Old School shows the kiddies how it's done

Notre Dame is the home of "Bookstore Basketball," which is billed as the world's largest 5-on-5 outdoor basketball tournament. Amost 700 teams participated this year, and Matthew and I were both on teams--me with the Econ dept. (The Invisible Hands, ha ha), and Matthew with some human resources folks (Old School). While The Invisible Hands put up a good fight but bowed out in their first game, Old School won FOUR games and made it to the round of 32. It's hard to understand what a big deal this is if you're not familiar with the tournament, but here's the article from today's student newspaper. Their "Cinderella run" was newsworthy enough that they grabbed the headline:

Cinderella run ends as Old School falls to Delivery Boys

No. 6 Delivery Boys 21, Old School 15
Using their youth and athleticism, the No. 6 Delivery Boys held off Old School on their way to a victory that moves them into the Sweet 16. One of the Cinderella stories of the tournament, unranked Old School, whose average age is 35 years old, hung with the Delivery Boys, but just did not have enough to pull out a victory.

"They're tough on the boards, and as soon as they're on the boards, they're breaking, so you have to get back," Old School captain Todd Hill said. "It was tough on us. It just wore us down."

The Delivery Boys set the pace of the game right from the outset, but Old School stayed with them through most of the first half. It was not until the second half, when the Delivery Boys switched their defense, that they pulled out to a solid lead.

"We switched up to man to man and got on the boards and got out running. That's our strength, to get out on the open floor, and we did that well," Delivery Boys sophomore David Rudy said. "They were scrappy. They were fighting for loose balls. We started out in a zone and they tore it apart. We just fought back and played well."

Despite the loss, Hill felt good about the way his team performed. "We knew they were going to try to run us, so we tried to slow them down with old-man ball," he said. "That's all we could do. We still have the competitive spirit of a 20-year-old. Unfortunately it's trapped in 30- and 40-year-old bodies, so it makes it tough."

The Delivery Boys look to use their speed and the fast break to their advantage as they continue in the tournament."[We have to] keep it running and play well," Rudy said.