When I think of Ord greatness a couple of things come to mind.

Oh, the default answers are Doug Duda and Reggie Senior, and I supposed you need to mix in Jeff Quinn, right? But do you recall the most famous reindeer - or in this instance Chanticleer - of them all? Tough to be at the resume of Mr. Al Zikmund. (Psst...Duda is killing it on our Twitter poll...)

For 32 years, through the 1987 school term, Zikmund was the football coach and then athletic director at what would have been my college alma mater, Kearney State College, if only I’d finished that last three years. Before that he was a football star for the Huskers, playing in the 1941 Rose Bowl. And before that he was an Ord Chanticleer, which might be his greatest achievement, if you ask Reggie Senior.

Either that or being named to both the UNL and UNK halls of fame, that would also be right up there.

I did not know Mr. Zikmund personally but I know plenty of people who did, and some that worked with him or played for him. He is as universally a respected man and there are few higher compliments in this world.

There are also few real giants in the world of Nebraska sports but Al Zikmund was certainly one of them. He died earlier today at Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney at the age of 95. R.I.P., Mr. Zikmund.

* Rough weekend for the undefeated among us as the boys basketball teams from Lincoln East, York and Paxton all suffered their first losses of the season, York and Paxton falling in their conference tournament finals. All three of those formerly unbeaten boys teams could wind up in state finals, they are that good.

(I’ll save you looking: that leaves only O’Neill in Class C-1 and Kenesaw and Heartland in Class D-1 as the only unbeaten boys basketball teams in the state. Further FYI, Mitchell and Ord in Class C-1 and defending state champion Falls City Sacred Heart in Class D-2 are the only unbeaten girls basketball teams.)

Aurora is hitting full stride and has some star power with senior Henry Penner and junior point guard Baylor Scheierman as good a 1-2 combo as you will find in Class B. Lincoln East has proven to be an outstanding team that happened to get beat by another outstanding team, Millard South, one that features a star of its own in senior guard Kyle Perry. And Paxton, with all that tradition an added dose of size in 2018, flat got beat by an athletic bunch from Cambridge that is capable of being a serious postseason Cinderella.

Class B boys basketball is always a lot of fun but this time around it may be even harder to sort the herd. Two-time defending state champion Gretna ain’t going nowhere, though having the Dragons upset by Norris, and by 15 points no less, was a bit of a stunner. Aurora’s win over York only enhanced the Huskies’ already healthy stock while York won’t wilt after losing one game. Those kids are winners and will be making their own noise in the postseason.

Platteview gets dinged for playing a mostly Class C schedule, that’s fair, but the Trojans have now beaten Wahoo twice, and took Gretna and York into overtime. That’s got to be worth something. (It is.) Bennington not only showed some guts and a will to win in its triple-overtime win over Norris in the Eastern Midlands Conference, plus it is a deep team with some star power of its own (take a bow, Cooper Prososki and Karson Gansebom). Don’t discount the Badgers.

Lots of basketball yet to play but tracking that Class B chase will be fun until second Saturday in March.

* Speaking of Bennington basketball, Badgers head coach Luke Olson and his brother Nate Olson, the head coach at Broken Bow, both won conference titles over the weekend, Nate’s crew winning the Southwest title. They are sons of Norfolk head football coach Tom Olson, who reportedly spent the weekend chasing around youth basketball. Good choice, Coach.

* At Broken Bow 53 turns out to be the basketball program’s favorite number. Both the boys and girls scored 53 points in their SWC title game wins, and in both cases that was just enough; the boys beat Cozad by two in overtime, the girls beat Minden by one.

* Back to Platteview, both the boys and girls teams won Nebraska Capitol Conference titles last weekend, both of them beating Wahoo. This is a golden era for Platteview basketball, no doubt...

* You want to measure yourself as a Class C contender, you play in the Centennial Conference tournament and see how it goes. Went pretty darn well for our friends at Hastings St. Cecilia, as their teams swept the tournament titles.

The St. Cecilia boys are so skilled and athletic, and really lit it up against a stout GI Central Catholic defense in the final. As for the Hawkettes, there are so many of them, so many of them who can play and play well. That depth will play well, too, at state.

* Shout out to my alma mater, as the South Loup boys won the MNAC tournament, with the girls coming up just short against Ansley/Litchfield in the girls final, 36-35. Again, it was great to get back to Arnold last week to see all three of those teams play, lots of good athletes on all three squads.

But that was last week. This week we have another 10 (by my count) conference tournaments. Can’t wait to see what fun these next few days have in store...