JimThorpe

I bet it did. I'm not going to second guess Mitchell. His job is not to provide happy carefree entrainment for us Tiger fans. His job isn't to make us like him or even to make us "respect" him. His job is to try to find a way to give his kids their best shot at winning against a better, stronger, faster team. Shortening the game is one way to do that.

Lumberton is playing very well. I’m glad it’s more competitive this time.

Lumber ton is running a strange stall. They all gather at the sidelines in a bunch and hold the ball.

Really? Washington is a mystery to me. They don't post highlight videos on MaxPreps. You can see them as the "other" team on their opponents highlights but that's useless because it so unrepresentative. They have no common opponents with Silsbee. I note one thing. They beat 12th ranked Brazosport 82-79 while Silsbee beat No. 11 ranked Hardin Jefferson 77 - 53. On the other hand Booker T seems to be ripping through their district opponents with more ease than Silsbee has. I admit the matchup looks bad for Silsbee on paper simply because of height. If it was just one 6'7 star wing it would be one thing, but two? And it's not just Washington, on paper the Tigers don't match up particularly well against any of the other top 10 teams. But the coaches around the state see something in them and really like them. Silsbee is basically a bunch of guards who are almost interchangeable. They sometimes lose the opening tip to much weaker district opponents. But some of the Tiger guards are pretty strong guys and they don't really get pushed around inside as much as one would suppose. They're a hard team to peg.

Go look at Van Alstyne highlights. They probably match up better against FF than we do. Taller outside shooters. FF will wreck our outside shooting. Not very fast but that’s not as big a deal at the state level. Solid. FF will have to go through VA in the third round to get to Carter at Region. Of course they are more than capable of sweeping right through 4A but you never know. Who would have predicted Silsbee’s solid win over Yates, I mean besides us.

Not a great shooting night for either team.

40 - 23 at the half

Lot of subbing, lots of different configurations.

24 - 11 end of 1

More than one.

And here's a snapshot how it looks at this moment in time for the first round. Silsbee vs. Huffman LC-M vs. Hamshire-Fannett Orangefield vs. Livingston WO-S vs. Hardin Jefferson That's going to be interesting. My impression coming into the season was that 21 is a little stronger down the line than 22, except for the top spot of course. But I don't know. I still think It's going to come down to whose healthy. Omicron could be the joker in the deck.

I wondered what was going on. It makes better sense now. That would have shaved 10 to 15 off the margin.

92-47 final Tiger defense was smothering after the first period.

Well, they were. It’s now 81 - 42 and the Bobcats are out of gas.

Orangefield’s offense has sputtered but they are playing good defense.

60 - 36 at end of three.

Looks like it’s going to be the other Wrinkle. So they are one faminsional. And P is definitely a little tired. He missed badly and committed a couple of cheap fouls.

Silsbee was spotty from 3 point land. Several air balls. But made some timely ones. Orangefield seems to pass up opportunities looking for Wrinkle. If they are going to get back in this somebody else is going to have to step up.

39 - 21 at the half. I think it can be said that Orangefield is somewhat one dimensional.

But now he’s getting winded.

I will be shocked if Omicron doesn't have an impact. I wouldn't be surprised if the virus is a determining factor in some cases. Predictions are simply impossible in this climate. For instance.... Silsbee has a two game lead on it's way to the district championship. If the whole team got Omicron this Wednesday, after Tuesday's game at Orangefield, there's a very good chance that it would have no impact on their standing at all because they are off Friday. They'd have time to quarantine, they'd have their natural immunity (which appears to be the only thing that has much value) and they would be good to go. On the other hand if the Tigers don't get it now and make it through the first couple of rounds, which they should, and then key players come down with it their season is over. On the third hand if the Tigers aren't affected by Omicron at all and Faith Family's kids get it during the playoffs then Silsbee's chances of another state championship increase dramatically. It's an uncertain world for sure.

84 - 36 with 4:10 left. Cleared the bench.

54 -18 at the half. Everyone got to play in the first half. 3’s we’re falling like rain.

The disadvantage for Vidor is that they haven't played a team quite like Silsbee. I guess the Hardin Jefferson game would be the closest, and that was a 32 point spread. But the Pirates haven't faced a team that's capable of such a fast pace and can really light it up if the 3's are falling. The Tigers, on the other hand, face teams like Vidor practically every time out at this point in the season. They know exactly what to expect. The Pirates are 1 - 4 in district with the one win coming against hapless Bridge City. It doesn't bode well. I'm pretty sure that everybody will get to play. This Silsbee team is interesting. They can settle in and run a deliberate half court offense or they can play with reckless abandon. And they switch gears at the drop of a hat. It's certainly not boring.

The margin was greater but I don't think it was worse. This was not an upset, this was expected. Even the margin wasn't a real surprise. The loss at home by 20 to Orangefield was a real upset.