scoopno1

Last years team was very hard to evaluate. If you looked at the team that went to Dallas during Christmas break it had Bush, Briscoe, Cartwright, Gilder, Harper, and Baltrip on it. That group had the potential to be a contender. At the end of the year Briscoe and Cartwright were gone which greatly reduced the offensive threats. It left much of the offensive work for Bush. He was great but could not do it all. I think the team will be better this year. They may not start off as good as last years team but I expect them to challenge everyone by the time the playoffs open. I would not surprise me if they made it to state again. I am not sure what caused the lines but here it is clear.

Last years team was very hard to evaluate. If you looked at the team that went to Dallas during Christmas break it had Bush, Briscoe, Cartwright, Gilder, Harper, and Baltrip on it. That group had the potential to be a contender. At the end of the year Briscoe and Cartwright were gone which greatly reduced the offensive threats. It left much of the offensive work for Bush. He was great but could not do it all. I think the team will be better this year. They may not start off as good as last years team but I expect them to challenge everyone by the time the playoffs open. I would not surprise me if they made it to state again.

Thanks

What was the final on the Silsbee scrimmage. How did the Tigers look? What are their prospects for the 2020 season?

I remember going to a Kirbyville scrimmage the year after Neece left and evaluating the kids. There were seven or eight people on the field who looked like stud athletes and the rest of the players on the field as well as the guys on the sidelines looked like they were 12 years old. Those kids are upperclassmen today. This was a year before Jones arrived. Jones is a pretty good coach. The team will get better in time. I think they will be better this year. Maybe not Newton but they will be better. I would not be surprised if the upcoming talent was not part of the reason that Neece left but I am sure he had other reasons too.

I believe this could be a great year for the Tigers. I would guess that there will be two freshmen, two sophomores and one other player on the starting unit. The freshman group is very impressive but you must remember that there were five freshman on the varsity last year and the two groups match very well. Between the two groups they pretty much have a player for every slot and almost can fill every slot on the second team. If they get to play they will have a years experience by play-off time.

I think the two best gyms in our area are Livingston High School and East Chambers High School. Kountze, Evadale and Kirbyville have pretty good small school gyms. The Evadale gym was really nice when it was built (and still is) but it only holds about 800-900 (plenty big enough for their needs) and has a small court (maybe 82'). Kountze is kind of plain but it has two courts, plus a food court where you can see the action and it holds 1500 to 1600 or so people. Kirbyville is a little nicer facility but holds a few less people than Kountze. East Chambers in Winnie has a real nice place. It holds a decent size crowd, A lot of playoff games are played there. To me Livingston is easily the best place. I don't know how many it holds buts it appears to hold a good sized crowd. All five of these gyms separate the crowd from the playing floor. I argued unsuccessfully to have Silsbee build a 1600 seat gym that separated the crowd from the court when they built it. I think the gym ended up being about 1300 but the planners were talking about a 1000 seat gym. On the other side of the coin the gym at Hardin Jefferson gym is way to small for a school that has the history, success and fan support that HJ has. If you did not know different you would think that HJ was a football school that wanted to keep basketball down.

I do not think CardinalBacker is right about his assessment. People have tried to give me details about the situation but I never understood it. He is good friends with some former coaches so I don't think it is fair to say he doesn't like football.

who did Grayland Arnold sign with?

I agree with Jamaal Charles, Christian Michaels, Steve Worster, Leland McElroy, Calvin Tyler, Fred Ford, and Kendal Cleveland. I would like to add my favorite Jay McGuire.

I have always thought the 95 Silsbee team was the best of the past 30 years. Allen and Jones were not only bulky but Allen high jumped 6'8". They were good and pretty good students. I went to the state girls tournament the day they lost. I wonder if that was the last time the Montayne was full.

Good Luck HJ. I am a Silsbee fan but I really like HJ this year. I think they are a much tougher match-up for Yates than Silsbee this year. If three of the Hawks are hitting from the outside and #22 and #23 are willing to maul the Lions on the inside they might surprise the Lions. I am really impressed with the play of Austin Samatha this year. Good Luck Hawks. I hope you win and then lose before we have to play you later in the tourney.

