Pitchin with Pritch: Tournament time great time of the year
This past week I probably spent too much time watching basketball games. But then it is state tournament time and college conference tournament time with the sinners qualifying for the NCAA tournament. So I really think it is my duty to watch as much as possible to help keep their ratings up.
Last year, just family got to attend the state tournament in Lincoln, so I missed that one.
This year they opened up a little bit but still limited how many could attend. So, I missed my second state tournament in the last 100 years (maybe just a few years less than that but last week is usually one I spend a few days in Lincoln).
The NSAA really helped this year by going to more days and arranging television coverage for all the games. So for about $11, I subscribed to NFHS and got all the games right up to the finals. Then NET took over and gave us coverage on all the final games.
The only games missed in this setup were the third place games in C1, C2, D1 and D2.
Most years, I have found that some of the lower division games are more interesting than the big boys in Class A. But this year was different.
The Class A final was a really good game with Millard North defeating Bellevue 84-78 in overtime.
This just reversed last year’s Class A final where West defeated North by making a run to erase a 14-point Millard North lead late in the game.
Normally, I really don’t care much about who wins Class A but this year, a good friend of mine, Tim Cannon, is the Millard North coach and I wanted him to win it.
He also was the coach last year and I know how losing in the finals of the state tournament stings and it doesn’t go away very quickly.
Plus, Coach Cannon had gotten teams to the finals three other times in his career and lost close games each time. The fourth time he got a winner.
It was an overtime game and again this year, Millard North let a nine-point lead get away. Bellevue West actually had a two-point lead late but North tied it and forced the OT.
West was familiar with OT games as they went three OTs with Creighton Prep in the semi-finals.
The two finals teams were loaded with talent with North having Nebraska’s first ever five-star recruit in Hunter Sallis. All the talent played as advertised.
It was a really good game to watch with a lot of outstanding players making outstanding plays.
Another outstanding coach, Doug Goltz of Falls City Sacred Heart led his team to another state championship.
Goltz has been at FCSH for 30-plus years and this was his 11th state championship and he is 11-0 in state final games. Not a bad record to have as a coach.
He also tied the Nebraska high school record for the number of career wins with 694. He is tied with Duane Mendlik of Wisner-Pilger.
Goltz is also the football coach at FCSH and has eight state championships with an 8-0 mark in football final games.
This season, the Irish didn’t get started too well and actually came into the tournament at 17-7 as the 7th seed.
This is another example of a good coach staying focused with his team and improving throughout the year, playing well at tournament time and winning it all.
Coach Goltz made the comment that he would not say this team was the worst team he’d won a state tournament with because that would have taken away from what they had accomplished.
But he did say they were the team that overcame more than any other team to win a championship.
Auburn won their third straight championship with Jim Weeks as their coach.
Weeks also coached at Beatrice and won state championships there before taking the Doane College position for a few years.
He then got back into high school coaching at Auburn. I think Auburn has won 60 or 61 games in a row with this championship run.
All in all, it was a pretty good week and a lot of good games leading up to the finals.
Now it is on to the NCAA tournament—what a great time of the year.