At most universities around the country, big time college basketball has come to a close for another year.

But Notre Dame is not most universities. Bookstore Basket-ball, the largest five-on-five basketball tournament in the world, tipped off for the 29th time earlier this week.

In the first two days of this year's tourney, the game that generated the most interest saw Shocker square off against Who's the Animal, complete with ESPN cameras rolling.

Why all the fuss over a first round game between two teams with pretty tame names, at least by Bookstore standards?

Taking the floor for Shocker was Notre Dame men's basketball coach Matt Doherty, making this the second straight year that he has suited up for the tournament.

As my elementary school soccer coach used to say, he came "dressed to sweat", wearing shorts and short sleeves despite the cold temperatures.

Coach D and his team looked to get rolling early against Who's the Animal, a club comprised of five ladies decked out in silver reflective shirts and wind pants with one leg rolled up, a la L.L. Cool J.

"That really caused them to disrupt their offense," said the coach, referring to his three blocked shots in the early going, with one sailing into the crowd on the sidelines.

But despite the tough inside play of Doherty early, the crowd, which probably would have been a sellout if the game had not been outdoors, quickly showed they were pulling for underdog Who's the Animal.

While Shocker players jogged back down the court after a basket pushed their lead to 8-1, a Powerade bottle was thrown onto their defensive end of the floor.

A laughing Doherty picked the bottle up and tossed it back to its owner under the backboard, temporarily getting the crowd behind his team.

That didn't last long, as a shot that missed everything a few possessions later at 9-1 brought back out the "air ball" chant that was heard earlier at 7-1.

That's the first time I've ever heard an "air ball" chant at an outdoor game.

The biggest reactions from the spectators, including many of Doherty's players, were still to come, though.

Trying to win over the tough audience, Coach D found himself in the open floor with chance to bring them all over to the Shocker side.

A few onlookers shouted "Dunk it," as he dribbled inside the three-point line, and it was clear that that was what he had in mind.

Unfortunately for Doherty and Shocker, the plan didn't work out quite the way he hoped, and the ball bounced off the rim.

Some members of the varsity basketball squad were laughing at their coach, but he just laughed himself.

Just to be safe, though, for their sake and mine, I'm not giving out any names.

Shocker went into the half leading 11-2. Who's the Animal played tough in the second half, matching their opponents almost basket for basket in the early going.

But Shocker went on a 4-0 run to end the game, with Doherty avenging some earlier near-misses by rattling home a dunk.

Even with all the excitement on the pavement, one of the best parts of this game came after the playing was done.

Both teams congratulated each other on a good game, and every player came away with a pretty awesome memory of their first round game in 2000.

Pictures were taken with the coach and everyone laughed with everyone else about some of the lighter moments from the past half hour.

At the end, ten players came off the court having had a great time playing a game of basketball.

Nine were students and one was a former national champion and the head coach of the NIT runners-up.

It was hard to tell who was who, though, because the best player on the floor just looked happy to be there.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

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