Some quick hits concerning some an interesting weekend of basketball:
HENDRIX'S LAUNCHING PAD: When Hendrix hosted the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament, it provided a springboard for some significant achievements.
Oglethorpe's women, which took out two well-respected teams, Maryville and Mary Hardin-Baylor, in early rounds, have reached the NCAA Division III final round of four. Millsaps' men, who were impressive in the SCAC tournament and ended a 25-game winning streak by Centre College, have reached the same stage in the men's tournament. And DePauw's women, the defending DIII champion who won the tourney at Hendrix, just missed the women's semifinals after an 83-80 loss to Wisconsin-Whitewater in a regional semifinal.
Hendrix's women took Oglethorpe to overtime before losing in the SCAC first round. Hendrix's men took Millsaps to the final minutes before losing in the SCAC semifinals.
We had some of the best Division III basketball available, both men and women, right in our backyard. And the tournament will be back next year, possibly with another national champion.
THE SEC SITUATION: It was discouraging to see only a small group of fans in Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Coliseum, where the SEC tourney was moved for the final two rounds and limited to school officials, spirit groups and families. The limits were imposed by SEC officials, who, scrambling at the last minute, were trying to do the fairest and most efficient process when the tourney was moved to a venue with much less capacity.
We don't the details of the logistics, but another fair method might have been to make about 8,500 seats available, first-come, first-serve, for fans who in possession of valid SEC tourney tickets. That would, of course, mean opening the arena doors and having ticket officials in place two or three hours before the first game Saturday morning.
If I'm a fan who has shelled out a lot of money for travel, meals, hotel, etc., to get to the tourney, I would have liked to have had the option of rushing to Georgia Tech, enduring a few logistical problems and waiting in line a couple of hours to get in the game. Most people understand waiting and first-come, first-serve. Many people have done that for concert tickets.
In the SEC's defense, it's officials were in unchartered territory, had to make decisions on the fly in the wee hours of the morning after and long day and they might not have been able to get the personnel and the arena logistics in place to accommodate that. They probably did the best they could to make the best of almost an impossible situation. It just looked weird.
REAL BULLDOGS: It was an amazing display of spunk and heart by the Georgia Bulldogs to win four games in three days, including defeated three NCAA tourney teams (Kentucky, Mississippi State and Arkansas) to win the tournament. Running on adrenaline and destiny, it seems the Bulldogs, who had to win the tourney to get in the field, defeated the Razorbacks in the title game simply because they wanted it more.
WHOOPS: According to the final NCAA RPI rankings, released last weekend, the University of Central Arkansas (281 RPI) was initially shown with a 10-16 record instead of 14-16, an easy typo in processing data. That didn't matter for the Bears, who were ineligible for postseason because of NCAA transition. And Stephen F. Austin, which lost in the Southland tourney semifinals, dropped from a 45 to 50 (as it had been much of the season) to 64. The Lumberjacks won 26 games, defeated Oklahoma and didn't even get close to the bubble. And Texas-Arlington, whom UCA defeated earlier in the season, makes the field as a 16 seed and is expected to be first-round fodder for the University of Memphis, the second-ranked No. 1 seed. Basically, that means UTA was ranked 63 out of the 65 teams selected for the tourney.
MERRY MARION: The first rounds of the South Regional at Alltel Arena in North Little Rock contained quiet a treat for Alltel Arena manager Michael Marion, who has worked diligently with his staff to bring a variety of top-notch events to central Arkansas. An NCAA sub-regional is one of the crowning achievements. Mississippi State is among the eight teams in the regional. Marion is a proud Mississippi State alumnus.
(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)
