In Indiana, Basketball Tradition Rules

It looks as if Indiana basketball purists were right in the years-old brouhaha over the remake of the Indiana high school tournament.

This was the first year of the changeover, from the traditional one-class format to a four-class format, based on school enrollments.

And the purists who cringed at the very idea now feel vindicated.

They wanted to keep the format in which small schools could retain the hope of defeating big schools.

Fans, apparently, agreed.

The final day’s attendance for both boys’ and girls’ finals this year fell 47%, from 54,030 last year to 29,189. TV ratings, in the Indianapolis area, plunged by more than half.

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Trivia time: Larry Bird was named the NBA’s coach of the year this week. Who are the other three first-year coaches to win the award?

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More Bird: Bird received 50 points in media voting for the coach-of-the-year award. He isn’t likely to do that well in father-of-the year balloting, not after Sports Illustrated included him in a recent story about deadbeat athlete/fathers.

Bird has a 20-year-old daughter, Corrie Bird, with whom he has rarely spoken, even after moving to Indianapolis to take the Pacer job, SI reported. His daughter is a student at Indiana State.

He refused to be interviewed for the story, the magazine said, but did have a rare visit with his daughter last month.

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Condo man: Broadcaster Jon Miller described in a book a conversation with Mark McGwire about why there were so many home runs these days.

“Here’s the answer,” said McGwire, raising his right arm and flexing.

Miller: “I’ll never forget that flex. His biceps looked like a high-rise condominium. It was gigantic.”

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Short streak: Houston’s Jeff Bagwell has a new appreciation for Cal Ripken’s 2,518-consecutive game playing streak.

The Astros put Bagwell on the 15-day disabled list this week because of a cut knee. It ended his playing streak at 389 games.

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Phenom time: The Washington Post’s Tony Kornheiser, writing about the Chicago Cubs’ Kerry Wood:

“We like phenoms. We need phenoms--kids who come out of nowhere and set the world on its ear. They reassure us of the marvel of possibility. They remind us of days of wonder, before we had the Internet, before we knew everything.”

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Trivia answer: Harry Gallatin (St. Louis), 1963; Johnny Kerr (Chicago), 1967; Mike Schuler (Portland), 1987.

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And finally: Ex-pro basketball player Art Heyman, telling the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the 1967 American Basketball Assn. trade that sent him to to Pittsburgh for Barry Leibowitz:

“It was the first time in professional sports that a Jew was traded for a Jew.”