Even Bob Knight Can’t Help but Like These Guys

Steve Kelley in the Seattle Times on the physical style of Stanford’s basketball team: “Stanford plays the game like a Big Ten team. A Big Ten football team.

“Woody Hayes would have loved these guys. But so would Bob Knight, or Dick Harter or any coach who ever believed the game to be a contact sport.

“Nolan Richardson’s Arkansas teams of the mid-1990s played a game that was ’40 minutes of hell.’ Stanford is 40 minutes of hurt.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the record for single-season rebounding average in Pacific 10 men’s basketball?

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Distraction: Now that Ken Griffey Jr. has joined the Cincinnati Reds, earrings or diamond studs are acceptable.

“I’m not going to wear one, even though my wife has some nice ones in her jewelry box,” catcher Ed Taubensee said. “It would be hard for a pitcher to take a catcher seriously when he is wearing an earring.”

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Logical: Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “In some states, independent voters count; in others, cross-party votes count. In some states, they blindfold you at the polls and you pin a donkey tail on a candidate, then tabulate votes according to the infield-fly rule.”

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Rat-a-tat-tat proof: Blackie Sherrod in the Dallas Morning News: “Muhammad Ali’s current homestead is 88 acres in Michigan, in a house built for mobster Al Capone. Bulletproof walls, no less.”

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Working man: From NBC’s Bob Costas: “The last time A.C. Green missed an NBA game, Kobe Bryant was in the second grade.”

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No escape: Mike Littwin in the Rocky Mountain News: “On CBS, they’re dropping guys off on a deserted island to test their survival skills. For a real test, they should try Tonya Harding’s garage.”

What about the women? American soccer player Joe-Max Moore, who is becoming a star in the English Premier League:

“I’ve never experienced anything close to it. I’ve got men on the street walking up and giving me kisses. It’s crazy.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1964, Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser became the first woman to break 59 seconds in the 100-meter freestyle when she lowered her world record from 59.5 seconds to 58.9.

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Love and Rocket: NHL star Pavel Bure said he popped the question to tennis player Anna Kournikova--and she accepted.

The “Russian Rocket,” 28, said he proposed to Kournikova, 18, also Russian, on Friday night at a Miami Beach restaurant.

“We’ll tell details when she gets back in town in the middle of March,” Bure said before the Florida Panthers’ game against Buffalo on Monday night.

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Trivia answer: Jim Loscutoff of Oregon, 17.2 in 1954-55.

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And finally: “Whom does Cardinal cornerback Ty Howard love most: his son, Ty, his son, Tyrell or his daughter, Tyler?” asks Steve Rushin of Sports Illustrated.

“The answer is clear: It’s a three-way Ty!”