Kentucky’s Star Player May Return

Kentucky coach Rick Pitino said injured star Derek Anderson might return for Thursday’s NCAA Tournament game against St. Joseph’s.

Anderson, who was the Southeastern Conference’s leading scorer before suffering a knee injury Jan. 20, practiced with the team on Monday, Pitino said during a radio call-in show in Lexington.

“He actually practiced with the team full out, no holds barred,” Pitino said. “I am happy to report he was, without question, the best player in practice.”

Pitino’s announcement came as a surprise, since it was believed that Anderson’s season was over when the guard tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in January. He underwent surgery and wasn’t expected to be back at full strength until late spring.

“He dominated practice,’ Pitino said. “It’s as if he never left, he was never injured.”

Even with the impressive showing, Pitino said he won’t know before today whether he will play Anderson when the top-seeded Wildcats take on St. Joseph’s in the West Regional semifinal in San Jose, Calif.

UCLA hears title echoes

Kris Johnson wakes up in the morning and strolls the UCLA campus with the same belief he had during the Bruins’ run to the NCAA championship two years ago.

“I have that feeling, like we’re going to go all the way,” he said. “I knew it then, there was no doubt in my mind.”

He says it quietly, calmly. Not in the cocky way that defined UCLA’s performances last season or its selfish start to this season.

Johnson, relegated to sixth man on a team loaded with talent, points to UCLA’s 11-game winning streak and the senior leadership of Charles O’Bannon and Cameron Dollar as proof.

It was the same way in 1995. The Bruins came into the tournament having won 13 straight behind the senior trio of Ed O’Bannon, George Zidek and Tyus Edney. Six victories later, they claimed the school’s 11th NCAA title.

“Our confidence level is very similar to ‘95. It seems as if we can’t do wrong,” forward Charles O’Bannon said. “We’re winning the close games, we’re beating people by 20 and 30. We’re beating fast teams, we’re beating slow teams. We’re playing at a high.”

Iowa State (22-8) will try to slow the Bruins (23-7) in their Midwest Regional semifinal Thursday night at San Antonio.

Harrick watches from afar

For Jim Harrick, this is the toughest time of the year.

In the midst of March Madness, Harrick is a coach without a team. His old team, UCLA, is in the semifinals of the Midwest, and all Harrick can do is watch from afar.

“I really haven’t missed basketball until this week,” he said Tuesday. “If you’re a coach, it’s an exciting time.”

And if you’re an ex-coach, it can be downright melancholy.

It’s obvious Harrick, who coached UCLA to its 11th NCAA championship two years ago, hasn’t gotten over being fired in November. He was dismissed for submitting a false expense report and lying about it.

Appearing before the Anaheim (Calif.) Chamber of Commerce in his first public speaking engagement since being fired, he slipped and used the word “we” several times when discussing the Bruins.

“It’s hard to watch, hard to see your team out there, your kids,” he said.

Bears beat the odds

Serge Zwikker strikes no fear in the heart of Gino the street vendor.

Then again, he doesn’t have to play against him.

“That tall guy, right?,” said Gino, referring to North Carolina’s 7-foot-3 center, whom the Cal basketball team will face in Friday’s Sweet 16 matchup.

“I think Cal will beat ‘em,” Gino said from his table on a sidewalk in Berkeley, Calif., a post he’s held for 14 years, selling ornate jewelry, medicinal books and incense.

Gino was hardly alone in his enthusiasm for the Cal squad on a lazy, hazy Monday, two days after the Bears earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 with a 75-68 win over Villanova.

Monday’s edition of the Daily Californian, the campus newspaper, had five articles about the Bears’ recent feats - on how Cal has left “its doubters in the dust” and how the team has battled “injury, the odds and a physically imposing Villanova squad,” not to mention a gritty Princeton team Thursday.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Wyman Jung, a third-year mass communications student, sporting a white Cal T-shirt and blue sweats. “Nobody thought we would get this far without (injured guard) Ed Gray.

“If we beat North Carolina, we’ll have an easy time getting to the Final Four.”

Howell out at LSU

Keia Howell, a starting forward for LSU’s women’s team, has been lost for the rest of the postseason after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee in Monday’s second-round NCAA Tournament game against Marquette.

Howell, a junior from Monroe, La., injured the knee at the 5:50 mark of the first half. No one was near Howell when her knee buckled as she retrieved a pass.

Howell’s absence leaves LSU with one less inside player to go against Old Dominion’s talented frontcourt of 6-5 Clarisse Machanguana, 6-3 Nyree Roberts and 6-1 Mery Andrade.

“It’s going to hurt not having her on the floor,” LSU coach Sue Gunter said. “but we have some players that are capable of stepping up and filling in for us.”

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