Friday, March 17, 2000
Win or lose, Cinderellas enjoy the ball
Long shots realize dreams at tournament
BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The shooting guard for UC's opponent today is a freshman named Brett Blizzard. Br-r-r-ett Bliz-z-z-ard! Every time Blizzard nailed a three-pointer this winter, the P.A. man at UNC-Wilmington broke his neck. Won't CBS have fun with that name today?
Blizzard has a teammate, Danny Dahl. Dahl's three-pointer won the Colonial Athletic Association tournament last week, and put the Seahawks into Friday's first-round NCAA tournament game with UC. Dahl is a reserve forward, from the legendary hoops hotbed of Bangor, Maine.
“How's the high school basketball in Maine, coach?” a man wondered.
“Awful,” said Wilmington coach Jerry Wainwright.
Dahl's three-pointer rattled and fell. In Wilmington, they're calling it the “Bangor Clanger.” Until then, Dahl was best known for living next door to Stephen King, whom Dahl describes as “a regular guy.” Which makes you wonder about Dahl.
Isn't March great? It's the only time of year a basketball coach will get up and say, “The two best places to coach are orphanages, because there's no parents, and prisons, because there's no alumni.” Jerry Wainwright said that Thursday, after he revealed his team's charter airplane was two hours late arriving the other day.
The plane was coming in from Des Moines, Iowa. Some one had told the pilot, “Fly to Wilmington.” So he did. When he landed in Delaware, “he wondered where we were,” Wainwright said.
Best two days in sports
The first two days of the NCAA tournament are the best two days in sport. You might think you know what's going to happen. You might have done your office bracket in pen. Then Old Dominion beats Villanova. Then Valparaiso happens.
The Dukes of the world — and we are sick of them, aren't we? — give the NCAA tournament its heft. The Wilmingtons — and the Samfords and the Winthrops — give it its lift.
It's schlocky. It's also charming: Anything can happen if you're willing to dream it.
Listen to Wainwright: “The real lure of this tournament is it's not just corporate executives in skyboxes watching these games. It's middle America. All those kids growing up on those driveway baskets in all those little venues, this is their dream.”
And so it is. Friday afternoon at 12:30, the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, seeded 15th in the South region, playing its first-ever NCAA game, will play second-seeded UC. There's a very good chance the Bearcats will strip them naked and leave them in a field.
But so what? Just because you don't have a party dress doesn't mean you can't dance.
Just happy to be there
Iowa State took out Central Connecticut State Thursday, as expected. That didn't keep Central from celebrating its appearance. Before the season, Central's coach put a pair of scissors in a locker room trophy case. Beneath them, he wrote the date of the team's conference tournament final: 3/6/2000.
The scissors were for cutting nets. They did.
Oklahoma did what it had to do against Winthrop. It didn't diminish the achievements of Winthrop senior center Juontonio Pinckney, a four-year walk-on. “Just having the opportunity to play Division I basketball was a dream come true,” he said.
UC has spoiled us. Probably, the Bearcats have spoiled them selves, to the extent they can actually be disappointed with a No.2 seed. Please. As Wainwright said, “I've often wanted to call those schools and ask them if they want to play me home-and-home.”
“I don't think anyone was worried about who we were playing,” Blizzard said. “They just liked seeing UNC-Wilmington up on the TV screen.”
Wainwright showed his players tape of Kenyon Martin's injury even before he knew the Seahawks would play UC. “Enjoy every play, every day” was his message.
“You know, we've got an unbelievable opportunity,” Wainwright said Thursday.
Get ready, middle America. Keep the driveway warm.
Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454. Fair Game, a collection of his columns, is available at local bookstores.
Tournament game coverage at Cincinnati.com/madness
Join the discussion in our College Sports forum
Sports Stories
Bearcats have surprise on their side
Five keys for the 'new' UC
Huggins, Martin win national awards
UC women win NIT opener
Women's NIT scores
Freshman points XU women into NCAAs
Women's NCAA Schedule
Irish eye NIT title as consolation prize
Xavier-ND tickets on sale
Men's NIT Scores - Schedule
Pitcher Bell sent to Triple-A
Ankle swelling slows Sanders
Griffey beats shift with HR
Pokey may return Saturday
Reds Game Report
No reunion for Bengals, Boomer
