View from the cheap seats
A weekly perspective on sports
Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review
I had my mother drop off raw honey produced by my father’s bees and ginseng capsules, because I was willing to take anything to get rid of my persistent high fever. My fever has finally subsided yet I’m still dealing with a nagging cough, but at least I can fully function again.
Since there is no March Madness in the way of a live college basketball tournament this year, the only thing I could do on Sunday is watch the replays of previous college national championship games on CBS.
The first college basketball title game I watched on TV was Villanova’s 66-64 win against Georgetown in 1985. The only people I’d already heard of who were involved in this game were Georgetown center Patrick Ewing and Villanova center Ed Pinckney, along with Hoyas head coach John Thompson and Wildcats head coach Rollie Massimino.
An interesting historical tidbit about the 1985 college basketball season is it was the final year of play without having a shot clock. With two minutes left in the national championship game, Villanova was able to employ its four corners offense in which its players could keep passing the ball around until a Georgetown player committed a foul to stop the clock.
Watching the Wildcats conduct the four corners passing on TV reminded me of how Auburndale High School head boys basketball coach Tim Anderson used to do the same thing to milk out wins at the end of games.
While watching Athens High School center Cameron Ford play in person this past season, I often thought to myself he is as dominating close to the basket much like Patrick Ewing and Shaquille O’Neil were in college. It appears Ford will likely play college basketball at Division 3 Ripon College next winter.
A few weeks ago, I asked Athens middle/high school athletic director Craig Diedrich if I was correct in writing Ford is arguably the best boys basketball player in Athens High School history. Diedrich told me there’s been a few other dominating Athens boys basketball players over the years, including Jamie Ball and Chris “Camouche” Sommer.
The second college national championship game I watched on CBS Sunday was the Arizona Wildcats beating Duke, 61-59, in overtime in 1997. Talented Arizona players Mike Bibby and Miles Simon led the Wildcats to their first college basketball national championship win in school history.
It could possibly have been this national title game that spurred my daughter’s Stratford fourth grade teacher, Kellen Kafka, to become an Arizona Wildcats’ fan. I am not for certain though.
