Cannon Firing Line
Let's get it on
By Ellis G. Cannon
PSR Publisher

o   The NCAA tournament garnered big television ratings this year, which is good for talk show hosts who like to talk college basketball more frequently than just when Pitt has a good season or the first round is held at the Mellon Arena. To the extent these ratings including the Pittsburgh market, please don't forget the sport next winter.

o   Ben Howland deserves the credit he's receiving for turning around Pitt hoops. When our sources told us that Howland was the real deal as we alerted radio listeners he was going to get the Pitt job, many laughed. One memorable caller offered that Howland was "Ralph Willard in cowboy boots". Funny line, but a bit off the mark.

o   By the way, if you haven't noticed, Ralph Willard can coach too.

o   Every year you hear about some kid or family pet winning the NCAA office pool. So this year, we turned a bracket over to our three year old. Thanks for nothing, son. The cats get their shot next year.

o   SpongeBob SquarePants has the most important program on television.

o   The NFL Draft is here, which gives us the opportunity to reflect on one of our favorite lines in the history of the Pittsburgh Sports Report. Looking back at the 1997 PSR Draft Preview, then contained on a yellow bond "newsletter" of about 10,000 words, we decided to introduce our projected Steeler pick, North Carolina defensive lineman Greg Ellis, this way: "Welcome to Pittsburgh, Greg Ellis". Dallas ruined our day by taking the guy very early in the first round when we were sold on the idea he was a future Steeler., but it was a funny line then and we still laugh at it.

o   Although the Derek Bell stuff has been a real hoot, we're more interested in watching what Dave Littlefield and his band of reorganized front office types do over the next couple years. You get the sense this guy knows what he's doing and that's a lot more important than what a backup outfielder has to say on just about anything. Of course, his letting us know what those voices he hears have been telling him has created some levity.

o   By the way, there were a couple Pirates' veterans who made a lot of noise a couple years ago about Jimmy Anderson, who they castigated for practically rooting around the locker room in search of donut holes. Anyone hear from those guys when the D Bell stuff was breaking?

o   Last spring, we wrote in this space that the Penguins and their fans would be wise to not believe that the Pens were destined to repeat as serious championship contenders just because they were only seven games removed from a Stanley Cup at season's end. Ditto for Pitt basketball fans now. There's a ton of good mojo there with a veteran team returning, new digs and a quality coach. But being a senior does not necessarily make you a better player, the conference will be better, Pitt enters next year as a marked team, good fortune is never a guarantee and chemistry is always fragile.

o   The Pens have enlisted some impressive people in support of their urban redevelopment plans. That said, the silence from politicos is deafening.

o   It's one thing to fall out of love with a guy and, for that matter, depress the market to serve your own ends, but when a source as credible as Len Pasquarelli of ESPN.com writes that the "Steelers helped to poison the market on [Earl] Holmes, by telling anyone that would listen that he was clearly in decline...", that's notable.

o   In a recent column concerning the Pens' plans to develop the current site of Mellon Arena and put together funding for a new facility, the Tribune-Review wrote that "The North Shore development, along with The Waterfront in Homestead, 300,000 square feet of retail and entertainment development for the South Side Works project, and a Downtown redevelopment strategy unveiled by the Plan C Task Force earlier this month could mean the region is reaching its tipping point for retail and entertainment building." Really?

o   No surprise Bobby Huggins rejected West Virginia. Why leave the NBA for a college program?

o   Ever notice how a player becomes so much less attractive once he's traded? After showing enough last year that the Colorado Avalanche felt comfortable trading studly winger Adam Deadmarsh, they moved Ville Nieminen in the Darius Kasparaitis deal. One Denver media source reported afterwards that Ville was "eminently replaceable". The same source went on to pretty much call defenseman Rick Berry, also acquired by the Pens in the deal, an AHL player.

o   Best line after the Kaspar trade came in the Denver Post: "Exit, Bill Romanowski. Enter, Darius Kasparaitis.

o   Kris Brown would have been nuts to turn down the Houston money. Besides, he was one missed Heinz Field kick away from misery.

Ellis Cannon is also a regular panelist on KDKA-TV's "#1 Cochran Sports Showdown" aired Sundays at 11:35 p.m.