For much of Thursday's game at Kansas City, it was Memphis and not Cal State Northridge playing matador defense, stepping aside as the underdog charged the rim. . . .
Order was finally restored, but Northridge still gave the second-seeded Tigers a better game than UCLA did last April. . . .
Matador-killing marksman Roburt Sallie, a sophomore from Sacramento, was the California junior college player of the year last season at City College of San Francisco. . . .
Memphis Coach John Calipari says of his senior class, which has won a record 136 games, "I think 40 years from now they'll still be the winningest players in the history of college basketball." . . .
Maybe in terms of victories, but more than a dozen former UCLA players won three NCAA championships. . . .
Memphis is still looking for its first. . . .
Is it a sign of the recession, or does Magic Johnson simply never turn down a chance to appear in a commercial? . . .
Johnson, by the way, is one of only seven players who have won NCAA, NBA and Olympic championships, a list that also includes Clyde Lovellette, Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, Jerry Lucas, Quinn Buckner and Michael Jordan. . . .
Colleague Sam Farmer wonders, "Now that America is demanding AIG rescind those bonuses, do the Dodgers have any recourse with Andruw Jones?" . . .
Jones, released by the Dodgers in January, has not made the Texas Rangers' roster and could opt out of his contract today. . . .
The Angels, having failed to re-sign Mark Teixeira, are hoping that Kendry Morales is not just an early spring phenom. . . .
Cal Poly wide receiver Ramses Barden, a 6-foot-6 NFL draft prospect from La Canada Flintridge Prep, is the son of Al Barden, who helped New York University defeat Jerry West and West Virginia en route to the Final Four in 1960. . . .
Home-court advantage throughout the playoffs is the NBA's Holy Grail, but last year's Finals tilted in the Boston Celtics' favor when Kobe Bryant and the Lakers blew a 24-point third-quarter lead and lost Game 4 . . . on their home floor. . . .
In critiquing the NFL draft prospects of former USC receiver Patrick Turner, the Sporting News notes, "He won't knock anyone's socks off with his workout numbers, but he was a better college receiver than ex-Trojans Dwayne Jarrett and Steve Smith." . . .
Any college football fan would respectfully disagree. . . .
