By BERNIE LINCICOME, Scripps Howard News Service

Around the sports world, some things you suspect, some you guess at and some things you just know:

If the horse with the ugly name -- Big Brown -- happens to win the Preakness Saturday afternoon and then goes on to take the Triple Crown, there will always be the thought that he still killed the filly Eight Belles in the Kentucky Derby.This is not true, of course, but had Big Brown been a gentleman and let the lady pass, things might have turned out differently.

The news that there is no news in the Spygate matter does not keep it from being news. And if only it had something to do with Britney Spears, it would be big news, really big news.As it is, we are reassured that the New England Patriots are cheaters, which we already knew, but not really big cheaters, which we do not have to believe.

From where Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant was to where he is now must be an object lesson to the Denver Nuggets' Carmelo Anthony. None of Anthony's mishaps with the law or with society, nor any of teammate Allen Iverson's come to that, can compare to Bryant, now the Most Valuable Player in basketball.

This does change things about Jay Cutler. It has to. Courage means something else now. Victory and defeat are amended, the one not so great and the other not so awful.As much as Cutler, the Denver Broncos quarterback, would like for us to ignore his condition, it cannot be done. Don't stare at the elephant.

DENVER -- The light pole banners here outside the Pepsi Center urge the Colorado Avalanche, "Play On!" What was meant as a command is now a wish.Backs against the wall, or backs against the boards as it were, is not the ideal place to play hockey. But it does bring clarity to the mission.

DETROIT -- And, so, back to Hockeytown.Well, there are worse places, though the list is short. An active landfill. Reality television. Inside Dick Cheney's head.How, exactly, this became Hockeytown is unclear except the notion goes unchallenged, possibly because everyone else thinks the name is a practical joke that only Detroit does not get.

Reassurance comes from golf, as it often does, that sports is not so bad after all, not just full of drug cheats and sucker punchers, hustlers and self-promoters, though the noise they make drowns out the little moments of genuine honor.

SAN ANTONIO -- This is the greatest place in America for underdogs and there is not a one in sight.Just a few blocks from where March Madness will finally finish -- The Road Ends Here, promise all the banners -- the Alamo squats amid modern clutter, pale, out of place and unimpressive, not at all like the four college basketball teams remaining.

Just to keep from getting carried away, let's remind Tiger Woods that he has not won a Masters in three years, or won one in his 30s or since he has become a father. And here's a statistic you won't find anywhere else: only twice when Easter occurs in March.