Huskerland Bob's Boys State Tournament Thursday Review

It’s fair to say Thursday at the ol’ boys state basketball tournament had a little bit of everything.

We start with the day’s most anticipated venue, the C-1 at Devaney, where there were few surprising outcomes and only one near-miss.

Top seed Omaha Concordia (25-2) overpowered Malcolm (19-8) and it wasn’t just because the Clippers (like most everybody else) had no answer for the gentle giant, Quientan McCafferty, who finished with 18. Concordia reminded me a lot of Lincoln Lutheran the day before, a team filled with good shooters who were on that day. Play like that, and you win three games this weekend.

This just in, Wahoo won a state tournament game. That huge sigh of relief you heard emanating from the center of Saunders County - and you could hear it all the way to PBA - was the result of having the Warriors advance after back-to-back years of back breaking first-round losses. As they say, Warriors better than that, and they were able to dismiss an Ogallala team that played a lot of great basketball without one of its best players, senior Harry Caskey.

I’ll save you looking, Concordia and Wahoo have not yet met this season. As I floated yesterday as I doddled about Devaney, wouldn’t it be something if this is the Wahoo team that gets it done. One step closer, but the next one is a doozy.

Let’s get this out of the way - Doniphan-Trumbull has a really good, skilled basketball team. What it doesn’t have is the bulk and ability to grind down an opponent the way two-time defending state champion Ashland-Greenwood did to them yesterday. The Cardinals never back away from the plate, but anytime they made a play or two Dane Jacobsen Happened. The team’s senior leader was never better, or more clutch, than yesterday with his 24 well-timed points, some of them early to set the mood, some late from the line to reach over and turn out the lights.

That left Auburn. And Douglas County West for that matter. No way you come into a state tournament game facing a five-time state finalist and expect to be the favorite, so DC West settled for being that yappy, ankle biting pup that just won’t stop, you know, biting your ankle. Until you are out of time outs and Auburn’s senior all-state guard Mav Binder makes two free throws to make it a four-point game, basically rapping the pup across the nose with the morning paper.

You can’t help but admire all the greatness that DC West boys sports have yielded so far this school year but in the biggest moment on the biggest stage you saw how a champion closes things out. Congrats on both teams for a well played, fun game to watch.

That means its Ashland-Greenwood and Auburn this morning at 10:45. This is another game that, geographically speaking, seems like a pretty easy one to get on your scheduled but aren’t you glad they didn’t? I am. It adds even more juice to what figures to be juicier than biting into a ripe piece of watermelon on a hot July afternoon. (And after this morning’s weather, doesn’t that sound lovely?) A-G is the champ until somebody beats them...will it be this morning?

* Another of our top seeds wasn’t so lucky as to advance, as North Platte St. Pat’s in Class D-1 fell to No. 8 Guardian Angels Central Catholic, in a nightmare match-up, getting the tradition rich Bluejays at 9 o’clock in the morning on the first day of the tournament. No excuses, it was 9 o’clock for both teams, and GACC proved to be what everybody in the building knew going into the game, which was much better than its record. Good size, plenty of skill, and a hero in Myles Dinslage, who hit the game winner at the buzzer. Myles Dinslage, lifetime GACC hero, and his teammate Konnor Kralik had the look of one of bracket’s best players. GACC will be tough to beat this morning at 9 when it faces Ainsworth. (with some guy named Duane Mendlik as an assistant coach...that’s some sort of assistant coach, Bryan Mendlik...)

You know, Carter Nelson’s Team? Home of the world famous party bus? (which made the trip to Lincoln...excellent call, gentlemen) Thing is, it is also the team of Trey Appelt and Traegen McNally, who had 21 and 13 points respectively, if not nearly as many postgame interviews. You saw it for yourself, that’s an athletic team in more ways than one and remember, Ainsworth has a state championship history so the program knows how its done. Thing is, GACC, West Point Central Catholic in another lifetime, has also been around the state tournament block, many times, and just might have the answers. One of my favorite games of the day, Harold.

Undefeated defending state champion Johnson-Brock stay that way, burying Riverside by 20, while No. 6 Plainview pulled a 47-43 upset of No. 3 Ansley/Litchfield. J-B figures to have its way today and will be very hard to beat the next two days. Very.

* And then there was Class B, where another undefeated team, 27-0 Crete, beat No. 8 Platteview, 43-30. In the pregame I had a chance to share a moment with the Crete team - that is an impressive group of athletes - and also with my favorite tennis player of all time, defending state champion Aidan McDowell, who also happens to be the leader of the pack at Crete. Great kid, enjoyed our interview a few weeks back, glad for the successes shared by he and his team.

In the second game things got out of hand, but not so much on the floor. Skutt Catholic proved its state tournament mettle with a surging fourth quarter on a night where 6-foot-8 senior George Ziebell should have been the story on a night where he scored 19 points and 10 rebounds. It will be a night that gives George a lifetime memory because, as you see, the kid came into the game averaging only six points and five rebounds per game. Good for you George, that explains the big smile after the game...

George also got another lifetime memory, and not necessarily the good kind. By now many of your know a fight - like, a legit fight - broke out between grown men in the Skutt cheering section. That it happened at all is reprehensible, that it happened at the state tournament meant there were more eyes, more people with a first-hand look. I will save the speech, but anybody who has gone to any kind of high school (or junior high, or elementary) sporting competition here lately knows what happens in the stands, only this time it came down to a matter of blows.

I know what the NSAA is doing with its pregame announcement honoring officials - if you are an official, rise and be applauded! - but it almost immediately rings hollow once the game begins. They are right about one part with that announcement, the part where there are no games without officials and we should be thankful these men and women are willing to put up with so much nonsense, but once the games begin you also find out who the adults in the room are. Guess I was wrong, I didn’t save the speech...

In the final two Class B games of the day Norris, the team I think has the best chance to beat Crete, barely survived Bennington, 61-56 in overtime, while No. 3 Scottsbluff scored the final 11 points of the game to put Omaha Roncalli in the corner. Sometimes just winning, barely, does a team more good than winning in a rout - Norris had already beaten Bennington twice, by 28 and by 9 - so that could work in the Titans favor. Scottsbluff’s was a gutsy win in a battle of state championship programs, bringing basketball back into the state basketball tournament.