JimThorpe

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.

Yes indeed they are. And they face tougher competition during the regular season. Region 2 always sends a worthy team. The only chink was how hard they were pushed in the third round by unranked Wilmer 81-80. So I don't imagine they'll be looking past Seminole. They know that if an unranked can challenge them like that they'd better respect NO. 10. The 1:00 game should be a good one.

Someset is about 23 minutes from the Alamo Dome. They are so close that all they are doing is having early release on Friday. And it's a really really big deal over there. They had two huge wins as well over the weekend. Their defeat of Brazosport is just as important for them as our win over Yates was for us. I don't know when they actually go on sale, but folks in Somerset are already lining up for tickets allocated to SISD. I bet a bunch of people who miss out on the $16 tickets will go ahead and bite the bullet and buy the $130 tournament ticket. There are still quite a few seats available. Plus there's the Cinderella factor, unaffiliated attendees will usually root for the supposed underdog. And of course, the Carter folks will hang around hoping to see an upset. All this combines make Friday's match practically a home game for the Bulldogs. I would caution them to remember that the No. 2 ranked 4A team, with one of, or maybe the best record in the state, with size and talent and awesome depth and no apparent weaknesses scored 103 points in the Regional final..... and it wasn't nearly enough.

Very true. And we'll probably see him at 2-5 before it's all said and done. I'm sure he could run the offense if asked to but I think we're okay at the No. 1 spot. The word "okay" being the biggest understatement ever.

True, but let's be accurate. They are an elite squad without a center or even a power forward. It's whole bunch of guards and one small forward. And that's what makes this upcoming semifinal game an interesting matchup.