Detroit Free Press

What I am about to do I do only once a year, so please indulge me. I am asking for your help.When I was young, I ...

NEW YORK -- Andy Warhol said everyone gets his 15 minutes, and I guess I just had mine. Actually, it was only five minutes. With Arnold Schwarzenegger. And one minute with Dyan Cannon. And seven seconds with Donald Trump, who really needs a new haircut. I mean, his hair just kind of creeps up his forehead, like a raccoon climbing a tree. I wanted to say, "Donald. Here's five bucks. Go down to the barber shop, ask for Al. . ."But I digress.

MINNEAPOLIS -- As the seconds ticked away on their fabulous lives as freshmen, the expressions were suddenly ...

I see by the melting snow and the euphoric look on John Lowe's face that it is once again spring and therefore time for Opening Day. But before the baseball zombies attack my house like creatures from "Night of the Living Dead," banging on my windows with their fantasy league stat books and chanting, "Come ouuuut. Come ouuuut. Choose a pennant winner . . . or . . . DIE!" let me say this: John. Zombies. The rest of you. I have bad news:Baseball ain't the same.And it is no longer King.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Talk about delivering in the clutch! Here it was, a freezing night in January 1973, and a pregnant ...

MINNEAPOLIS -- I have stopped listening to Bobby Knight.I no longer attend his press conferences. I do not interview him. I had no interest in his insulting words these last few weeks of the NCAA basketball tournament. And I did not go to hear him after Indiana's semifinal Saturday against Duke.I see no point. My reason is simple: Why would anyone willingly enter a room when he knew he was about to have garbage dumped on his head?

MINNEAPOLIS -- Sports writers get the best seats. That's what people say. But apparently, they are not good enough. Based on what I've heard at recent press conferences for Michigan's Fab Five freshmen -- including the ones for today's Final Four showdown against Cincinnati -- we media would prefer a chair smack in the middle of the court.So we could hear the trash.Trash talk, that is. Never in my years of covering college basketball have I heard more questions about this subject."Chris, what do you plan to say out there?"

It was time for Juwan Howard to tell his grandmother about life as a man, to tell her about college and basketball and the new fame he had found in Michigan. He leaned over. He began to speak. "I'm doing good, Grandma," he said. "College, it's, like, not as easy as I thought it would be. But you know, I'm doing OK. I'll get good grades, like you want. . . . "Our basketball team is doing fine. We're progressing. We just need a little time. The fellas are real nice and all. We're like . . . this family. . . . "