Ain't Nothin' But a Family Thing

I first discovered college football when I was 7.

I'm sure I had seen games before that, because I knew the rules and followed the action fairly easily. But the first game I remember watching -- really watching, start to finish -- was the 1982 Orange Bowl. My dad grew up in Nebraska, but as a military family the only time we got to watch the Cornhuskers play was when they played a) Oklahoma or b) in a bowl game. In our house, the Nebraska-Oklahoma game had its own batch of traditions -- the "guys vs. girls" division of rooting, Mom putting her Sooners hat on top of the TV. But the first time I really noticed how much fun college football could be was New Year's Night, 1982. Clemson vs. Nebraska. Mom & Dad both watched the game and, for the first time, let me stay up all the way to the end.

Pretty cool when you're seven.

Over the years my college football fandom has been what could be best described as a "lovers' quarrel." There's a lot not to like, most of which centers around the letters E, N, P, and S. You can probably guess what order those letters belong in. From the MNC -- "Meaningless National Championship" -- to all manner of Heisman Trophy controversies to the sham that is the BCS, the sport makes it hard to be a fan if you don't have a rooting interest in one particular team. In 2007, I set a record for fewest games watched in a season -- three.

But that said, I still love the game. Thanksgiving wasn't as interesting this year as it was in the Switzer-Osborne days, but I still found myself holding my breath when Nebraska launched that 57-yard FG to beat Colorado. Vanderbilt's first trip to a bowl game in 26 years has made for an interesting season watching their fans. In fact, I have the Music City Bowl open in another window right now as I'm writing this. The Big XII South controversy, though, reminded me why I didn't miss the game last year.

Now to be fair, college basketball has a lot of problems, most of which (again) stem from those four letters. Money teams from money conferences dominate the game. Period. They draw eyeballs to TV's. They sell tickets. And they get the vast majority of the spots in the NCAA tournament. Last year, schools that spent $2 million or more on men's basketball got 32 of 34 at-large bids.

But Sunday night, none of that mattered.

Sunday night, I was the Dad, introducing the team I love playing the game I love to my own 6-year-old. My daughter Erica had seen enough basketball to understand the basics; players try to put the ball in the hoop, how far away you are determines how many points you get, and the team in white usually wins. Erica has had her moments with basketball before. Last year she picked Memphis to make the national championship game, and when they did, she won our annual family basketball picking contest.

But Sunday night, for the first time in four years, Erica and I were in front of a TV while Lipscomb was playing on the screen.

Speaking of lovers' quarrels. When Lipscomb made the move to NCAA Division I, I was among many alumni who sounded the alarm that this might not be the best of ideas. In the last eleven years, the entire athletic department has produced maybe half a dozen winning seasons. Lipscomb, once a small-college athletic juggernaut, had jumped into the deep end and was constantly getting its head pushed under the water by the bigger, cooler kids. Even in the section of the pool reserved for the little guys, Lipscomb was a punching bag. Sure, there was the occasional highlight (taking Belmont to overtime in the conference title game the NIT year, volleyball and baseball making the NCAA tournament), but for the better part of the last decade being a Lipscomb fan has not been too terrible much fun.

But like it or not, Lipscomb is my school. I met my wife there. Her parents both went there. In college, I helped out making game tapes for the women's basketball team. Lipscomb basketball is in my blood, and in Erica's DNA.

Sunday night, Lipscomb played at Indiana. The game was on the Big Ten Network, and since we were visiting my parents in Arkansas we got to watch the game live. We cmae home from church expecting to see the typical major vs. mid-major score, only to find Lipscomb ahead -- ahead, I tell you -- early in the second half. The last fifteen minutes of the game, neither team led by more than four. That is, not until Jimmy Oden hit two free throws to put the Bisons up 5 in the last 10 seconds.

I remember being a seven-year-old, seeing how excited my Dad was to watch his team play in a bowl game. Even though Nebraska lost the game -- forcing my Dad, the writing staff of Jeopardy, and the rest of Husker Nation to wait another 12 years for their MNC -- I'll never forget what it was like to watch my Dad as his team took the lead on Clemson in the second quarter. It's a memory I will treasure until the day I die.

Sunday night -- when the final horn went off, my hands went in the air, and I yelled loudly enough to set off the Christmas tree -- a six-year-old little girl got to see her Daddy celebrate. Maybe one day she will look back on that night the same way I remember that Orange Bowl.

Even though the guys in the white shirts lost.

Four! Four Transylvania! Ah, ah, ah . . .

Lipscomb 74, Indiana 69.

I still can't believe I just typed that.

Lipscomb 74.

[deep breath]

Indiana

[deep breath again]

69.

Sunday night I was in Arkansas at my parents' house. We came home from church in time to catch the second half on the Big Ten Network, part of my parents' AT&T TV package. By the time I got the TV turned on, Lipscomb had rallied from a 21-point first half deficit, using 11-0 and 18-0 runs to take a 3-point lead. Michael Teller had the best game (PEG of 27, including 19 points, 6 boards, and 4 assists) but Adnan Hozdic was the hero, scoring twice in the last 2 1/2 minutes to give Lipscomb the lead. Jimmy Oden also came up huge, making several big plays on defense (including a memorable one against the Big Ten Network broadcast table) and hitting the icing free throws in the final minute.

When the game was over I yelled so loudly I set off my Mom's motion-sensitive singing Christmas egg.

BALL GAME!

