GMU, CHS, CHC, OMG

We are now in one of those times during the year where there is a surfeit of sports. Some of the most compelling events take place during March and April, including high school tournaments, collegiate winter sports championships and then the Masters in April. Some amazing things this weekend, including:

• George Mason to the Final Four. While the notion of Cinderella is part of the mythology of the NCAA tournament, Cinderellas usually don't get to the Final Four. Most years, the teams in the final are large, famous universities - the Valparaisos and Murray States might win a game or two, but usually see it end the second weekend. This year the lineup of teams in the Final Four includes the usual array of heavyweights, including the University of Florida, Lousiana State University (better known as LSU) and the University of California, Los Angeles (a/k/a UCLA). These are all long-standing members of the college basketball aristocracy, especially UCLA, the most storied school of all. Then there's George Mason University, an obscure Virginia commuter school with almost no claim to fame. But the Patriots beat such worthies as Michigan State, North Carolina and Connecticut to get to the Final Four. This may be the greatest run in the history of the tournament, and that's saying something.
• Cooper High School gets to the MSHL finals. If you were to look up "also-ran" in the dictionary, you'd find Cooper High School. Cooper is a first ring suburban high school that serves Robbinsdale and New Hope. For years, Cooper was the poor sister of the powerful Classic Lake Conference, where they regularly got their butts handed to them by prosperous suburban schools like Edina, Minnetonka, Hopkins and Wayzata. This year, though, it was different, until the end. The Cooper Hawks came flying out of their new league, the North Suburban, with a glittering 25-3 record. They then fought their way all the way to the state finals, where they faced mighty Hopkins. Would the Hawks finally claim revenge over a longtime nemesis? Would Cooper finally bring home the big hardware to their, barren windswept trophy case? Unfortunately, the answer was no, but after all the years of mericless thrashings, it was nice to see the long-suffering Cooper kids kids get a chance to enjoy just a little bit of glory.
• How do you lose to the College of Holy Cross? If your team is Middlebury, or Plattsburgh State, or Tufts, it would be easy enough to understand. But if you are the University of Minnesota, crown jewel of the STATE OF HOCKEY, it's about as embarrassing a development as possible. Somehow the mighty Gophers, featuring a glittering array of talent bound for the NHL, lost to the team fielded by a school whose greatest athlete is Bob Cousy, a basketball player from the 1950s. Hockey hubris, pure and simple. The Gophs didn't take Holy Cross seriously. Big mistake. You can hear the taunts of the North Dakota Sioux fans echoing all the way down I-29.

It's almost too much sports to deal with. But goodness knows, it's fun. And next week it continues. Climb on board the George Mason bandwagon, everyone....