A true hoops family shares special championship

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. _ The perfect team, the one that was supposed to win it all, didn’t do that. The perfect team’s coach, Bob Schneider, has never watched the game tape. He expects that he probably never will. Then again, he hasn’t thrown it away, either.

Schneider’s West Texas A&M women’s team was undefeated entering the 1988 Division II national-championship game in Fargo, N.D., where 7,000 people turned out to watch the Buffs take on Hampton, which itself had just one loss.

Schneider and his wife, Barbara, had three children, the oldest of whom, Brandon, was a high school freshman. The family was all fully invested in hoops; Brandon would go on to play college basketball at Wayland Baptist and then enter coaching himself. Son Brett would also become a coach. Daughter Brooke would eventually play for her dad’s team and then become a teacher.

They all hoped that West Texas, where Bob spent the last 25 seasons of his 43-year coaching career, would win that ’88 national title. But instead, it lost for the first and only time that season, 65-48 to Hampton.

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Stanford’s Super Hoopsters

Wrote about Stanford’s Jeanette Pohlen for today on ESPN.com and mentioned the Stanford short-video series, “The Super Hoopsters: Super Heroes with Ineffective Powers.”

They totally crack me up: The idea, the execution, the music, the whole deal. Here’s a link to all six – they’re very short, between 1 and 2 minutes each.

Episode 1: 

Episode 2: 

Episode 3: 

Episode 4: 

Episode 5: 

Episode 6: 

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March 22 ESPN.com coverage

You may or may not find the “Quick Dish” at ESPN.com. If you go straight to the women’s basketball page, I’m not sure you will. If you go to the main page, though, it’s there.

I sometimes find the format a bit hard to follow. Please click on it and read it there if you can, because ESPN.com counts the clicks, as they say. But just in case you’re having a hard time following it, I’m also reposting what I wrote here every day.

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Halfway to Sweet 16

Some random thoughts after three days of the NCAA tournament, due to my inability to turn off the laptop before sunrise:

*-DON’T SAY IT: Coaches like Gonzaga’s Kelly Graves and several others at, um, non-BCS schools talk about really not liking the term “mid-major” and how it does not apply to them. Of course, former Southwest Missouri State coach Cheryl Burnett always said that, too, back when her Bears were in their peak years.

Burnett had a great point, of course, in that her program was called a “mid-major” when it was selling out its gym and contending nationally while a supposed “major” program in her state, Missouri in the Big Eight/Big 12, wasn’t doing any of that.

And Graves could say the same thing about Gonzaga compared to Washington and Washington State.

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March 21 ESPN.com coverage

I don’t want this to sound wrong, but the truth is I sometimes have a hard time finding my stories on ESPN.com during the NCAA tournament. There’s just a lot going on. So I’m going to re-post what I wrote for the Web site here. It’s not new content if you’ve already seen it on ESPN.com. It’s just to put it all in one place each day. Here are stories on the troubles at Texas, Nebraska’s opening round win, and UCLA vs. N.C. State.

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Spring hasn’t *quite* sprung

It’s about eight hours to tipoff of the NCAA women’s tournament so … one little story before the madness begins.

Thursday here in the Heartland, it was a 60-degree day, good for going out walking and seeing something like this: A little girl, maybe 7 or 8, on a purple bicycle she is just learning to ride, with no training wheels, saying, “Hey, I’m going fast … uh-oh, I’m going REALLY fast … Mom, look at this …. Mom, are you still back there?”

Of course, her mom was still back there, walking not even very far behind. But when you’re 7 or 8 on your brand-new bike in March in the Midwest after a long, cold, snowy, seemingly endless winter and you are realizing that you really are getting the hang of this bike-riding thing … wow, it feels like you might be moving along at such great speeds you’re leaving poor Mom as just a distant speck behind you.

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Thank you, Candace Parker

I know a lot of people don’t like PETA. They think the organization goes way overboard, that it doesn’t understand the supposed “natural” cycle of life and the food chain, that it sensationalizes terrible things to make its points.

They think PETA _ People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals _ tries to “elevate” animals to the status of humans. That it’s an organization living in a fantasy world where Bambi and Thumper and Flower really talk to each other in the forest. I know very well all the gripes. And there are a few times when I see one of their campaigns and worry it will inspire more ridicule than call to action.

But ultimately, I am a strong supporter and believer in the organization because it’s going against such a colossal tide of resistance that ranges from hateful contempt to just-as-damaging apathy. Sometimes slapping people in the face is the only way to get their attention. Sure, they might then keep resisting – but they were already doing that. Or they might say, “OK, I’m going to really force myself to think about this.”

And so I commend former Tennessee player Candace Parker, now a standout with the Los Angeles Sparks, for the anti-fur spot she filmed for PETA. I need to say there are some disturbing images in this video. But the reason is to convey the reality. These horrible practices exist in large part  because most people really don’t know about them and don’t want to face the reality. Thus, the need to get you to truly see it.

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Beware of the Irish!

On St. Patrick’s Day, it seems appropriate to write about the success Notre Dame has had in the NCAA tournament … particularly at the expense of the Big 12.

If seeds hold into the Kansas City region, the No. 2 seed Irish will be in the heart of Big 12 territory with the potential of facing two teams from the Jumbo Dozen. And not to panic fans of No. 1 Nebraska or No. 3 Oklahoma, but … if you don’t already know, there is some gory history here.

Notre Dame hasn’t just upset Big 12 teams before. It’s handed those teams among the most gut-wrenching, heartbreaking losses their programs have experienced. We’re talking “still-remember-it-and-feel-ill-30-years-later” kind of losses.

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A quick look at final vote

I’ll have more on the NCAA tournament here soon, but a couple of things first … if you see any reference in my ESPN.com copy about Andrea Riley missing a second-round game (should the Cowgirls advance that far) just ignore it. It’s a mistake soon to be fixed. (Note from MV: It’s fixed.)

Sometimes, I swear, you have no idea how you type things that are that wrong …. except that you’re tired. I once referred to “UCLA’s” Lisa Leslie instead of “USC’s” in a story, and also once spelled Bonnie Henrickson’s name  wrong (Hendrickson) through an entire column. The whole column!

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A little Husker upper

So Nebraska had just lost 80-70 in the Big 12 tournament after facing a Texas A&M team that had everything working right. It was the first defeat of the season for the Huskers, and not surprising considering how both teams had looked in their quarterfinal match-ups. Texas A&M had appeared to click well against Texas, while there were things that didn’t look as good for Nebraska against Kansas State.

Still, even though this was a loss that all but those with the rosiest-colored glasses might have seen coming, there was a sense of sadness for the Nebraska fans that the “perfect” part of their season ended. To go unbeaten is such a rare and unlikely thing, especially for a program that’s had to scratch and claw its way to this level of success.

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