Women's basketball recruit was music to their ears

What, you think it's just a song and dance coaching a team with star players named Whitney Houston and Brittany Spears?

"For a while we were recruiting a player from California named Sweets Underwood," Colorado women's basketball assistant Patrick Harrington told The New York Times. "I think if her name was Carrie, we definitely would have signed her."

Top Gun, not

Let's just say that Dany Heatley — the NHL goal-scoring leader who teased the struggling Oilers last summer before signing with the first-place San Jose Sharks — wasn't a popular guy when he played in Edmonton on Friday night.

"This is like running into an ex-girlfriend a month after she dumps you," wrote Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun. "She's holding hands with a Tom Cruise-looking fighter pilot, and you're asking if they'd like fries with that."

Who again?

Coincidence? The Who will perform at halftime of Super Bowl XLIV — just 12 months after "The who?" played the Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII.

Turning Conn air blue

UConn football coach Randy Edsall, whose team stunned Notre Dame last week, says he's learned a lot from just observing Huskies basketball coaching icons Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma.

"Watching Geno, I've been able to pick up some things that he's done," Edsall told AP, then added, smiling, "Watching Jim, I've picked up some new words in my vocabulary."

Lion in wait

"The Lions haven't won two games in a row since Games 7 and 8 in 2007," pointed out Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press after the Lions failed to follow up on their stirring 38-37 victory over the Browns. "Then again, this was only their third chance to do it since then."

Stick to glove songs

Based on his post-bout crooning on stage at Mandalay Bay last month, Manny Pacquiao won't be appearing on "American Idol" anytime soon.

"As much as Manny is paid to fight," wrote Greg Cote of The Miami Herald, "he should be paid twice that to not sing."

Talko time

• Times reader Bill Littlejohn, on Pittsburgh pitcher Ross Ohlendorf spending his offseason as an intern for the U.S. Agriculture Department: "Since he plays for the Pirates, shouldn't it be the Federal Trade Commission?"

• TNT's Kenny Smith, on why Allen Iverson is out of work: "It's hard for him to accept being a guy who is not constructing or building the foundation of a team, and he's basically coming in as an interior designer."

• Montana Tech football coach Bob Green, to Butte's Montana Standard, on his Orediggers' 7-4 season: "If we were D-I we'd be going to the Rold Gold Pretzel Bowl."

• Janice Hough of LeftCoastSportsBabe.com, on the Raiders' shocking upset of the Bengals last week: "For the first time in recent memory, Oakland receivers used their hands more than the French soccer team."

Hue's Who Dept.

The Jets gave rookie QB Mark Sanchez, who's thrown 14 interceptions in his past seven starts, a new set of code words to make his job easier.

The first code word, we assume, is the color of the jerseys he's supposed to be throwing to.

Dwight Perry: dperry@seattletimes.com