Long live underdogs

March 25, 2008 05:22 pm

— THE ISSUE:The NCAA and IHSAA men’s basketball tournaments.
OUR VIEW:Long-shots can and do occasionally prevail. If only the IHSAA believed.
On March 20, 1954, a kid from Milan High School hit the winning shot with five seconds to play in Indiana’s state championship basketball game. Folks still talk about it to this day, 54 years later.
That kid, Bobby Plump, held the ball for about four minutes of the fourth quarter before rattling in a game-winning 15-footer. His team previously had thumped Oscar Robinson’s Crispus Attucks team, 65-52, to get to the final four. (And Crispus Attucks would win state championships in 1955 and ’56.)
Milan, one-tenth the size of mighty Muncie Central, managed the unthinkable, defeating the heavily favored Bearcats, 32-30, in the championship game. Plump’s jumper remains a ray of hope for little guys everywhere. Maybe our parents were right – if we work hard and stay true to ourselves, there isn’t anything we can’t accomplish.
That’s why we look forward to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Every year, there’s at least one small-school upstart that shocks monster-sized, major-conference powerhouses. Think Santa Clara in 1993 and Coppin State in 1997.
This year, there are two: Western Kentucky and Davidson. Our brackets are broken, and we don’t care. The Hilltoppers of Western next play No. 1-seeded UCLA; Davidson faces Big Ten champion Wisconsin. Few will be rooting for the favorites.
Underdogs can and occasionally do prevail. If only the Indiana High School Athletic Association believed, perhaps it wouldn’t have switched to four-class basketball 10 years ago.
Anyone think Class 3A champ Washington, with 730 students, wouldn’t have taken down either Class 4A finalist, Brownsburg or Marion, last weekend?

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