Indiana boys basketball personalities share their thoughts with the Times' sports staff about the IHSAA boys basketball tournament, which celebrates its 100th event this year:

Cucuz remembers friendly foes

"The thing that sticks out for me is that during the sectionals and regionals, everyone was out for themselves ... to beat the other team, to advance to the next round," recalls Bo Cucuz, the 6-foot-10 star center for Lake Central's Final Four team in 1984. "But once we got to semistate, then later to the state finals, all the teams from around here that we beat or got eliminated got behind us.

"One day after we won our regional, I was driving down (U.S) 231 going into Crown Point, and I saw a big sign cheering us on. Then later after we won semistate, I was in Munster and I saw the same thing. We were no longer just representing Lake Central, but the whole Region."

The Market Square Arena experience also left an indelible impression.

"Here I am, just 17 years old, and playing in front of 25,000 people," Cucuz said. "It was amazing."

Unfortunately for Cucuz and the Indians, they picked the worst time to have their worst shooting game of the season and lost to Vincennes Lincoln in the semifinals. Warsaw was the eventual state champion, led by future Indiana Mr. Basketball Jeff Grose, who would later become a teammate of Cucuz and fellow Indian star Milan Petrovic at Northwestern.

"I remember Jeff telling me that he was so happy his team didn't have to face us in the finals," Cucuz said. -- John Burbridge

Washington championship first of three for Stoddard

Like "The Lord of the Rings", Tim Stoddard's quest for championship rings is a trilogy.

The East Chicago native has the distinction of being the only person to have earned an NCAA men's basketball championship ring (North Carolina State in 1974) and a World Series championship ring (Baltimore Orioles in 1983).

He also was a member of the 1971 state champion E.C. Washington Senators, who went 29-0 for the season.

"All (of the championships) have special meaning for me," Stoddard said. "They all came during different stages of my life.

"When you're 17 or 18 years old and living in Indiana, winning a basketball championship is one of the highest accomplishments an athlete can achieve at that age. When you get older, you move on and take on other challenges."

The only other athlete to play in a NCAA basketball Final Four and World Series (though Stoddard didn't play in the 1983 Fall Classic, he won a game and drove in a run for the Orioles when they lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979), is fellow Washington alumnus Kenny Lofton.

"I still keep up with what's going on in East Chicago," said Stoddard, who is the pitching coach for Northwestern's baseball team. "Especially when my old teammate (Pete Trgovich) was coaching (E.C.) Central to a state title (in 2007)."

Stoddard also keeps up with Indiana basketball in general.

"But I wish they wouldn't have gone to a class system," he said. "When you have 400 teams battling for just one championship, it means a little more." -- John Burbridge

Plump buzzer-beater defines tournament

You know the story. You saw the movie it inspired in "Hoosiers."

It was Bobby Plump's 15-foot jumper at the buzzer of the 1954 state championship game that gave fearless Milan its 32-30 upset of four-time state champ Muncie Central and made Plump an instant celebrity for life.

Milan High School had 161 students in grades 9-12. The tiny town had a population of 1,150 and was comprised of a grocery, service station and post office -- all in the same building.

Milan was actually pretty good, its margin of victory at 16 points per game prior to battling the Bearcats at Butler Fieldhouse. Nine of its 10 players earned college scholarships and six went into coaching, according to Plump.

If Milan and perennial power Muncie Central played five times, how many would Milan win?

"Five," Plump said. "People forget we were in the Final Four the year before that and got beat in the afternoon game by South Bend Central, the eventual champion."

Milan's cat-and-mouse, four-corner offense frustrated opponents to no end.

"We used it all through the tournament once we got ahead of somebody," Plump said. "We beat Crispus Attucks, with Oscar Robertson, 65-52 in the semistate finals. We beat Terre Haute Gerstmeyer (in the state semifinals), 60-48, using the four-corner offense against both teams.

"By the way, Ray Crowe coached seven years at Attucks, won 170 and lost 20, and he told me when we beat him by 13, it was the worst loss he had there." -- Al Hamnik

Bird hoped for a Milan repeat

Larry Bird lit up opponents like the White House Christmas tree while at Springs Valley High School.

