We've been here with football before. But men's basketball?

That's both unanticipated and a reality slow to dawn on the city, now that Jeff Rekeweg's Saint Francis Cougars stand one win away from an NAIA Division II national championship. The Cougars take on top-ranked Walsh tonight in the title game in Point Lookout, Mo.; for those who have it, you can watch it live on FIOS Channel 94 beginning at 8 p.m.

This is quite the thing, considering the vast majority of the citizenry likely didn't even know the Cougars were playing in the national tournament until just now. They went to Missouri quietly, as a No. 15 seed; then they knocked off No. 2 seed Oregon Tech in the second round, and then No. 10 seed Cornerstone; and finally Oklahoma Wesleyan, the No. 6 seed and defending national champs, last night in the semis.

So a big hoo-rah for the Coogs. If a belated one.