Beginning of Basketball Season

A number of times I have written posts for this blog that discuss basketball, usually in relation to poems about the subject. I have repeatedly expressed my fondness for the sport, particularly on the college level. Indeed, for decades I have had season tickets to Valparaiso University basketball games, and I have always looked forward to attending exhibition games at the end of October, as well as the official beginning of the season at the start of November. In addition, I have described how basketball has remained an activity I enjoy with my son.

As anyone who has viewed the film Hoosiers understands, basketball in Indiana exists on all levels as more than a sport. The game is an element in the state’s history and culture, part of the profile defined by numerous basketball nets in driveways and backboards nailed to garages or barns, as well as the busy courts in playgrounds or schoolyards in all of the 92 counties. As I have mentioned in one of my posts about literature and basketball: “for many in Indiana the winter months are more closely associated with basketball than any literary conference. With its location in Indiana, Valparaiso University’s identity in sports naturally focuses on basketball. After all, throughout the state, communities have long regarded winter as the season when news of high school basketball games dominates not only the sports sections of local papers, but sometimes also front page headlines. Although most often attached to high school basketball, especially before the state made its misguided shift to class categories, Hoosier Hysteria and the legend of the underdog team additionally extends to Indiana college basketball, particularly those smaller programs in Division I that are called the mid-majors,” such as Valparaiso—known for the dramatic Bryce Drew game-winning shot replayed on television again and again during every NCAA tournament—or Butler—the surprising runner-up team in the NCAA championship game each of the past two years.

Notably, due to the ongoing labor dispute leading to a lockout in the NBA, which has closed out the first two months of professional play and threatens to derail an entire season, the college game will likely receive added attention this year from the television networks and all basketball fans. Therefore, now that the exhibition games are over and the official schedule begins this Monday with opening contests that include a very tough visit to 16th-ranked Arizona by Valparaiso, I thought I would celebrate the new season by reminding readers of a few past blog posts, some with video of action effectively evoking the exciting atmosphere of college basketball: “AWP Conference, Basketball in Indiana: Metaphors and Made Shots,” “Memories of March Madness and the AWP, Basketball and Poetry,” “Basketball with Alex,” “March Madness and B.H. Fairchild’s ‘Old Men Playing Basketball,’” and “Indiana Basketball, Homer Drew, and ‘Jumpshots in the Dark.’”