JimThorpe

It was an entertaining game anyway. WOS will be a worthy 3rd or 4th place team in our district. I think they even have a chance at a first round upset victory if they can come in 3rd and not have to play a district winner. They suited out only 8 I think and played all 8. The 3 subs played pretty well though. And 8 man rotation is fine against most teams so that won't be a problem. The Tigers needed to win this one by something in the mid 30's and they did. The shooting was so-so but the intensity was great and that's the main thing. They are on track. The bench had a couple of shaky minutes in the first half but they came around, we're seeing improvement down the line with every game. As usual, the only concern is size inside. The Tigers are tenacious and they play hard and they compensate well but we are vulnerable inside. The effectiveness of No. 11 highlighted this. The next home game for the Tigers will be good one and I don't expect a 34 point margin. The Tigers are capable of pulling away from HJ but it probably won't happen. Any kind of win, pretty or ugly, close or comfortable will be just fine.

No freshman game. JV at 6:00 Tigers by 35, 110 - 75. It's not so much a prediction as it is a necessity. Teams that aspire to go to San Antonio have to be able to handle 4th place district opponents with relative ease. Especially a high speed team such as the Tigers. Plus, I can't see Silsbee scoring less than they did in Orange. Plus I can't see the Mustangs scoring more than Hardin Jefferson did.

The Tiges' improvisational quickness is murder on teams like BC. Passes that were safe against Nederland weren't safe against the Tigers. Ball handling that is good enough to stay in the game against Nederland wasn't quite enough against Silsbee. It's an incremental thing.

The Barber's Hill - PAM game is the marquee event this week. No.s 11 and 12 meeting in the regular season. The home court is worth a lot in this series so 11 points is reasonable but I bet it will be closer.

Interesting dynamic. Hardin Jefferson beats Lumberton by 21. Then Silsbee beats Hardin Jefferson by 3. Then Silsbee beats Lumberton by 77. Basketball is a funny thing isn't it? Matchups are a tricky.

I know, I know. And I'm part of the problem. But what is there to talk about? Kind of early to be talking about it but with the win Friday Lumberton proves it will be a playoff team - probably No. 3 That means they will play a No. 2 from somewhere nearby. Playing the Tigers twice, including the last regular season game as a warmup of sorts, will make playing any second place team in these parts seem pretty tame by comparison. It's like swinging a bat with a 5 lb. donut on it in the on deck circle. Sisbee, HJ, Lumberton and WOS will be our four from 22 4A. A few of the districts up north will field a better group but it's not too shabby at all.

Not everything that is possible actually happens. Not everything that didn't happen was impossible. And yes, one player can make that big a difference, if that player was the MVP of the state tournament last year. I'll go further, McCain is indispensable to the Tigers if they hope to repeat. He's not the only indispensable player but he's one of them. The Tigers don't have a center or even a true forward. They are a team of guards really and that means they will have to be firing on all cylinders to make it to the championship game. They weren't firing on all cylinders Friday night explaining the closeness of the game. It's almost mathematical actually.

Not playing they way they did Friday. Yates will eat them up, 20 points minimum. The Hawks can do either of two things. They can keep playing the way they are and be content to make it to the third round or they can alter the experiment and totally take the air out of be ball. See to it that nobody even gets to 50. Patience to the point of boredom. They aren't going to San Antonio. They aren't going to beat Yates and Silsbee. Not gonna happen. But they just might be able to get to Johnson Coliseum.

The football team made it to the 5A quarterfinals a few years ago. It was a very good team. The quarterback was the coaches son I believe.

HJ still played too fast. Against a full strength Silsbee HJ doesn't have much of a shot playing they way they did Friday. And more importantly they don't have a prayer against Yates. And the Hawks will likely face Yates in the third round. Coach Davis needs to give Coach Perkins at Argyle a call. There is a way. And even shorthanded, there was a moment in the third when the Tigers might have pulled away. Coach Davis was forced to call a timeout because Silsbee had built up a 14 point lead in the middle of the 3rd. It had the desired effect, the Hawks rallied. Plus, I think the Tigers had that 35 point blowout in their heads as they went to the side. Totally unrealistic. They got out of the moment and into the future which is always bad.

Now I've done it! Shame on me! It's just that Lumberton did us such a favor in football by having exactly the right enrollment. I figured we owed them something.

The eventual state 5A champion beat the Raiders 78 - 53 and 79 - 42 last year. I suppose a safe prediction would have it about the same on Friday - a 25 to 30 point win - all things being equal. But you never know. I'd be surprised if the Raiders can slow the tempo enough to make it really close. They don't have the size or the width. Having been present for most of the Tigers games for the last few years I could offer some pointers to the Raiders. All turnovers are NOT the same. A stolen pass is worse than getting tied up. An easy layup the other way is worse than a 10 second violation. I've never seen the Tigers get a fast break off an inbounds on their own end. Just FYI.

