It's Hoops Time, Baby!

Tonight is the beginning of college basketball season, as it is the first day schools are allowed by the NCAA to conduct practice.

The NBA is currently in its exhibition season, playing in places such as London and LaCrosse, and playing teams from places such as Greece and Israel.

This means one thing: It's basketball season!

The author of this blog has been spending weekdays during the last two months in the Hartford, CT-Springfield, MA area on a project for work. Springfield is best known as the birthplace of basketball, and the home of the Basketball Hall of Fame.


I have not been able to visit the Hall of Fame, as it closes at 4 pm during the week, and I have not been there on a weekend. However, I took some pictures of the outside. The Hall of Fame moved into new quarters about five years ago.

Welcome back, hoops!

A Good Story

A good friend of mine has recently become a newspaper editor in western Nebraska. I was scoping out his paper's website yesterday, and came across a great achievement.

I do not keep up with high school girls basketball. I know of a handful of good teams in Texas, mostly at the class 5A level. I do remember, though, from my days in Oklahoma, that the best show is at small school tournaments, especially the state tournament. The small school tournaments there are the best attended, and the passion for hoops is greatest in tiny communities where there is nothing else.

Sioux County High School is located in Harrison, Nebraska (population 279), in the far northwest corner of the state, near the borders of Wyoming and South Dakota. It is 48 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart. According to the Nebraska School Activities Association, Sioux County is the second-smallest school in the state, with an average attendance of 24. The school's website shows 30 students. There are 16 girls in the school, and 12 play basketball.

Last night, the Sioux County Warriors qualified for their first ever girls state tournament, defeating Maywood by a score of 43-32. They now advance to next week's state tournament in Lincoln. I know nothing about Nebraska girls basketball, but I wish them well.

The Warriors now get to ride a big yellow school bus 503 miles to Lincoln (according to Mapquest). I don't think they'll mind. If they're lucky, maybe someone could spring for a charter, or at least a nice minibus. Either way, it's a really, really big deal.

The Ming Ming Dynasty

Sun Ming Ming is the tallest player in professional basketball. He is 7'9", and makes his debut tonight for the Maryland Nighthawks of the American Basketball Association. Ming Ming is best known for his fight with a brain tumor attached to his pituitary gland, which caused his massive growth, but robbed him of speed and stamina, and caused a loss of testosterone. He had surgery to remove the tumor last year, and is now working toward his goal of an NBA career.

Ming-Ming Duckling is one of the Wonder Pets, the new hit show on Nick Jr. Ming-Ming and her friends Linny the guinea pig and Tuck the turtle are classroom pets that rescue baby animals outside school hours, and sing their lines opera-style. Ming-Ming, like Elmer Fudd before her, cannot pronounce her "R's" or "L's". Her signature line is: "This is sewious". From everything I've seen and heard, adults find the show funny, while small children find it entertaining.

This is the making of another Ming dynasty.