I’ve been following the Beech Grove and Southport high school teams, and the University of Indianapolis and Marian University men’s and women’s teams have also been fun to watch. Besides those teams, there are some good tournament games on television.
Last week I attended three sessions of the Southport Sectional and one session at Beech Grove. I enjoy watching these games. It is a blast to visit with good friends and sometimes reconnect with those whom I haven’t seen for a long time. It doesn’t matter whether it is a smile and wave or sitting down and chatting for a while.
Saturday afternoon I attended the opening two games of the Southport Regional. I walked in behind Dr. Marvin Christie, who’s a good friend of mine, and we visited for a minute. He quickly pointed out that he was wearing his Southport letter sweater, which he earned while playing on the basketball team that won its sectional title 69 years ago. I was so shocked by the time frame that I didn’t catch anything else that was said until he explained that it took him about two hours to wiggle into that sweater.
We found ourselves some seats in the area that is set aside for alumni during the regular-season games. The first contest between Terre Haute South and North Central was a high-scoring contest, which Terre Haute won 94-82. Southport’s game with Connersville was a low-scoring struggle, and the Cards prevailed 42-35.
Dr. Christie introduced me to several of his friends, and I had the pleasure of reconnecting with some former classmates and neighbors.
My wife, Lyn, and I were informed about a Southport alumni group getting together at the Longacre Bar and Grill after the game. We met up with some of my former high school classmates and several other people and had a wonderful afternoon.
Our good friend Ted Lobdell along with the ladies operating the bar did a wonderful job putting together a special afternoon. Judy Tout-Snyder, Sharon Darko-David and Jack Hammond-Leathers and hubby Gary sat with Lyn and me. We really enjoyed the afternoon at my “old house.” (The building was my house when I was growing up.)
When I got home I checked the score of the lady Knights’ game and was surprised to see that they had knocked off the defending NAIA champion and No. 1 Morningside College 76-69 in quarterfinals of the national tournament. Marian continued its winning ways Monday night in the semifinals and advanced to play Southern Oregon in Tuesday’s championship game.
The men’s team from UIndy also won, defeating Ashland 77-60, and the Greyhounds played Ferris State Tuesday night. The results of both games were unavailable at press time.
Later, Lyn and I decided that we would stay home and watch the final game of the Southport Regional on TV. A while back we wired a couple of our TVs to an air antenna. We found that we could watch the game using that antenna.
What a game it was as the Cardinals pummeled Terre Haute South 74-44. Next up for No. 9 Southport is No. 1 New Albany in semistate action at 3 p.m. Saturday in Richmond.
And with the NCAA tournament getting underway, this is going to be a special week in basketball.