THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 2, 1996 TAG: 9602020610
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
A new strategy: If Jeff Jones really believes that getting his U.Va. team out of bed at the crack of dawn is the key to winning basketball games, he should start recruiting milkmen.
The professor: Even before he's in good shape, Magic Johnson will show everyone how much of the game of basketball is played in the head, and how seldom most young players use theirs.
Whoa now: Everybody enjoys having him back, but isn't it a little premature for Magic to be lobbying through the media for a place on the Olympic team?
A budding Howard Hughes: Word that Wake Forest center Tim Duncan prefers to play with long fingernails suggests that the Deacons should replace their trainer with a manicurist.
Cue cards: An appropriate message for those Dean Dome cheerleading video screens would be, ``Rattle your jewelry.''
Hoop du jour: The best name in college basketball today belongs to Miracle Fingers, a 5-foot-9 forward on the McNeese State women's team.
Perspective: After suffering through years of dull, lopsided Super Bowls, people should be forgiven for mistaking a good football game in Arizona for a great one.
Numbers game: Before Sunday, the last 11 Super Bowls were won by the NFC by an average margin of 19 points. That has now dropped all the way to 18.
Musical chairs: No question, free agency will weaken the Cowboys again. But does this make the NFL a better product? Don't think so.
Unbelieva-bull: When Michael Jordan shoots 7 for 26 and the Bulls still win at Houston by 11 points, it should make the rest of the NBA wonder what's the use.
TV creature: Most of us don't know if Dan Dierdorf belongs in the football Hall of Fame or not, but the exposure he receives on television didn't hurt him.
Exposing the scam: On the idea of fans buying permanent seat licenses in a new stadium built for the Browns, Thomas V. Miller Jr., president of the Maryland Senate, says, ``You're talking $500 to $5,000 a seat for people to sit in a stadium their tax dollars have paid for. That seems unfair, to say the least.'' Finally, a voice of reason.
Brick by brick: After showing a glimpse of improvement in the area of free-throw shooting, Shaquille O'Neal is back to making less than one out of two.
Futurewatch: Magic Johnson and the Magic center together on one team? It could happen if Shaq, a free agent after the season, decides his budding movie career would be helped by moving to Hollywood.
Late bloomer: The play of North Carolina State center Todd Fuller is a refreshing reminder that there is room at the top for players who don't enter college as instant celebrities.
Motown bound? The NBA grapevine has the Bullets' Juwan Howard, another free agent, heading back to Michigan to join the Pistons, who have plenty of money to throw his way.
Winning words: Australian Open champ Boris Becker, on playing tennis as a doddering 28-year-old family man: ``Although you are more nervous because you know that you haven't got another 10 years, you keep cool because you realize it's only a game.'' by CNB