[3/17/05] Dream Game II had such a nice ring to it. The top-ranked Lanier Bulldogs battling the second-ranked Holly Springs Hawks in a winner-take-all basketball shootout.

Mississippi High School Activities Association Executive Director Ennis Proctor was on board. Holly Springs and Lanier coaches were on board. Principals and superintendents were psyched. The Coliseum was ready for an overflow crowd of an estimated 7,500 to watch the two best teams in Mississippi square off.

Then a funny thing happened: Holly Springs saw Lanier play in the Class 4A state title game.

The Bulldogs dismantled crosstown rival Jim Hill, while the Hawks struggled to defeat Franklin County.

All of a sudden, the dream matchup didn’t seem so peachy to those in Holly Springs. Officials there did not want to diminish the school’s Class 3A championship with an inevitable loss to Lanier in the Dream Game.

So the Dream Game will remain just that. Lanier had not lost a game in Mississippi this season and had much more to lose than Holly Springs. If Lanier won, well, they were supposed to. If Holly Springs won, it would be the state’s biggest upset.

But Lanier coach Thomas Billups, never one to run away from a challenge, had his team ready to play. He had motivation from Holly Springs coach Naylond Hayes remark that he would hold the state’s best player, Monta Ellis, to 20 points.

Lanier would have wiped the floor with Holly Springs if not for the gutless officials in the North Mississippi town.

The loss extends from the basketball court to the pocketbooks. Tickets for the event were $10 and more than 7,000 were expected. Take away the cost for the use of the Coliseum, cleaning crews and officials and it still would have been an economic boon for both schools – and the MHSAA.

Twenty-five years ago when Vicksburg won the state basketball championship, it had to win its classification, then play an overall tournament to see what team was the best.

Champions from each of the four classes – A, AA, B and BB – participated in the overall tournament.

Now, with five classes, designing an overall state tournament would be difficult. There would have to be a play-in game, but what two classes would play-in? Logic says the smaller classes, but then again class envy would play a major role.

An overall tournament likely will not happen in the near future. For now we’ll have to let the polls decide and occasionally schedule a Dream Game if two teams are clearly above the rest.

We thought we had that this year. If only Holly Springs hadn’t seen Lanier play.