JimThorpe

Since Silsbee and Hardin Jefferson are there so often and usually with decent crowds it might save overall driving miles to hold the Region III 4A tournament at Lamar.

We've familiar with silly teenagers chanting "Overrated". Well, I'm got a chant to direct at the Huffman Falcons, "Underrated!".

Everything you,d want in a quarter final. Huffman isn’t going anywhere. Silsbee May pull away and they may not. I’m confident we can hold on but it may be a wild ride.

The first meeting resulted in 55 pt margin. The second was only 31. So Washington is getting closer. If it's a linear progression this game should result in a 7 point margin. Anybody buying that? Or is it more likely an alternating series and this time it reverts back to the 55? After this Yates will be facing Connally in the semi. Bit of a surprise to me. Lorena upsets Palestine and then Connally takes Lorena by 10 last night. I was expecting Palestine to face Yates in the semi. Good for Connally anyway. Third straight trip to the tournament, always respectable. Sure gave us all we wanted last year. And the year before that they nearly upset Yates. So I'm looking for Connolly to pull off one spectacular upset. But only one.

I was there a couple of rows below wearing my good luck Silsbee tee from 2016-17. Talked to them before the Furr game started. Am I right about the main point, and you know better than me, the Tigers won't be looking past the Falcons to the tournament. And that's bad news for Huffman.

The problem for Huffman is that there's a good chance that Tigers are going to take this game very seriously, like a Hardin Jefferson game. I sat in front of the Silsbee Coaches last Thursday, tried to get them to talk about how well HJ did against Yates and what that meant for the Regional final. But they very reticent about that. They really were focusing on Huffman. Nobody wants to jinx anything by overlooking the challenge at hand. Freak circumstances are a possibility, if a remote one. The flu has been going around in Silsbee. Report cards aren't out till Friday and if that's going to be a thing it's not going to help the Falcons on Tuesday; unless maybe there are Tigers with incompletes that have to stay home and do desperate makeup work. But if I was a Falcon I'd want the Tigers' best game and let the chips fall where they may. A Miracle on Ice type thing maybe? Except on wood? But no, Coach Sig has outlawed miracles.

Not more than 6'1 if he's that. I like it when he makes a move into the paint and pulls up for a 10 or 12 footer. It's a pretty thing.

No it didn't. He had his moments, there was one monster dunk in particular and that fun, but he seemed to be behind the action a lot of the time. He was probably a net weakness in transition.

I'm figuring that guard play will improve at each level. Consequently the opportunities for easy baskets will decrease as well at each level. But even good guards have mental lapses and the Tigers are always ready to pounce.

Kryptonite? Height and size?

Sure! Course they do. They have a Big Man in the Middle kind of game, all except the big man in the middle. But yea, Silsbee runs an offense.... when they have to.... sort of. Let's just put it this way, a 15 second shot clock would rarely catch them. And they have a pretty good half court defense even without a big man in the middle. For a while. Until they can't stand it any more and start ad hoc trapping. But seriously, while it's true that they are a team of 15 guards they can adapt and they do have tall feisty guards willing to mix it up with anybody. They learned a lot in some really bad matchup games that resulted in disappointing loses at tournaments and early in the season. It culminated with two really big wins in the Sugar Bowl Prep tournament in New Orleans on January 4th and 5th against big time opposition. Solid games all around with good transition and half court play. Only one time since those tourney games has the whole package been on display in deadly earnest and that was the first half of the second game against Hardin Jefferson, the score was 43 - 18. Compare that to the half time score in Tuesday's HJ - Yates game, 34 -34.

This will be one bunch of guards vs. another bunch of guards. In other words, 4A heaven, a game not sullied by the presence of plodding power forwards or hulking centers. But our starting guards are mostly taller than theirs. (note the hypocrisy) Based on what I saw on Tuesday I don't see how Huffman can consistently stop Silsbee's transition game even if they do get back on defense. The Tigers won't have to go around, they can shoot over the Falcons. Over the Falcons? That sounds counterintuitive doesn't it? Huffman does represent something of a threat which is a good thing for a change. So far the prey has been sort of like women washing clothes at the bank of the stream or children playing too far from the village. Tigers will make those kills but they aren't really that satisfying. Now we're moving on to bigger game that can run and even fight back.

If the Tigers had deployed a defense solely designed to shut down scoring that 70 would have been more like 50. But then that 117 would have been more like 90. We haven't seen the real, the playoff grade, Tiger defense since the second Hardin Jefferson game where the Hawks were held 18 points first half points. After seeing Yates and Huffman the other night it's my belief that if the Tigers play to their potential the only things that can keep them out of the Alamodome are eligibility and the flu.

Lady Tigers continuing the clumsy play they exhibited Tuesday against Sweeney. They are in a funk. Bad timing for a slump. Fairfield will only have to score a few more points to lock this one up. Unless somehow the Tigers can completely turn it around. Doesn’t seem likely.

Fairfield has tall girls. Bad matchup for Silsbee inside. But we shall see.

FYI Palestine beat Argyle this year. Good team.

So, I'm saying that their pressure and 3 pt shooting can keep Yates close enough to Silsbee and whichever Dallas team they might face to give them a shot at squeaking out a win. And you're saying probably not, not this year anyway. As I think about you're probably right. If they do that triple team trap on the Silsbee ball handler and he manages to get the ball to any teammate, a teammate like McCain or Jordan, then it's sayonara sucker. And that did happen in this HJ game resulting in a number of layups for the Hawks. In fact, I can see the Tigers dribbling to the corner on purpose inviting that scenario, hoping it will happen. Yea, you're probably right.

I was impressed with how well HJ's bench played. Of course the scrawny blond kid was his usual pesky self. Love that guy, he's a headache for everybody the Hawks play. Yates bench is very very good, as usual. They lose very little with the next 3 or 4. While they aren't the favorite, even in Region III, I think that Yates is capable of going all the way this year based on that excellent shooting. But they are not a physically dominating team and it's going to be a tough road for them. And it's not just Silsbee, Palestine could give them a run for their money just like the Hawks did.

Uncharacteristic sloppy play by Huff

Still 5 pt game. Furr will not go away. 5:40

I don’t know but I’m going to keep my distance from their fans.

Fairfield has canceled classes this week because of the flu outbreak.

Furr is hanging tough. Big man is not in foul trouble.

Yates is an excellent shooting team. Without the high 3 pt percentage HJ wins

Yates pulled away on the basis of good free throw shooting after deliberate fouls