With all due respect to the great John Cougar Mellencamp, here’s a little ditty about girls state basketball.

We start with a quick look ahead to what I view as some of the most fascinating of today’s games:

Class B (at Pinnacle Bank Arena)

3:15 p.m. No. 4 Bennington (21-4) v. No. 5 Sidney (22-4). Bennington’s only loss since January has come against No. 1 Skutt while Sidney, last year’s C-1 state runner-up, took advantage of its wild card to win a district title. You can almost smell the chocolate chip cookies, can’t you?

6 p.m. No. 2 Lincoln Pius X (22-4) v. Gretna East (18-6). I like Pius to make the final but Gretna East, young and hungry, is no team to trifle with, especially in the opening round.

Class C-2 (at Devaney Center)

10:45 a.m. No. 4 Elkhorn Valley (26-0) v. No. 5 Cross County (24-2). Weirdly enough these two teams, with a combined record of 50-2, are not only paired in the first round but also seem, in the eyes of many I spoke with yesterday, but also have something to prove. I do know this, EV coach Brendan Dittmer, the pride of Clarks, Nebraska, has won state before, they still talk about it at the co-op.

1:30 p.m. No. 2 Crofton (23-3) v. No. 7 Yutan (18-6). If this looks familiar it’s because it is a rematch of last year’s C-2 state final, emphatically won by underdog Yutan. The Chieftains have used the same formula this season - take your lumps in the regular season to prepare yourself to be at warp speed come the postseason - but then again I don’t know an Allen yet who doesn’t have a long memory.

3:15 p.m. No. 3 Oakland-Craig (23-3) v. No. 6 Homer (24-2). One of the happiest state titles I can ever remember being won in the Huskerland era was Homer’s in 2011. This is the program’s best team since, even as a wild card, and it will be great to see the girls playing on the same floor where their head coach, Merlyn Tremayne, helped his own high school team (1976 Walthill) to a state runner-up finish. (PS - that is a long way to go to mention Roger Biltfoft’s name, since he and his Nelson High crew beat Walthill that day, a team that also included Jay Bellar, Jeff Bellar, George Loofe among other elites. And I was there that day, a high school senior at dear old Arnold High.)

Oh yeah, The O-C. The Knights are certainly good enough to win this whole thing, hoping my girl Adi Rennerfeldt comes up big today.

Class D-2

10:45 a.m. No. 4 Dorchester (23-2) v. No. 6 Silver Lake (21-4). Just a great game between two programs with limited (and I mean limited) state tournament experience. The Dorchester story has been one of my favorites this year, hoping both teams play with the confidence and flair that got them here in the first place.

7:45 p.m. No. 2 St. Mary’s (24-2) v. No. 7 Archangels Catholic (19-7). You’re right, it does read like a state final. And might very well get played like one. No reason tonight’s winner won’t be Saturday’s winner, too.

* As for yesterday there were two upsets in Class A, with No. 7 Omaha Westside squeezing out a 42-40 win over No. 2 Millard North, and No. 6 Bellevue West beating No. 3 Bellevue East, 61-49, in an outcome you could sorta see coming.

And as you might expect No. 1 Millard West looked relentlessly smooth and capable while subduing old friend Millard South in the opener. This just in: Wildcats are gonna be tough to beat.

Somewhere in the middle of all that I was able to grab a few minutes my with friend Mike Patterson, the World-Herald’s great girls prep sports reporter, who was recently named the state’s sportswriter of the year. Congrats again, Mike, I am very happy for you.

In Class C-1 all the higher seeds advanced. No. 1 seed and tournament favorite Lincoln Christian didn’t look like itself for long stretches of a 16-point win over North Bend Central, if that tells you anything. (it does) Gothenburg held off a heroic - and I mean thrilling - comeback by Bridgeport to eventually full away from the one-loss Bulldogs, sophomore Zoe Beveridge hitting a C-1 state tournament record three-pointers, dropping Coach Beveridge into third place among Beveridges. If you know, you know.

Minden, so long and athletic, made it look easy at times but they had to hold off a late charge by Scotus Central Catholic to lock up its 42-37 win. In the pregame it seemed everybody in the world wanted to be near John Petersen, right Coach Ridder? And Milford enhanced its already sturdy stock with a 61-40 win over Arlington, which deserves a laurel and hardy handshake for making it to the state for just the third time ever, first time in a generation.

Another huge game by a Dolliver (Madalyn, if you’re keeping score) and two-time defending state champion Pender won its D-1 opener with No. 5 Alma turning up the heat on Superior, its pressure defense turning the tide for a 46-36 win over No. 4 Superior.

No. 2 seed Elm Creek did little to diminish its standing as major threat to win state, rolling over Diller-Odell by 16 points. Even so, ain’t it fun to watch Myleigh Weers play ball? The Diller-Odell senior and UNK commit had 21 points, and just plays the game a different way than most players in this tournament. Even with all of No. 2 Southwest’s success, and a tip of the hat to you girls, it was hard to call No. 6 Cedar Catholic’s 54-27 win an upset. That Elm Creek v. Cedar semifinal will be a blast.

But that’s not for a couple of days. Here in a bit we get going again, another full day of first-round state tournament basketball...