Caught on the Fly.(Brief Article)

Hey, didn't you used to be an undisputed national champion?

* Nope, no way, don't believe a word-o-I.U. coach Mike Davis' toss-in-the-towel speech. The Spies say even though a preseason pep talk included a "don't play hard for me" component, he wants this job so bad (too bad?) he can taste it. And speaking of taste, his shoot-from-the-lip response to a(nother) December loss--and, ahem, that record--is what leaves a bad one in trustees' mouths.

* If buzz is legit (and the Spies say it is), the DeVos family, considerin' peddlin' the Magic because of flatline attendance after shellin' out for T-Mac and Grant, is even more unhappy now that a ton of those dead presidents're goin' to one Hill of a cheerleader.

* More than one team worker bee tells Fly to circle the national past-its-prime's July 31 trade deadline. That's when baseball's big deals with little long-term risk'll get done, the better to be prepped for post-'01 apocalypse.

* Fly hears the Pens're lookin' for a bodyguard for the boss. No surprise there, Mario, it's just that the name that kept poppin' up after Christmas trade moratorium was Al Kovalev, same name that's at the top of most Pitt stats categories.

* Fly's Top 5 or "We'll Replace John Wetteland with a bullpen by committee ... and sub-committee:" 1. Tim Crabtree; 2. Jeff Zimmerman; ...