Thursday, March 22, 2001

By Rusty Bryan
Stars and Stripes

Fans who don’t have access to the closely guarded NewSports telecasts of the NCAA basketball tournament, or even those who do, can satisfy their cravings for March Madness with some live championship hoops this week and next.

USAREUR will determine its men’s and women’s champions in tournaments Thursday-Sunday in Mannheim, while USAFE will wait until next week for its event at Vogelweh. The champions and runners-up from both services then will play for the U.S. Forces Europe crowns April 5-8 in Würzburg.

The big change this year comes in the Army event in Mannheim, where, for the first time, the top four men’s and women’s teams from each of the two regions will play a round-robin to determine seedings for a knockout, NCAA-style bracket. The round-robin portion will be Thursday and Friday followed by the single-elimination tournament on on Saturday and Sunday.

In the past, the top teams in the regions played best-of-three series, and best-of-three cross-regionals eventually determined the Army champions. The process took 12 days to complete and required the presence of 39 officials.

According to Tony Lee of USAREUR sports and recreation, the change came about because tactical commanders were reluctant to release soldier-athletes for the 12 days the old format took.

"I told them that if they could release the players for four days, I could play the whole tournament," Lee said. "They said, ‘If you can do that, we’ll guarantee you that the players will be released.’ "

No sooner said than done, and in this case, Lee has made a bit of March Madness lemonade from what had seemed some bitter fruit dished out by the tactical commanders.

"It’ll be a lot more fun to have everyone at the one site," he said, adding "Anyway, I don’t have 39 officials."

With the Mannheim community’s 293rd Base Support Battalion again agreeing to host a big event, USAREUR tips off at 10 a.m. Thursday with positional games at BFV Sports Arena and Sullivan Barracks.

If Mannheim doesn’t satisfy your hunger for postseason basketball, wait four days.

USAFE will hand out its 2001 crowns in a round-robin event that begins Thursday, March 28, and that ensures that teams from all six operating bases get enough playing time to justify the distance traveled.

USAFE will conduct pool play March 28-31, with the semifinals to be played Saturday evening, March 31, and championship games on Sunday, April 1.

Back to March's stories
Page Two news roundup
Stories from February, 2001
Stories from January, 2001
Stories from December, 2000
Stories from November, 2000
Stories from October, 2000
Stories from August and September, 2000
Stories from June and July, 2000
Home