OVER THE HILL

From the time my son entered 7th grade till Rideaux, they had 4 different head coaches and with Coach K that makes 5. Some of the kids prior to that had 6 different head coaches during their time @ HF so basketball wasn't the priority. Hopefully this coach sticks with them. Their is talent there and has been but with no stability it can't be developed.

Don't know about Jacks, he was before our kids time. Pace had some family issues that he had to work out and left us high and dry. We had high hopes for him and the commitment from the school towards the basketball program wasn't what it is now. They brought in Rideaux specifically for basketball and he did coach other sports but he was specifically brought in for basketball.

I agree the culture changed when they hired actual basketball coaches. After watching about 60 games or so the last 3 years, I feel like I have a good handle on the teams capabilities and what could have been. I also enjoyed watching your son cardinal 1 and my son enjoyed playing with him, he tried to play team basketball even though he could have fallen right in with the me, me, me stuff, he didn't. I think he will do well at the next level.

They probably would have finished the same. To much me,me,me on the team and not enough team. That showed last night and in previous losses with HJ and Huffman. The Washington team played together and should go far in the playoffs, if not outright win it. As soon as HF got down, one player tried to take on the whole Washington team and all the others could do was stand and watch. Washington was hitting shots and making great passes to the open man. They were just as excited to make a great pass as they were to hit a shot. You did not see that from HF at all during the big games over the last three years. You might say well, the coach could have changed that but even with the previous coach the same thing was going on. That has been the problem with them the last three years. This team won a lot of games over the last three years but overall were a big disappointment because they couldn't play together when they needed too. HF should be ok with the new coach in charge because the kids he has coming thru the next few years play together and share the ball.

25 games into the season they still are not playing up to their capabilities and they have two kids with terrible attitudes and are extremely selfish. I think the coach is finally seeing that he has to sit those kids down. Like I’ve said before he’s a good guy and a I think he is at the end of his patients with those kids. If he does sit those kids down I think they can go further in the playoffs than everyone expects. Cardinal 1s son should be leading this team and not have to fight for the ball. He had a great game the other night because the coach sat those kids down finally and let the kids who have no problem with him getting his points and don’t mind sharing the ball, up until that point they were struggling and could have very easily lost the game to an inferior team. As I said we will see Tuesday night, if he does make a change then they can win out if he keeps doing more of the same then they will end up in 3 rd or 4th just like the last two years and be out the first round.

The chemistry of the last group on the floor the other night hopefully showed the coach who should be playing. 29 points in the fourth Quarter in a game that was sloppy and close until the right group of kids were on the court. We will see if he finally figured it out on Tuesday.

i think the lesson was learned tonight. We will see Tuesday.

A lot of coaches only see some athletes abilities to run fast or jump high and ignore the bad things they do because they are awesome athletes. Those coaches are always wondering why can’t we win at a high level? The good coaches know chemistry between teammates is what wins. I agree that these problems should have been addressed in preseason. He can still save the season and make a run in the playoffs if he makes the hard decision. Their is chemistry with some of the players and you can see it especially with the second unit and Cardinal 1s son but like I said above everyone loves the athletes so they will stick with that even though it may bury them.

This was going on before this coach and cardinal 1s kid was here. The previous coach only wanted two kids to touch the ball so team chemistry was never developed now you add in a really good player and you have a recipe for disaster. The fit pitching and jealousy was overlooked because they got the wins to get the previous coach where he wanted to be. This coach inherited this mess and being a first time head coach is learning on the fly. Do I agree with the way he is handling it, no but I am not in his shoes. Like I said before I think he is a good guy and I think he will improve the program eventually if he doesn’t get discouraged by this years problems. I feel bad for the kids that show up everyday and work hard because they love the game and will never get the chance at another senior year because of this crap.

Cardinal 1 is not wrong. You have different factions on the team going against each other. When one is scoring the others get jealous and won't pass to them. One of the kids who would be sitting the bench had his parents complain and all of a sudden he is playing more than kids who should be playing. We went from an over controlling coach to a laid back coach who won't get rid of the problem kids or sit them down. The coach this year is a good guy but he can't handle the problem children on the team. Those kids have caused the team to be in disarray and the season all but lost. The team has talent but anyone on here can tell you that if you don't play like a team then you will get beat by good teams. This is not a team. Last nights game proved it. Talent can beat lesser teams but when they play teams that play together they can be beat. Look at last years Huffman team, Silsbee or this years HJ team those kids play as a team consistently and their records each year show that.

On his coaches bio, it says he played basketball at the college level at ETBU, I believe. Why wouldn’t he want to coach at what got him to where he’s at? HF is a small school and generally any coach hired does multiple sports. They don’t have the financial support of the plants in the area to be able to afford just a sport specific coach like many of the other schools in the area so having a background in multiple sports is a must. We have had ADs in the past that only cared about football and it was one of the reasons our other programs such as basketball suffered. Wagner isn’t like that or Rideaux wouldn’t have been hired in the first place. He wants all the programs to succeed. It shows because multiple teams at HF have made the playoffs since he has been AD so to say this is a football hire isn’t true.

Hopefully they don't mess around with the hiring process and wait till the last minute to hire someone. If I am not mistaken they had seven kids mentioned for an all district award or better and 5 of them are returning. Plus the transfer and 2 other kids that were recovering from injury. They should be pretty stout this year.

They are not season ending. The one starter they have hurt has a high ankle sprain and should be back soon. The freshman tore his MCL and came back too soon and will probably be out again even though he really isn't a starter. The one with the ankle sprain really hurts them because he is their inside guy and main rebounder even though he's only about 6'1. He's been out for a while now so it will probably take some time to get him back into game shape and keep him from getting reinjured.

Not even sure the HF kids knew they won. They looked miserable.