One and done: Girls' Sweet Sixteen

Today is big.

You can say we should all be giving more attention to more important things going on in the world, and you can say that we should be celebrating with greater fervor the other types of achievements in people's lives. And after a fairly weak argument, I think I'd probably buckle and go along with you. Even still, that's Should World.

In Is World, there's a building in Bowling Green and radios and computers around and about Lebanon, Louisville, Mount Vernon and Murray that will be the total, manic focus of a fair number of people. At the end of the day, there will be three sets of teams who didn't win, and one or more of each set will do or say something so gracious in defeat that most everyone who witnesses it will say at least to themselves, "Man, I hope I'm that together when things don't go my way," and a few of those people will actually be changed. And at the end of the day, there will be one set of champions, and there will be city- or county-limits signs and T-shirts printed. And people will take pictures of the signs, and someone will put her or his T-shirt in a glass case or box or something that the person will take pains to protect for years and years and years.

Today writes some stories that will be told for a very long time. And while that is ultimately true about every day, we already know it's going to be true about today. That's why today is big.

Today's games in the Kentucky's girls' basketball state tournament at Western Kentucky University's E.A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green and on iHigh.com:

Louisville DuPont Manual vs. Marion County, 10 a.m. Central
Calloway County vs. Rockcastle County, 11:30 a.m.
State championship, 8 p.m.

Friday's second round:

Louisville DuPont Manual 48, Bowling Green 36
Marion County 41, Louisville Butler Traditional 26
Calloway County 62, Inez Sheldon Clark 51
Rockcastle County 47, Clay County 30

First round, played Wednesday and Thursday:

Bowling Green 58, Walton-Verona 32
Louisville DuPont Manual 78, Crittenden County 40
Louisville Butler Traditional 42, Perry County Central 40
Marion County 55, Montgomery County 41
Inez Sheldon Clark 74, Boyd County 59
Calloway County 62, Newport Central Catholic 57
Rockcastle County 55, Madison Central 52
Clay County 61, Owensboro Catholic 48