Some memories are best left in the past

Some of the best memories of the younger years of my childhood was of watching Ashland College (now university) basketball.
My dad took me to almost every game that he could when we lived in Ashland and the reward was seeing one of the most unique teams of its times.
Ashland featured top notch teams,a ferocious shut down defense that set NCAA records for points allowed in a season (33.9) and a pre-game show that would be a television staple if anyone did their routine today.

Considering the memories and the fact that locally unless one wants to drive to Emmitsburg for Mount St.Mary's basketball (Division I to Ashland Division II) over some less than inviting roads in the winter-basketball here is scarce,unless you wish to watch high school hoops,I was excited to see that Sports Time Ohio had an Ashland basketball game from Kates Gymnasium against a top 25 opponent from Wayne State on their network.
Because I rarely get to visit Ohio during Basketball season,I had not stepped inside Kates since moving back to Maryland and one could not expect every thing to be the same over that long period of time,but I was looking forward to the game even if just to bring back some old memories of my day with names that none of you remember but are names in my mind such as Bubba Jones,Kevin Wilson and Rob Spivery to name just a few....

The game was decent enough and Ashland pulled the 57-56 upset off with a late rush and was pretty much carried to the victory by Blake Saunders,who seemed like every time a play was made or needed to be made,Saunders either made it or put another player in the position to make the needed play.
I also was really impressed with the Eagles young coach John Ellenwood,who kept the Eagles in the contest and looks to be a comer in the coaching profession.
Still.something was missing.

The crowd wasn't as I remembered even though it was constantly mentioned that it was "Pack the House" night,it didn't even look half full,although the cameras generally only looked at one side of the gym,so it could have been larger than it looked on the tube.
Not a lot of noise and the Eagles that seemed to be omnipresent were generally away from the roost.
Even the center court logo that used to feature the huge cartoon Eagle had been replaced by the generic Ashland title.
The gym that used to be covered in Purple and Gold looked like any other gym and could have been swapped for another facility and no one could have known the difference.

Ashland was a basketball school and this is what it had dropped to?
Not really,you see I remembered things from the eyes of a child and never had the chance to see anything different since those days.
In my mind,Ashland basketball was still Bill Musselman,Keep the Ball rollin' blaring from the speakers,the Pete Maravich like ball handling extravaganzas and victories every night.
Those days seem like just a few years past,but they are forty years old now.
I just never had the opportunity to see anything different and sometimes that can be quite a sobering blow.
Sometimes,the best memories can be the ones that never get updated.....