FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH . . .

-- We saw the end of a great college career Thursday night, with Jimmy Baron's last game at URI.

In a quirk of fate, more attention was placed on the fact that he played for his father than on how good he became. He leaves URI as the fifth all-time scorer in the school's history, and one of the great local players in the long history of URI basketball.

In fact, in the past 60 years, Baron, Tommy Garrick, and Jeff Kent have been the three best Rhode Island players to play for URI, three guys who are going to live for a long time in the URI record book. In Baron's case, he’s developed into one of the best shooters in all of college basketball, someone who, I suspect, we will not see the likes of around here for a while.

-- Did you see where Obama picked North Carolina to win the national title? There’s no truth to the rumor that last year Bush picked Haliburton.

-- Or that the stock market has become like an NBA game: Only the last five minutes count.

-- After the three No. 1 seeds, and all the hoopla of the "best conference" ever, there is pressure on the Big East to live up to all the hype.

-- Can we dare say now that maybe Dan Duquette was right about Roger Clemens in 1996?

-- Quiz of the Week: Two New England schools have won Division I NCAA basketball titles. Who are they? (Answer near the bottom of the column.)

-- Quiz of the Week II: UCLA has won 11 national basketball championships. Which school is next? (Answer near the bottom of the column.)

-- Line of the Week comes from Peter Vecsey in the New York Post on the six overtime-game in the Big East Tournament: "The Syracuse-Connecticut game went on so long, by the time it was over, some of their players had become academically ineligible."

-- Who says things are hurtin' around here? The Foxy Lady's hiring. Talk about a Full Rhode Island.

-- Memo to Jay Cutler: Talk less, and complete passes more.

-- Dennis Coleman, the one-time Brown quarterback turned agent, represents six coaches in the NCAA Tournament, out of his stable of about 40.

-- Since the first of the year, nine opponents have scored at least 30 points against the Celtics. Before the first of the year? Only three.

-- The headline of the week was in the New York Daily News: A.I.G. is a P.I.G.

-- The word is a lot of local golf courses and country clubs are feeling the economic pinch.

-- The biggest thing Keno Davis has to do is to get the Friars tougher.

-- The World Baseball Classic should be held in November, not in the middle of spring training.

-- Whatever happened to Margo Adams?

-- And Debra Winger, too?

-- There’s a wonderful story in this week’s Sports Illustrated about old friend Lamar Odom, whose story no fiction writer could have made up. Then again, we always knew that around here, didn't we?

-- Thirty dollars to park downtown Friday afternoon for the contractors' convention at the Convention Center, just in case you want to keep score.

-- Speaking of the Dunk, word is that Lil' Wayne drew almost 10,000 people the night before the Friars drew almost 6,000 for their NIT game against Miami. Is it a strange world we live in, or is that just my myopia?

-- If they set out to make prototypes for quintessential celebrities, rest assured Gwyneth Paltrow would be on the list.

-- If you saw Hendricken sophomore Ricky Ledo’s first-half performance against Mount Pleasant in the state Division I basketball final, you won’t forget it.

-- R.I.P. Lee Dykas, a former Journal reporter and the type of old newspaper guy who would have been at home in The Front Page.

-- And Peter Sullivan, too, a fixture at many a basketball game around here for the past 40 years.

-- Just when you thought you’ve heard it all, along comes Twitter.

-- The Pats can't have enough wide receivers.

-- Baseball America calls the Red Sox the best team in baseball.

-- And there’s no truth to the rumor Hal Steinbrenner wants to sue because of it.

-- You’ve been in Rhode Island too long, Bunky, if you remember when you had to take the boat to get from Jamestown to Newport.

-- I have my doubts about Joba Chamberlain.

-- Paul Pierce is a better shooter than he was earlier in his career.

-- Is the Wall Street Journal still the daily diary of the American Dream?

-- Quiz Answer: UConn, that won in 1999 and 2004, and Holy Cross that won in 1947.

-- Quiz Answer II: Kentucky, with seven.

-- Miss March, complete with a cameo by Hugh Hefner, is so bad it should be given cult status, on the same bill with Hey, Dude, Where’s My Car?

-- Pitt and Villanova both escaped their first-round game, Houdini in the NCAA Tournament.

-- Just when you think he can’t get any more weird, there’s the picture on the front page of a New York tabloid of A-Rod kissing a mirror, part of a magazine photo shoot.

-- The NCAA Tournament would be better with Stephon Curry in it.

-- Did they have mortgage fraud in the Renaissance, too?

breynold@projo.com