By Mike Ball
Cincinnati Enquirer

Thumbs up

1. Bearcats basketball. Hey, if you're troubled by a 17-11 record and an apparent position on the bubble, then you weren't around for the roarin' '80s. Does 3-25 sound familiar?

2. Bob Knight. Upset with his and his team's performance, he's returning his $250,000 base salary. It's not without precedent. Remember when he returned that chair?

3. Junior Griffey. He seems to be in mid-'90s form. Quick stat: Barry Bonds has hit 253 home runs since turning 33. Hey, Junior's 33!

4. Marvin Lewis. Some downright decent signings. And now reworking the stats to give Jon Kitna his $1.6 million bonus? Has Mike Brown been taken over by aliens?

5. Michael Jordan. He's gonna show the young Wizards how to play even if he has to rip 'em.

6. Bob Uecker. Ball four, ball eight, ball 12! And he's a real-life announcer headed to the Hall of Fame, too.

7. The North College Hill girls. They were the last area girls team standing in the Ohio basketball tournament. Heck, there's nothing wrong with being a homer.

8. Small-conference tournaments. From the Patriot League on up, games meant something. Miami's loss to OU was excruciating.

9. The Villanova women's team. Let's see, a deliberate game plan against an overwhelming opponent. Paging Ed Pinckney.

10. Middle Tennessee's leading scorer - Tommy Gunn.

Thumbs down

1. The Great American Ball Park lawn. Have you stepped into your back yard lately? How'd they do that?

2. Jose Rijo. An awesome guy, but maybe it's time to finally call it a career.

3. Bengals fans. They have a right to be excited. But don't act as if the previous 12 years never happened.

4. Whining NCAA bubble teams. Listen, Minnesota, you lost to Northwestern - you're not allowed in.

5. Kirby Puckett. Say it ain't so.

6. Gino Guidugli. When you're the big man on campus, you're treated differently.

7. Bud Selig. If you're not really gonna say anything concrete about the Pete Rose situation, don't say anything at all.

8. A senior basketball player at Ottawa Hills High in Michigan. Seems he dropped a bag of marijuana on the basketball court - during a game.

9. Riddick Bowe. He was arrested on a domestic violence charge less than a week before he was to begin serving a prison sentence for abducting his first wife and five children.

9. The Iditarod.

10. The judge who turned down the injunction requested by Georgia players so they could play in the SEC and NCAA tournaments. Too bad they couldn't just play for St. Bonaventure.