Let's start out with a salute to the 100 years of boys state basketball tournaments. Yes, it's again state tournament time and again Cedar Rapids will be well-represented in the 4A classification with Linn-Mar and Jefferson.

I guess we should start out by going over how the Lions and J-Hawks got there.

With Linn-Mar's victory in two overtimes Tuesday at a jam-packed Prairie gym, Susie and I got to see one of the most remarkable high school tournament games that in my view has ever been played. The setting, the enthusiasm, the drama, the electricity made for a memorable high school tournament contest.

And again, the Picasso of high school basketball in Marcus Paige prevailed in Linn-Mar's two-overtime win, 83-77, over Kennedy. In my view, it was a game that neither team deserved to lose, one of those rare moments when high school athletics was at its best.

When you take a look at the big picture of this game, you see the sportsmanship that was shown on both sides and that you can have a hotly contested game where both teams show their best, both in conduct and in play.

Let's not forget that on the same night in Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids Jefferson had a similar experience with its outstanding player, Taylor Olson, who made a key basket to help send the game into overtime and then made a kiss off the glass to win it in OT. That put the J-Hawks back in Des Moines, with the assignment of beating undefeated Ankeny in the opening round next Wednesday.

From Linn-Mar's standpoint, it's their ninth straight trip to the state tournament. They're up in there in the rarified air of what the Blue Devils of Davenport used to do - and beyond.

Linn-Mar will go against Mississippi Valley Conference foe Dubuque Senior, a team that has plenty of height and will give the Lions some problems in the rebounding department as Kennedy did in the substate game.

Wouldn't it be something if we would have Sioux City East, with 7-foot-1 Adam Woodbury, going against Marcus Paige and Linn-Mar for the championship. The University of Iowa's No. 1 recruit against a future star at North Carolina would add to the drama of 100 years of high school basketball.

BEFORE LEAVING YOU, I would like to salute Coe's basketball program. I was at Eby Fieldhouse last Saturday for the Iowa Conference championship game against Buena Vista. Again, an electric atmosphere provided the setting for a terrific championship game, won by Buena Vista 54-52. Coe got two good looks at the basket for the win at the end, but the ball didn't drop.

Pat Juckem of Coe was named the Coach of the Year in the Iowa Conference and his junior guard, David Mataloni of Urbandale, has been named the Iowa Conference Most Valuable Player.

Even though the game didn't go Coe's way, it was interesting to this reporter to see the celebration of Buena Vista's win at one side of the court, and the disappointment but respect that Coe showed on its side of the floor as the Kohawks mingled with family and friends while BV celebrated.

No jawing, no acrimony, just good solid competition. At least in this area it is good to see that the athletes and coaches have things in proper perspective.

So it's good luck to the J-Hawks and the Lions in Des Moines, and our best wishes, too, to the Coe women in the Division III playoffs, and the Mount Mercy women in next week's NAIA national tournament.

(Bob Brooks is sports director at KMRY and has been one of the leading voices of college and prep sports in Eastern Iowa for more than 65 years. He is a 10-time winner of the Iowa Sportscaster of the Year Award, and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana in 2004. His sports reports can be heard weekday afternoons at 4:30 and 5:30.)