knight

FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH:

•Just when you think you’ve seen it all, along comes Syracuse-UConn with their six overtimes.

That’s the beauty of sports.

We never know.

That’s what continues to make sports so wonderful, for they always have the potential to show you something you’ve never seen before. That’s what happened late Thursday night, when a quarterfinal Big East Tournament contest — just another in a seemingly endless string of postseason tournament games — turned into something unforgettable.

Maybe that’s the undefinable reason why we keep watching.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you see something you’ve never seen before.

The beauty of sports.

•If nothing else, A-Rod’s surgery takes him out of the spotlight for a while, which may quiet the circus that’s become the Yankees.

•But now that A-Rod’s out, who plays third base for the Yankees, Graig Nettles?

•If this were the Old West, Carcieri and Cicilline would slap leather in Kennedy Plaza and be done with it.

•Once upon a time, the Big East Tournament dominated the back of the New York tabloids. No more. Not with the three metropolitan teams being non-entities.

•Al Skinner keeps on doing it at Boston College, once again about to get his Eagles into the NCAA Tournament when a lot of people back in November didn’t think he’d be able to.

•Quiz of the Week: What Syracuse player has a father who also was a big-time college basketball player, and what was his name? (Answer near the bottom of the column.)

•Line of the Week comes from my man “Joe Boots,” on Jonathan Papelbon’s ripping of Manny in Esquire: “That’s 2,000-miles-away courage.”

•There’s no truth to the rumor that things are so bad in New York that even the escort services have downsized.

•Or that the only growth industries left in Rhode Island are Dunkin’ Donuts and strip clubs.

•St. John’s had three baskets in the first half against Marquette in the Big East Tournament. Three. In these politically correct days, we call that “offensively challenged.” In the old days, we’d just say they stink.

•You know what needs a stimulus package? The St. John’s program. That’s what.

•Let’s check back with Terrell Owens in Buffalo in October when no one can get the ball to him.

•In a Big East full of excellent point guards, Syracuse’s Johnny Flynn is the best.

•If greed had a face, it would be Bernie Madoff.

•Hendricken sophomore Ricardo Ledo is going to be a Division I basketball player someday.

•You’ve got to love Manny, who said the other day that he doesn’t deal with anyone on the Red Sox anymore, not even David Ortiz.

•The word is that Richard Pitino — son of you know who — is a legitimate candidate for the open Boston University job.

•Loser Town is a nifty little crime novel set in Hollywood, written by Johnny Depp’s half-brother.

•No one knows what constitutes traveling in basketball anymore, including the referees.

•I have seen very few high school performances in a long while that were any more of a treat than the one by Mount Pleasant’s Billy Soriano the other night against Cranston East in the Division I semifinals.

•And you’ve got to love all those spring-training stories about pitchers who had a good side session.

•I never get tired of hearing Gladys Knight sing On a Midnight Train to Georgia.

•Kudos to North Providence’s Kenny McDonald, in the NCAA Tournament as the coach of Western Kentucky.

•If you’ve seen one cheerleader pyramid, you’ve seen them all.

•You know it’s a strange NBA world when Ben Wallace makes more money than LeBron.

•I don’t even like to go to the mall, so why would I go see Mall Cop?

•Speaking of malls, Manny says in Becoming Manny that one of his favorite things to do in life is to go to malls. Silly me. I thought it was reading Shakespeare.

•Stephon Marbury played better in Coney Island high school games than he has so far with the Celtics.

•Speaking of Starbury, according to USA Today, he makes $254,154 a game. Roll that figure around on your tongue awhile the next time you look at your dwindling 401(k) statement.

•You know the river’s rushing by you, Bunky, when you look at the celebrity photos in The Sunday Journal and half of them you don’t know and the other half you don’t like.

•Quiz answer: Andy Rautins, whose father, Leo, starred for Syracuse in 1981.

•You’re not really a Rhode Islander unless you have a cousin who played Little League with someone in the General Assembly.

•Kudos for Brown junior basketball player Matt Mullery being named first-team All-Ivy, a player who deserved a better fate than being on a team that won only three league games.

•Tom Garrick is one of our all-time-best Rhode Island sports stories, and the fact that he resigned this week as the URI women’s coach does nothing to tarnish that.

•When does Bruce Sundlun get his talk show?

breynold@projo.com