Zen Master Stops Short of Offering Lavin a Job

Coaches usually empathize whenever another coach gets fired. And on his national radio show on the Sporting News network Monday, Laker Coach Phil Jackson empathized with Steve Lavin. He also talked about the difficulty of coaching at UCLA.

“What people remember in this area,” he said, “is how disciplined and how precise this basketball club played under John Wooden -- what a great teacher he was, a disciplinarian and basketball coach. His teams reflected that on the floor. Well, they miss that.”

Jackson also noted, “It has been a long, hard history lesson for UCLA fans. I think [the school] lost fans in this area. It’s obvious to the Lakers that we have picked up basketball fans.”

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Trivia time: On Feb. 23, 2002, Lavin’s Bruins defeated Stanford, 95-92. What was significant about that victory?

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Not my fault: A graphic shown during Sunday’s NCAA tournament selection show on CBS referred to Conference USA as a mid-major conference. Cincinnati Coach Bob Huggins, for one, didn’t like the reference and blamed Billy Packer.

“You are mistaking me with someone who thinks Billy knows what he is talking about,” Huggins told the Sporting News network’s Tim Brando. “We have had more guys drafted by the NBA over the last two years than any other league.”

Said Packer: “It was the graphic that called them a mid-major, not me. I don’t program what CBS puts on the air. It’s not like you can say, ‘Change the graphic.’ ”

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A real superstar: He goes by the name Little Morgan, but he is truly the big dog in his sport. The black Labrador didn’t just win the Big Air event Sunday in the Super Retriever Series competition at Stuttgart, Ark., he annihilated the field.

Little Morgan won with a leap of 26 feet. The runner-up had a leap of 20 feet 10 inches.

Of Little Morgan, event organizer Shad Field said, “He’s just an amazing dog that should have a big red S on his chest and wear a cape.”

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NASCAR bandwagon: C.W. Nevius of the San Francisco Chronicle, noting the popularity of NASCAR, points out that politicians are aligning themselves with the sport.

President Bush invited 2002 champion Tony Stewart to the White House, and now the brain trust for presidential hopeful John Edwards of North Carolina insists it is going to tap into “NASCAR Democrats.”

Said Fox commentator Darrell Waltrip: “They may want to rethink that one. I believe he’ll find that most NASCAR people are Republicans.”

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Trivia answer: The victory was UCLA’s third in a row at Stanford, which was ranked 10th. In the victories at Stanford the previous two seasons, UCLA beat the top-ranked team.

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And finally: Derek Jeter’s culinary tastes have changed a bit over the years. Newsday’s Ken Davidoff reports that in 1996 and 1997, before every New York Yankee home game, an attendant would deliver a bag from McDonald’s to Jeter’s locker.

“I ate McDonald’s 20 minutes before a game,” Jeter recalled.

Now, for the second consecutive year, the shortstop will employ a personal chef, Robert Surles, who teaches at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan.

“When you start getting older, you have to start eating a little better,” Jeter said.