Too happy to type.

Lipscomb 74, Indiana 69.

Indi-freakin'-ana.

Transylvania report when I get home from vacation Wednesday.

WOO HOO!!!

It's Over! It's Over!

I usually don't say much about non-conference games win or lose unless it's a BIG win, but this is huge. The seventh seal has been opened. Odin has declared Ragnarok. Marvin Martian has pulled the lever. Make peace with your maker. Do whatever it is you do when the end of days is as hand.

North Florida won a road game.

In their fourth year as an NCAA D-1 school, in "only" their 55th attempt, the North Florida Ospreys finally won their first game away from home. Last night, they knocked off Furman 77-66. Eni Cuka was the hero of the night, pouring in 27 points on 8 of 12 shooting for a PEG of 24. Stan Januska added a 22 PEG night of his own. But this was a team win in every sense of the word. In addition to shooting an uncharacteristically-high 81.8% from the foul line (including 19 of 24 in the last 5 minutes), the Ospreys hit 12 of 17 FGs in the second half. Throw in the team's best defensive first half of the year (possibly ever) and you have all the ingredients of a road win.

Yet another reason to love the Atlantic Sun: The Ospreys spent game day in the hotel lobby playing what UNF media guy Shawn Lafata called -- wait for it -- "a massive chess tournament." No word who won, but come on now. How cool is that?

Speaking of big games, get a load of tomorrow's line-up:

Lipscomb @ N. C. State
Gulf Coast @ Butler
Belmont @ Tennessee
Stetson @ Missouri
Upstate @ Fresno State
Mercer @ UCLA

If you Google "Transylvania" Sunday and end up here, I'm probably a happy man.

Why I Do What I Do

I'm not a journalist. I don't even play a reasonable facsimile of one on the Intergoogles. I've never "covered" a game. Because of where I live, financial and family obligations, a day job, etc., I haven't even been to a game in 5 years.

I'm just a guy who went to a small school that suddenly finds itself on a big stage. Jim Rome thinks we're the reason the NIT sucks. Verne Lundquist said our name on CBS Saturday (one of Indiana's upcoming opponents). In my world, that's a big deal.

I'm not a Professional Journalist. Nor am I a comedian. If you're looking for Grantland Rice-ish ambiance, Recapbot game stories, rabid fandom, or body part jokes, go somewhere else.

I simply love my school, basketball, and playing with numbers.

Lately, I have also fallen in love with the teams my school plays. There are some great stories there for someone with enough time, access, and talent to dig them out. I know about a few of them -- Bob Hoffman being exonerated by the NCAA after it imposed show-cause orders on some of his former co-workers, the under-the-radar class of the Lipscomb-Belmont rivalry, the general awesomeness that is Jonathan Rodriguez. But lacking any of the above (time, access, awesomeness), I rely on what I can glean from media reports, and write what I see in the numbers.

Hence, the Atlantic Sun Blog.

Maybe there is a market out there for fan-jabbering about a small conference of small schools in the middle of Nowhere-midmajor-vania. If so, I hope somebody good fills it -- and not with Deadspin-ish blather about who has the hottest cheerleaders, either. But for right now, aside from newspaper beat writers and SID's (who are paid to be there) and Kyle Whelliston (also paid, only less so), there's just me.

So I write for me. And that's fine. I'll never be a correspondent for the WWL. I don't pretend to believe that anybody else cares about me or my subject. I'm perfectly content to use the ASB as an online diary, my own way of enjoying a season I wish I could get closer to but choose not to for reasons listed above. If Junard Hartley's mom happens by and sees the nice things I wrote about her son, that's cool too.

And if some of those "paid" professionals like what they see -- or are at least encouraged to keep doing what they're doing simply because I am out here and exist -- then I've done more good than I set out to do.

O'Neill, Baker Hold Off Campbell

Somehow I overlooked this gem of a game from the weekend:

Gulf Coast 72, Campbell 68. Reed Baker and Derrick O'Neil each post PEGs over 20 (Baker 27, O'Neil 24) for FGCU. The game was fast but sloppy; 77 possessions per team led to a combined 44 turnovers and 8 of 31 3-point shooting. Both teams best players had off nights -- Jonathan Rodriguez had only 12 points to go with 6 turnovers, and FGCU's Delvin Franklin turned the ball over 7 times to post a PEG of 0 despite scoring 14 points. That's hard to do.

The game turned on an intentional foul call with less than 5 minutes to go. Up by 5, FGCU got the ball back when Derrick O'Neil picked Junard Hartley's pocket, then was fouled by Preston Dotson. O'Neil hit both free throws, then found Ed Rolax for a lay-up to put the Eagles up 9. 4 Gulf Coast turnovers in the final 81 seconds gave the Camels a shot, but they couldn't quite get there at the end.

Three To Go

Former Lipscomb basketball coach Don Meyer posted career win #900 Saturday.

If you don't know the story, read the articles from ESPN and Spots Illustrated. Buster Olney and Grant Wahl give the chase for Bob Knight's record the professional treatment it deserves, far better than I could.

So we're in the eleventh season since Lipscomb joined Division 1. Five years ago, I asked which would come first -- Lipscomb beats a BCS-conference team or Don Meyer breaks the all-time coaching wins record. On December 28th, Coach Meyer goes for win #901, one short of Bob Knight. That same day, Lipscomb plays at Indiana. And even better -- the senior point guard for Northern State is from Bloomington.

Weird.