Clippers’ aura can’t stop USC

Southern California overcame more than a 15-point halftime deficit Saturday to win the Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournament. The Trojans also had to overcome being seated in the Los Angeles Clippers' locker room at Staples Center.

Once both obstacles had been cleared, one USC official remarked while the Trojans celebrated, "Oh, yeah, there's probably been a lot of trophies brought in here."

• SNIP, SNIP -- Some college basketball fans will stop at virtually nothing to appreciate March Madness fully. In the Cleveland area, men are scheduling a certain elective surgery in mid-March so they can take time off work and recover on a comfortable sofa while catching early-round action.

As Dr. J. Stephen Jones told the Cleveland Plain Dealer, his schedule for vasectomies fills quickly in March.

"I'm booked up," said Jones, chairman of regional urology at the Cleveland Clinic's Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute. "My schedule for that part of the month filled up very quickly. It filled up ahead of time."

Jones added that if men are "going to have a day off, it might as well be on a day when they would be watching basketball, as opposed to watching 'Oprah.' "

• NAME GAME -- A basketball quiz, courtesy of the Seattle Times' Dwight Perry:

"Reserve Mike Singletary inspired Texas Tech to overcome a 21-point second-half deficit and upset Texas A&M in the Big 12 basketball tournament by:

"-- Scoring 29 straight Tech points en route to a tournament-record 43.

"-- Threatening to drop his shorts at halftime."

• TUFF GUY -- Coach Mike Singletary, meeting with San Francisco 49ers season-ticket holders, on the kind of mentality he's trying to build with the team:

"Physical with an F!"

• FAMILIAR ROAD -- Venturing out on a limb, but not too far, the Green Bay Packers say they plan to retire Brett Favre's No. 4 -- but probably not this year, just to make sure.

"I don't anticipate it this season," team president Mark Murphy told The Associated Press. "Obviously we will do it. We've made that commitment. He deserves to have his number retired. I think both sides need some time."

"Honestly," he added, "from a practical standpoint, we had to cancel one retirement ceremony already. It's smart to make sure he is retired, rather than go through a situation like that again."

• HAVE A COW -- Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella's favorite memory of Ken Griffey Jr. when both were members of the Seattle Mariners involves a bet that Griffey lost.

"I bet him a steak dinner on something, and he lost," Piniella said. "So he brought a whole cow into the office."

• TAGGED OUT -- Gary Loewen of the Toronto Sun, after the Oakland Athletics released first baseman Tagg Bozied: "Tagg, you're out."

• DOGGING IT -- A reader calling himself "Rico" e-mailed the following to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports Web site, referring to Manny Ramirez's reputation for not giving his all at all times: "Manny gives new meaning to 'Dodger Dog.' "

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