He’s Just Eating Up New Life in Waco

Mamadou Diene, a 7-foot redshirt freshman center for Baylor, would seem to be a shoo-in for most improved college basketball player.

Consider, for example:

* Before he arrived last January, he suffered from malaria and malnutrition in his homeland of Senegal in West Africa.

* After one semester at Baylor, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports, a much bulkier Diene has a 3.2 grade-point average, highest on the team.

* And although others on the team may speak three languages, as he does, none can speak Wolof.

Said Diene: “A lot has changed in my life.”

Counting calories: Diene was late enrolling because of a severe bout with malaria. He arrived weighing only 197 pounds and Coach Scott Drew recalled that the player stopped eating halfway through his first meal.

“He was going to save it because he was used to doing that in Africa,” Drew said. “We said, ‘No, you have to eat everything. Every meal.’ ”

Diene now weighs 240 pounds.

Trivia time: Kobe Bryant is leading the NBA in scoring and vying to win his first scoring title. How many Lakers have won it?

Sweet resolve: Michelle Wie’s New Year’s resolution, as told to the Honolulu Advertiser: “Cut down on sugar, win at least one LPGA tournament, hopefully win a major and hopefully make a cut on the men’s tour.”

That last goal is going to be tough this week after a first-round 79 at the Sony Open.

Dirty job: Bernie Lincicome of the Rocky Mountain News writes that voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame is a sacred duty because of the considerable dues baseball writers pay for the privilege: “To get the vote, an elector has to hang around dugouts and press boxes and clubhouses for a full 10 years, has to dodge a whole lot of careless spit and look away from a whole lot of inconsiderate scratching.”

Head Games 2006: How many Canadians does it take to win an Olympic gold medal? Only one, of course, but it may require 12 sports psychologists to get him or her on the podium.

Desperate to improve on its fourth-place overall finish in 2002 at Salt Lake City, the Canadian Olympic Committee has reportedly boosted from seven to 12 the number of psychologists it will send to Turin, Italy.

The big chill: In a recent speech, St. John’s football Coach John Gagliardi talked about the frigid Minnesota winters: “The forecast is always clear and still: The snow’s clear up to your butt, and it’s still coming down.”

This much is true: Ron Artest is upset that he was not chosen to play for the U.S. basketball team during the 2008 Summer Olympics. As he told “Best Damn Sports Show Period”: “I might not be a class act, but I’m an American.”

Trivia answer: Three. George Mikan won it three times with the Minneapolis Lakers, in 1949, 1950 and 1951; Jerry West won it in 1970, and Shaquille O’Neal won it in 2000.

And finally: The early NFL scouting report on former Virginia Tech quarterback Marcus Vick, from sportscurmudgeon.com: “He has a real gun.”