JimThorpe

Just came out of the Papa’s Seafood at 69 & 1960. The sky is dark and it’s drizzling. I mean menacing. Maybe it’s going to blow over but so much for the Weather Channel.

Just came out of the Papa’s Seafood at 69 & 1960. The sky is dark and it’s drizzling

Actually it's not Giddings, it's Pleasant Valley and Cuero. Giddings doesn't make it past the quarter final. That's the standard line anyway. The interesting thing about the Tigers is the scores of those first two games. Those are the kind of scores the highly ranked teams post against second tier early competition. You've got to conclude that the Tigers are, at least for the next few hours, simply an unknown quantity. Plus they are playing at the Div II level which is brand new for this team. Silsbee is used to being tossed into the inevitable Carthage meat grinder. It's a new world now. It's possible the Tigers may be one of the best teams in the state in Div II at this point in the season. I know one thing. If I was a Tiger player I'd be totally pumped right now and ready to give more than I have to give. There's nobody in Div II the likes of Argyle or Carthage or Liberty Hill or even La Vega, Midlothian or Sealy. Jasper and Cuero are good but not that kind of good. Div I is stacked but there's no brick wall in Div II this year to stop an inspired Cinderella.

Rain chances have dropped off to 10%. It will be about 70 Deg. at game time. Conditions favor the better team. But which team is better? The internet staff at Dave Campbell's has already written Silsbee and WOS off. Three out of the four staff writers are taking Jasper over Giddings in Region III. They have Jasper ranked No. 1 in 4A Div II and they have Giddings ranked at No. 6 in the last regular season poll. But they write off Giddings and Jasper as well and they all predict that Cuero will beat Pleasant Grove for the 4A Div II championship. Silsbee and WOS of course are nowhere to be found. In the statewide chatter Silsbee is pretty much a non-entity. Our two dazzling wins were outliers played against other also rans and as soon as we face highly ranked competition it's adios Tigers. The Giddings coaches know that their boys are ranked in the middle of the top 10 and have a good shot at the semifinals. And they know that Silsbee is fair team and to be taken seriously, but really not in their league. (anyway I hope they know those things)

Excellent effort by WB. They just didn’t realize what was going to happen in the last few minutes until it was happening

WB using smart offense. Spread and slow pace. Useless of course against their larger 6A opponents. But it works against Silsbee. That and fact that the Tigers are ice cold.

Lumberton is my favorite school right now. I love how many kids they have enrolled. I love that they are in our district. I love that they are good enough to make the playoffs. Talk about a win-win scenario. This realignment is fabulous. Lumberton gets to go to the playoffs and has a big first round win. Meanwhile Carthage is nowhere on Silsbee's radar screen.

I’m surprised. This is 30 points different than I anticipated. I have no idea what it means. It’s a very good start for PA obviously. With so many question marks this is a huge confidence builder. They have to be thrilled about it. For the Tigers? It’s a tough start for another very challenging preseason. Oh well, once more into the breach dear friends, once more!

WOS has lost two games in a row. That's unusual.

0-0 at the halftime

Amazing! We love our Coach!

Carter will get their 3’s. Fabulous shooting. But the Tigers are on another level right now. Call it schoolyard if you like but I call it improvisational brilliance. If they have that going at a given moment it’s a real thing of beauty. If you’ll excuse the hokey metaphor, it’s like a tiger stalking in the jungle waiting to pounce. One thing for sure, the Tigers would have put Seminole away a lot sooner than Carter did. Any objective observer who was there yesterday would agree with that. That may not mean anything, but it’s true. The 19 point win over Somerset was 19 because Coach Sig wanted it that way.

.....and I think he was the Region 1 Tournament MVP. Really he's a tight end. He's signed to play offensive line with a Div. 1 team. He moves really well. Not quick but has surprising speed, like a large tight end, duh. We certainly don't have anybody who can move him out of the way. He goes pretty much where he wants at the discretion of the refs of course. We'll see what Carter can do with him. The whole team is pretty beefy actually. Probably Carter has too much skill for them but I hope they win. It would be more fun playing the Indians than playing Carter. Carter is a known quantity. They play in the mold of the better teams we're familiar with. Playing Seminole would be uncharted territory.

Thank you, thank you very much. I'll be here all week.

Phil Jackson is looking for a job. We could rename it the Golden Triangle Offense. Get it? Golden Triangle! Ha!

Sadly, none of the three remaining teams will be willing to play with the reckless abandon on both ends that Yates demonstrated Saturday. Hence there won't be any more 120 point games for the Tigers. More's the pity because it was so much fun. But why would they cause it would be suicide. But if one of them did decide to run the unaffiliated attendees at the Alamo Dome would be in for a surprise treat.

Well, Seminole certainly isn't a skinny team. They have a forward who looks like a nose tackle. We can surely out jump him but I don't think any one of our guys can move him. Two probably could. He's 6'6 and weighs 285. Seminole should give Carter a game. They won by roughly the same margin against common opponents. If Seminole it will prove they are a team to be reckoned with.

And last year's semifinal. Two very dramatic games on consecutive days.

What are some of the memories that stand out the most? Most exciting games, interesting people?

Intangibles. Looking at the emotional clips and the photos from the post game at Huntsville it would be hard to tell that these are the defending champions and this is their third straight trip to state. It's brand new like, "I can't believe it! We've finally done it!" So much for being satisfied with one championship.

I'd still try it. If they don't try something radical the best they can hope for is a good showing, a 9 or 10 point loss like the Connolly game.

Interesting video. Rivera is their man. Talented and well schooled - that young man has played a lot of basketball. The defense in the video looks like lesser district opponents. It's a little softer than that he'll face in San Antonio so he'll have to rise to the occasion. He'll get his points against the Tigers I'm sure, in the 24 range. Silsbee will just have to match him. Shaping up to be a very good game.

Well, it's a free country. They can give it a go. But if it was me? I'd have called Coach King at Argyle Saturday night. I'd be studying the Argyle/Silsbee game closer that Pasture studied microbes. I'd choreograph this thing like the director of the Bolshoi Ballet choreographs Swan Lake trying to duplicate what happened last year in that semifinal - except for that last shot of course. I'd move that about an inch and a half to the left.

You gotta figure Somerset is ranked too low. Having just beaten No. 3 and then No. 15 you'd have to put them somewhere above 22 wouldn't you?

I don't want to jinx the Tigers but really that makes sense. The Tigers have only one problem against Somerset and that's the height difference. Somerset is taller than anybody we've played. We've seen as good or better than the Bulldogs in every other facet and handled it. But 6'10" Jacob Harvey can play. He scored 21 against West Oso and he played most of the game. He will be effective and a force to reckoned with. He will alter our style of play inside. Somerset on the other hand has a bunch of problems. I think the biggest concern is to keep out of foul trouble. If Harvey has to sit down for an extended period there's just no road for them. Silsbee has shown a knack for drawing fouls against opponents' bigs. Then there's Silsbee's speed and full court defense. The Tigers aren't maniacal like Yates but they pressure you a bit and then they sprint down on offense. Opponents can deal with these things but it's tiring mentally and physically. The Tigers can get really hot from 3pt land. Not just high school but NBA three point land. And finally there's that 4th quarter thing the Tigers do. Prayer is the only counter measure for that.