"62 years ago, Oregon beats Ohio State in first NCAA basketball title game. Four days ago, 72% of Buckeye alums surveyed blamed the loss on John Cooper."

Speaking of a story that has gotten old, am I the only one who is tired of the Williams' sisters' performance and non-performance at Indian Wells? So what if their father chose not to have them play each other. Now we have Daddy screaming about racism and insults yelled by the spectators.

Memo to Daddy: Lots of those folks coughed up some coin of the realm to see a tennis match between your kids. They got to see "bupkuss". When the injured daughter was asked about the fans and the money they had paid out, her reply was a smirk and something to the effect that she was not going to give out any refunds - not her problem. If you don't understand why they were "upset", please do not think that you have anything to say that might be the least bit interesting to the public.

Late yesterday, Memphis got the good news that the Charlotte Hornets want to move there too. Evidently, there is some kind of referendum or key government vote upcoming there in which some decision will be made on a new arena for the Hornets. They say they will have to move if they don't get one since they will lose $40M this year. So Memphis may join NY and LA as a metropolis with two NBA teams next year. David Stern would go apoplectic.

By my calculation, the Hornets' arena is only about 16-18 years old; the team did not exist 20 years ago. Wow, the useful life of arenas and stadiums is dropping faster than the NASDQ.

You have probably heard the brouhaha about Rasheed Wallace deciding not to get a tattoo with the logo of a candy bar on it and all the bleatings about commercialism in sports and where will it all end and etc and etc. First of all, if you were a candy bar ad exec, wouldn't you want your logo on something that was relatively certain to be present for the entire game? If so, Rasheed is not your guy. And in terms of other potential sponsorships, Rasheed should not even think about an association with Starbucks or any other product that contains caffeine.

Remember two weeks ago when Hakeem Olajuwon's career was all but over with a blood disease in his leg that did not have a name. Well, it turns out he had a blood clot in his leg and it is now sufficiently healed that he has begun full workouts with the Rockets and expects to play in the game tonight. Why all the mystery here?

Two years ago, the Mavericks drafted a 7-foot kid from China named Wang Zhizhi. After two years of negotiations with the Chinese government, his team, the Chinese basketball officials and representatives from the Ruling Council of the Xygork Nebula, it appears that the Mavs may actually be able to sign him and have him in a game before the end of the season. This saga should be taken into account by NBA teams who are drooling over the prospect of drafting 7' 6" Yao Ming in the upcoming draft. Have the Mavericks cleared the way for other teams to get these negotiations done in short order or have the Chinese learned that they can enjoy the fun of these negotiations and interchanges for up to 2 years and that NBA teams will continue to come back for more? You make the call!

In a spring training game, Randy Johnson threw a fastball and hit a bird that happened to fly between the mound and the plate. The bird has gone to the great roost in the sky. This story has gotten baseball a bit of publicity in the last 36 hours but I think that MLB execs may have two concerns:

1. Will there be picketing from PETA?

2. Suppose a Rick Ankiel fastball clocks a fan in a box seat behind the first base dugout?

Ken Griffey Jr. had to be helped off the field yesterday with a hamstring injury. Opening day is in about a week; hamstring injuries can take a long time to heal - just ask Rod Strickland! - and playing in cold weather such as Montreal in April is not typical therapy. Diagnosis here = Potential Disaster.

The NFL rules and competition folks will try to get the officials to enforce the taunting and unsportsmanlike conduct rules a bit more stringently. Here is an idea for a use of instant replay they seem not to have thought about:

When a fight breaks out, use instant replay to try to determine the instigator - the person who threw the first punch/kick/forearm/whatever. Then penalize that team and toss that bozo out of the game. Maybe even make such an ejection equate to a suspension from the next game. I'll bet the number of nonsense fighting/shoving incidents is cut by 80%.

The Cowboys have decided that Tony Banks will be their QB this year. He signed a one-year deal with the team that is small in base salary but loaded with incentives. Jerry Jones points to this move as evidence that the Cowboys are not rebuilding but are ready to make a significant improvement on last year's record. Remember, Banks lost his job last year to Trent Dilfer and the last time I looked, Dilfer was - - unemployed.

Finally, the Sixers are tied with the Spurs for the best record in the NBA at the moment. Looking at the stats through Sunday's games, the Sixers have no one in the top 20 in field goal percentage, no one in the top 20 in 3-point field goal percentage, no one in the top 22 in free throw percentage and no one in the top 20 in assists per game. Can that have happened before?

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...