The "Hick from French Lick" had a four-inch growth spurt between his junior and senior seasons, going from 6-foot-3 to 6-7, and giving him the needed size to go with his uncanny skill and style.

Bird led Springs Valley to a 21-4 record his senior year, averaging 30.6 points and 20.6 rebounds per game -- with school records of 55 points (vs. Corydon) and 38 boards (vs. Bloomfield).

He was an Indiana All-Star but never played in the Final Four.

"As a young player in high school, the tournament meant everything," Bird said. "Coming from a small town and a small school, you dreamed of becoming another Milan.

"I think the tournament, no matter what form, will always be important to our state."

Now president of basketball operations for the NBA's Indiana Pacers, Bird still finds time in his hectic schedule to follow "Hoosier Hysteria" as a fan.

"Friday and Saturday nights was your chance to show whether or not all the practice and work you put into it was paying off," Bird said. "It let me know if I was improving.

"I loved to compete and hated to lose. Still do." -- Al Hamnik

A dream unachieved for Popovich

Young Gregg Popovich thought he had it all planned out. He couldn't wait.

"Growing up in East Chicago meant only one thing to me and that was to become an E.C. Washington Senator some day and play for Hall of Fame coach John Baratto," Popovich said. "I can still remember listening to the radio when Bob Cantrell, Ron Divjak and company were playing Muncie Central in the 1960 state championship game. That's when I fell in love with basketball. That was my inspiration."

Baratto coached high school ball for 26 years, including 23 at E.C.W., compiling a career record of 468-157.

Popovich has had quite a coaching career as well in leading the San Antonio Spurs to four NBA titles.

"Becoming a Senator never happened because we moved to Merrillville when I was in the sixth grade," Popovich said. "But I always followed my unachieved dream." -- Al Hamnik

East also has been north, south and west

Jim East has coached basketball in Indiana as a head coach for 42 years and has more than 600 victories.

"I've been all over the state," East said. "I've been as far south as you can go without swimming in the Ohio River. I've been as far north as you can go without swimming in Lake Michigan. I think I have a pretty good idea what 'Hoosier Hysteria' is."

But the games in which his teams played in March of 1972 and 1995 were the most important of his storied career.

As an assistant coach Connersville in 1972, East watched his team upset highly favored West Side 80-63 in the state championship game at Indiana University's Assembly Hall.

"We were considered a small school (1,500 students) from a fairly small community," East said. "The first excitements down there was the fast-food restaurant and Wal-Mart. They had nothing else to do so they went to basketball games. When we started winning, everyone in our community and surrounding area jumped on the bandwagon. That was 'Hoosier Hysteria'."

In 1995 East guided Merrillville to the state championship game, where his Pirates lost to top-ranked Ben Davis 58-57.

"To me personally, the Merrillville experience was much more enjoyable because I was the head coach," East said. "We had about 4,500 people at the RCA Dome. We represented the Region, not just Merrillville. The excitement among our fans was as great as it was for the Connersville fans. That was a great ride." -- Steve Hanlon

Pizzo: 'Hoosiers' will never happen again

Angelo Pizzo graduated from Bloomington High School in 1966. But he is best known for his 1986 film "Hoosiers," which brought Indiana's love affair with high school basketball to the world. Hickory is loosely based on Milan's run to the 1954 state championship.

"My goal was not to tell the Milan story, but to tell what basketball meant to our culture," Pizzo said. "The success took me by surprise. But I was glad to share our game and our stories with the rest of the country."

"Hoosiers" was named the top sports movie of all-time by both ESPN and USA Today. In 2001 the movie was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "Culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Pizzo, who followed Bloomington South's Class 4A state championship team last year and also is a huge IU basketball fan, finds nothing significant with the state tournament today.

"The state of high school basketball in Indiana is a joke," Pizzo said. "The IHSAA has tried to destroy 'Hoosier Hysteria' with the multi-class tournament and they have succeeded."

Pizzo has a real problem with upstart private schools and charter schools, who, he said, are not about the team but the individual. He said that the biggest concern for these new schools and coaches are college scholarships for the individual, not state championships for the community.

