Now THAT was a day of basketball!

Grandson Dylan and his mother pulled out of the driveway before lunch Thursday, headed out of town, so Oliver the dog and I had the house all to ourselves for the first of 11 days. A day like that takes planning. It's not as if a guy can just turn the TV to ESPN and leave it there all day. That would be the easy way out.

As the noon hour approached, I juggled the channel-changing buttons on the set between Villanova-Georgetown on ESPN and Texas Tech-Oklahoma State on ESPN. Since the remote-control thingy doesn't work, it is necessary for me to get up and physically change channels, using the buttons at the front of the set. This is where my physical exercise for the day came in.

Things got more interesting about 1:00 when the boys' state tournaments got underway---one of them live on Public TV and the other two on live webcasts on Public TV. I opted for tuning in to the Lincoln game at the "AA" on the radio, the Public TV webcasts of the other two tournaments on the computer, and continuing the Villanova game on the TV itself. It was a good thing I had all of this on bracket sheets in front of me, so I could keep a clear head as one team won and another lost. Though I missed them already, it was probably also a good thing Dylan and his mom were on their way to Rochester and not here in the house with me!

As the Texas Tech game ended and gave way to Penn State-Illinois on one channel, Georgetown won big and became UConn-West Virginia on the other. Since West Virginia is one of "my teams," more serious concentration became necessary. On the computer Red Cloud was in a real ballgame with Chamberlain for awhile, but on the radio Lincoln was blowing away Sturgis, the only and last great hope of the Black Hills in the "AA" tournament.

West Virginia was having a great game, and I was excited. That game took over precedence, and I barely noticed that USC-Arizona State had come on Fox Sports Net and that the high school tournaments moved into their second games. The Mountaineers won---my first big triumph of this marathon day. The other continuing games were mediocre at best, so I scurried around the house, picking up stuff and moving my necessities of life---toothbrush, electric razor, shower towel, clothes to wear the next day, dog food, etc.---upstairs for my 11-day departure from the cold, dark basement.

Along about 4:00, I watched USC survive thanks to yet another lousy call by the lousy PAC-10 officials. And on the radio I suspected deep in my gut what was going to happen to Yankton, which had led Mitchell most of the way. Only Mitchell, trailing by four in the final 17 seconds of a game, could get a four-point play to force overtime. Disgusted by these turns of events, I drove across town to Hy-Vee for some grocery necessities, catching up as I went with the high school tournaments by listening to "Sports Talk with Craig and Bob" from Sioux Falls.

Basketball took a brief hiatus during the 4:30-to-6:00 hours, so I caught up on the day's politics---who in one campaign jabbed the other in the back, who was the latest to play the race card in the Democratic contest, how much Gov. Spitzer actually paid for Kristen, and other hot topics. And I saw that Billy Crystal struck out in his one-time at-bat for the Yankees. (What a farce! The opposing pitcher should have plunked him in the batting helmet.)

The fast-moving day neared the supper hour, and as the evening sessions of the tournaments began, I threw a pan of brownies into the oven and got a frozen pizza ready to pop in afterwards. The evening would prove more desperate because more teams I care about would be playing. With my carefully prepared schedule in hand, I positioned myself within eyesight of the TV and within earshot of the radio and the computer.

From 6 to 7 it was easy---either Georgia Tech-Virginia on ESPN2 or Louisville-Pitt on ESPN. Since Louisville is one of those schools on my "never-cheer-for" list, I was delighted to see Pitt roll 'em out of the Big East. But that was about the time the Pierre Governors' game at the "AA" on the computer was at halftime. A great first half by the Big Green, but the Evil Empire (in other words, Watertown) would no doubt rally. At the same time my alma mater, Sully Buttes, playing in its fourth straight State "B", was having fits with the state's newest basketball acronym, TDA. (That's Tripp-Delmont-Armour these days).

One of "my teams," Washington State, began its game at 8:00, but the only place I could follow the score was on the espn.com scoreboard on the computer, so I juggled between that and the webcast of the Sully Buttes game and the streaming audio of the Pierre game and the live telecast of the Madison-Lennox game on TV. I am proud to say I was able to see Sully Buttes' stunning buzzer-beating victory over TDA (with the score tied and TDA in-bounding the ball with five seconds left, the Chargers' Spencer Yackley stole the ball in the backcourt and Zach Merwin pumped in a 12-foot jumper to win the game!) as well as see Madison's equally-stunning game-winning play over Lennox on TV (a long in-bounds pass from sidecourt to a tall guy at the free-throw circle to another guy blazing in toward the basket by the back door). Alas, I couldn't pull the Governors through against #2 Watertown.

From 8:30 on, Notre Dame, definitely one of "my teams," was on TV, so they got my concentration. I am embarrassed to say I missed seeing Huron's game-winning three-pointer over Roosevelt on the webcast and I missed seeing anything at all of White River's win at the "B" tournament. Unfortunately Notre Dame ran out of gas down the stretch. The only good thing is that I don't have to worry about them until the NCAA tourney starts next Thursday.

By 10:30 I was wearing out. All that was left was Stanford-Arizona on Fox Sports Net. I got ready for bed, greased myself up with Vick's Vaporub, took a mouthful of Nite Time Equate and swore that by morning I would be rid of the sore throat that had plagued me for two days. I fell asleep in the lounge chair, and when I woke up the Stanford game was over. Of course I had to check the computer scoreboard to find out they had won before hitting the sack.

I was exhausted, but it had been a satisfying day. And it was only Thursday. Another day just like it was just around the corner. This business of being retired really takes a lot out of a guy.