In a back-handed sort of way.

At least the Los Angeles Times says so.

In his Morning Briefing column, Times sportswriter Mike Hiserman writes:

"And finally: You think former Long Beach State basketball coach Wayne Morgan isn’t missed by his former peers in the Big West Conference?

"A high-placed source in the conference says no fewer than three Big West teams—UC Irvine, Pacific and UC Santa Barbara—already have contacted the new Iowa State men’s coach about playing games in future seasons.

"Apparently there’s nothing like the allure of a payday and a likely victory."

That’s not the first reference I’ve seen concerning how people who knew Morgan in his Long Beach State days seem to consider him a coaching lightweight.

I guess it’s up to him to prove them wrong. Let’s hope he schedules a couple of those old Big West opponents and slaps a good old-fashioned Big 12 butt-kickin’ on them.

In a bowl game!

That’s right, people who work for the website figure Iowa will tee it up with Bowling Green of the Mid-American Conference in the Motor City Bowl.

Just where you wanted to spend your holiday, correct?

There’s nothing quite like Detroit in December.

Or, as a number of major-league baseball players say, Detroit in July.

According to 550 players who responded to a Sports Illustrated poll, Detroit is the worst road city in both leagues.

Coaches like to say that there’s no such thing as a bad bowl game, but when it comes to the Motor City Bowl and—well, yes—the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho, where Iowa State lost to Boise State last year, some of those guys don’t know what they’re talking about.

By the way, Iowa State isn’t projected by College Football News.com to be in any bowl game in 2003.

Maybe that beats both Boise and Detroit.

SI said McClelland led both the American League (27.2 percent) and National League (17 percent) in the best-umpire voting. He fared better with hitters (26.4 percent) than with pitchers (16.7 percent).

Dusty Baker of the Chicago Cubs was rated the best manager, receiving 23.6 percent, over second-place Joe Torre of the New York Yankees (18.7 percent).

My advice is for no one to get very excited about the results.

Why?

Because in the vote to pick the greatest living player, Babe Ruth finished in ninth place.

Obviously, it doesn’t take a Phi Beta Kappa to play baseball.

Missouri basketball player Ricky Clemons was in fair condition in a Columbia, Mo., hospital after crashing an all-terrain vehicle at the residence of the university president.

The AP reports that Clemons lost control of the ATV on a gravel driveway leading to president Elson Floyd’s home. Clemons had been staying at a work-release center while serving a 60-day sentence for beating up a woman and holding her against her will at his apartment.

Clemons was at the university president’s home for a "gathering."

The president didn’t know Clemons was violating the rules of his work-release program. Clemons is suspended from competing during the 2003-2004 season. I wonder if he knew that.