March Madness actually trickles over into April when a new NCAA champion is crowned.

So, with basketball insanity still in the air, a look at some interesting facets of the sport is in order.

Pittsburgh doesn’t really have strong basketball roots even though the city was the home of the American Basketball Association’s Pipers/Condors.

In the Pipers’ inaugural season, 1967-68, they won the first-ever ABA title behind legendary forward/center Connie Hawkins.

In the opening game of the Finals, they drew only 2,665 fans to the old Civic Arena. The result of their lack of drawing power?

The next year they became the Minnesota Pipers, but they did return to Pittsburgh in 1969. Crowds of fewer than 2,000 were still often seen scattered throughout the arena.

Re-named the Condors for the 1970-71 season, the team lasted just two more seasons.

Desperate to bulk up attendance in their final season, they played a home game in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, but that didn’t help as the announced attendance was again 500.

A few other “home” games were held in towns such as Uniontown, Miami and Norfolk, Virginia.

Pittsburgh hoop trivia: The first Basketball Association of America (forerunner to the NBA) draft took place in 1947, and Clifton McNeely was the No. 1 selection.

Although he stood just 5-foot-10, he was a prolific scorer out of Texas Wesleyan University. He was selected by the Pittsburgh Ironmen, but chose to pursue a high school coaching career.

That was wise as the Ironmen, coming off a 15-45 season, folded in 1947 after one season of existence, playing at the old Duquesne Gardens. That season was Ironmen’s Press Maravich’s only pro season.

The father of “Pistol Pete” averaged 4.6 points per game and 0.1 assists a game all season long.

By contrast, his son, a Hall of Famer out of Aliquippa, poured in 24.2 points per game and dished out 5.4 assists over his 10-year NBA career.

Speaking of Duquesne, its first All-American (second team, 1950) was Chuck Cooper, who is recognized as the first African-American player to be drafted by an NBA team.

The Boston Celtics made him the No. 13 overall draft selection in 1950. He also played for the Harlem Globetrotters and two other NBA franchises. In 2019, he was inducted posthumously into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Going back to the early days of basketball, there was an ugly side to the game. Basketball players have been sometimes referred to as cagers, and that’s because long ago they really did play inside a sort of cage.

For example, a Trenton team held contests inside a cage which was initially made of chicken wire, and later of steel mesh which occasionally drew blood from players. There were at least two reasons for the cage. Any ball which deflected off the cage remained in play, saving time.

The cage also was there to protect the players from rowdy spectators.

The Official NBA Basketball Encyclopedia stated that back then the game looked more like a football scrimmage than today’s basketball, and players sported pads on their knees, elbows, and shins.

Fans sometimes punched players while others were content to merely jab hatpins “and lighted cigarettes through the cages at the players’ legs.

In tough Pennsylvania coal towns, miners favored nails, which they would heat with mining lamps and throw in the direction of the referee or an opposing free-throw shooter.”

Sometimes games were precariously held on floors which had been waxed heavily for an upcoming dance. To those who feel today’s game is too physical, think again.

Much of the material used here is from Stewart’s recent book, “The Basketball Book of Why (and Who, What, When, Where, and How),” available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.