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| NAIA spells fun weekend of hoops |
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| Opinion | |||
| Written by Jean Carder | |||
| Wednesday, 25 March 2009 08:00 | |||
A long weekend calls for a short column, and that’s what I think I’ll serve up this week. It was a long weekend in the Carder household as we took in 5 days of National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics basketball action at Municipal Auditorium in the past week. Drew’s favorite team, Robert Morris College out of Chicago, played in the 4:30 game last Wednesday afternoon. The boys picked me up at work in Lenexa and off we went to the games. We caught two games that night. Doug and Drew spent the entire day there Thursday and Friday. I joined them after work Thursday. Then the three of us were back for the four games Saturday.Doug’s team, Azusa Pacific, bowed out in the first round Thursday, but Drew’s team was still playing Monday evening. Since they had the early game Monday night, I decided we could make that game and be home before it got too late. Unfortunately, Robert Morris lost to Rocky Mountain College out of Montana. We did get to see several “local” teams in action over the weekend. William Jewell won its first game but lost in the second round. Two other Missouri teams, Central Methodist and Columbia College, also made the tourney. Central Methodist was knocked out Saturday, but Columbia played the local favorite, MidAmerica Nazarene University from Olathe, in the late game Monday night. I’m sure the NAIA folks were happy to have so many local teams and local fans at the games. I’ve never seen Municipal that full in the five years we’ve been going to the tourney. It’s also fun to sit around and talk to the other fans. One guy we talked to Saturday has been coming to the tourney for 35 years. He remembers when our alma mater, Fort Hays State University, won the tourney back in the 1980s. He’s a real fan. He can even remember some of the FHSU players such as Edgar Eason, Nate Rollins, Robert Lee and others. I also met the father of the Robert Morris coach. I saw an older couple sitting near us, and the man wore a cap with RMC on the back. I stopped and asked if he was a Robert Morris fan. He said he sure was and pointed to the coach. “That’s my son,” he said with obvious pride. I made sure to stop and visit with them during all the rest of the Eagles games. The tournament is billed as college basketball’s toughest tournament. It features 32 teams playing 31 games in five days. Although it’s rough on the players, I think it might be rougher on the fans who attend all those games in five days. Talk about bleacher butt. But the Carders are game.
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