n There weren't many Bucknells in the Kansas high school state basketball tournaments this year. Of the 96 high school teams playing in the state tournament, only two teams entered the tournament with losing records.

In Class 3A boys, Wellsville qualified for the state tournament with a 5-18 record. And in Class 4A girls, Clearwater had an 11-12 record heading into the state tournament. Both teams lost first-round games.

n The McPherson High School girls' basketball team won the 5A championship and finished the season with a perfect record. I believe their closest game during the season was the Class 5A championship game when they beat Tecumseh-Shawnee Heights by 10 points.

When is the last time a team had a perfect record and beat every opponent by at least 10 points?

n Speaking of unusual, it's not every day that a not-so-populous state like Kansas has two first-team collegiate All-Americans. Wayne Simien of KU and Kendra Wecker of KSU earned All-American honors this season, and both played high school basketball in Kansas.

I believe the last time that happened was more than 20 years ago when Wichita natives Darnell Valentine and Lynette Woodard earned first-team All-American honors playing for KU.

n Is it possible that Don Brubacher will coach a game against Rollie Massimino someday? Massimino led Villanova to the 1985 national championship, and there's talk that he could coach again.

The 70-year-old coach was discussing a position at Northwood University, an NAIA school in West Palm Beach, Fla., according to the Palm Beach Post. Northwood is in the process of developing men's and women's teams that won't play until 2006-07.

Assuming that Massimino would be hired, it's unlikely that Brubacher would coach against him unless the two schools met in the NAIA national tournament. The alternative would be to take a little road trip to West Palm Beach.

However, even if the Bluejays stayed at Motel 6 the whole trip, I doubt their budget allows for a trip to Florida.

n It's nice to see someone get honored, especially when it's not just about money. Earlier this year, St. Mary's in Leavenworth named the university's basketball court in honor of 72-year-old nun Sister Madonna Fink. She is known for waiting by the team bus to hand out bags of cookies before a road trip, and she hasn't missed more than a few home athletic events since the small liberal arts college started varsity sports 17 years ago.

Among other things, she clips newspaper articles so parents in other states and foreign countries can see what their children accomplished. She knows all 150 or so St. Mary's athletes and prays for them daily.

Athletes and alumni pooled their money and donated it to the college in exchange for the right to name the court for Sister Madonna.

Nice.

n Speaking of working tirelessly behind the scenes, the same could be said of Richard Wall, who died recently after losing a fight with a pre-leukemia blood condition. For years, Richard faithfully worked on the "chain gang" at Tabor home football games and ran the clock at home basketball games.

The Richards of the world may be largely invisible in the wide world of sports, but the time and dedication of Richard and those like him help make sporting events run smoothly.

n One of the most unusual plays in high school basketball occurred in a championship game in Minnesota when a player sank a buzzer-beater shot to send a game into overtime.

It was unusual because he was sitting on the floor sprawled across the 3-point arc when he took the shot.

Whoever says prayers aren't answered didn't see that shot.

n "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." -Michael Jordan