Thursday, December 27, 2012

Just sayin’

We went to several Arkansas State University home basketball games the first three years we lived here and, while I was filling in as a staff photographer, I covered nearly all of the home games from late December, 2007 through February, 2008.

Having lived most of my life in Indiana, where basketball is the premiere sport and the Big Ten is the only conference that counts, I was used to watching college basketball played and coached at a very high level.

It didn’t take me long to notice that ASU and the Sun Belt conference don’t play the same kind of basketball that you find at Indiana University or Purdue University.

I often joke that on any given night there are probably three or four Indiana high school teams that could beat a Sun Belt team.

So I was interested the other night to see how the Sun Belt Conference’s Florida Atlantic would fare against I.U.

Indiana won 88-52 over the Florida Atlantic team that beat ASU 72-65 back on Dec. 1.

But then basketball isn’t a big deal around here. If you don’t believe it, look at the tiny high school gyms here and then visit Indiana high schools. Indiana has 13 of the 15 largest high school gyms in the nation, including the spectacular New Castle High School gym that seats 9,325. That’s only slightly smaller than the ASU Convocation Center which seats 10,563 for basketball.

No, this is the South and football is the favored sport.

And when it comes to football, ASU just might be able to beat I.U.

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