Now It’s an Educated Guess for Coaches

Many were surprised by the revelation last week that former Nevada Las Vegas associate basketball coach Glynn Cyprien had followed in the footsteps of George O’Leary.

Seems Cyprien, who left UNLV for Oklahoma State, had stated on his resume that he graduated from Texas San Antonio. Cyprien, who was dismissed from his first head-coaching position at Louisiana Lafayette when the discrepancy was brought to the attention of officials there, actually was sporting a degree from a non-accredited university on the Internet.

“Which leads one to wonder,” wrote Joe Hawk of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “How educated do you have to be to coach?”

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More Hawk: “The smartest suggestion we’ve heard with regard to those found to have falsified their resumes: Rather than fire the guilty, make them complete their degrees at the schools where they’re employed. In other words, make them get up and go to class -- just like their players -- and force them to get their diplomas by walking in graduation. We would follow up by demanding the coaches have the cost of their ‘continuing’ education deducted from their salaries.”

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Trivia time: What Basketball Hall of Fame center was in a movie with martial-arts legend Bruce Lee, appearing as Lee’s foe in the film?

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Looking back: On this date in 1976, John Naber of the U.S. became the first swimmer to break the two-minute barrier in the 200-meter backstroke at the Montreal Olympics.

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A Cubbie collapse: From reader Dave Boyle of Laguna Hills: “I noticed that Wrigley Field has been ordered to undergo structural inspection after a piece of concrete fell and almost hit a 5-year-old boy. I’ve been a die-hard Cub fan for 40-plus years now, but this is the first time that I can remember that the park has started to fall apart at the same time as the team.”

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Believe it, baby! Appearing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” the always-hyper Dick Vitale was taken aback by the words of Kobe Bryant. “Kobe is a great, great player,” Vitale said, “but when he stands in front of a press conference and wants me to believe he had nothing to do with Mr. Shaquille O’Neal leaving, are you kidding me?”

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Mr. Popularity: According to Screensavers.com, Bryant was downloaded four times more often than O’Neal in the previous month in a tracking study of 9,612 downloads.

“The media may be sour on Kobe,” Adam Solomon, general manager of Screensavers.com, said in a release. “But agree or not, he’s four times more popular than Shaq. Nutella dropped his sponsorship, Sprite put him in the closet and Nike’s mum. Like him or not, he’s the guy to sell tickets, not Shaq.”

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Trivia answer: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in the 1978 movie “Game of Death,” released five years after Lee’s death. Abdul-Jabbar was a student of Lee’s.

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And finally: “Rudy [Tomjanovich] has a great chance to be successful with Kobe Bryant,” reader Bill Littlejohn of South Lake Tahoe told the San Francisco Chronicle’s Tom Fitzgerald. “He’s already beaten cancer once.”