* You know those in-game interviews with coaches and managers? Two words to the pay-to-play media: butt out. It’s intrusive. So, no, I don’t go along with those who criticize San Antonio Spurs’ head coach Gregg Popovich, whose team is in the NBA finals, for blatantly indicating how much he dislikes in-game chats with courtside TV interlopers. They’re as inane as they are annoying. Imagine an in-game interview with Woody Hayes?
* Best line to come out of the latest Major League Baseball (performance enhancing) drug scandal was David Letterman’s: “I’ve seen A-Rod play, and he should be getting his money back from the steroid people.”
* Congrats to USF softball coach Ken Eriksen on his new seven-year contract with the Bulls. Would that the rest of USF’s athletic teams–notably the high-profile, revenue-producing ones–were as successful. Eriksen, whose team won the Big East Conference tournament this year and reached the Women’s College World Series last season, is to be further congratulated for succeeding the right way. The NCAA recently gave the Bulls a public shout-out for scoring in the top 10 percent of the Academic Progress Rate.