The top stories of the week from longtime Star columnist Greg Hansen for December 15-21.

St. John's basketball coach Rick Pitino drew a lot of fire last week when he said his team will no longer go through the post-game handshake line with opponents, a college basketball ritual.

"We will take a page out of the NBA playbook and refrain," said Pitino.

His declaration came a few days after I watched 19 UA basketball players, six coaches and some staff members dawdle through the post-game handshake line with UCLA. It was slow and seemed forced. There was little eye contact and almost no meaning.

Does it help civility? I doubt it. Maybe college basketball teams could shake hands before games. It would avoid multiple problems during the upcoming court-stormings that seem unavoidable in Big 12 arenas.

Dig deeper into Arizona Daily Star columnist Greg Hansen's notebook

Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at [email protected]. On X(Twitter): @ghansen711

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