Webber Will Live to Call More Timeouts

Don’t worry about Chris Webber. A psychiatrist says the blunder that might have cost Michigan the NCAA basketball championship could make the 20-year-old Webber a stronger person.

“When there is an error, there is an opportunity for growth,” said Ralph Rubenstein, chief of psychiatry at Detroit’s Hutzel Hospital. “He’s gone through a trial. In crisis therapy, crisis is a danger and a negative. But it’s also an opportunity.

“I think he’ll be bothered by it a little bit. There will be some depression. He could view this as a failure. He could feel he’s let a lot of people down. This may last a few days or a few weeks. But it will be short-lived.”

*

Add Webber: While in Los Angeles for the Wooden Award ceremony, Webber showed he had not lost his sense of humor when he said, “I think I’ll grow long hair and a beard and move out to the California desert and wait for the basketball season to begin.”

*

Trivia time: On what hole did Gene Sarazen sink a 220-yard four-wood shot at Augusta National in 1935 to put the Masters in the national spotlight?

*

Laid-back Brits: Two days after the Grand National steeplechase--the world’s most prestigious horse race--was declared void after a comedy of errors before a worldwide TV audience of 350 million and some 55,000 fans at Aintree, British Prime Minister John Major was moved to comment:

“Someone made a mistake. These things happen from time to time.”

*

Word to the Boss: Letter writer Robert Morgenbesser of Coral Gables, Fla., in a note penned to the Sporting News: “George Steinbrenner has compared owning the New York Yankees with owning the Mona Lisa. Well, George, thanks for spray-painting the Mona Lisa.”

*

Suburban baseball: The Dodgers, Angels and Padres aren’t the only professional baseball teams in Southern California. There are also the San Bernardino Spirit, the High Desert Mavericks of Adelanto, the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, the Riverside Pilots and the Palm Springs Angels, all in the California League. Their season will open next Tuesday.

*

Sportsman award: When the Chicago Bulls visited Miami recently, Scottie Pippen sent a note to the Heat dressing room to remind the team that Chicago had a 19-0 record against the Heat.

“We own you,” was Pippen’s message.

During the game, he taunted Steve Smith and Glen Rice by saying, “This is our gym.”

Sorry Scottie. The Heat won, 97-95.

*

Matter of timing: Jack O’Connell of the Hartford Courant, analyzing the trade that sent Roberto Kelly from the New York Yankees to the Cincinnati Reds for Paul O’Neill: “The luckiest guy in baseball is Roberto Kelly, going from the Yankees while (George) Steinbrenner is coming off the suspended list and (Marge) Schott is going on it.”

*

Different strokes: Fred Couples holds the Tournament Players course record, 64, which was equaled by Angelo Spagnola-- on one hole . Spagnola took a 64 on the No. 17 island hole. After finding it impossible to reach the hole with an iron shot, Spagnola putted his ball around the side of the lake and up the cart path to the green.

*

Solid footing: Mark Henry, the U.S. weightlifting champion, wears a size 16-EEE shoe.

*

Trivia answer: No. 15, a 485-yard par five.

*

Quotebook: Former Celtic star Tom Heinsohn on the NBA playoffs: “They go on and on and on, like a guy telling a bad joke for 15 minutes.”

--SHAV GLICK