Over 30 years ago, I was introduced to the “Final Four.” No, not the Fantasic Four from the Marvel Comics universe, but college basketball’s grand-daddy play-off’s to determine the best teams in the land.

I started dating my husband right before the Final Four began that year, and he and my brother had long discussions about the best teams, strategy and key players.

With that much enthusiasm from my sibling and my fiancé, I figured I’d better get in the game about the Final Four.

Final Four teams come from geographic areas in the United States. Games are played until the best of the best square o’ against each other.

Watching the playoffs this year, I realized I knew more about college basketball that I thought. I traced my fondness for the sport from my dad.

He was a big college basketball fan, especially when Bob Lanier was playing for St. Bonaventure University. We were living in Olean, N.Y., home of St. Bonaventure, during those years, and I remember my dad always talking about Lanier’s highlights.

Then we moved to Baton Rouge, La., home of LSU’s top athlete Pete Maravich. As a pre-teen girl,I didn’t have time for college basketball, but I can remember my father being a huge Maravich fan and always trying to find a way to watch Pistol Pete play.

Dad wasn’t alone – it seemed the entire city was “Pistol Pete” crazy and rightly so. The lanky Maravich had an impressive record at LSU, especially considering Maravich scored his points before the three-point basket became part of the game.

When B.F. Terry High School went to the state playoffs a couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to get on the floor to take pictures of the game.

I loved watching those young athletes put everything on the line for their school and themselves. Those young boys were beyond excited when that final buzzer sounded and they were the ones holding the trophy.

As my husband and I watched the Kentucky Wildcats work their way up the Final Four ladder, I was reminded of the many games I’ve seen over the years, and realized, thanks to my dad and my husband, I knew more about the game than I thought.

Most of the time, I could tell when a player was trying to draw a foul, and I knew to watch the clock to make sure a player’s not spending too much time in the paint.

Best of all, I’ve come to understood why my dad loved watching sports. There’s a ballet that goes on in sports, and when fans recognize the fine, subtle aspects of the game, the game moves to a whole new level.

And that level applies to every sport – baseball’s slowness allows fans to savor the game, and football’s intensity allows fans to get caught up in the hold-your-breath beauty of the pass and the physical rawness of the rush.

Basketball is a fast-moving game, but not fast enough that you can’t tell what’s happening. If the ball goes in the net, the team gets points.

But when the ball seems destined to zip through that net and a hand comes out of nowhere and denies the basket, that’s when fans realize there’s more than just jumping, running and shooting in this game.

Because when the game moves beyond the fundamentals, that’s when the game becomes a work of art.

Don’t believe me? Watch some old reruns of Pete Maravich dominating the boards. That’s not only working the fundamentals of the game, it’s what basketball Hall of Famer Joe Dean would call “string music.”

 

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.