Nobody remembers second place, except me.

In a result that surprised virtually nobody outside of the town of Montgomery, the Barr-Reeve High School Vikings fell short in their quest to win the boys Class A state championship last weekend.

Despite my years of antipathy for Barr-Reeve, I try to set those feelings aside whenever a local school makes it to the championship game. Even if I have to hold my nose while rooting for them, I'll still pull for local teams to make good.

However, Barr-Reeve's failure to bring home a championship is fairly commonplace for schools in our area. Since class basketball's beginnings 10 years ago (please, no debate here), there have been almost a disproportionate number of schools from my immediate area who have made it to the championship of their class ... only to lay an egg when they arrive at Conseco and get destroyed/beaten soundly/otherwise defeated. Check out these results ("local" schools highlighted):

Boys:

1997-98
Lafayette Central Catholic 56, Bloomfield 48 (A Championship)

1998-99
Westview 71, Paoli 52 (2A Championship)

1999-00
Marion 62, Bloomington North 56 (4A Championship)
Lafayette Central Catholic 82, Union (Dugger) 70 (A Championship)

2001-02
Rossville 79, Barr-Reeve 68 (A Championship)

2002-03
Cass 57, Forest Park 48 (2A Championship)

2004-05
Washington 74, Plymouth 72 (OT) (3A Championship)
Forest Park 68, Harding 63 (2A Championship)
Lapel 51, Loogootee 40 (A Championship)

2005-06
Forest Park 61, Harding 55 (2A Championship)

2006-07
Oregon-Davis 63, Barr-Reeve 52 (A Championship)

Looking at the three boys' successes from our area, 2004-05 Washington had a Mr. Basketball (Luke Zeller) on its team as well as a strong supporting cast, while Forest Park's back-to-back champions were probably as solid a team to come out of this area since class sports began. They were just a juggernaut that was just a knee injury away from likely bringing home three in a row.

But by and large (and I'll grant that there are exceptions), here's what happens in most of these games: the local team will fall behind by about 10 or 12 points from the outset, sometimes more, then try to claw their way back into the game. (This happened with both Barr-Reeve runner-up finishes in the tournament, the Loogootee loss in 2005, and the losses by Wood Memorial, Washington Catholic and White River Valley on the girls' side).

And I'm going to be candid for a minute: a lot of local schools - and I'm not naming names, but they know who they are - play a horseshit brand of basketball that dictates that they cannot play from behind. They must keep it within 5 points, catch a couple of breaks to grab a lead, and then hold the ball.

That's not a knock on anyone. If you don't have the athletes to run a track meet against a more talented team, then you've got to compensate, and some schools have been very successful at it. Playing that brand of basketball requires a level of discipline that frustrates a lot of opponents who should, quite frankly, run them out of the gym, and more power to those who can pull it off.

It's just that when you get to the finals playing that brand of basketball, you typically run into teams that are stronger, faster, deeper and more rugged, who play a different type of basketball that usually murders our local squads.

And it happens seemingly every time. The list of scores above doesn't lie. (My first edit of this post had a similar list for the girls, which had a similar result, but dammit, I'm trying to learn brevity.)

****

My wife and I had a conversation in the closing minutes of the Barr-Reeve loss last week. I kind of chuckled as more Viking shots clanged off the iron, and she asked what was so funny.

Me: "I can't believe anyone would be shocked at this result."

Wife: "What do you mean?"

Me: "Every time someone from around here makes it to Indy (to play in the championship), they completely embarrass themselves. Loogootee laid an egg. Barr-Reeve's laid two eggs now. Wood Memorial's girls laid an egg in the girls' championship. I don't know why anyone thought this game would be different."

Wife (indignant): "Well, at least they made it. Your school has never won a sectional."

Me: "That's right, we've never won a sectional. We prefer to keep our embarrassment on a local level, instead of pooping our pants in front of a statewide audience like this."

Then, she told me how impossible I was, and I went off to do something else. But my last comment gave me a thought about what I'd hoped the next online edition of the Washington Times-Herald (the paper that would cover Barr-Reeve's run) would look like.