Maybe He Should Go Easy on the Maple Syrup

By Pete Thomas

March 25, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Vermont Coach Tom Brennan was understandably proud but perhaps too caught up in the moment when he said, after his team’s brief but remarkable NCAA tournament run came to an end Sunday: “It is hard for me to imagine anything in Vermont that has meant more for people.”

Wrote Patrick Garrity of the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press: “Well, statehood was pretty good. I’m guessing people were pretty excited about the arrival of electricity. The idea of chairlifts has been pretty good to us, all in all.... “

You get his drift.

Trivia time: LeBron James, who scored 56 points Sunday against the Toronto Raptors, is the youngest player in NBA history to score 30, 40 and 50 points. Who is the youngest to score 60 in a regular-season game?

A goofy story: Bass-fishing tournament pro Tommy Biffle, asked by Inside BASS to name the weirdest thing he had ever caught, said he hooked a flying duck at Disney World.

“We were fishing one of the lakes, and this duck was over on the bank,” he recalled. “When I made a cast, it happened to fly out and hit the [lure] when it went by. I had to unhook it, but the duck was fine.”

As if reading the mind of his interviewer, Biffle continued, “No, it wasn’t Donald.”

Tortured: Syndicated columnist Norman Chad on the seasonal assault via cable television by “annoying” college basketball analysts: “I have written thousands of words in my cable lifetime decrying and denouncing Dick Vitale. To absolutely, positively no avail.

“If this were a game between us, the final score would read -- Dick Vitale 73, Couch Slouch 0. On his tombstone, it will say, ‘Celebrated Basketball Hall of Fame broadcaster.’ On my tombstone, it will say, ‘Died a thousand deaths at the hands of Dick Vitale, Bill Raftery, Hubie Brown, Clark Kellogg and Bill Walton.’ ”

Unlucky 13: Golf magazine took a look at players affected by rules infractions during past Masters tournaments. One was Tommy Nakajima, who began the par-five 13th with a poor drive, forcing him to take an unplayable lie before laying up.

His layup fourth shot went into Rae’s Creek, from which he incurred a pair of two-stroke penalties for touching the ball with his foot and grounding his club. He eventually carded a 13. Asked afterward if he had lost his composure, he answered, “No lose composure, lose count.”

True madness: According to USA Today, gamblers worldwide will wager -- mostly through offshore online gaming sites -- more than $1 billion on NCAA tournament games this year.

That’s about double the action on the Super Bowl.

Trivia answer: Jerry West, who was 23 when he scored 63 points for the Lakers against the New York Knicks on Jan. 17, 1962. James won’t be 23 until Dec. 30, 2007.

And finally: Anna Kournikova will be a fill-in co-host on ABC’s “The View.” Although the duration of her assignment hasn’t been determined, Mike Downey of the Chicago Tribune has a guess:

“You can expect Kournikova to be eliminated in either the first or second round of the conversation.”