A couple of basketball scores popped out at me recently – one was in college basketball and the other at the fifth-grade level (you probably missed that one on Sportscenter). The college score was a men’s game between Mankato State and Crossroads. Final score: Mankato 132, Cross Roads 35. Now I’m not one of these nicey-nicey liberals who wants to even the playing field with some sort of basketball affirmative action plan, maybe by spotting the other team 50 points or playing with only four players. But I do try to be a nice compassionate conservative and just wonder how it is that a team wins by almost 100 points, without running up the score, and what purpose it serves. Wouldn’t Mankato have been better served to have their reserves run through their offense a few times before taking a shot? Wouldn’t that have been a good basic practice for them? I know there’s a shot clock in college, but maybe MSU’s coach could have decreed that they run 20 seconds off the clock before attempting to score, or tell them to make 10 crisp passes before scoring. For one, it would have been classy. For two, it could’ve served as a practice. But class isn’t something running rampant in sports these days. Before you write me to tell me that it is no longer Mankato State, that it is Minnesota State University-Mankato, I’ll tell you that I know that but I choose to ignore the change. I also still call the University of Sioux Falls by its old name – Sioux Falls College. And it’s still the St. John’s Redmen, not the St. John’s Storm for me. Call me a throw-back or stubborn, but mostly it’s just an old habit. But I digress ... The youth score was a girls basketball game in Brandon, where an all-star team from Sioux Falls beat a Brandon team 90-0. No, my daughter was not on the Brandon team, so that’s not why I mention it. (My daughter’s team won their first game 3-0, with my daughter scoring two-thirds of her team’s points – not exactly an all-star in the making with one field goal. )The Sioux Falls team was actually an all-star team brought together from two other all-star teams. So it was an all-star all-star team in the tournament playing just your average run-off the mill group of girls from Brandon. I didn’t witness it, so I don’t know how it came to be that the Sioux Falls team managed 90 points. Sure, it’s tough to tell fifth-grade girls not to try to score, but they still could’ve resorted to the previous techniques I described before scoring. Both teams probably would’ve gotten more out of it. There’s no sense to it, other than giving the coach something to laugh about at the bar later that night. As it was, the organizer of the tournament went up to the Sioux Falls coach after the game, gave him his entry fee back and told him to get lost. I don’t know if that was necessary, but it probably was wise as that coach was probably cruisin’ for a bruisin’ if he kept up that nonsense the rest of the day. Some parent probably would have gone all "Wisconsin deer hunter" on him.Coaches need to remember that what comes around goes around, just ask the Nebraska Cornhuskers – the old kings of running up the football score, who now are just thrilled to score at all.