"It's not like it used to be," Pizzo said. "Now you have teams driving all over God's green earth for sectional games against teams they don't even know.

The sectional used to be about being the best in your neighborhood. They were like mini state championships."

Pizzo said he went to watch two of the best high school teams in Florida recently so he could get a look at one of the players Tom Crean is recruiting.

"There was nobody there," Pizzo said. "And we're not very far away from that." -- Steve Hanlon

Too much drama for one day

Renaldo Thomas went into the huddle in the 1982 state semifinal between his Gary Roosevelt Panthers and Evansville Bosse. Roosevelt was trailing by a point, and coach Ron Heflin set up a play. It was designed to set up a jump shot for either Anthony Stewart or Winston Garland.

But Andre Anders looked at Thomas and said: "Do you want the ball? I'm giving it to you because you're the one who got us here." Thomas took the ball, dribbled coast-to-coast and threw a high-arching shot off the glass to give the Panthers a 58-57 win.

"The play wasn't designed for me, but it should've been," said Thomas, now the head coach at Lew Wallace. "When that shot went in, it was pure jubilation, that's all I can say. I was overwhelmed with joy."

Later that night a last-second shot in regulation by Plymouth's Scott Skiles ended up breaking the Panthers' heart in one of the greatest state finals games ever. Plymouth eventually won 75-74 in two extra sessions, with Skiles scoring 39.

"When I think of 'Hoosier Hysteria', I think of Panthers basketball at Roosevelt and those glory years," Thomas said. "We gave the game away, it's no secret. Plymouth shot 38 free throws to our 16. I know the stat line. It's funny how people downstate say that Skiles was the only good player on the floor. That's a joke. We had good players, too." -- Steve Hanlon

No. 1 for a reason

In 1987 Delray Brooks played for coach Rick Pitino's Providence team in the NCAA Final Four. While a senior at Michigan City Rogers in 1984, he was named the No. 1 player in the nation by both ESPN and USA Today. Whenever Providence played in a packed gymnasium and his teammates from other parts of the country asked him about Indiana high school basketball, Brooks always said the same thing.

"This crowd tonight is what it's like in Indiana," Brooks said. "We have big gyms there and they are always packed."

Brooks won three sectional titles in four years at Rogers, and was a last-second shot against Warsaw away from advancing to Indiana's Final Four as a senior. He later would make it to Indianapolis when he was named Indiana's Mr. Basketball.

"Playing high school basketball in Indiana was the greatest experience in my life," Brooks said. "The thing I tell everybody is everything I experienced in the game of basketball, I first experienced in Michigan City, Indiana. Making it to the NCAA Final Four was just like making it to the Sweet 16 in 'Hoosier Hysteria'.

"Those experiences were very much the same." -- Steve Hanlon

Head-scratching moments for Kneifel

Craig Kneifel still enjoys looking at the trophy case at Kouts High School. Kneifel, a 1987 Mustangs grad, was the leading scorer (18.6 ppg) on the school's first sectional championship team.

"It's so nice to go back and see the plaque and trophy," said Kneifel, who now helps coach the fifth- and sixth-grade boys basketball teams at Kouts. "I think about it every night. It was truly the highlight of my high school career."

Kouts' boys program has won six overall sectional crowns, including three in the single-class format (1987, 1995, 1996).

Kouts edged Boone Grove (60-58), North Newton (79-71) and Lowell (56-54) to win the Kankakee Valley Sectional. Kneifel remembers his amazement with the accomplishment.

"It was kind of a fluke; we were 1-19 the previous year," said Kneifel, whose club finished 14-9 in 1987. "I just consider that we really shouldn't have been there. I couldn't believe we ended up winning the title. My most vivid memories are of the last 30 seconds of the championship game."

Kneifel just wishes his memories were even more extensive.

"I'm actually disappointed in myself that I don't remember more," he said. "My mother appears to remember more than I do."

Kneifel still has clear recollections of what transpired after the Mustangs won the crown. He said a CBS-TV affiliate came down to film a 20- to 30-second spot on the nightly news.

