Coaches

One man donned a scarlet sweater, the other a crimson cape -- and both outfits had people seeing red. Bob Knight and Blake Griffin were this weekend's antagonists, inciting hostilities in Berkeley and Lubbock with fearless playfulness and ferocious play. Knight, the former Army coach, turned Indiana coach, turned Texas Tech coach, turned ESPN analyst, took his precious 1st Amendment rights to California's Haas Pavilion for Saturday's game between the Golden Bears and UCLA's Bruins.

Marcus Johnson played only 16 games for USC's basketball team, averaging 3.6 points during one injury-marred season -- and even he is turning pro. "Kansas has two players who would have been NBA lottery picks, Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins, and they are returning to school," USC Coach Tim Floyd said late Monday night, only hours after hearing about Johnson. "Good for them. "Our guys get an offer from Islamabad and they're gone." Where the Trojans go from here is unknown.

Pete Carroll is leaving the practice field wearing a gray sweatshirt, khakis, athletic shoes. Joe Paterno is headed to the practice field wearing a gray sweatshirt, khakis, athletic shoes. One difference. The cuffs. True to his legend, even on a stroll through a hotel lobby when next to nobody is watching, Paterno's cuffs are rolled up above his shoes, the quintessential 1920s hipster. Says Carroll: "I love those cuffs, I really love them.

Through all 18 meetings between the Baltimore Ravens and the Tennessee Titans there has been one constant for Tennessee. Jeff Fisher has been on the sideline. Fisher has led the Titans and their precursors, the Houston Oilers, as head coach for 14 full seasons and part of another. That's longer than the Ravens have been in Baltimore. That's longer than any other NFL coach, with the New England Patriots' Bill Belichick a distant second at nine seasons.

He still talks to her. He touches his reddened eyes, smiles softly, shakes his head, of course he still talks to her. Late at night, driving home from the gym, traveling from recruit to recruit, the coach of the nation's top-ranked college basketball team still talks to his younger sister. She was also a basketball coach, remember? She once took a team to the NCAA tournament in the same year he did, remember? There's a lot they can still share. There's a lot he can still learn.

Life has settled down somewhat for Hugh McCutcheon, the man for whom the Beijing Olympics became the best of times and the worst of times. He is home in Irvine, but also back in Minnesota frequently, where his mother-in-law, Barbara Bachman, has recovered from the stab wounds she suffered in the attack at a tourist spot. The same attacker, Tang Yongming, killed her husband, Todd, the 62-year-old chief executive of a Minnesota gardening business.

After four quarters of calling plays Sunday in the biggest football game of his life, Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley made his most meaningful call of the day. He speed-dialed his dad. "I always call him when I'm driving in, and I always call him right after," the 41-year-old Haley said Monday, a day after the Cardinals beat Philadelphia to secure a spot in their first Super Bowl. "He just gives me his synopsis of it. He's just a great football person.

USC's Heritage Hall was shaking again Friday as demolition crews continued to tear down a nearby building to make way for a new one. Amid the din, Pete Carroll returned to his office from a recruiting trip and met with his reconstructed coaching staff for the first time. Among the newcomers was Jeremy Bates, who spent his first day on the job after being hired this week as quarterbacks coach and the Trojans' play-caller.

. -- Pat Summitt now has 1,000 victories, an unprecedented height even she finds dizzying. "It's a hard number to even comprehend," the Tennessee coach said. Summitt became the first Division I basketball coach -- men's or women's -- to win 1,000 games Thursday night as her 12th-ranked Lady Vols beat Georgia, 73-43. It was their second chance in four days at giving their coach her latest and one of her greatest milestones.

If you want Pete Carroll to stay at USC, the latest Super Bowl coaching matchup -- Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin versus Arizona's Ken Whisenhunt -- was right up your alley. Think Urban Meyer belongs at Florida? Then you have to love pro football's latest hiring trend: an inexperienced and relatively inexpensive coach who can relate to his players is better than the high-profile leader with the whopping price tag, especially in this down economy.