Blog: The glass slippers stay on in David vs. Duke

The rain has not left the islands for a couple weeks, putting a damper on many Sunday rounds of golf, making mud of several little league baseball games, and giving the ocean a murky shark infested-like look.

However the rain couldn’t stop all the college hoop madness in March, until the very end. A Cinderella story finally came to an end Monday night, finishing with a happy ending—just not for the team with the glass slippers. To paint a clearer picture, the Bulldogs of Butler University faced number-one-seeded Duke University in a “David vs. Duke” NCAA championship game.

In the team’s first ever title game, added to their first Final Four and Sweet 16 appearances, Butler captured the hearts and many bets of basketball fans to win the national championship. A clear winner wasn’t known until the last 3.6 seconds of the game. The Bulldogs had a chance to win, putting up a half-court shot as over 70,000 in attendance watched the ball fly in the air and bounce off the front of the rim, declaring Duke the winner 61-59. It was a fitting ending to one of the most memorable tournaments to date. Every nook of the bracket was filled with huge upsets and big-time shots. The Blue Devils, now the king of the “big dance,” gives Coach “K” his fourth championship and first since 2001.

On the local prep side, high school baseball is heavy into the season with standouts like Waipahu and Radford still undefeated in the west division and Roosevelt rounding off the top spot of the East. There are only two more weeks before OIA and ILH championship tournament play begins.

With the boys volleyball season also in full swing, ILH powerhouse Punahou remains the team to beat, winning “The Best of the West” tournament mid-March in California, which was filled with tons of talented teams and college bound athletes. The Buff ‘n Blue were also able to take top honors at the Hawaii Boys Invitational hosted by Iolani early last month. Punahou has impressed enough spectators to be recognized by ESPN to be ranked number-one on the ESPN RISE fab-50 volleyball rankings.

That’s it for now. And instead of the usual ending quote, I’ll use something that a young kid at the beach told a friend this weekend: “Surround yourself with people that stoke your fire and not ones that soak it, and you’ll be alright.”