Dikembe Mutombo: It Is a Name With a Big Future

In years to come, he might be known as Air Zaire or the Kinshasa Kid.

For now, he is known as Dikembe Mutombo.

Remember the name.

By April, he could be wearing a National Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship watch. By 1991, he could be wearing three.

That’s how highly regarded Georgetown’s 7-foot-2 sophomore is.

After the Hoyas’ title-game victory over Syracuse in the Big East Conference tournament, Newsday’s Steve Jacobson overheared Mutombo joyously repeating: “I know we going to the Final Four. I know we going to the Final Four. I know we going to the Final Four.”

Up popped a radio reporter, who thrust a microphone in Mutombo’s face. “So, you’re going to the Final Four?” the reporter asked.

Mutombo was taken aback.

“I hope so,” he said.

More Mutombo: Mike Saylor, an assistant coach at Indiana State, made a concerted effort to recruit Mutombo.

“In the Missouri Valley Conference, we have a lot of 6-6 centers,” Saylor told Steve Berkowitz of the Washington Post. “I knew this guy could be a program-changer for us.”

But Georgetown got its man, and the loss still hurts Saylor.

“It took me weeks to get over it,” he said. “Even now, I have trouble watching him play on television. . . . Dikembe will become an NBA player. It’s just a matter of time.”

Trivia: Who are Lenard Benjamin, Jacques Wilkins and Peter Tripucka?

That Padre matter: No word yet from the Central California town of Lindsay, where school administrators, parents and community leaders are wondering what, if anything, to do about Steve Garvey Junior High School.

There’s nothing wrong with the school, it’s just that in light of recent events, whenever its name is mentioned, there’s a, uh, pregnant pause in the conversation.

The campus, with a student body of 370, was renamed in Garvey’s honor in 1977. It was previously named after Abraham Lincoln.

“There’s no discussion of changing the name (of the school) right now,” said Bob Mohr, the school district superintendent “That doesn’t mean that what (Garvey) is accused of in the press is what we are holding up as a guideline in our instructional programs.”

Speaking of bed: Boston Red Sox General Manager Lou Gorman, a substitute in the team’s radio booth recently, commented on a Wade Boggs single by saying, “That guy could hit falling out of bed.”

Perhaps not the best choice of words, eh, Lou?

The result was on ice: The New Jersey Devils were leading the New York Islanders, 2-1, halfway through the third period last Saturday night. That they would end up losing, 3-2, in overtime, should have been obvious to anyone.

Reason? The Devils had won just once in 41 previous regular-season visits to the Nassau Coliseum since joining the NHL as the Kansas City Scouts in 1974.

Now they’re 1 for 42.

Design flaws?The following excerpts are from a press release announcing the opening of a new betting facility at Caliente Race Track in Tijuana:

“Features include 100 private tables with lamps for one person . . . “

The 99 others will have to bet on the dark horses, no doubt.

And later, these two consecutive sentences:

“It has 900 upholstered chairs. ‘It can seat 3,000 people,’ Hernandez said.”

What, sitting three to a chair?

Trivia answer: The three are more recognizable as Benoit Benjamin, Dominique Wilkins and Kelly Tripucka, but Lenard, Jacques and Peter are their real first names.

Quotebook: Syracuse basketball Coach Jim Boeheim after the loss to the Hoyas in the Big East title game: “I personally rated Georgetown first or second in the country all year long. But I don’t know why I ever thought they were second. I must have temporarily lost my mind.”