Notes on a Scorecard - April 5, 1993

This might be the best week on the sports calendar--the opening of baseball season today, the NCAA basketball championship game tonight, and the Masters golf tournament starting Thursday. . . .

“Everybody said you couldn’t do it,” CBS announcer Jim Nantz said to Steve Fisher, Chris Webber and Jalen Rose after Michigan’s overtime victory over Kentucky on Saturday. . . .

The Wolverine coach and his star players couldn’t have put it any better themselves. What a Cinderella story--the 1992 national runners-up return all five starters, suffer through a 26-4 regular season, and somehow make it back to the title game. . . .

Key to North Carolina’s chances tonight is the three-point shooting of Donald Williams. . . .

The ticky-tack foul by Jimmy King that sent Kentucky’s Travis Ford to the line for the two free throws that sent the semifinal game into overtime reminded me of a similar call against Seton Hall that enabled Michigan’s Rumeal Robinson to sink the game-tying and winning free throws in overtime in the 1989 championship game. . . .

Michigan is trying to repeat its ’89 feat of winning the NCAA basketball title and Rose Bowl the same year. Closest any Pacific 10 Conference school came was in 1959 when California defeated West Virginia for the basketball championship, but lost to Iowa in the Rose Bowl. . . .

Sour Sixteen: Each of the Final Four teams committed 16 turnovers Saturday. . . .

Even Kansas Coach Roy Williams sometimes makes puzzling moves. Eight minutes on the bench seemed to be a few too many for Rex Walters against North Carolina. . . .

Williams’ teacher, Dean Smith, also has been known to substitute too much. . . .

John Wooden seldom relied on more than seven players. . . .

This will be the 11th time in the last 12 that the regular-season poll champion hasn’t won the tournament. In case you have forgotten, Indiana was ranked No. 1 at the end of the season. . . .

Kansas loses point guard Adonis Jordan from Cleveland High in Reseda, but has an able replacement in another Southern Californian, Jacque Vaughn from Muir High in Pasadena. Vaughn demonstrated his playmaking abilities with 13 assists Sunday in the nationally televised McDonald’s All-American game. . . .

Some of Vaughn’s best passes were to Charles O’Bannon, the Artesia High forward who scored 19 points for the West in its 105-95 defeat to the East and probably will join his brother Ed at UCLA. . . .

Best thing that ever happened to South Carolina basketball was Bobby Cremins changing his mind about taking the coaching job. . . .

Shawn Bradley might not be ready to make an impact in the NBA next season after two years away from basketball on a Mormon mission to Australia, but he is 7 feet 7 and talented, and is a cinch to be taken first in the draft. . . .

Indiana Coach Bob Knight will be the keynote speaker at an auction-dinner May 1 at Cal State Fullerton that is expected to raise $100,000 for athletic scholarships. . . .

In describing Personal Hope after his victory in the Santa Anita Derby on Saturday, jockey Gary Stevens used such words as relaxed, seasoned, and game. But doubt lingers about whether the front-running colt has the stamina for the 1 1/4 miles of the Kentucky Derby. . . .

“Now I can sit back and wait until Derby Day to get nervous,” Stevens said after Personal Hope’s final test before May 1. . . .

The on-track crowd of 29,067 was the smallest for a Santa Anita Derby since 1936. Actually, it didn’t come as a blow to track management, which it is trying to avoid the higher taxes that would accompany a season-long handle of at least $250 million. . . .

How important are spring training won-loss records? Last year, the Toronto Blue Jays were 13-18 and the Atlanta Braves 10-19. . . .

One of the greatest lightweight champions ever, Carlos Ortiz, will work the corner of his Brooklyn, N.Y., welterweight prospect, Stephan Johnson, when he fights Darryl Lattimore in a 10-round bout tonight at the Forum. . . .

The Kings’ upset loss to the Minnesota North Stars means they are more involved in a Smythe Division race for third place with Winnipeg than second place with Calgary. . . .

The Ottawa Senators’ chances of winning a road game this season are between slim and none. Their three remaining opportunities are at the New York Islanders, who are fighting for a playoff berth, Boston Bruins and Quebec Nordiques. . . .

Variation on an old joke: I went to a boxing match and an NBA game broke out.