Ridger Sports - Hoosiers II just not in the cards

— Though I am a sports fan in general, the TV games that I tend to watch nearly always involve teams that I have a personal interest in. For that reason, I haven’t watched too many NCAA basketball championships as there is always something I need to be doing (just ask my wife). I am usually working on a newspaper story or a school-related project.

The Butler University run through the NCAA’s intrigued me, especially after they shot just 30 percent from the field against Michigan State but still managed to win in the semi-finals. They actually made the NCAA final, something considered just about nearly impossible.

For that reason alone I just had to watch the final.

The game just ended, Butler had two great chances at a last second win but both shots came up short. With 4 seconds left, a fall away jumper hit inside the rim then bounced out. The ensuing rebound led to a foul on Butler with Duke making the first but missing the second attempt. A Butler shot at half court as time was expiring again hit the inside of the rim, but again bounced out, giving Duke the final victory.

Who is Butler? Butler was founded in 1855 by Ovid Butler, a noted abolitionist in Indianapolis. It remains a private, liberal arts university producing large numbers of educators, lawyers and doctors with a 96 percent job placement record. One hundred percent of its basketball players graduate and of the 15 member NCAA National Academic All-American list recently announced, two of the athletes were on Butler’s basketball team.

Watching the game, I was impressed with the obvious teamwork employed by their team. They contested every shot, every pass, every play and every rebound. They again suffered a subpar shooting night, but still came within one field goal of taking the prize. They played my favorite brand of basketball,pedal to the metal, leave out all the stops, play like their hair was on fire.

But what impressed me most about the Butler team was that on this day, their day of possible greatness, their day of national and worldwide recognition, Butler players who had regular classes scheduled for today attended classes.

I wish they would have won. It was the classic “big school vs. little school” battle. Had they won the game, you could almost see the movie trailers of the future .... “Hoosiers II.”

The Duke and Butler schools are both private schools, although Duke is by far the bigger and more well funded university.

Recent statistics were cited to show that Duke expends something like $300,000 for every player on the Duke roster while the Butler expenses for their whole team is somewhat less than that.

The last time private schools made the finals together was in 1985 when Georgetown played Villanova. I have only watched the NCAA championship game four times in my life. The 1994, 1995 games involving Arkansas, the ’85 game, and of course, this year’s game. It was a great game.

Did someone steal my idea?

Either someone stole my idea or I was just a little late in moving.

Last week, I talked about the plethora of collegiate basketball teams playing in the various post season tournaments. First you have the NCAA tourney with 65 teams, then the NIT with 32 squads, then the CBI with 16 roundball teams. I had an idea then that maybe I could organize something for the poor teams not fortunate enough to be among the top 113 teams in the land.

You know how it is when you get a good idea then days later you find someone else has coopted your brilliant-ness.

Well, last Friday, someone on the NCAA board let it slip that this year was the last year for the 65 team format. They are going to add 32 more teams to the NCAA basketball championships in 2011, pretty much taking all the teams that would have played in the NIT. The NIT will in turn take teams that would have gone to the CBI, who will then have to convince still lower ranked marginally successful teams to play in their postseason.

Of course, the NCAA will proclaim that this is only about expanding opportunities for member schools, but it is really about making more money. More games, more TV, more revenue hence more money.

When Arkansas went from a five classification athletics system to a seven class one, much was said then about “expanding athletic opportunity.” Of course, adding all those playoff games and all these extra championship games has provided quite an infusion of extra revenue to the state’s governing body of athletics.

Although I am not opposed to the extra divisions or adding more qualifiers to tournaments, I do wonder where it will all end.

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John McGee is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The TIMES. He can be contacted through The Times at prtnews@ nwanews.com.

Sports, Pages 8 on 04/07/2010