This whole discussion is stupid. HJ played well and won. Bush made 11 of 23 three point shots... the rest of the team made 2 of 15. He hit for 49... Martin added 10 and the two guys who normally are the next two high scorers combined to shot 1 of 16 from the field. Who do you want shooting. Fifty years ago I played in a game in a far-a-way place where a guy hit for 66 against us. Our team won 76-74. I don't remember the names of any of the other guys on the opponents team but I remember the name of the guy who hit for 66, Philip Jennings. They kept feeding him the ball and he kept shooting. If Silsbee is smart they will keep feeding Bush.

I think Bush made 22 of the Tigers first 31 points and 27 of the Tigers last 35. HJ did a great job tonight. Now Silsbee must find a way to win their last two games and hope Hamshire can upset the Hawks. To be honest I think it might be easier to beat Yates early in the playoffs that in the regional finals. They have been playing some weak teams and it might be good to get them before they get used to tougher competition. It is a long shot to beat them anyway. I was glad to see Williams play as much as he did and to see Jones come in for him. Harper appears to play excellent defense to me. Someone besides Bush has to develop an offensive threat.

I wasn't at the game either but the way I read the stats Bush had 32. Not bad. I have thought all year this team could beat anyone on any given night but it is hard to be consistent when you are as short as they are. I think it is particularly hard for undersized guys to play defense on bigger players. I am proud of the Tigers and want to congratulate the Longhorns.

Thirty years is approximately the period of time that I have watched Silsbee. I usually see six to ten Kountze games every year. I would not say that there was no Kountze team that could beat. a Silsbee team during that period because I think there were some years that Kountze would have won. But I don't think there is a Kountze team that could have beaten Silsbee the year Donyell Allen and Willie Jones senior led the Tigers or the two years that Silsbee won the state championship. There are several other teams that I doubt Kountze could have beaten. One was the team that had Eddie Fobbs and Chris Miller. Another was the team that went 31-0. However if they could have beaten any of those teams it would have been the 31-0 squad. By the way I stated after the first game I saw this year that the Lions were back and they would be a contender this year.

I did not see that but my spell checker changes Hamshire to Hampshire every time I type it. Hopefully this time it was not in something I wrote.

I have no problem with stall ball for teams that know how to do it. Boutte played the control game for years and I consider him to be one of the best coaches I have ever seen. The same can be said for Sigler. He seldom stalls the ball but he will use it a little in key situations.

I have seen the 8th grade team in Silsbee play. They are not as tall as I might have anticipated they would be this year but they are very mature with solid bodies. Several of them have bodies that remind me of what Jaylon Williams looked like last year. Very physical. They do have a lot of skill. Hopefully at least one of them will grow to a height above 6'5" (you never know) Then the team would have three big guys (Williams, Jones and whoever) for the next three years. The best thing about the 8th graders is their depth. This group probably has 7 or 8 good players. I certainly would not worry about them. They will be good.

It is possible that Silsbee has the two best players in the District in Bush and Martin. I believe the coaches are working hard to find plays who can play roles to make the team successful. It would not surprise me if some of those players do not develop more in the next two months than any other players in the district because there are specific roles that need to be filled.

If I remember right this young man attended school in Silsbee in the 7th and 8th grade. Residency was established and he can continue attending school here regardless of where he lives, If he were to enroll in BISD after moving from SISD to Beaumont then his residency in Silsbee would be voided and he would have to sit out a year. You can go about anywhere to school in Texas but you have to do it before the ninth grade year or plan on sitting out a year before playing at the varsity level. From what I hear the parents of at least one and maybe two SISD players have moved to Beaumont and they plan to enroll there in the near future. If that be the case they will no longer be elgible in Silsbee after they enroll at BISD. SISD is due some move ins to replace some of the move outs. It's a great place to live and attend school.

I sure hope you are wrong... If you are right then Silsbee will have to find seven non district games. We had to schedule people as far away as Longview last time. West Orange, Bridge City, Newton and maybe Lumberton would play Silsbee... After that it would be get on the bus and hang on time. Besides that Silsbee would have qualified for the playoffs before the season started.

I wish someone could put some numbers on the TAPPS breakdown. I have never been able to understand the breakdowns and differences in the private school networks.

The emergence of several players who did not play last year for Kountze probably is more of a factor than who did or did not graduate at WOS. This game would have been much closer if the football players had been present for WOS. However I did see a huge upside for Kountze in that most of their players do not have shooting skills at this time.

I watched this game. It appeared to me that Kountze had the bigger-better athletes. They still have to work a lot on their shooting. However the WOS coach told me they are missing seven varsity players in football and 12 JV players. The win was good for Kountze. I bet they have a lot more wins to come. They should be a playoff team.