Hlas: Everyone on same blue Paige at Linn-Mar

MARION — It was a North Carolina home basketball game a thousand miles from Chapel Hill.

Carolina blue was the dominant color in Linn-Mar High School's gymnasium Saturday night. Some of it was from the 'Team Paige' T-shirts a lot of people bought for $15 on location. But most of it was worn to the gym by many in the gathering of 2,200 who filled the gym to see former Lion Marcus Paige.

'People supported me here for four years even though I went to school pretty far away,' Paige said. 'I didn't have a chance to play in Iowa in college, so this was a chance to show my skills.

The Tar Heel guard accompanied a barnstorming team of fellow Atlantic Coast Conference seniors and other college players from North Carolina here this weekend. Were it not for an airplane trip here, the ACC players couldn't have blamed if they thought they were still in Carolina for one of the nine other stops on their tour.

Fans began lining up to get inside the high school at 3:45 p.m. By 5 p.m. a long line stood under a Carolina blue sky, waiting for the 7:30 event.

The term 'favorite son' was never truer. After watching Paige do terrific things at Carolina for four years, he was back at the high school where he scored a school-record 1,701 points and led a team to a state championship.

'It's so fun just to see Marcus having fun and smiling and being in the Linn-Mar gym again,' said his mother, Sherryl Paige.

'He might not have made the winning championship shot, but he championed the nation with his character and work-ethic. I'm super-proud. It's indescribable.'

Paige throwing lobs to All-America Tar Heel teammate Brice Johnson for authoritative dunks was a crowd-pleaser. So was another Linn-Mar 'Mr. Basketball,' Iowa-bound guard Jordan Bohannon, who rang up several 3-pointers for the team of high school seniors that gallantly challenged the collegians before 'losing,' 129-117.

But when Paige drove for his own thunderous, one-handed, left-handed dunk late in the first half, that's when the fans got especially pumped.

He topped that with a behind-the-back jam in the third quarter. The slender 6-foot-1 player even won a dunking contest held after the third quarter. No, it wasn't rigged. His Carolina coach, Roy Williams, apparently had never unleashed Paige's aerial game.

This was the chance Linn-Mar's community had wanted, to laud Paige for his superb career at North Carolina. And it did.

'I think it's really great they set this up,' said Paige's grandfather, Dan Gaffney of Lamont.

Gaffney was in Houston two weekends ago, where Paige's Tar Heels lost a last-second heartbreaker in the NCAA tournament's title game to Villanova.

'There were a lot of ups,' Gaffney said. 'Not very many downs.'

Outside of NBA exhibition games, seldom has the Cedar Rapids-Marion Metro area seen so much talent on one basketball floor. Northern Iowa's Paul Jesperson and Matt Bohannon (another Linn-Mar alum) joined the ACC players. The high school team featured several future Division I players including another Iowa recruit, center Ryan Kriener of Spirit Lake.

Kriener, 6-9 and 240 pounds, made a 3-pointer from way out as if it were his normal range. That will get a lot more applause in Eastern Iowa if he does it in a Hawkeye uniform.

Jordan Brandt was one of five Linn-Mar seniors who tested themselves against college stars.

'It was a great time. They're awesome,' said Brandt, a crowd-pleasing 5-11 guard who didn't appear intimidated when taking the ball to the basket against some giants.

'I know Marcus, but it was still scary,' Brandt said. 'They're big.'

But this night was Paige's, as hundreds of blue shirts in a school with red-and-black colors attested.

'I'm glad they appreciated it,' Paige said. 'I certainly have.'