Basketball marathon tiring but exhilarating

Pardon Leftovers for being exhausted today.

The usual grand setups capped by half-wit one-liners isn't in the cards after a day of watching college basketball.

Yes, an entire day. Twenty-four hours.

The college hoops marathon on ESPN is one of the greatest made-for-TV sports showcases in history, and we were there for the whole thing.

Well, almost. Our marathon started with the UNLV game, causing us to arrive home late for Gonzaga's easy win over West Virginia, just in time for what we hoped would be a couple of epic Bob Huggins explosions. It never happened. Maybe he's not a late-night person.

The game's highlight was suspended Gonzaga star Kelly Olynyk rocking a bow tie with a purple head band encircling his long Adam Morrison-like locks. It's possible the violation of undisclosed team rules for which he was suspended had to do with offending Spokane, Wash.'s fashion sense.

Then, it was on to Albuquerque, where New Mexico trailed Davidson by 16 points in the second half before rallying to beat a Wildcats squad exhausted from the altitude and playing a game that started at 2 a.m. in North Carolina.

There's not much to report from either the Hawaii-Houston Baptist game or the Stony Brook-Rider matchup. Neither game was close, and we spent parts of each game flipping through the channels. On the positive side, we should be enjoying the Magic Bullet food processor we ordered during a commercial break in seven to 10 business days.

Valparaiso then hosted the 5 a.m. game and thrashed a weak Northern Illinois team. Ryan Broekhoff showed why this marathon is so cool, as the reigning Horizon League player of the year had 20 points and 13 rebounds in his moment in the national spotlight. We missed about seven of those points for a grocery run so we could make nachos.

Things heated up with the 7 a.m. game, as Massachusetts got a 3-pointer from Sampson Carter with one second left to survive a scare from Harvard. We would say the Crimson players probably were unnerved about missing class, but after the summer's academic scandal, we know they simply will return to school and copy someone else's work.

The details on the last couple of games are sketchy because of a combination of sleep deprivation and too many nachos, but we do remember one of the best dunks you'll see all year being thrown down by Detroit's Doug Anderson in a loss to St. John's.

That was the end of what we considered the official marathon. After that was a women's game and marquee matchups between Michigan State and Kansas, followed by Duke and Kentucky.

The real marathon is about the little schools that don't get on TV much. And nachos.

It's a great event that we look forward to every year. The only way it could get better is if UNLV is included next year, which makes all the sense in the world. Take over the spot New Mexico had this year. An 11 p.m. game at the Thomas & Mack Center would be a tremendous experience.

Next year's marathon will be even better if for no other reason than we will have the Magic Bullet mastered.

For now, it's time for bed.

COMPILED BY ADAM HILL
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL