Duke is lucky that ill-advised gamble paid off

That was a curious move by Duke at the end of Monday’s game, Brian Zoubek purposely missing a free throw with 3.6 seconds to play and the Blue Devils leading by two points.…

If Zoubek makes the free throw and Butler’s Gordon Hayward sinks his half-court shot at the buzzer, the worst that happens for Duke is that the game goes into overtime.…

Hayward’s shot might have provided the greatest moment in NCAA tournament history — and haunted Mike Krzyzewski for the rest of his life.…

Why purposely put your team in a position to lose? …

Five of the last 10 NCAA championships have been won by teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference, two each by Duke and North Carolina and the other by Maryland.…

Though Kobe Bryant’s new contract extension will pay him a few million dollars less than Alex Rodriguez will be paid over the same three-year period, Bryant will make about $341,000 per game while Rodriguez will make about $179,000.…

The New York Yankees, by the way, will shell out more for their infield of A-Rod, Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter than 16 other teams will pay their entire rosters this season, according to a USA Today survey.…

Jerry Buss’ election to the Hall of Fame is well deserved and probably about 10 years overdue.…

Buss might share thoughts about his impending enshrinement Saturday at the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens, where he’s hosting a charity poker tournament benefitting smiletrain.org, which provides free surgery for patients with cleft lips and palates.…

Information: thebike.com.…

Dennis Johnson’s teammates at Compton Dominguez High, where the newly elected Hall of Famer rode the bench, included ex-Dodgers outfielder Ken Landreaux, who was a starter.…

Johnson, known for his moxie and cageyness in the NBA, was athletic enough as a freckle-faced 6-foot-4 guard at Pepperdine that he jumped the opening tip and was nicknamed “Airplane” by then-sports information director Bob Rose.…

Johnson once noted that 156 freckles dotted his face.…

Even Democrats probably would agree that George W. Bush threw a livelier fastball than left-hander Barack Obama.…

The over-under on the number of home runs Manny Ramirez will hit this season is 29.5, the same number assigned to Andre Ethier, according to odds posted at bodog.com.…

The over-under on Kendry Morales is 32.5.…

Speaking of wagers, here’s betting that Vicente Padilla will never again start on opening day for the Dodgers.…

“Am I crazy,” reader John Barton of Covina e-mails to ask, “or does new Angels announcer Victor Rojas sound like the late, great Don Drysdale? It’s uncanny.” …

Torii Hunter calls stoic new Angels teammate Hideki Matsui “the quietest clutch hitter in the game.” …

Even after all that has transpired over the last five months, Tiger Woods is still favored to win the Masters.…

Forgotten man: Angel Cabrera won last year at Augusta.…

Anze Kopitar and the Kings could surprise in the Stanley Cup playoffs, where lower-seeded teams upsetting higher-seeded teams is more commonplace than it is in the NBA playoffs.…

The Philadelphia Eagles might just rue the day they traded Donovan McNabb to a division rival.…

Candace Parker and the Sparks will play the Seattle Storm in an outdoor game June 5 at Home Depot Center, where they might even attract a sellout crowd in an 8,000-seat tennis stadium.…

Twenty years ago this week, Larry Johnson and Nevada Las Vegas destroyed Duke in the NCAA tournament’s most lopsided championship game, becoming the only mid-major to win a title since the tournament was expanded to 64 teams in 1985.…

Instead of a 96-team basketball tournament, which few seem to favor, how about a 16-team NCAA major college football tournament, which many would love to see? …

At his youth basketball fundamentals camp Saturday at La Habra Boys & Girls Club, perhaps Tyus Edney will reenact his famous end-to-end dash from the 1995 NCAA tournament.…

Information: (310) 525-9328.…

Michael Jordan, in 1985, after scoring 32 points against the Boston Celtics on a night when Dennis Johnson was sidelined: “I took advantage of the absence of his presence.”

jerome.crowe@latimes.com