Thoughts between
buzzer-beaters

(Yes, I stole that from the Chicago Tribune.)

» The flyer said that my neighborhood would be without cable service for a few hours on March 17.

OK. That's cool. What could be on television that I needed to see yesterday?

D'oh!

» Pro basketball?

You're right. Maybe this minor league will make it.

Ahem. Let's look at this. The Rainbows averaged, what, 5,000-something this season? (Officially, it was 7,241, which is not bad, but that was tickets issued, not actual attendance.) And that's UH. That's established. That's a winning program. That's the biggest game in town when it comes to basketball.

Let's say it again. That's UH.

And some minor-minor league is going to come in and thrive?

I think we've seen this before.

On the other hand, if it brings Savo back I'm there.

OK, any e-mailers who are going to hit me for not being enthusiastic enough about the ABA, let me beat you to the punch: Any league with a road trip to Tijuana can't be all bad.

» Hawaii baseball coach Mike Trapasso has been saying all year how good Winthrop would be, and that scheduling the Eagles immediately after Florida State was a bad move by the head coach.

I don't think he takes any great satisfaction in being right.

» I can empathize with Hawaii athletic director Herman Frazier that people keep connecting his name with jobs around the country while he's just minding his own business and not pursuing them. I know the feeling. It does happen. Sports Illustrated has been hounding me for years.

In fact, they have a deal on the table for me right now.

You have a deal on the table from Sports Illustrated?

Yes. Fifty percent off the cover price.

Ba-dump-pum-pum.

Kalani, wasn't Sports Illustrated going to send collection agents to your house for letting your subscription run out?

OK. Let's just move on to the next joke.

» Mark McGwire's congressional testimony.

» I don't want to say my bracket is busted -- it burst into flames when Our Friend Filiberto coughed up the ball in the lane in the clutch. So much for the office pool.

» I love this latest quote from Michelle Wie: "I mean, being ranked No. 1 is satisfactory, but not for me," she told reporters this week before starting the Safeway Interntional. "Winning 50 times or 100 times -- winning is fun, but I want to do something new."

Yeah, all that winning sure has been boring.

Maybe she really is on to something revolutionary. Isn't that what comedian Andy Kauffman was doing? If I understand it correctly -- and I don't -- Kauffman wasn't trying to be funny in his comedy; he was trying for something different.

I'm not smart enough to get these things.

» Big match tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center. Normally, you would say it's a chance for the Rainbow Wahine to show another school what great volleyball fans are like. But if Hawaii has the No. 1 women's volleyball atmosphere in the country -- and it does -- then Nebraska's is 1A.

These two teams together is a spring treat.

» Speaking of spring, no game, no scrimmage, no Cav and half the UH football team is in surgery. I'm sure it will be fun at some point, but spring football fever hasn't hit me yet.

» Maybe not everyone is as vulnerable to marketing blitzes as I am, but the past few days I've found myself spontaneously yelling out, "Mid Week! The Weekend!"

» This is true, part of the actual play-by-play of Saint Louis alum Travis Lee's win in the first round of the NCAA wrestling tournament: "Lee is controlling a Russian tie. He pops it up to a single-leg attack and finishes the move with a trip. Hoffman attempts to funk-roll out of the move, but Lee wins the scramble. ..."

That's my problem. I attempt to funk-roll out, but I always finish the move with a trip.