Hooray!

Don’t get me wrong — I like prep football as much as only other born and bred Ohio male. But my favorite sport is the favorite of the normal born and bred Indiana male: basketball.

I like the non-stop pace of basketball more than plentiful amount of down time in football. I love the aggressiveness and fighting for rebounds in the post much more than the wars that happen in the trenches in football. And I adore watching the different skill sets — shooting, dribbling, rebounding — than I do watching football’s skills sets of being big and running.

Find me a competitive basketball team, and I’ll show you a team with more chemistry than most football teams can dream of.

And after 15 weeks of watching football of covering 26 total games, the basketball fan in me was getting restless.

My appetite was only sharpened in the first broadcast game of the season for the Penda Sports Network last Friday of Urbana at Northwestern.

Back came those familiar smells of hot dogs and popcorn from the concession stand. Back came those familiar sounds of the buzzer blowing and shoes squeaking. Back came those familiar sights of fluorescent light glistening off the hardwood floor and bleachers packed with fans.

In wasn’t even the first game of the season for me. Including scrimmages, I’ve already seen five games before mid-December.

But being in what is my favorite local gymnasium at Northwestern last Friday, the realization finally hit me that football season is done and the only thing in front of me is another three months of basketball.

I’ll say it again: Hooray!

And so, let’s turn the focus to the 15 area prep basketball teams, the talented local players, and the conference races that look like they won’t be decided until February.

It’s basketball season. Leave me alone, football.
Well, except for bowl games.
Let’s pick.