Hint: Dr. Phil is not in NBA

A reporter recently interviewing North Carolina basketball Coach Roy Williams began a question with, “I don’t mean to be Dr. Phil-esque with this, but . . .”

Said Williams: “Who’s Dr. Phil?”

It wasn’t any better during Williams’ tenure at Kansas, according to Jim O’Connell of the Associated Press. When the coach judged a student celebrity look-alike contest, he had to ask then-Jayhawks guard Jacque Vaughn for help.

Williams, apparently unfamiliar with the popular “Seinfeld” television series, said Vaughn told him: “You never heard of Kramer?”

Williams at the time admitted he led a sheltered life.

Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times wrote: “If Williams ever appears on ‘Jeopardy,’ he won’t clean up in the Pop Culture category.”

Trivia question

Vaughn, who starred at Pasadena Muir High before going on to Kansas, holds what dubious NBA record?

He couldn’t lose

Broadcasting icon Gil Stratton, who will be honored at Santa Anita on Sunday, was the host of a popular horse racing show for nearly 20 years but knew little about the horses.

He was recently quoted in Morning Briefing saying that if someone asked him for a tip in, say, the fourth race, he would simply say the No. 4 horse will win.

Stratton, expanding on that, said, “Someone once asked me, ‘And what if the No. 4 horse won?’ I said, ‘Then I’d be a genius.’ And this person said, ‘And if the horse lost?’ I said, ‘Then they wouldn’t ask me again.’ ”

Acquired taste

Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti, who has switched to NASCAR and will race in Sunday’s Daytona 500, is profiled in the latest edition of HBO’s “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel.”

Correspondent Mary Carillo, interviewing Franchitti’s actress wife Ashley Judd, says, “It’s a well-known fact that you’re a big sports fan. But were you a fan of racing before you met Dario?”

Judd: “No. I didn’t know anything about it, except it looked really dumb on TV.”

It’s obvious

Also in the interview, Carillo says to Judd: “Look, I don’t have to tell you this, but your husband is . . .”

Judd: “Cute?”

Carillo: “He’s not exactly Mr. Potato Head.”

Rhyme reason

Reader Janice Hough, on why Roger Clemens’ former personal trainer Brian McNamee kept syringes, bloody gauze and drug vials: “Presumably, he figured without that kit, they might acquit.”

Possible activities

Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, asking how Bob Knight might blow off steam in his retirement years: “Browbeat Wal-Mart greeters? Protest the pudding selection at Hometown Buffet? Throw chairs on Bingo Night?”

Trivia answer

Vaughn, drafted by the Utah Jazz in 1997, signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Hawks in 2001 and set a record by beginning that season 0 for 22 from the field over a four-game stretch. You might say Vaughn, now a reserve with San Antonio, didn’t make a good first impression.

And finally

Arizonan Kurt Havelock, 35, a would-be bar owner angry at being denied a liquor license by the city of Tempe, mailed a manifesto threatening to kill people and then drove within sight of the 2008 Super Bowl host stadium with an assault rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition before changing his mind and turning himself in.

Wrote Greg Cote of the Miami Herald: “All in all, sounds like the city of Tempe might have made a good decision on that liquor license.”

--

larry.stewart@latimes.com