JimThorpe

15-13 Silsbee at the end of one

I wish it could be Barbers Hill instead of Channelview. What's so magical about Channelview? We would still have to drive further but we wouldn't have to worry about plant traffic.

Sounds reasonable. If both teams have a good night or if both teams have a bad night it's about a 20 point game.

I just thought of something else that's kind of interesting. Neither team had a dunk. Nobody even attempted one that I saw. I guess it's just the happenstance of the way it was played.

WOS refused to go quietly into the night when I though they were about to. Lots of respect for those guys. Mustangs forwards got in foul trouble and had to sit for a few crucial minutes in the 4th. I didn't see WOS hit a single 3 all night. Might have missed one but I don't think so. Both teams had quite a few but WOS had a few too many.

They aren't showing the clock on the feed.

About 3:30

I hope we get the chance.

The Mustangs don't have a single 3. They haven't taken many.

WOS takes the lead at the half 39 - 36! I'm just sitting here feeling so proud of the Mustangs! Remarkable turnaround.

Watching on NHFS. The Mustangs are just running around throwing the ball way. 23-10 at the end of the 1st. This is going to get ugly.

It was only 33 but it could have been a good deal worse. A lot of kids got a lot of playing time for Silsbee. They were trying different combinations. The stating 5 were on the court as a group quite a bit less than usual.

They are a good team and imo could be ranked at the low end of the top 20. But it is a down year. They had an off recruiting season. Booker T Washington stole their best prospects. I'm being facetious of course. Washington is an attractive option for kids in HISD. They have a brand new campus and an a fine art magnet program. No surprise that it might attract kids from all over the community. Yates has several very interesting magnet programs including maritime logistics. They have a simulator lab that's like the bridge of a ship. I support the magnet and charter schools concept. It just seems unfair that they can draw from huge urban talent pool for athletics. Not surprisingly considering the demographics of Texas it impacts basketball. But if it's good for the kids' educational prospects I can live with it.

WOS seems to be kind of bipolar. There are the "got it together" Mustangs and if they show up tonight they will win by double figures. Then there are the "pretty much a mess" Mustangs and if they show up they will probably be blown out. The "got it together" Mustangs lost the 2nd ranked team by only 3 and beat the 11th ranked team by 16. The "pretty much a mess" Mustangs lost 3 of their last 6 regular season games losing to every good team they played. The 3 wins were unimpressive and included a 2 point win over Lumberton and 4 point win over Vidor. I hope the "got it together" Mustangs show up because a quarterfinal between WOS and Silsbee at the Montagne would awesome.

The Furr - El Campo highlight reel is up on Furr's MaxPreps page. Based on that evidence, which admittedly has lots of holes, it was nip and tuck all the way. Nobody had much more than a 4 point lead the whole game. Furr shot abysmally. 23% FG, 33% FT and only 7% 3PT. El Campo did little better except for free throws where they shot 73%. A lot of it was good defense. Lot of blocked shots. From the highlights it looks like they were evenly matched. You see El Campo's mistakes on the Furr reel but Furr's mistakes which were probably about as numerous. These Maxpreps clips are broad brush stroke images that are more propaganda than documentary. But you do get to see the score progress through the game depending on how well they're spaced out. Furr plays pretty good defense. We'll have a better chance of scoring 100 against Yates or WOS than Furr. Depending on the breaks we won't get out of the 80's. But I don't see how Furr can even get out of even the 70's against the Tiger's swarming defense. I bet the margin is less than 20. It'll be more competitive this time unless the Tigers break out and put on a show, which can always happen. Like one of those patented 35 point quarters.

I think the Drum was vastly superior to the Alamodome.... once you got inside. But getting inside was tricky. The best parking is in San Marcus. And like the man said, Austin is effectively closed on that weekend. At least it's closed to things that really matter like the UIL BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT!!!! San Antonio is fun to visit and Alamodome access and parking are okay. You do have that long walk under the tracks with the stinky bats. The thing is that the Alamodome as a basketball venue is terrible. The tournament needs to be played in an arena built for basketball and not on a football field. How about the Ferrell Center in Waco? if you can stand that much green it would be great. Tournament tickets would be no problem. It seats 10,000 for basketball. Tons of parking with no bats or trains. Waco is fun to visit too. Chip and Joanna might show up. There is a problem with accommodations. Just like in San Antonio, most of the rooms in Waco and San Antonio are gobbled up by people going to that ridiculous thing in Austin. Back in Austin they've replaced the Drum and now we have the new Moody Center..... they built it on top of the only good parking for the Drum. I guess they'll tear down the Drum next to make parking space for the Moody. But the best parking will still be in San Marcus. Or you could park in Waco at the Ferrell center parking lot.

Go Mustangs! I foresee a quarter final game at the Montagne! Wouldn't that be great? Monday and Tuesday of next week appear to be open. Cardinal men play on Wednesday. I'd like to go see that game. Would it jinx them for Tiger fans to show up in support!

Yea, FF had a really good recruiting year. But you never know if they'll hang around. A guy like that may find his way into one of the prep schools next year. Tonight I watched part of their game against Region 2 District 9 fourth place Aubrey. Ended up 84 - 51. At one point in the third Aubrey actually got it down to 14. FF didn't look like terrible monsters. Looks like Van Alstyn and Carter will give them a run, maybe.

Furr's first game against Washington they lost 63-56 at home. They lost the second game 74-55. Their only other district loss was to Yates 87-79. Furr won it's other game against Yates 77-73. Respectable record. Good showings against the No. 3. The most that's been scored against them was that 87 by Yates. I guess that one got away from them. But they look like a pretty good defensive team.

That's often the best way but only when the opportunity presents itself. Never throw the ball away to Yates. It would be better to just throw it out of bounds or get tied up or even get called for time. Teams don't often get breakaway layups off inbounds plays. They frequently get them off stolen passes. 4th place Mickey Leland held down the score in their last meeting with Yates and almost won. It was 56 to 52. I think WOS can dictate a lower scoring game and they should do it. That's their best path forward so they can play the Tigers in the quarterfinal at the Montagne.

Interesting game. Huffman had the best results in district against HJ, losing by 38 and by 49. HJ beat Silsbee by 43 as a point of reference.

And back to the Alamodome? I love the parking but I hate the arena. Are tickets open to the public yet?

I was a little embarrassed for him at the second Silsbee game. It was that bad. Who knows what goes on in a kid's mind, it's a mysterious and complicated place. But the coach has to give him a chance. He really is a good athlete with good height. He can be a real presence inside. But the coach had to sit him down.

Really it's privilege to get to face a team like this. Most teams get eliminated by teams that themselves will get eliminated. The young Tigers had a wonderful opportunity to see what it's like at this level. Playing a team this good in this setting at the Montagne in the third round is a great experience. Frankly the Montagne is a much better basketball venue than the Alamodome. There's not a bad seat in the house. The Alamodome is a terrible venue. The state championship should be played in a venue designed for and dedicated too basketball. There were two tacks the Tigers could take have taken tonight. They could shorten the game and keep all scoring down or play at their normal pace which is up tempo and score as much as they could. Obviously Silsbee choose the latter. The 63 points the Tigers scored tonight is the second highest point total this season against HJ. Only Atascocita, a 6A team, scored more than the Tigers with 66 points. And there's a fair chance that that nobody else in the remaining 4 games, even Argyle, will score 63. And that ain't bad.

I firmly believe they are the best team in the state. Time to dethrone Argyle!