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UCLA: Used Car Loans Available
Count Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian among those amused at the brewing scandal at UCLA, where a car registered to basketball coach Jim Harrick was sold at a bargain price to the sister of a high-profile recruit.
What amuses Tark is that anyone would think the Bruins will get in NCAA hot water over the matter.
“Nothing will happen,” Tarkanian said. “They’ll do everything they can to protect UCLA, to minimize it. The NCAA always has. I suspect UCLA will get a slap on the wrist, at the most.
“They’ll get so upset at UCLA, they’ll put (Cal State) Northridge on two years’ probation. The truth is, right now, they’re figuring out how not to hurt UCLA.”
The boys in the bubble
Demonstrators tried to disrupt the Nike Olympia Open golf tournament last weekend to protest alleged unethical labor practices overseas by the shoe giant.
“We’re just trying to raise consciousness,” said Pat Tassoni, a spokesman for the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace. “We were hoping to walk up to the clubhouse and distribute literature.”
Thurston County sheriff’s deputies told the 50-odd demonstrators outside Indian Summer Country Club that they would be trespassing if they went onto the club’s grounds, so they chanted and marched along a fence that borders the first hole of the course, trying to disrupt the players.
“I can’t believe there are no laws against this,” huffed tour director Wayne Berry.
Golfer Jeff Gove was similarly miffed, especially when he missed a 5-foot putt.
“It was terrible,” he said. “They were 40 yards away on the street. They had a megaphone and were yelling, they were pounding drums and had horns.”
Wow. Fifty yahoos making noise. Now that’s pressure, Jeff. Now try a free throw at the Final Four.
Look at the map before you leap
Robert Brooks and the rest of the Green Bay Packers have been told to confine their leaps into the stands to home games. Coach Mike Holmgren has ordered his players to refrain from such celebratory acts away from Lambeau Field.
“On the road, we won’t do that anymore,” Holmgren said. “Robert did in Minnesota and a couple of people responded like you would expect the visiting team to respond.”
Last week, some Chicago Bears players said the Packers could be taking a serious chance of getting hurt by fans at Soldier Field if they jumped into the stands to celebrate.
Given their play of late, it’s the Bears who’d better stay out of the stands.
If the shoe fits…
Orange County Register columnist Mark Whicker was one of the few who wasn’t shocked by Cal’s 22-15 upset of USC, which knocked the Trojans out of the national rankings, last Saturday.
“Understandable,” wrote Whicker, with needle pointed directly at USC coach John Robinson, “because the Trojans are a young team - for, what, the fifth consecutive year?”
The last word …
“Who says that baseball players aren’t heroes? Earlier today, Baltimore second baseman Roberto Alomar visited a little kid in the hospital and promised the little kid that he’d spit on two umpires.”
- David Letterman
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