As we get ready for the early rounds of the NCAA Division III basketball tournaments this weekend, I was reminded about one of my favorite columns on Division III sports, written by Lancaster Sunday News' Mike Gross. I dusted it off to share with you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Graceful in Victory and Defeat
by Mike Gross, Lancaster Sunday News, 3/14/04

So I was seated at the press table along the baseline at Franklin & Marshall's Mayser Center Friday.

This New Jersey City University player suddenly comes barreling directly at me, plows into the table and the table into my metal folding chair, which does a wheelie and, just for an instant, seems ready to tumble over backward with This Space in it.

This guy was 6-2, 275, with a shaved head and a little Charles Barkley thing going.

"I' m sorry,'' he whispered, unnecessarily, before chasing the play.

I' m sorry? If that was Dennis Rodman, I might have a gunshot wound.

I told the guy next to me that the kid actually apologized. He leaned over and quietly said, "Division III.''

The point is that D-III could be D-P, is P stood for Perspective. That's one reason you should love it. Here are some others.

The players: They almost never play on TV or before a large crowd (although this week's NCAA tournament Sectional games at F & M have been a glorious exception). Nobody's on scholarship, and nobody's going to be a pro.

They really are playing because they love it.

The game itself: If big-time hoop is a vertical game, D-III is a horizontal one. Since they generally can't get shots by going over you, D-III teams get them by going around you.

And since there is not generally Jameer Nelson-level quickness, going around you involves team play, cutting and screening and grinding. Boy, do these guys run their stuff.

D-III is as hard to officiate as D-I, because there's so much going on off the ball.

This is not to suggest D-III isn't athletic, as anyone who's seen the alley-oop, dunks and swatted shots at Mayser the past couple of weeks would attest.

If you're anything like a basketball purist, it's fun to watch.

The local entries: F & M has been to four Final Fours and 11 Sweet Sixteens, and its coach, Glenn Robinson, is the division's all-time winningest.

Elizabethtown, just as well-coached by Bob Schlosser, has been to four straight postseasons, played for the national championship two years ago, and beat F & M this season.

The tournament: In D-I there are about 320 teams, and 64 make the NCAAs. In D-III there are 430 teams, and 48 make it. And in D-III there are just 12 at-large berths, six of which go to independents.

No such thing as going 8-8, finishing fifth in a "power'' conference and limping into the tournament. If you want to dance, you better win your league. Think that throws some heat on the conference tournaments?

Academics: The defending national champ and current number one team in the country is Williams College, where 84 percent of the students came from the top 10 percent of their high school class, and the average SAT score is 1,365.

The one team that beat Williams this year is Amherst, where 86 percent of the undergrads had a class rank in the 90th percentile or above and, absurdly, the SATs of the middle 50 percent of the current freshman class ranged from 1,350 to 1,560.

That's the middle 50 percent. It means that a quarter of Amherst frosh have SATs over 1,560. Perfect is 1,600.

And schools like this get zero money and less than zero prestige from sports, so the coach is getting zero help from the admissions department.

Talk about your Grand Experiments.

D-III is a respected branch of Dr. Naismith's vast family tree: You'll never see Maryland or Gonzaga run the flex offense better than E-town does it. You'll never see North Carolina get more mileage out of the Carolina freelance, high-low passing game than F & M .

Princeton doesn't even run Princeton any more, but Gettysburg does.

Gettysburg's coach, George Petrie, is the brother of Geoff Petrie, who runs the Sacramento Kings, maybe the best basketball team on earth. The Kings sometimes run Princeton.

On the Kings' bench sits Yoda-like assistant coach Pete Carrill, who (cue ethereal music) invented Princeton.

Remember that defunct pro summer league for players 6-4 and under? Its spirit lives in D-III, the home of 6-5 post players and 6-2 power forwards and 5-9 shooting guards.

The quintessential D-III player - and probably F & M 's next big thing - is Brandon Smith, a sophomore forward optimistically listed at 6-4, more athletic than you think, a fierce dive-on-the-floor guy who does a little bit of everything.

Thank the hoop gods there's a place for guys like that.

Nicknames: D-III school names tend to be unpoetic references to dead guys or places, immortal or obscure, tied together with hyphens or ampersands: Gwynedd-Mercy. Randolph-Macon. Hampden-Sydney. Johnson and Wales. Pomona-Pitzer. Washington & Lee.

OK, Franklin & Marshall.

But the nicknames! Gothic Knights . Lord Jeffs. Ephs. Golden Gusties. Sagehens.

OK, Diplomats.

The first game at F & M Friday was Gothic Knights vs. Lord Jeffs, which sounds like it should have come with a damsel and drawbridge.

The absolute best thing about D-III is a remarkable sense of gratitude and grace, in victory and defeat.

Hampden-Sydney was a senior-dominated team that had been to the Final Four last year. Despite a 24-5 record and No. 6 national ranking, it had to beat E-town in the first round of this year's NCAA just for the right to play at F & M in the second round.

In that game H-S came with 16 points down and lost by two at the buzzer when a jumper by Jeff Monroe, an All-American who scored 30 points, just rolled off the rim.

"I' m just thankful to have had the opportunity,'' Monroe said later, smiling.

That seems utterly and amazingly typical.

Teammate Jason Holman, who like Monroe had just played his last college game, expanded.

"I've been a part of three (conference) championships and a Final Four. We're all healthy. How can I be anything other than thankful?''

He's not the only one.