JimThorpe

The UIL Brackets show Washington as the winner. I suppose it was either a coin toss or Points For in district. I don't know how two teams could be closer. District record is the same. The each beat the other by 1 point. Overall winning percentage is the same out to 3 decimal places. For the season Wash averaged 82.6 and Furr averaged 72.9. Furr allowed 50.04 ppg and Washington allowed 61.5. They are equal but different. One a little more defensive oriented the other more offensive. Take your pick. Because of the brackets none of the local 4A teams I'm interested in will see either until region.

Also of interest to District 19 are the results of tonight's playoffs for first first place in Districts 17 and 18. 17 is between Center and Chapel Hill and 18 is between Bullard and Jacksonville tonight. The winner ends up in the bracket with arguably the easiest road to Region and the other will likely face Hardin Jefferson and Silsbee in succession though the order flips. The rankings show Jacksonville at 16, Bullard at 17, Chapel Hill at 18 and Center at 22. And each has split with the other. Nobody is looking past any game at this point. But these 4 teams know how to interpret a bracket chart. The inevitable conclusion is that the winner has a reasonable shot at Region and the loser doesn't. That makes these sort of early play-in game for Region. The winner doesn't face a Top 15 team until Region. The loser faces Silsbee and then Hardin Jefferson in succession. I'm sure they'll be played with a little more intensity than simply a game to see who gets to put another year on a district championship banner. Lots of serious playoff basketball in Region 3 tonight.

LCM is a good team. They gave Lufkin a decent game and they pushed HJ to overtime. It was a bad matchup last night in terms of energy. Silsbee has a lot. I don't think the teams they will face in the first three rounds have that kind of juice for the whole 4 quarters. The Tigers seem to get stronger as the game wears on. The first quarter is like a warmup. LCM won't face anybody from District 21 until Region. They'll win their first round against Hargrave. Then it's either No. 16 Jacksonville or No. 17 Bullard in the second round and then No. 18 Chapel Hill in the third, barring upset. All those games are winnable IF they can play a second half. They could be the sleeper in the Region.

38-36 Tigers at the half.

16-15 Tigers end of 1

I went ahead and signed up. Watched a good bit of the HJ - Lumberton girls game.

The price for one month of NFHS seems well worth it.

Having split with LCM and with a probable win for Lumberton on Tuesday an a probably loss by LCM, how will second place tie between the two be decided?

BC should have called time out 4 points ago.

They're ranked No. 2. and that must mean something. They haven't lost a game since November. That was to 4A Washington, a quality team but one I'm sure they'd like back. Shouldn't have happened.

I have to say that what Weatherford did was almost as jarring to my sensibilities as what Anadarko did. If you watch the speeded up video you'll see that Weatherford did nothing to stop Anadarko. In fact they sat back in a zone for part of the game. They never put any serious pressure on Anadarko. And they never once, that I could see, doubled the ballhandler in the back court. It was like Weatherford said, "Okay fine, if that's the way it is then that's the way it is. But we're sure not taking any unnecessary chances, no siree."

I agree, Jasper will win it at home in a squeaker. Neither of these is immune to an upset and I am discounting Vidor and WOS in the role of spoilers next Tuesday. Vidor pushed Jasper to overtime in a tournament. WOS and they lost to BC by only 3 last time. Whoever wins the Jasper/BC matchup shouldn't count their chickens because somebody may steal the eggs first. Interesting tidbit. Vidor and WOS each have only one win in district. Vidor beat WOS 67-63 in Vidor and WOS beat Vidor 67-63 in Orange.

Big win for the Raiders who just locked up 3rd place and a date with Hamshire Fannett or less likely HJ. If they play that whole game like they the first half against Silsbee last Tuesday the Raiders have a shot at the second round. Bridge city will meet Jasper on Friday to decide 4th place in the district. They'll have to play better than this to win but they can do it.

Solid second half. Barring upset LCM just clinched runner up. Which is a big deal going into the playoffs. In the first round they'll get Huffman which is a game they should win. The Bears can play with any team in District 20. They've directly proven that 3 times this year, most notably the 2 point OT loss to HJ. After that it's 16th ranked Jacksonville probably. That will be a very interesting game. Jacksonville is an unknown quantity in 4A but I think a win is possible if LCM plays their very best ball. Against common opponent Lufkin LCM and Jacksonville lost by similar margins. Then it's probably Center in the third round which is frankly more winnable than the second round. Very interesting. Not having to face a District 21 winner or runner up makes a trip to Region a real possibility.

Final 100 -46 The bench played well.

Will there be a freshman game?

Jacksonville just broke into the top 25 at No. 16. This must be on account of their win last Tuesday over Bullard. Quite a leap from unranked to 16. Bullard dropped to 17. I was going to comment that Jacksonville could be the sleeper in Region 3 but I guess a No. 16 is not much of a sleeper. Anyway I can see them winning their district and making it to Region if they do. They won't play anybody ranked higher than they before Region. They play Madisonville tomorrow. In their first meeting Madisonville gave them a scare in a 1 point game.

By 1 point. These two are about as close as you can get. Barring upset it looks like the Tigers will face 4 of 6 good teams depending on which ends up winning their districts. Round 2 Jacksonville or Bullard Round 3 HJ or HF or Bullard or Jacksonville Region Semi Furr or Washington Region Final Furr or Washington. Jacksonville is not ranked but they just beat 12th ranked Bullard on Tuesday by 17 points so I call them a good team. Jacksonville and Bullard are tied at 6-1 in District 18. Washington and Furr are tied at 12-1 in District 21. HJ is in the drivers seat in 20 with a one game lead over HF and the rematch at home.

Back to the original question, I would say that HJ has no better than a 25% chance of making it to the Regionals. The Hawks will face a strong challenge in 17th ranked Chapel Hill in the second round and then 3rd ranked Silsbee in the third. That's a difficult road. Silsbee's starting 5 are looking pretty tough right now. And actually, based on what I've seen so far, 19s fourth place team could give the Hawks a little bit of a scare. All three of the runners up in District 19 have had a decent first half against the Tigers. You'd have to say, based on they way they've been playing in the second half, that Silsbee is a good deal better than even money.

Who is No. 0? Wasn't he on JV the last time they met Silsbee? He added some energy to the lineup when he came in. Whatever he's doing he does it full blast. Got out of control a few times and when he gets the ball it seems like passing is sort of a last resort to him. Give him the ball and he's generally headed to the basket by whatever route presents itself. I think he's a net plus and once he came in he played pretty much the rest of the game. If I'm right about his moving up it's Interesting that a JV kid moves up and makes an impact.

And just like that it’s 30.

Yes. This is the danger time for the Raiders. LCM kept it pretty close and then just like that it opened to a 28 point lead in the third.

41-27 at the half.

They already have. They may fade but they’ve shown me something.