Some basketball notes

I'm not a huge fan of basketball -- I can't remember when I last watched a whole game, and I haven't filled out a tournament bracket in nearly 10 years -- but there are some things that caught a little of my interest this time around.



Boston University, my alma mater, is in, in the traditional America East 16th-seed sacrificial lamb role against Cincinnati. In an even less enviable position is Siena, who had to win a play-in game Wednesday(?) to win the right to get their asses handed to them by Maryland tonight. Why is Siena worth mentioning? In my freshman year of college, Siena beat BU by one point to win the conference championship and NCAA berth -- in front of an empty arena. This was during one of the measles outbreaks that quarantined various North Atlantic Conference and Hockey East events during my time in school. I remember being home for spring break and tuning in (the game was on my birthday, as it turns out) for this strange event.



Moving on to Division III, this weekend's Final Four includes -- Carthage College, the school I was once Sports Information Director for, back when I thought working 60-plus hours a week for $19.5K was a nifty dream job. The Redmen (yes, that's still their nickname; Carthage is apparently the only school to change their nickname to something more PC, then change it back) are 27-1; an astounding figure but even more so to me, because the men were 3-21 when I was there. In 1997 they hired Bosko Djurikovic away from conference rival North Park, who had guided that school to some D3 titles in the late 80s. If they win their semifinal game, they will be the most successful Carthage team ever. The baseball team has gone to the D3 World Series a few times, but never placed higher than third.



Finally, my high school team, Minneapolis North Community HS, won its sectional and is off to state, beating St. Paul's Cretin-Derham Hall (why they still insist on calling themselves Cretin is beyond me) by a point. And sure enough, Minneapolis is experiencing its annual state-tournament winter storm, but I digress. I went to an inner-city high school; basketball was (and is) the big sport, but they never could get it done when I was there, usually losing to suburban teams either in the state finals or the sectional finals. They started winning a few years ago thanks to a trio led by Khalid El-Amin, later to win an NCAA championship with UConn (before playing with the Bulls for a season). I went to one championship game maybe five years ago, when Minnesota was in a one-class tournament system. They pounded on some Iron Range school -- it was like Hoosiers in reverse. Now Minnesota's in this weird four-class system where North and Henry, its closest rival and a better team, are conference opponents, but when state rolls around they are in different classes.