As well you should, it was a big win. Lumberton is the solid no. 3 team in 22 4A. Not bad. Not bad at all. As a Tiger fan I also must say that Lumberton is my favorite. They took our 4A Div 1 beating for us this year in football so that we could make it all the way to the semi's in Div II. As they say, no greater love. Here's to the Lumberton Raiders for having just exactly the right enrollment. And it was a win - win. Lumberton got a playoff victory in the first round and though it's a little early it looks like they are headed to the basketball playoffs as well. Course none of that has any bearing on Friday's game which will be an interesting experience. When was the last time Silsbee and Lumberton faced off in a district basketball game? The 90's?

Some of the underclassmen could use some first half minutes.

They send out these remarkable communications on a special audio wavelength length where mysteriously the signals always stay above 6'. By a remarkable coincidence that's the perfect ear height for basketball centers.

Everybody should have "a great communications program" Nothing wrong with communications I always say.

They are in region 2. So as good as they are it's unlikely they can make it out of that meat grinder region.

They are hardly an elite team but their scores do indicate that Washington is pretty good. Check out their record on Maxpreps. They beat Wheatley, Scarborough, North Forest, everybody they've faced in the district except Yates. Often by comfortable margins. They've scored over 100 three times and routinely post scores in the 90's. They beat No 18 Needville by more than we beat No.17 HF. Looks like they will come in second in District 23. 23 is not as strong as 22, but based on their record I would project Washington would come in third behind Hardin Jefferson in our district, beating everybody except the big 2. The fact that Yates handled them so easily is significant in my opinion.

Okay, that makes sense. If the coaches poll is infallible, which I will assume for now, it will be Decatur from R1, Hutchins from R2, Silsbee from R3 and Needville (yes Needville) from the monstrously powerful R4. Assuming all these win out their regular seasons here's what the winning percentages will look like at the end of the Regional tournaments. Decatur .925 Hutchins .914 Silsbee .813 Needville .794 R2 is very competitive but seeding stays the same even if it's Faith Family instead of Hutchins because they will be at .846 going in. I didn't even look at Yates because that is a contingency, irrespective of its likelihood, that is too horrible to contemplate. Silsbee may drop to No. 4 behind Yates based on the result of the Hardin Jefferson game and the fact that Yates just put it on Washington 131 - 76. Washington is a decent team, a little better than WOS probably, occasionally scores over the century mark. I wonder if anyone else has heard what I heard about two new recrui.... excuse me...... transfers that recently became eligible for Yates. One is 6'-7 and the other is 6'-9. Remember the discussion about Yates? How they weren't as tall this year? Right.

Is it based purely on winning percentage? I assume then that 1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3?

Wilmer Hutchins is 1 and Faith Family is 2. Both are in Region 2, south side of Dallas, and both are very very good. They are not overrated. Fortunately the Region 3 winner (Silsbee I hope) will only have to play one of them. But R3 can't look past R1 who we play in the semi-final, if I read the brackets right. The R1 winner will likely be either No.6 Decatur or No. 9 Argyle. Either of those will give us all we want, trust me. The closest game Silsbee has played in playoffs in the last 2 years was the semi game against Argyle which we won by 1 point. (and as I've said, it was closer than that)

Well at least I'm not a fool anymore. I'm sure you aren't okay with calling a kid trash or even implying it. And that's what I was referring to mainly. The word heckling means different things to different people. You can scream your lungs out for your team. But there needs to be an assistant principle who is respected by the kids monitoring their behavior. This is school property and visitors should be treated with respect.

You called me a fool. Really? You just up and call people fools when you disagree with them? A kid is holding a sign that says TRASH and chanting while Jordan Adams is at the free throw line. That is what happened. I saw it. In effect it singled one kid out calling him trash. So at least one of the signs was completely inappropriate and any AP there should have removed it and admonished the kid. This is a school setting, an educational facility. There are many things that are inappropriate in addition to the two things you list. Students in a public school should not be permitted to demean student athletes from another school. And frankly they shouldn't heckle. Not everything that is fun can be permitted. End of story.

One of the signs was inappropriate. And I don't understand the logic of calling your arch rival "overrated". If they are overrated and you beat them, so what. But if they are not overrated and you beat them then it is a big deal. But I get it, knucklehead teenagers are instinctively illogical in such situations. I was a knucklehead teen myself but not an illogical one. For my part I'm a little disturbed that the Tigers had such trouble with the 17th ranked team. Does that bode well for the future? Especially since Yates has soft-recruited two new big men just recently. If I'm holding up a sign about the Hawks it will say "Underrated". But anyway. What did McCain's absence mean? Even the most conservative guess would be a 10 point swing. And a 15 point swing is not unreasonable. After all, he was MVP of the 4A Tourny. I think we could have done better at denying Persohn the ball. Plus we might have been able to clean up better on both ends. Persohn was impressive. We didn't really have an answer for him. He's really not that tall but he can sure find his way to the basket.

I don’t think they are overrated. I’d like to think they are underrated. Cause if we can beat No. 17 by only 3 then what happens when we face No. 4?