JimThorpe

There was a point in the third where the Tigers were ahead by 14 or even 16 and it could have gone the other way and been the 25 point win. It really was just the bounce of the ball. Hawks didn’t go quietly into the night as I thought they were about to.

Great game. The Hawks showed up! Tigers 38 - 32 at the half. Devon isn’t playing?

Never mind about the rumor. All is right with the world

I’m fishing for corroboration first

Heard a rather startling eligibility rumor.

Yes it has. But it's always lurking beneath the surface. For one thing, unless some of the kids have growth spurts over the summer the Tigers are going to be somewhat vertically challenged next year.

I remember 2016 was a bittersweet year. Beating HJ twice was huge of course. A couple of things stand out. One was the Regional semi-final game with Hudson. They had a scrawny white kid who looked like the very definition of a scrub - about 5'11", maybe 150 pounds soaking wet. Obviously a JV kid brought up for the playoffs. Couldn't make a shot from the 3 point line in warmup to save his life. Actually we were wondering why Hudson had made it that far. Teams come out for the tip - low and behold he's starting - then we find out why Hudson was there. This poster child from Diary of a Wimpy Kid proceeds to completely chop us up. On both ends. He steals the ball from our guards, he scores in the paint and from the 3 point line. Where ever the ball is, he's there. He never makes a mistake. Never. He's like this blessed basketball child. Tiny Tim who left his crutch in the corner. Far and away the best player on the court that night. We're down by 2 at the half. We were forced to pretty much double him even when he didn't have the ball and keep it out of his hands. The rest of the Hornets couldn't take up the slack so Hudson faded in the second half and we won by 18. We were able to chuckle about it as the game ended with Silsbee pulling out to an 18 point win. I can tell you we sure weren't laughing about it half time. Appearances can be deceiving. That's a pretty cool name isn't it? Hudson Hornets. And then there was the injury to Devon in the championship game. It was the most frightening moment I've ever experienced in sports. The Alamodome was so deathly quiet as they attended to him. Just quiet prayers. Lincoln fans were praying. You could hear the pigeons cooing in the rafters. They hovered over him for a long time and he never regained consciousness on the floor. You couldn't help but think about a catastrophic neck injury or a crippling brain injury. And today you see him playing with such abandon. The three point loss was a hard thing, but that wound was buffered by the McCains eventual complete recovery which was far more important than even a championship game.

Been watching the clips on MaxPreps. If the Hawks try to play the way they've been playing then you've got it exactly right. Ho hum. They can't beat Silsbee playing that way and more importantly they can't beat Yates that way. And that means they have next to no chance of making it to the regional tourney.

Don't misunderstand, I'm a diehard Tiger fan. (of course we haven't had to deal with dying lately have we?) In fact I'm pretty confident that the Tigers lost for the last time this season over in New Orleans last week. I wouldn't mind a bit if the Tigers win by 50 on Friday. But a competitive game wouldn't do the Tigers any harm either would it? And if the Hawks can find something that works against Silsbee then it will probably also work against Yates. Wouldn't it be sweet to see the 22 runner up beat the 4th ranked 23 winner. In gaming out a scenario it seems to me that modelling what Argyle did two years ago in San Antonio might be something to look at. That was a 1 point game and frankly it was closer than that, if you know what I mean.

It doesn't have to be that way. If the Hawks will pretend they are Argyle they can keep it fairly close. 10 points maybe. I mean it. I think they have it in them if they will just let it out.

They have one, No. 15, who we had real difficulty with. He scored some points and missed several more that had a chance to go in. We couldn't stop him once he made his move. He was the best player on the court and it looked to me like he should have been playing JV. Actually, at this point, I might even be starting him on varsity just for the experience, because if the Horns have a future, looks like he's it.

You can look at the results in Maxpreps. Scores are about what you'd expect. They are ranked No. 4 right behind Silsbee. So I assume they are a normal Yates team. They beat Bmt United by 2 so that's about the same as the Tigers. District 23 looks like it's a little weaker than 22. It shapes up to be another rematch and a another barn burner. Unless of course there is an upset.

And why not? It's something anyway. Seemed that one or more Horns was always in the way down in the paint. One thing that was a little problematic was that the Horns wouldn't take a long three even when it was available. If you are within 27 - 28 feet and open then jack it up. You're not going to get a better opportunity inside. That's just not going to happen. The extra pass can be a bad thing against that swarming defense. Plus the careen could bounce back to you. True it's usually what we would call a "bad shot", 4 feet behind the line. But when good shots are not presenting themselves, ever, then take what you can get. A couple of them would have gone in and that would have been fun.

Okay then, this makes sense. The Mustangs are good. The Silsbee score makes more sense now.

Faith is a publicly funded, open enrollment charter school that draws from districts all over the Dallas area encompassing thousands and thousands of kids. Perhaps more kids than total population of most 4A districts. And obviously this one is a bit of a basketball magnet. Carter is a good team but they were simply outmanned. I don't think we'll se a rematch.

The Tigers start to get antsy if they haven’t put up a shot within 6 or 7 seconds of crossing half court.

A win is a win. I've got to stop this fretting. But I keeping thinking about how much these 80 points scored by shorthanded unranked and unheralded WOS might translate into X number of points by Yates. But it's foolish to make such comparisons, especially in December. And I'm stealing my own joy. And it's patently unfair to the brave WOS players. They scored quite a few points against the number 2 team in the state. Good for them!

The 107 is great. Why do I find the 80 mildly disturbing? I'm doing a bad job of managing expectations.

Nobody anywhere is going to score much more than 55 in high school basketball in the first half in Texas. So for WOS to be only 8 behind. Interesting.

The district needs competition. Those Dallas schools have good games all the time.

Hard to figure matchups. But you have to be thinking about it. How could you not?

Two failed extra point attempts? The phrase "whatever goes around comes around" might start entering the edge of the consciousness of the Cuero folks. Hope it doesn't decide the thing. You get the feeling though that if the PG answers and leaves time on the board then Cuero can score again...... Unless they fumble on the final drive to take the final lead. Wait.... Where did I see that happen? No, that's too much of a coincidence.

Doesn't look like he's really doing that much, moving that fast, and all of a sudden wham-o. He did make on mistake on defense that was costly but I'm sure the Gobblers can live with that. We were fortunate that he never burned us like that. He certainly might have. But the Tigers had the bigger of the big plays. He got his yards and played a good a defensive game, but it was mostly the big running back and the QB running and timely shorter passes that kept powering through us to keep drives going.

21-20 Pleasant Grove. Fun game. Just like the 3A's yesterday.

That doesn't happen does it? Well, yes, I guess it does. But the extra point is no good! Is Cuero going to get burned the same way we got burned? I hope not. In our game of course, each team scores 4 touchdowns, no field goals, no safeties and the Tigers lose by 5. One thing FOR SURE. The Tigers belonged in the the semifinal game. That is beyond dispute now. WOS would have belonged there as well and might have beaten Cuero, which would have been cool. But the TIGERS BELONGED. Not much of a surprise at all if WOS and Silsbee meet in the quarterfinals again next year. After that? It will depend on the enrollment at Lumberton.