"They went to (player) Cory Upton's house and did a thing similar to 'Hoosiers'," Kneifel said. "They took shots of the Upton's basketball court and all-around with the fields and barns."

Then there was the lead-up to the regional.

"We all got together and watched 'Hoosiers'," he said. "Then everyone packed up for the caravan. It seemed like the whole town shut down."

His feelings have left Kneifel somewhat split on the class issue.

"I think it's better for the smaller schools to get the acknowledgement; it's nice to see more schools get a chance to succeed," he said. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me, and that's why I still like the old format." -- Jim Hunsley

Single-class highlights remain for Otis

Valparaiso grad and current Vikings boys basketball coach Joe Otis still holds two crystal-clear memories of the single-class tournament in his mind.

The 1970 Valpo alumnus attended his first state finals in 1967 as a starry-eyed ninth-grader. Evansville North's Bob Ford eclipsed Oscar Robertson's tournament scoring mark that season. Otis, plus sophomore varsity players Gary Gabbard and Steve Gast, wanted to get closer to the moment.

"We got the bright idea to go down to the floor and meet Ford," said Otis, who played basketball for three years at Northwestern. "We ran onto the floor and shook his hand, interrupting (legendary Indiana sportscaster) Hilliard Gates' interview with Ford. It was one of those amazing things. It's like we weren't going to wash our hands again.

"Five years later, I find myself guarding Ford when we played Purdue."

Otis also vividly recalls the final single-class state finals in 1997. This time he was coaching LaPorte.

"When you think in the context of history, it might be my favorite moment," said Otis, who coached for 21-plus seasons with the Slicers. "That last time LaPorte was there was 1944. That was during World War II. Due to gasoline rationing, only 125 people made the trip to state. Jack Wendt, one of their top players, missed the state finals because he was drafted.

"Go to 1997, and there were 5,000 attending in orange. There were 29,000 people at the state finals, the fourth largest crowd in state tournament history.

"It's everybody's dream to get to Indy. It was a dream come true for us."

As for the state tournament, Otis pines for the past.

"I remember going back to state finals about 10 years ago, and I struck up a conversation with a woman at the games," Otis said. "We reminisced about playing at Hinkle Fieldhouse, how it was so much harder to get a ticket. How it was so much better then. Then she told me, 'At Hinkle, you had basketball fans. Here you just have spectators.'" -- Jim Hunsley

Drew -- for the win!

A skinny kid with a baby face and a killer jump shot, Bryce Drew easily could pass as a poster boy for "Hoosier Hysteria." While he wasn't born in Indiana, the son of Valparaiso University coach Homer Drew has spent most of his 35 years here.

"Growing up in Indiana was a blessing for me because I got to grow up watching high school basketball," Bryce said. "With my dad being a college coach, I always got to go to games with him. At the time, I did not realize how big basketball was in Indiana, but as I traveled to other states and saw games, I quickly noticed. From the gyms, to the fans, to the coaches and players, basketball in Indiana seemed to be a priority and interest to many."

Drew's national claim to fame remains his iconic shot that beat fourth-seeded Mississippi 70-69 in the first round of the 1998 NCAA tournament, a clip that remains a television staple during March Madness.

But Drew's on-court exploits started with a different color Valpo jersey, the Kelly green of the high school Vikings. Drew and backcourt mate Tim Bishop led Valpo to the championship game in 1994, where they fell in overtime to South Bend Clay. Years later, the disappointing outcome has not diminished the experience for Drew in the least.

"The state tournament was the climax of the basketball season," Drew said. "Every team in the state had the goal to make it to the state finals. Having 20,000 people to see the finals was something all the players in the state dreamed of. Being blessed to play in the state finals was even better than all the hype. It is an event that I will remember for the rest of my life." -- Jim Peters

A lifetime of memories

Fan, high school player, collegiate player, coach, radio/TV personality, dad.

Dan Dakich has seen "Hoosier Hysteria" in about every manner possible.

"The whole thing's awesome, in my opinion," Dakich said. "It's a really big deal to me. It always has been and always will be, whether as a little kid, a kid who got to play in it, as an adult. I love every bit of it."

