in their grasp and thought they owned the world.

Their story is documented in “Hardwood Dreams: Ten Years Later,” a 90-minute feature premiering tonight on Spike TV.

Narrated by actor Wesley Snipes, the documentary takes an unsparing look at dreams gone awry.

The five players are candid about their triumphs and failures, even as their dreams continually collide with reality.

“We set out a decade ago to capture something that was universal,” said executive producer Mike Tollin. “Kids dreamed of being the next NBA star, almost to the exclusion of going to school. But it doesn’t work like that.

“If you’re a documentary filmmaker at heart, you know the story doesn’t end when the camera stops rolling. We felt it was compelling to see where life had led them. And we hope to visit them again in another 10 years.”

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Trivia time: In the film, it appeared that Henry Bibby had replaced George Raveling as USC’s basketball coach. There was one coach between them. Who is he?

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Personal protest: Chandra Johnson, assistant to Notre Dame’s president, Father Edward A. Malloy, has shaved her head to protest Tyrone Willingham’s firing as football coach and says that she will stay bald until the Irish win a national championship.

“Because when we do, that will be justification for some people of why we fired Tyrone Willingham,” Johnson said.

“Not for me, but for some people.”

Johnson, 50, the school’s highest-profile black administrator, told the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune that she was shocked by the firing of Willingham, the first black head coach in any sport at Notre Dame.

“The process was flawed,” Johnson said. “There weren’t enough people in the conversation. And there was little or no consideration of the ramifications of the decision.”

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Hit ‘em where it hurts: Newsday columnist Johnette Howard doesn’t think Major League Baseball and the players’ union need extended negotiations to devise a new anti-drug policy.

“If baseball wants to regain public trust, make the first positive test for performance-enhancing drugs a year’s suspension without pay,” Howard said. “A second positive test should be an additional two-year suspension without pay....

“Then we’d see how many baseball players claim to have confused flaxseed oil with a cream that suddenly makes their chest size expand by five or six inches and their biceps inflate to the size of picnic hams. But only then.”

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Trivia answer: Charlie Parker, whose record was 21-28 from 1995 to 1996.

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And finally: Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times, after Louisville’s Bobby Petrino said he had no interest in the Notre Dame job.

“Folks, when the Catholic coach at Louisville says no to Notre Dame, it’s time to check out the Koran.”