Games stopped, then started again and kept going.

As they should.

Americans need sports more than ever right now. We need college teams and cheerleaders, bands and fans. Spring training and opening day. The NBA and NHL counting down to the playoffs.

We need movies and music and anything to make us laugh.

In this season of anxiety and fear, Americans at home and the troops abroad need life here to go on without skipping too many beats.

The games went on that way Thursday as bombs and missiles kept pummeling Baghdad, a day after President Bush told the nation that the war with Iraq had begun.

No one could have been surprised by the attack, yet it all seemed surreal Wednesday night, games pausing or being delayed as his grave message was carried on giant screens in arenas across the country. Some cheered him, some booed, most watched in uneasy silence. Fans at home could flip channels, switching between dunks and Iraqi anti-aircraft fire.

"It's a tough night for a basketball game with what's going on over in the Middle East," Texas Tech coach Bob Knight said after his team's victory over Nevada in the NIT. "I think the crowd seemed to ... almost exude a feeling of tremendous concern rather than just being at a basketball game."

Bush's speech was shown on the overhead scoreboard at halftime of the game in Lubbock, Texas.

Playing with symbolism

Knight, who coached early in his career at West Point, said he received a letter Wednesday from the wife of a former player who is a two-star general serving in the war. Going on with the games, Knight said, is important.

"We as a country have had a history of doing things that are basically scheduled to be done," Knight said. "I think that's something we should continue to do. We're too strong, too tough to let anyone interfere with life here."

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, a West Point graduate and a former Army captain, said soldiers overseas want to know that nothing has changed back home. It makes sense that the NCAA tournament is going on uninterrupted, March Madness providing a small escape from the madness of the world.

"I think the tournament can serve as a good thing," Krzyzewski said. "That's how we'll look at it."

That's how everyone should look at it. There is no disrespect for the military in playing games or watching them. The opposite is true: Going on with our lives shows respect for the freedom we cherish.

CBS moved the start of its NCAA tournament coverage to ESPN on Thursday because of war coverage. The day's first game, Marquette's victory over Holy Cross in the Midwest Regional at Indianapolis, tipped off at 11:20 a.m. CST on ESPN -- with CBS announcers and production.

"Kind of a strange way to start the tournament, isn't it?" CBS studio analyst Clark Kellogg said.

Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard believed, too, that the NCAA tournament is a welcome diversion to the men and women serving overseas. He was drafted into the Army in 1967 and worked as a temporary records clerk until 1969. His experience taught him about the role sports played for those on the battlefield.

"I know how important sports are when you're in a situation where you're away from your family, you're away from the things that are familiar to you. Sports are a great outlet for you," he said as his team prepared to play in the NCAA tournament in Indianapolis.

In Tampa, Fla., the opening attack on Baghdad began just as the Cleveland Indians-New York Yankees spring training exhibition game was about to end.

"We have concerns for sure, but no control. We have to do what we do," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "We certainly have to play like there's not going to be any kind of delay. It's on everybody's mind. This is real-life stuff. (Baseball) is just a game."

Going on with the games won't be easy for all the players, coaches and fans. Frisks and metal detectors and swollen security forces are reminders that normalcy is an illusion. The sounds and sights of war on television keep sports in perspective.

"This is insignificant," said Virginia coach Pete Gillen, whose team beat Brown in the NIT. "I've been sick to my stomach the last day or two thinking about it.

"I have a son, 19, that could be in the service. It just breaks your heart. You hate to see any young man or woman die. A game means nothing compared to what is going on in the real world."

Creighton star forward Kyle Korver said he has a friend from high school, Jeff Mishler, serving in the Army in the Middle East.

"People talk to me about pressure," Korver said. "If I mess up tomorrow -- so what, big deal. If he does, he could die."

Without losing perspective on that, recognizing that the games are trivial compared to the stakes of war, sports can go far to help the nation's psyche. A little humor wouldn't hurt, either.

To take the edge off the tension of all the security at the Rose Garden in Portland, where the Trail Blazers took on the Houston Rockets, clowns, face painters and other entertainers played with children and kidded adults with phony metal-detector wands made of balloons and other props.

It was small stuff, perhaps, but that's just what we need -- the small things that make life seem unchanged.

Steve Wilstein is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press.