It all started for Dakich as a child when his dad, then the principal at Calumet, took him to the sectional.

"They won and they canceled school," he said. "I remember it like it was yesterday."

Dakich also would make the trek to West Side for games, going for the morning session, stopping at Coney King on Broadway for a hot dog afterward, head home to play some ball, then return for the evening session.

"It was the greatest thing ever for me," he said.

The odyssey continued into high school, when Dakich led Andrean to the Final Four in 1980 and the semistate in 1981. Some 30 years later, the moments are indelibly etched in his mind and heart.

"What continues to stick out is how many people who went to Andrean during that time have great memories," he said. "It was an absolute lifetime of memories, whether you were a player, a cheerleader, fans, media, school paper guys. That was the cool thing about the state championship run. What other part of the high school experience could do that? The French Club? That's what made it so fun. Everybody came together. Truthfully, there is a bond I feel with the guys on that team."

Dakich went on to play at IU. He coached at Bowling Green before returning to his alma mater as an assistant. In 2008, he was given the responsibility of holding things together in the aftermath of the Kelvin Sampson mess. He now hosts a popular Indianapolis-based radio show on 1070-AM The Fan, in addition to handling studio commentator duties on the Big Ten Network. All the while, he has returned to 5959 Broadway each summer for a basketball camp.

"I feel a bond to the school just because it was always my goal just to play for Andrean," he said. "Having the experience I was able to have, I cherish and love the school."

Dakich did radio work on Network Indiana for the Class 3A and 4A championships last season. He'll enjoy the tournament this year for the first time as a parent, if his son Andrew, a freshman at Zionsville, makes the postseason roster.

"Every year is a thrill," he said. -- Jim Peters

Consolation prize was a Trester Award

T.J. Lux's Merrillville team had just lost by to Ben Davis 58-57 in the 1995 championship game, when he saw his parents on the RCA Dome floor.

They looked as devastated as their senior son, but also as proud as parents could be.

"Everything kind of happened so fast," said Lux, now an assistant coach for the Pirates after a record-setting career at Northern Illinois and as a professional player in Europe. "My body was so numb. I was thinking about the game and at first I didn't know what the heck was going on. Especially now, looking back, you realize what a prestigious honor it was."

Lux was presented with the Arthur L. Trester Mental Attitude Award after his team's loss, his folks beaming with pride as he was presented following his 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds remaining in the game that drew the Pirates within a point of Ben Davis.

When he opened his DLUX training facility in Crown Point, the Trester Award found a space just as proudly in his new office.

"People who know basketball, know about it and recognize it, that it's more than just an award," Lux said. "It carries a little more weight."

Lux played for three sectional champions, two regional champs and a semistate champion. He scored 31 points in two games in the state finals his senior season.

"I remember how it was in Mackey Arena in the semistate, once you were done playing the area teams," Lux said. "With four different schools there, each school had its own section. When we would walk into the area, you'd see all the purple and people would stand up and start cheering for you, that was pretty cool.

"I was just telling the guys the other day how much fun I had playing on a team like that, and it's a big part of why I'm the assistant coach right now. This is a big experience, playing in the tournament, and to help the guys live in that moment and enjoy the moment when they have it." -- Hillary Smith

History continues to intrigue Cunningham

Carson Cunningham's interest in the game of basketball is rivaled only by his passion for history. The intersection of his two favorite subjects afford the 1996 Andrean grad the opportunity to flourish. A history professor at DePaul University and the holder of a Ph.D. in the subject from Purdue University, where he played basketball for three years following one season at Oregon State, Cunningham is the author of "American Hoops: U.S. Men's Olympic Basketball from Berlin to Beijing." The tome traces the evolution of the game from a time when it was played outdoors with no timeouts, a limit of two substitutions and only seven players in uniform to the international spectacle it is today.

Although he hasn't written a book on the Indiana state tournament, Cunningham, who played in a single-class regional championship in 1995 and coached his alma mater in a Class 3A sectional final last season, is fascinated with the nationally known event.

