Leading off today: Does somebody owe Niagara Falls a mythical national championship in boys basketball? Should the Wolverines at least be credited with a perfect record for the 2004-05 season?
Nate Beutel of The Niagara Gazette took note of developments late last week in Missouri that make the questions interesting if not necessaily legitimate.
Follow along for a moment (C'mon, you've got time now that sping sports are over) as we explain:
Dan Bazzani's Niagara Falls team went 28-1 in 2004-05, winning NYSPHSAA and Federation championships to cap the season. The only loss came to St. Louis Vashon by a 69-66 score — in overtime — at the Prime Time Shootout in Tenton, N.J. Niagara Falls ended the season ranked third and Vashon seventh in the USA Today national rankings.
Last week, however, Vashon got taken to the woodshed by the Missouri State High School Activities Association, which stripped the school of three state and five district championships to wrap up a 19-month investigation into recruiting violations and eligibility issues. The state runner-up showing in 2005 also was vacated. State championship trophies from 2001, 2004 and 2006 will be handed over to the losing finalists.
The state association examined the period of 1998 to 2007, and six ineligible players were found to have competed for Coach Flord Irons, who won more than 800 games and 10 state championships in a 33-year career that was already tarnished in 2006 when an internal audit revealed Vashon administrators had improperly spent $50,000 on a scoreboard, about $100,000 for new uniforms and $5,900 on a gymnasium floor.
Irons pleaded guilty in September 2007 to a role in a real estate scheme designed to siphon money and was sentenced to one year in federal prison. As part of a plea agreement, Irons agreed to tell the association everything
