Barkley, Garnett: Who’s the Bigger Dough Boy?

Charles Barkley on 21-year-old Kevin Garnett’s new $121-million deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves:

“One hundred 21 million dollars, that’s a lot of damn money, isn’t it? What a great country. Imagine if he could play.�

Asked what he was making when he was 21, Barkley said: “I had a four-year deal for $2 million. And that was when I was in college.�

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Add Barkley: He reported to Houston Rocket training camp so overweight, according to Eddie Sefko of the Houston Chronicle, one teammate asked Barkley “If he was in the first or second trimester.�

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Trivia time: Which school holds the Pacific 10 Conference record for points in a season?

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Preoccupied: Dan Jenkins recalling the “Best Lead Ever Written on a Golf Story�: Leonard Crawley of the London Daily Telegraph once wrote:

“Despite the abominable handling of the press luggage at the Zurich airport, the Swiss Open managed to get off to a rather decent start yesterday.�

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Try again: Among the 6,000 nickname suggestions for the expansion NHL team that will begin play in St. Paul, Minn., in year 2000: Gnats, Frozen Ears, Corn Dogs, Ten Thousand Lakers, Puckeroos, Ninja Muskies and--get this--Fighting Smelt.

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Route 66: UCLA’s 66-point scoring binge against Texas and Houston is reminiscent of the 1973 season when the Bruins exceeded 60 points in three games and averaged 49.3 points for nine consecutive games.

However, UCLA opened the season losing to Nebraska, 40-13, and closed it losing to USC, 23-13.

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Tell it like it is: Larry Kahn, radio announcer for USC football, can’t be accused of being a homer when he said at the conclusion of the Trojans’ unimpressive 35-21 victory over Nevada Las Vegas, a three-touchdown-plus underdog:

“The [defensive] scheme is not working. . . . I may take some heat.�

For what, being honest?

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Prevent what? Paul Attner in the Sporting News: “Let’s make this perfectly clear from the start. I despise prevent defenses. And I’ll betcha that if you are any kind of pro football fan, you do too.

“The damn scheme is a disaster. It should be buried alongside the single wing, honored as a relic but regarded as a tactic whose time has passed.�

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Looking back: On this day in 1990, Stacey Robinson set an NCAA quarterback rushing record with 308 yards and scored five touchdowns to lead Northern Illinois to a 73-18 victory over Fresno State.

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Trivia answer: California, 482 points in 1920. Note: UCLA has scored 230 points with six games remaining.

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And finally: U.S. soccer Coach Steve Sampson was surfing the World Wide Web earlier this year when he came across a German player named Michael Mason.

According to the New York Times, the midfielder spoke little English and had never set foot in the United States, but Mason’s father was a retired serviceman born in Philadelphia. So he was eligible and Sampson signed him.

Mason was given the nickname “Dotcom.