The Boys State Basketball Tournament is in the rear-view mirror and we now look ahead to the spring sports season, thanks in part to the record temperatures this week!

Let's take a look back at what we saw.

The 100th Anniversary Tournament was an unusual one. The week was chock-full of blowouts, yet will be remembered for several great games that will go down in the annals of history in Des Moines. Of the 32 games played during the week, a total of 20 were decided by 15 points or more.

But, four beauties will stand out. Well. maybe three beauties and a game a lot of folks around Boone would like to rewrite.

The controversial game took place on day one when MFL MarMac held off a spirited Sioux Center rally, 73-72. A Sioux Center player fouled out and remained on the court toward the end of the contest. While the Sioux Center coaches pleaded that they weren't informed of the disqualification, a technical foul was assessed because of an ineligible player on the court during play. The one made free throw resulted in a win for MFL MarMac, and did not make a lot of folks from northwest Iowa very happy.

The other three games were just brilliant for their overall play. Two came on Friday.

The first was the 4A semifinal between Sioux City East and Ankeny. A back-and-forth affair that saw future Hawkeye Adam Woodbury and East outlast undefeated Ankeny and spoil the final that most people envisioned with the Hawks and Iowa City West.

Later that night in the 2A championship game, Mount Vernon came from 15 down in the second half to beat Fort Dodge St. Edmond for the Mustangs' second title in school history. Micah Russell and Jake Timm were terrific along with Jack Keleher, who came back from foul trouble to lead Coach Ed Timm's Mustangs.

The final game to look at was the 3A title game that will be talked about for decades. Western Dubuque and Mount Pleasant traded blows all night and it was only fitting the game went to overtime, and then a second overtime. Both teams seemingly had the game won - and lost - at least three times down the stretch and in overtime. In the end, the height of Mount Pleasant was too much to overcome for Western Dubuque and the Panthers prevailed in two overtimes. It was such a good game we didn't mind starting our 4A championship radio broadcast 45 minutes late!

By the way, did anyone notice that Mount Pleasant Coach Paul Rundquist and his father, Iowa City West assistant coach Gordon Rundquist, both coached state championship teams Saturday night? Congrats to the Rundquists! Gordy is a former Marion prep.

Hearty congratulations to Marcus Paige for winning the Mr. Basketball award for 2012.

Most of us on this side of the state took it as a foregone conclusion that Paige was going to take the award, but we all had to wait to make sure. The silky-smooth point guard becomes the seventh Metro player to win the award, and the second in a row after Jarrod Uthoff took the honor a year ago. He is the third Linn-Mar player to take home the honor, giving the Lions basketball program the most winners of any school in the state. The other Metro winners have been Jason Bohannon, Justin Wessel, Adam Spanich, Al Lorenzen and Todd Lumsden.

What makes Marcus so special, though, is the way he carries himself off the court. He was an academic All-Stater this year, receiving that award on Saturday night. He is a very selfless individual who is always available to younger basketball fans. One of the memories I will take from this year's tournament is Marcus signing autographs and having his picture taken with the younger kids in the crowd on Saturday night. Not many individuals would have stayed to do that, especially after losing their final game of their career.

Congratulations and best of luck Marcus, you'll go down as one of the Metro's best - if not the best - of all time!

(Scott Unash is the sports and program director at KGYM-AM 1600 (FM 106.3). He is a six-time winner of the Iowa Broadcast News Association play-by-play Announcer of the Year Award. Scott and Mark Dukes co-host the Gym Class weekdays from 3-4 p.m. on KGYM-AM 1600 and FM-106.3)