Patrick Thibodeau of Greely High School in Cumberland, and Josh Titus of Edward Little High in Auburn, are heading to the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four in Detroit.

The managers for their respective teams, Thibodeau and Titus made headlines in February when each played in a game for his high school's basketball team. Thibodeau, who had Down Syndrome, made two 3-pointers for Greely. Titus scored nine points for Edward Little.

Last month, Thibodeau and Titus were given the first Spirit of the Game award at the McDonald's all-star banquet in Bangor.

There were a few doubters when Cony High School's Rachael Mack swept all the major high school basketball awards last season, including Miss Maine Gatorade and Miss Maine Basketball.

Monday night was an occasion to honor the players of the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference and Mountain Valley Conference.

It's not easy excelling in the classroom and on the basketball floor. Both take time and effort.

At halftime of Friday's basketball game between the Winslow and Erskine boys, the Black Raiders unveiled a new addition to Mansfield Gymnasium. A banner honoring the school's five 1,000 point scorers is now on display.

The five are: Rachel Bard '98 (1,003 points), Mark McInnis '93 (1,170), Stacey Grenier '93 (1,035), Bethany Roderique '02 (1,112) and Micah Grant '03 (1,097).

Bard, Roderique and Grant were on hand for the unveiling, and each received a basketball commemorating their accomplishment.

McInnis and Grenier, both unable to attend, will also receive a basketball.

The Capital Area Hoop Classic appeared to pay immediate dividends for the Cony girls and boys basketball teams, both of whom beat Morse in regular season games Tuesday night.

This will be in the girls basketball notes in the newspapers later this week, but I wanted to mention this here so people could know about it sooner. It's a charity basketball night at Valley High School in Bingham.

Like a lot of small towns in Maine, and many larger ones, Richmond loves its high school basketball, even when the weather stinks. Friday night it stunk.

The state's top two basketball players last season, Winthrop's Sam Leclerc and Maranacook's Ryan Martin, are discovering life at the Division I college level is a much tougher environment than high school.

Mt. Blue High School, which returns two very talented guards in Ben Russell and Jamie Sawyer, was picked second in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A coaches poll on Thursday.

Those high schools lucky enough to have a band can ignore this. As we saw in the regional tournaments last week, those bands do a great job cranking the music during the pregame warm-ups.

You schools that don't have bands, you need a good warm-up CD. Something to drown out the white noise of a crowd shuffling into the arena. Proper warm-up music should be loud, and should work pump up athletes and fans alike.

As one who has been to many a game and has heard many a warm-up mix, I'd like to offer up the following suggestions for pre-game tunes. I know, many of these songs are old. But they still work.

These are in no particular order:

Semifinalst for Mr. and Miss Maine Basketball were announced Tuesday at the Augusta Civic Center.

Every year around high school basketball tournament time, the issue of the private schools playing in the Maine Principals' Association tournament is brought up. There are some who feel the private schools should have their own tournament, arguing that since they're able to recruit, these schools have an unfair advantage.

Once again, that argument doesn't hold up.

The Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference's Class A division handed out its top honors between the boys and girls championships games Monday night.

Watching basketball games at Gardiner Area High School is generally a pleasant experience. The three-sided seating is unique among area gyms, and the atmosphere can be electric on the right night.

You hear it again and again this time of year: Christmas tournament games don't mean anything. Well, some do and some don't.

Free throw percentage has been on the decline for a few years, and Friday night's boys basketball game between Oak Hill and Waterville was another painful reminder of that.

Waterville won the game 56-50, but either team could have taken control of the game had they made their foul shots. Waterville was just 13 of 29 as a team, while Oak Hill was 6 for 17 at the line. That's a 41 percent rate.

The teams and schedule have been set for the annual Capital City Hoop Classic at the Augusta Civic Center. Once again, the tournament showcases perennially strong teams and a number of intriguing matchups.

A crowd of more than 200 turned out for Tuesday night's basketball game between the University of Maine at Augusta men and the University of Maine at Machias, most to see former local high school stars perform.