See Adrian for an explanation.

Maybe Bobby Plump is not the last of the small-town heroes after all. Maybe the half-court shot Luke Zeller made in the final second of overtime to give Washington High School a state title will bring him the same kind of legendary last-shot status.

Time will tell.

Certainly while the folks of this small town (not quite 12,000) in southwest Indiana are still smiling and leaving up the words of congratulations they posted on business marquees, Zeller is a hero here. It seems to matter little that the title the kids brought home was a Class 3A championship.

The sign on the front of the school simply says: “GOT’R DONE.”

The state’s Mr. Basketball, a 6-11 center, will attend Notre Dame.

A citywide reputation quickly spread across the state and eventually throughout the nation to where some recruiting analysts now have ordained him as America’s No. 1 player in his class.

Yet at least one thing never changed during an almost unparalleled high school career for Lanier’s Monta Ellis, Mississippi’s Mr. Basketball for 2005 as chosen by The Clarion-Ledger.

“Not a thing excites him,” Lanier coach Thomas Billups said. “Monta’s been the same person, on and off the court, since the day he got here.”

50-50 to go to the NBA, but I’m guessing he’ll go.

Antone Smith is going to Florida State, and good for him and the Seminoles.

But bad on him for how he chose to make the announcement, which left Classie Smith all but inconsolable. She wanted her son, who was Florida’s Mr. Football last season in leading the Blue Devils to a state title, to go to nearby Miami so she could easily attend all his home games.

No problem that Smith decided to go to Florida State, because a young man in his position has to do what he feels is best for himself above all else. His mother even acknowledged her own selfishness for wanting Smith to become a Hurricane.

The problem, though, had to do with her son’s dramatic production in a big and theatrical tease.

Know when his mother found out he’d be going to Florida State? The same time everybody else did.

That’s more than sad. That’s callous and cruel.

“He never told me,” she said after having composed herself. “I wish he had told me.”

Nice, way to acknowledge your mom.

After undergoing offseason shoulder surgery, Abukar entered this season optimistic, and added close to 15 pounds of muscle. Some of that bulk evaporated during a 30-day stretch in October and November when Abukar, a practicing Muslim, fasted from sunrise to sunset during the holy month of Ramadan.

“The fact that he is that committed and dedicated to his faith and his religion is something that speaks volumes about him as a person,” Donovan said. “But I think that 30 days kind of set him back and I think there were some guys that were probably ahead of him right now that he wasn’t able to get in front of to play more minutes.”

ESPN announced that it will launch it’s own college sports network, ESPNU, in March 2005. The new channel will carry approximately 300 games live — primarily Division I football and men’s and women’s basketball — in the first year. The network will also cover spring football, baseball, softball, volleyball, and other collegiate sports. It will also carry regular-season and NCAA championships, along with replays of games on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC and the company’s regional networks.

Pardon me while I whimper in joy.

“I was hitting .299 and (manager) Casey Stengel told me if I got a hit in my first time up, he would take me out (with a .300 average),” Richardson says. “We were playing in Baltimore, and their players knew, too.”

Billy O’Dell, a Newberry native and Richardson’s off-season hunting buddy, pitched for the Orioles that day, and he sent word that he would throw straight down the middle. Brooks Robinson advised that he would be playing a deep third base if Richardson wanted to bunt for a hit.

“Joe Ginsberg, the catcher, said he would tell me the pitches,” Richardson says. “Ed Hurley, the first-base umpire, said, ‘Just make the plays close.’ ”

With help like that, how could he fail? He didn’t, but he almost did.

Hey, if everybody’s in on it, is that really cheating?

Basketball defined this region in a way no other sport had, and at the very least, new accents and distant sponsors will dilute the Dixie flavor. “The preeminence of the ACC was a way in which the South became part of a nation,” says Professor Llewellyn. “We were best in the nation at something, which, other than writers of modern fiction, we haven’t managed in too many categories.”