We are now moving into the part of the year that I love to loathe. Just as soon as the Christmas tree comes down I am ready for the daffodils. Winter is just too bleak. I have noted in the past that I don’t ever want to live in a town whose biggest community promotion features snow queens or ice sculptures. In fact, the older I get, the more I think Mississippi, Florida, or Arizona might be calling my name!

The only redeeming part of this stretch on our calendar is college basketball.

I rarely think of pre-Christmas basketball games as being part of the real season. That is all pre-season fluff. A time to give the players a chance to work on their skills against San Mateo Community College or Timbuktu State. At our house we hardly note the schedule.

The real stuff starts in January … with a vengeance!

So I am glad to have all those games on the calendar from now until the Final Four in April. I love watching any Kansas school whip-up on any school from anywhere. Don’t care about who or where. I have said before that I cheer for all of them (even those players sporting the purple uniforms up in Manhattan.)

Bring on the Ichabods, Moundbuilders, Jayhawks, Grizzlies, Dragons, or Shockers … don’t care. I love living in a state that others call a “basketball powerhouse.” Doesn’t that have a grand ring to it?

It takes the sting out of being from BTK-land, the state that kicked science out of the science classroom, or the state that is home to Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church.

Being known as a “basketball powerhouse” is great; in fact it is the best. What can be better than a game of hoops? Be it a playground game, a high school championship, or the Big Twelve play-offs, what has more action, more heart, or more grit? In my opinion, nothing!

So bring it on. I think we do a pretty good job of being a “basketball powerhouse.” I can live with that from now until the daffodils really do come up!

— Susan Marshall