"In all corners of the U.S., folks know about Indiana’s legendary prep hoops tournament -- especially Milan ’54," Cunningham said. "And for those of us who grew up in the Region, other years get seared to the brain: like Roosevelt vs. The Big "O" in ’55, East Chicago’s Rough Riders, ’70 and then E.C.'s Senators, ’71, Robinson and Roosevelt, ’91. Moving to the era of class basketball, there’s West Side ’02 and E.C. Central ’07."

Cunningham finds the annual event intriguing for its myriad variables and the recurring query: Who's next?

"The tournament’s unknowns help make it great: which team will play together best, who will step up, and what strategies will be employed?" Cunningham said. "But more importantly, the beauty of the tournament rests in the memories that get made as competitors strive to resolve these questions as best they can alongside their teammates -- whether playing for a team that goes down valiantly in the first round, for one that just misses an upset win for a regional crown or for the squad that takes home the title.

"So when I think of the tournament and what it means, I think of the credit that the tournament’s players deserve -- for their courage to test their mettle playing a sport that resonates more powerfully in their home state than in any other."

Always one to draw inspiration from historical luminaries and their words, Cunningham summarized his feelings on the importance of the event's combatants with an abridged version of a quote delivered by Theodore Roosevelt in April 1910, approximately one year before Indiana began conducting its annual tourney:

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena ... who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." -- Paul Trembacki

Broadcasting the future

Before George McGinnis became a star with the Pacers in the ABA and the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA during the 1970s, he was a teenager who dreamed of winning a state title with Indianapolis Washington.

"When we were sophomores in high school, (I would go with some of my teammates) to (Hinkle) Fieldhouse, and that's where they played the tournament back in those days," McGinnis said. "This was in 1967. And we'd sit out there in our cars, and we'd do mock play-by-play of the state final games with us in it because we thought we were gonna get there some day. And lo and behold, being able to win that (state title) in 1969 would be my fondest memory."

Yes, McGinnis, fellow standout big man Steve Downing and the rest of the Continentals defeated Gary Tolleston 79-76 to fulfill their play-by-play prophecies. And to this day, McGinnis cherishes his "Hoosier Hysteria" experience.

"From the time I was about 6 years old, I watched (the tournament) with my dad, starting with the (Crispus) Attucks team of '55-56," he said. "And (I loved) watching that tournament every year and just seeing how it all played out and the different legends that came from it. So it means a lot to me, probably more than any event (in which) I've ever played.

"I think this can be said for the entire state of Indiana -- (the tournament) has been probably one of the prized possessions that we've had here. And every kid grows up shooting hoops. And if he plays basketball on his high school team one day, (he wants) to play in that tournament and do well. It just means everything.

"There are so (many) other things going on in today's game like AAU and things like that. And you've watered down the tournament with class basketball, but certainly back in my era it was the only game in town, and it was something you just dreamed about day and night." -- Nate Ulrich

Painting pictures of the good old days

Steve Alford cherishes many memories from his playing days at New Castle, but one recollection is particularly colorful.

"It was neat seeing a city painted," said Alford, who was named Indiana's Mr. Basketball in 1983 after averaging 37.7 points per game as a senior. "(Our school colors) were green and white, so businesses would paint their businesses green and white. People would paint their homes and their fences green and white. It was a happening. It was something that everybody looked forward to. You kept painting things until your team was eliminated (from the tournament)."

Alford and the rest of the Trojans kept people in their neighborhoods busy with brushes for some time in 1983. They advanced to a semistate championship game at Hinkle Fieldhouse, where they suffered a 70-57 defeat to eventual state champion Connersville.

"We had one state tournament, and there was one state champ," said Alford, who's now the head men's basketball coach at the University of New Mexico. "There was no politics involved. That's what made for a lot of neat rivalries throughout the state. Now, the politics has gotten involved to where there are people running (the tournament) that never played the game, and they don't understand Indiana 'Hoosier Hysteria.'

"It's gotten watered down to the point where you have multiple state champions like every other state. The majority of the rivalries are totally gone. That's unfortunate because I don't think the state tournament is near as special as it once was." -- Nate Ulrich