Ridger Sports — Cooper, Thompson are stars

Underdog surprises prognosticators

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

— Seniors Kasey Cooper and Cameron Thompson made the 10-man Northwest Arkansas Media Small School All-Star Team in an announcement made this past weekend.

The duo were rewarded for the three years they have been a part of a very successful basketball machine here at Pea Ridge.

Thompson’s inside “hammer” play was the perfect complement to Cooper’s perimeter shooting as the pair gave coach Charley Clarke a great inside/outside game as the Blackhawks recorded perhaps the most successful season in the school’s history.

The ’Hawks piled up 25 wins this season, winning the consolation title at a large school tournament in Rogers, the Southwest Classic Holiday Tournament and the 4A-1 District Tournament. They took second in the Northwest Arkansas Invitational (formerly the Benton County Tournament) as well as the 4A North Region.

Cooper was previously named to the 2011 4A All-State Tournament team and both players were All-District honorees. While ballots have been turned in for the Arkansas Athletic Association’s all-state team, it has yet to be posted or released on the official web site nor has the MaxPrep All-State team, but I suspect that both players will be involved in those honors as well.

It will sure be tough saying good-bye to a couple of players who have plying the hardwoods for the Blackhawks since their early days in elementary school. While their teams have always been competitive, they went out on the highest of notes, making next year’s rendition of ’Hawk Ball having a tough act to follow.

But, if you can recalllast year and the loss then of a number of talented seniors, it was thought by some that the ’Hawks might be down in 2011.

Turns out the prognosticators were all wet as the latest edition of the Pea Ridge Blackhawks are arguably the best ever.

Having said that, there are four underclassmen who gained a lot of experience in starting roles with many others on the cusp of becoming contributors to the cause. The 2012 ’Hawks will be a force to reckon with.

Sportscasters have egg on faces

It’s March Madness, and the madness began even a bit earlier when a lot of TV commentators went off when the NCAA revealed their picks for the 2011 Division I Tournament field.

When Virginia Commonwealth University was selected, many of the sports talking heads just about lost it when discussing the small school from the Colonial Athletic Association. Though sporting a decent 23-11 won-loss record, VCU had no wins against any ranked teams and had a bunch of losses against not very good small schools. They had to defeat George Mason University to get into their conference final where they got beaten.

Sports shows had been talking ad nauseum about which teams were sure to be selected and which teams “might” be selected, as referenced to as “bubble teams.” VCU was mentioned by nobody ashaving so much as a snowballs’ chance in Puerto Rico of getting an invitation. As a matter of fact, the players and coaches at VCU didn’t even have a “selection” party, gatherings at colleges where players sit together and watch the selections announced hoping to hear their team included. VCU was actually hoping to get an NIT bid to keep their season going.

Renowned commentator Dick Vitale called it a “raw deal” when little VCU was chosen while teams like Alabama, the SEC Western Division Champion, were snubbed.

Vitale said “it’s not like a good or bad case can be made for including VCU, you can’t make any kind of case at all.” Vitale pointed out that although his wife knew next to nothing about college basketball, she wouldn’t even think of inviting VCU if presented with the basic facts. One of the Vitale’s co-hosts remarked that “not only does selecting VCU fail the intelligence test, it even fails the laugh test.”

Of course VCU was selected to be one of the four play-in games. That has been where you have to play another team as a part of the tournament with the winner getting a chance to be among the 64 teams in the regular tournament. Usually it means a matchup of small schools with the winner going on to be crushed by another bigger, morelegitimate school. Such as the way things were for VCU when they got their coveted invitation to what some call the biggest televised sports spectacle on earth.

A surprising thing happened though. They upset the favored Southern Cal team in the play in game, then just crushed famedGeorgetown in the “real” first round 74-56. That was followed by a 94-76 pounding of Purdue to get into the round of 16. They fought to a tough 72-71 conquest of Florida State but were heavy underdogs to the top-seeded team left in the tournament, the Kansas Jayhawks. VCO controlled the game for the great majority of the contest, winning 71-61 to earn a trip to the NCAA’s Final Four.

Virginia Commonwealth plowed through representatives from the Big 10, Big 12, Big East, ACC and Pac 10 conferences, leagues that pretty much cover every corner of the United States. If they make the NCAA final, they may play a representative from the only super conference they haven’t upset yet, that being the SEC with Kentucky also in the FinalFour.

What happened? If I were a player on the VCU team and had heard all the trash talking and laughing directed my way, it would have made me determined to show up the critics. I think the biggest boon to VCU’s basketball fortunes this season has been the universal put-downs heaped on them from every source of media. I imagine the VCU coach made good use of “us versus them” mentality in preparing for the tournament.

I think the biggest indicator of success in athletics is how well the athletes are motivated in preparing for a competition.

Ironically, there arenow many prognosticators picking VCU to upset their semi-final foe Butler University. Butler was the VCU of 2010, as they left a string of upsets in their wake last year to make the national championship final where they finally lost. Cinderella teams rarely if ever come back for an encore, but Butler has confounded those experts by making their second Final Four in a row. Now they are in the almost unbelievable situation of being the favored power team playing the upstart nobody team, a role they have owned up until now.

Whoever wins between Butler and VCU will have a lot of folks rooting for them to win it all, as was the case with Butler last season.

Outside the NCAA committee, I guess no one knows what possessed the committee to choose VCU this season. VCU, however, will now be the “told you so” to anyone doubting the wisdom of teams that the NCAA chooses.

Personally, I wonder how they arrived at that particular choice, but no matter. It is what it is, and in this case, it has made an annual lively event even livelier.

Go VCU!

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Editor’s note: 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@ nwaonline.com.

Sports, Pages 7 on 03/30/2011