Youngstown Hate

 Once upon a time Bruce Springsteen wrote a song called "Youngstown" that was an empathetic parable about neglect and abandonment in the American Rust Belt. It  didn't also include a salute to classlessness.

Youngstown itself provided that the other night, when Youngstown State fans at the Horizon League quarterfinal game against visiting Detroit Mercy mercilessly heckled Detroit Mercy star Antoine Davis. As a parting gift, a handful of idiots in the Youngstown student section showered him with trash as he left the floor.

This after Youngstown State eliminated Detroit Mercy, 71-66.

And all Antoine Davis did to rouse the home crowd's ire was try to lasso history.

The son of Mercy coach (and former Indiana coach) Mike Davis and the Horizon League’s Player of the Year, Antoine came up just short of taking down one of the most ancient records in college sports, drawing iron on a 3-pointer over two defenders as the clock raced toward zero. It left him with 3,664 career points, three shy of the NCAA record set 53 years ago by Pete Maravich.

The son of the late Pistol Pete, who died of a heart attack at 40 in 1988, said he thinks his dad would have been rooting for Davis, seeing how Pistol -- especially as he grew older -- never put a lot of store in the records he set. He'd have been "thrilled," according to Jaeson Maravich, had Davis pulled it off.

The folks in Youngstown were not nearly so gracious.

They heckled the kid. They threw stuff. And one of Youngstown's players, Dwayne Cohill, actually told Davis in the postgame handshake line that he didn't deserve to be the Horizon League POY.

"I wouldn't have said that to him if he would've won it," Davis told Tony Paul of the Detroit News afterward. "At the end of the day, God doesn't like ugly."

He does, however, provide us with memories. 

Just now, for instance, I'm remembering the last time I saw Antoine Davis.

It was on a March night 21 years ago, and Mike Davis and Indiana had just upset Duke in an NCAA Regional semifinal. As the Hoosiers left the floor, guard Tom Coverdale scooped up a little guy wearing a No. 1 Jared Jeffries jersey. The kid was no bigger than a minute, and about six kinds of cute.

And his name was Antoine Davis.

I described that scene in my column the next day, because it was just so damn charming. I didn't add that anyone booed, because of course no one did.

Of course, this wasn't Youngstown Hate, either. Excuse me, State.