With NCAA March Madness brackets out, I need to tell the SEC about the Midwest

Now that the NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket is revealed, there are the usual arguments over seeds and which conference is the best. With this, I don’t care about opinions. I care about facts. Have any players ever won a high school state championship, a college championship, an NBA title and an Olympic gold medal? Is that heroic feat even possible? Only three men have accomplished this. Guess what? They are not from Indiana, Kentucky or North Carolina, the three states that seem to historically brag that they have the strongest basketball heritage and legacies. It pains me as a Wolverine and Wildcat to put a Buckeye, Hoosier and Spartan on this pedestal, but they so earned and deserve it.

1. Jerry Lucas: Middletown, Ohio, High School (1956 and 1957), Ohio State University (1960), New York Knicks (1973), Olympic gold (1960)
2. Quinn Buckner: Thornridge, Illinois, High School (1971 and 1972), Indiana University (1976), Boston Celtics (1984), Olympic gold (1976)
3. Earvin “Magic” Johnson: Lansing Everett, Michigan, High School (1977), Michigan State University (1979), Los Angeles Lakers (1980), Olympic gold (1992)

What do they have in common? They were boys of the midwest. They played for Big 10 universities. Draw a triangle from Dayton to Chicago to Lansing, 200 to 300 miles on each side. This is the holy ground of basketball. Drop the mic! The SEC and the rest of the country have no response.

Ann-Nora Hirami

Plymouth

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