Hoops Update (Racing Related Of Course) and More.....

Pella used a 15-0 run midway through the third quarter to erase a ten point deficit as they defeated my Mount Pleasant Panthers Thursday night in the Class 3A semi-finals of the Iowa Boys State High School basketball tournament. So now we are getting ready to see if the Panthers can knock off a tough Davenport Assumption team at noon today (Saturday) to finish third.

The Class 4A title game will be watched by many tonight both at Wells Fargo arena and on television as the nation's top-ranked basketball recruit, Harrison Barnes, will be in action for the Ames Little Cyclones as they try to win their second straight title in undefeated fashion. Barnes, who is heading to North Carolina to play for the Tar Heels, is joined by another D-1 recruit in Doug McDermott. The son of current Iowa State University head coach Greg McDermott will be playing his college ball at the University of Northern Iowa beginning next season. Their opponent will be the Rams of Southeast Polk whose roster includes a 6' 4" junior by the name of Austin McCarl. That's right, the third-generation sprint car driver will be doing his best tonight to try to shut down the best high school basketball player in America! Austin played a key role for the Rams in their semi-final win against Linn-Mar on Friday afternoon coming off the bench to to play some tough defense and grab some big rebounds in the closely contested affair. So if you have nothing else planned tonight, tune in and see if Austin and the Rams can pull off the big upset. I would be interested to see if the television commentators mention what Austin does during the summer months!

They were able to get in night number one of the annual Tuckasee Toilet Bowl Classic down in Clarksville, Tennessee, last night. The season opener for the mid-south based MARS Late Model series saw Hermitage Missouri's Eric Turner lead the feature from green to checkered for the win. Oklahoma teenager Gary Christian was the runnerup with Illinois driver Brian Shirley third. Home state drivers Charles Zimmerman and Steven Ashby rounded out the top five. They race the quick quarter at Clarksville again tonight, weather permitting.

The Quad City Speedway in East Moline will be run by the fairboard this year with an event director in place. A couple of people that I have talked to say that this will be a good opportunity for the fairboard to see just how tough it is for a promoter to make a buck there and should make things better down the road. I know of one track that has been running under this setup for many years now and they have been incredibly successful (they'll be running the 50th edition of their signature event this August). The success of other fairboards who have tried it? Not so much. I have spent a lot of entertaining Sunday nights at East Moline over the years and I wish them the best as they kick off the 2010 season the first Sunday in May.

Looks like the fairboard is behind the efforts at the Eldon Raceway as well as board member Terry Doud has posted a schedule of five nights of action for the super half-mile in 2010 on the discussion board at www.HeartlandMotorsports.com. You can also find the nine night schedule for the Bloomfield Speedway there as well. We'll try to get those incorporated into our Calendar at PositivelyRacing.com this week along with Quincy, East Moline and more.

The All Missouri Points chase gets underway next week with shows at Malden and I-55 in Pevely and I am hoping to take in one of them if the weather cooperates. The All Iowa Points season is scheduled to kickoff on March 27th at I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska. So how does a race in Nebraska kickoff the All Iowa Points??? The explanation can be found on the Points tab at www.PositivelyRacing.com under "Other States".

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!