I watched basketball yesterday. Only it was in person, and it wasn’t the NCAA Tournament.

The fifth annual Sunflower Shootout, an All-Star game featuring high school players from northern Kansas, was played yesterday at Smith Center.

The format matched graduating seniors from the Mid-Continent League against a gorup of seniors from other schools around the area, extending from Colby to Clay Center and north to the Nebraska state line. Ellis, TMP-Marian and Trego are in the MCL, so they get to skirt the geographical boundaries.

I left the hotel just before 9. I took a slightly different route to Smith Center, taking I-70 to the K-177 exit, then turning north to Manhattan, where I caught US 24 and took it through Clay Center and Beloit all the way to Osborne, which added up to a 126-mile jaunt on the two-lane highway. At Osborne, I turned north onto the familiar US 281.

The North Central Kansas girls won the first game 86-68. I left at halftime of the boys game with the MCL ahead 52-50. I drove all the way back to Kansas City the familiar way, US 36 to St. Joseph and then I-29 south. I was dead tired. Dead tired.

I returned to Overland Park a few minutes after 11. I collapsed after midnight, and it took me until a few minutes ago to get going. There was a washing machine open, so I’m washing shirts right now.

The Kansas-Wichita State game is at 4:15 this afternoon. Better be there early if I want a seat.