Press Box: Division II title game worthy of your attention

News Tribune Sports Commentary

Saturday was all about appointment television for me.

And while the subject of that appointment was basketball, it wasn't either of the games you might think.

Saturday boasted a pair of Elite Eight games in the NCAA Division I Tournament - Oklahoma vs. Oregon and Kansas vs. Villanova - but that's not what I was concerned with. Add another "I" on that descriptor and you've got what I wanted to watch - the NCAA Division II Tournament.

As has been the case for several years now, the Division II title game kicks off the action on the Saturday of the Division I Elite Eight games. And what is also the case is that it ends up being my favorite game of the day.

This year's game was no exception, as Augustana topped Lincoln Memorial by a 90-81 margin.

First, lets answer a couple of questions that you may have.

To be precise, that's Augustana University of Sioux Falls, S.D., a private liberal arts college, lest you confuse it with another Augustana that's closer to us in the Midwest, Augustana College of Rock Island, Ill.

To answer a question you may not have, Augustana's mascot is Ole the Viking, although the school just calls its players the Vikings.

Lincoln Memorial, meanwhile, is a private liberal arts college in Harrogate, Tenn., not the historically black university located right here in Jefferson City. Our Lincoln, while making great strides in men's basketball this past season, isn't quite to the point where it's competing for a national championship in the sport.

And it's definitely not the Lincoln University located in Oxford, Penn., even though all three are named after the person you might think, that being Abraham Lincoln.

To that end, Lincoln Memorial's mascot is the Railsplitters, which was a nickname for the 16th president of the United States.

Anyway, back to the game, which was a great one. And that's to be expected when you get the most combined wins in the history of the game, as No. 2 seed Augustana came in with a gaudy mark of 33-2 and No. 1 Lincoln Memorial entered at 34-2.

When the dust settled, both teams had 34 wins and Augustana had its first basketball championship, as this was the first time it had ever advanced past the Sweet 16.

And is always the case with this game, I end up hoping more people will tune in. Specifically, it's two groups of people - those who turn up their nose and profess "Division I is the only thing that matters" when it comes to intercollegiate athletics, and those parents who can't wait to tell you their kid is a Division I talent.

To both groups, the discussion centers around the same fact: There are some great, great athletes playing at the Division II level.

To those who only think D-I is worth paying attention to, I would ask them to check out some Division II games the next time they get a chance. The quality of play is great, the coaches are talented and there are athletes aplenty - maybe not quite as huge or as lightning-quick as their big-school counterparts, but the talent gap is small.

To those parents, the message is the same. Go watch a D-II game in your kid's chosen sport and get a feel for just how good those players are. Then realize there are players that good at college after college after college. Then go watch a few D-I games - in person, not on TV - and notice the next step up in talent.

Want an example of how blurred the lines in talent can be? Realize that Augustana won the "other NCAA Tournament" at the end of a season where it beat a team in THE tournament. The Vikings posted a 76-74 exhibition win Nov. 6 against No. 7 seed Iowa, which won a first-round game before falling to the aforementioned Villanova.

By the way, Saturday's game was just the second time in 60-year history of the Division II Tournament - and the first since 1975 - that the No. 1 and 2 seeds had met for the title.

In another example of just how good Division II can be, guess who those teams were? No. 1 Old Dominion beat No. 2 New Orleans 76-74 - with New Orleans transitioning to Division I the very next season and Old Dominion doing so the year after that.