These Lions have helped restore tradition

This is basketball the way it used to be at North Alabama.

Twenty-win seasons. Post-season berths. Playing for national championships.

For those of us who have been around the Shoals and are willing to admit our age, this year's UNA team is playing a lot like the teams from an era when basketball trumped football and the season didn't end with the last regular-season game.

Without digressing to the old refrain about the good old days, there was a time when Flowers Hall would be packed with fans who did more than sit on their hands and provide golf applause for good play.

In the mid-to-late 1970s, Bradshaw High grad Otis Boddie provided indoor fireworks almost everytime he took the court. When Boddie and the Lions were playing like mere mortals, there always was entertainment value on the sideline when coach Bill Jones would yank off his sportcoat and hurl it onto one of the bench chairs behind him. If that didn't get the crowd - and the Lions - into the spirit, then it was probably going to be a long night in Flowers Hall.

After Jones passed the coaching torch to Gary Elliott, the Lions continued to have success. Elliott's 1991 team provided the university with its second national title. The Lions had a shot at another championship in 1996, but lost to Fort Hays State 71-68 in the first round of the Elite Eight in Louisville, Ky.

So, where have the Lions been since 1996? Not on the national stage, that's for sure. The program slipped from elite status to being slightly above average. It had its moments during those 12 years, but they were few and far between and the Lions weren't much of a post-season player.

It was 10 years before the Lions played another NCAA regional tournament game, and lost that one for an early exit.

for the first time in 12 years, it's late March and the Lions are still playing roundball.

And the community is excited about it, as well it should be. Bobby Champagne's team is three wins away from the school's third national basketball championship, and the Lions are winning with a flair for the dramatic.

Down six with 1:25 to play against Christian Brothers? No problem.

Down seven with under tw minutes to play against Ouachita Baptist? Ho, hum.

Spot Benedict a six-point halftime lead? Give the ball to Thomas Fraise and get out of the way.

The only downer right now is that there no more games in Flowers Hall. UNA's best work lately was done in the emptiness of Florida Southern's gym in the midst of major league baseball's spring training. UNA's Elite Eight performances will played some 1,100 miles away in Massachussetts.

UNA has a brutally tough road if it is to return home with the school's seventh national championship trophy. Bentley, tonight's opponent, is undefeated and finished the season with a co-no. 1 ranking.

If the Lions can make it past Bentley, they'll play the winner of 2006 champ Winona State or co-No. 1 Grand Valley, which is 36-0

There's no telling which team will come out of the other portion of the bracket, but it certainly is a diverse group that includes Augusta (Ga.) State Alaska-Anchorage, California, Pa., and Central Oklahoma.

It might not come home with a title, but this team will be remember for going a long way toward restoring the basketball tradition at UNA.

It's long overdue, too.

Gregg Dewalt can be reached at 740-5748 or gregg.dewalt@timesdaily.com.