February Madness: The Union College Basketball Tournament

The 2010 Mid America Union Basketball tournament is over. It's bittersweet for a couple reasons. One reason is that it's over. This tournament is like Christmas to me. Right now I feel like I usually do on Christmas day at around five in the afternoon. The excitment was there in the morning and it was great to open all of those presents but now I have to wait an entire year for it to come again. Another reason it's bittersweet is because only two teams are goin home happy today. There are lots of kids walking around wondering "what if". As usual this tournament was great. As I was sitting watching the awards ceremony I thought about all of the previous award ceremonies that I had sat through. For some reason they all feel oddly the same. The ceremony is the same. The feelings are the same. The odd mixture of excitment and nerves. I think what makes this tournament great is the consistency that it has from year to year. Shout outs to Rick Spaulding. Now I will attempt to break down the the tournament day by day.

Wednesday
The opening day of the tournament is always exciting and sometimes a little misleading. Some teams come into the tourament playing awesome and end not so awesome. The mark of a good team is a team that comes into the tournament playing well but playing it's best come Sunday morning. There were two big games on the guys side on Wednesday and one on the girls. The Midland lady Mustangs faced off against the Eagles from College View in the afternoon. Midland ladies played very well against Campion and beat them with the help of Lindsey Maddux's great shooting and Kirbi Yelorda's excellent defense.
The first big guys game was between Midland and Campion. These teams usually don't meet until thursday morning and this would have helped Campion on Wednesday night. Campion came out flat. One of the worst feelings is walking off the bus and onto the court. I usually like to be at the game site at least an hour and a half before tip. This gives you some time to think about what your game plan is and focus. Campion's bus broke down for a while so they showed up at th Eagle's nest 40 minutes before the game. It was another classic Midland Campion show down. Midland came out with a two point victory behind Braden Frishman's play down the stretch.
The nightcap was CVA vs "The Wood". This game had recived a lot of hype because the best player from CVA T Chut was playing against his brother that goes to Maplewood. It was actually televised locally here in Lincoln. Another reason this game was getting a lot of attention was that many experts had picked Maplewood and CVA to meet in the championship game. An excellent game. T and Ross Buck played their game and CVA squeaked out a three point win. The last shot in this game was posted earlier.

Thursday
There were also three big games on Thursday. The matchup that everyone was waiting to see was CVA vs Campion. Campion played excellent defense. The game came down to the last 4 mintues when CVA made a run. Campion held them off to win a very physical game. The refs really let the boys play in this one. People were calling this an upset because of the games on Wednesday. The next two big games belonged to the biggest rivalry in the Mid America Union. Midland and Maplewood are the Yankees and Redsox of the midwest academies. Actually it's probably more like the Cubs and the Cardinals. These teams always seem to play each other tough but one always seems to get the victory. The Midland boys got out to an early lead and held off Maplewood at around ten points for the whole game. The girls game was a different story. Maplewood came out blazing and hitting everything. Their defense was suffocating the lady Mustangs. This is the least amount of points I have seen Midland have in the 3rd quarter of all time. They had 4 points. Midland put on a furious comeback but the Husky D stood tough and Maplewood avenged there championship game loss from 2009.

Friday
The way it goes at this tournament is by Friday all the good games have already been played. Campion beat Maplewood in a game that wasn't that close. The Maplewood girls beat Campion in defensive game. College View beat Minnetonka to set up their seeding for the Saturday night tournament.

Saturday Night
This is always the worst night of Basketball of the tournament. Low seeds playing high seeds. This year was no different. The best game is usually the 8:30 thunderdome game of lowest upper bracket team vs highest lower bracket team (I know I don't even get that last sentence). This year Mile High played CVA. Not close or interesting.

Sunday Morning (Big players make big plays in big games)
Sunday morning is where the champions and legends are made. At 8:45 Midland played the role of the Patriots and Maplewood played the role of the Colts keeping Maplewood from the championship game. Leif Ellstrom missed a good look at a layup to tie the game as time ran out. I was talking with a Maplewood Alumni when I compared the Huskies to the Vikings. Here is what he said "It's Minnesota man". Point taken. Down at CVA Campion took care of CVA with a 20 point victory. I guess I was wrong about a CVA-Maplewood championship. Both of those teams played very hard. I expect them to be in the hunt for the next couple of years. On the girls side the table was set for a Midland-Maplewood championship game just like last year.

Championship games.
The boys championship was the first time Midland has met up with Campion in the championship since 2003. Campion came out of the gate strong and it took till the 3rd quarter before Midland brought it to a one point game. They could not get over the hump and Campion rode Alex Plank and team defense to a six point win. The first post Michael Beans championship. Midland played tough and took some good shots. Not enough of them fell down the stretch.
In the Eagle's Nest Midland came out early and took a 15-11 lead into halftime. In the second half Kirbi and Shawntee led Midland to their third championship in four years. The Maplewood girls played tough but it just wasn't their day.

Analysis:
Something I have been noticing is that throughout the years the scores have been getting lower and lower. Today's boys championship was played in the thirties. The girls was as well. Either the defense that is being taught has gotten 10 times better or the talent in our Union is dwindling. If you are reading this and you are in high school why don't you put the computer down and hit the drive way for some mid range jumper practice (actually read the whole thing and then read the rest of my blog to see the hottest celebrity gossip in Lincoln Nebraska!)It seems like every year I sit down with Buell and we discuss how it used to be. This isn't cause we are both old (he's old). It's because the play has come down (You my boy Buell). Hopefully in the upcoming years the talent will come back and we will be sending kids to play D1 basketball (and then have them quit because of the Sabbath).
This decade started off just like the last decade did with the Campion boys and Midland girls as champions of the tournament. If you add up all the championships that the schools have Campion has 9 and Midland has 7. The two constants of this tournament over the last eleven years are the Campion Boys and the Midland Girls. Troy Bean's program is the example that all good programs would like to be like. They play tough. They play as a team. They get better throughout the tournament. There are three years that Campion hasn't won the tournament 02 (holla atcha boi) 04, and 09. That's ridiculous and unfair. Share the wealth Beans! The Midland girls have been through a few coaching changes through the last eleven years but they always seem to be winning or at least in the championship game. Since Richard Paradise took over head coaching duties they have been in four straight championship games winning three of them (Gutknecht!) Think about this, Paradise has not ever brought a team to a tournament in which they didn't play in the championship game. If this decade is going to be any different from the last one teams are going to have to stop bringing kool aid because the Union Tournament is most definately a grown man's party. It was a great tournament and I can't wait for next year!