Post Kentucky Derby – lean news time in the Toy Department, right? Maybe.

First, a stop in the nut ball and section.

Assaulted within an inch of his sanity by media’s self-righteous, Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling forfeited all hope of being a media martyr last week. How? Opened his mouth. Stepped into the confessional with, of all people, CNN’s self-anointed pope, Anderson Cooper.

California Chrome is thisclose to the Triple Crown. How close? One nasal strip.

A cuckoo bird car dealer and Buffalo Bills fan got his 15 minutes of fame last week by having a dead NFL owner’s face tattoo burned onto his arm. “Some people think I’m crazy,” Jack Meredith told a reporter. “I don’t care. It’s my arm.”

Still, we have the NBA playoffs. They are what they are, mind-numbing and irrelevant.

What intrigue in sports this week?

Maybe the NBA Combine where conversation centered on body fat, vertical jump, size, lift and wing span.

Julius Randle’s wing span is seven feet, but Adreian Payne’s (Michigan State) is 7.4.

Lift? Having seen him play, who’s surprised that ex-Florida center Patric Young bench pressed 185 pounds … 25 times.

Combine Qs:

√ Is James Young one-dimensional?

√ Can Russ Smith’s Combine work move Russdiculous into the NBA draft first round, June 26? He measured at 6-feet tall and 160 pounds. “I can still improve my assist-to-turnover ratio. I can always shoot a better percentage from the field.”

√ And, can Shabazz Napier (UConn) be a teammate or is he a perpetual head case who won’t make it to a second contract before being traded?

GOOD NEWS FILE

Best sports in Kentucky news this week? Two items.

Bluegrass Poll. Before getting to it I confess a bias. Polls are, except to illuminate and stir debate of an issue, a hoax. A behind-the-curtain-wizard stressing the merits of one point-of-view dressed up in vanilla.

This Bluegrass Poll, sponsored by the Lexington Herald-Leader, The Courier-Journal, WKYT-TV and WHAS-TV, was done Wednesday-Friday May 14-16 via telephone by SurveyUSA.

Question: Should state lawmakers provide $80 million in state funds to help renovate Rupp Arena and an attached convention center in Lexington? Or should the city of Lexington find some other way to finance the $351 million project?

Question loaded with verbal IEDs – lawmakers … state funds … finance … million(s).

Then, Lexington Herald-Leader headline: Majority of voters oppose state spending $80 million on Rupp project.

Majority of voters? The telephone survey included 1,782 registered voters interviewed with margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

According to voter registration numbers in Frankfort in 2012, near three million Kentuckians were registered voters – 1.7 million Democrats, more than a million Republicans. Do telephone calls to 1,782 people on week nights with no inclusion of age, geographic location or socio-economic status reflected in results, constitute – “Majority of voters oppose state spending $80 million on Rupp project”?

I don’t think so. Do you?

Still, like many (most?), I find the poll agreeable despite being typically flawed.

Epilogue: The good news is this Bluegrass Poll on this issue is good warning that we ought be skeptical when political parties begin spinning polls at us before the November elections.

‘WE’RE NO. 104!”

Kentucky Wildcats football 2014?

USA’s Paul Meyerberg analysis: Four home games in first six (Tennessee-Martin, Ohio, Vanderbilt and Louisiana-Monroe) are must wins.”

Says here, great-leap-forward opportunities are there for first half – South Carolina in Lexington and Florida. Never mind last time Kentucky defeated the Gators in Gainesville Fran Curci was coach and Mike Shutt the quarterback, 35 years ago, 1979.

Dream season for UK, Meyerberg says would be: (Kentucky’s) young core exceeds expectations a year ahead of schedule, seven wins and a bowl berth.

Nightmare season: Drop from 2-10 to 1-11, beating only Tenn.-Martin.

And so it goes.