Depwe is on target with special invites for Gamble Awards

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Depwe is on target with special invites for Gamble Awards

The Port Arthur News

Ray Depwe, the Port Arthuran who came up with the idea of a James Gamble Awards Banquet to salute the area's top high school basketball players, as well as Lincoln's legendary coach, has added a terrific touch for this year's 5th annual event. Impressed at the strong Southeast Texas showing in the state high school basketball tournament, Depwe invited 2A state champion Kountze, 3A champ Hardin-Jefferson and 4A runnerup Ozen to be special guests at the Saturday, April 14 gala at the Parker Center. Tickets, priced at $10 for students and $15 for adults, are available by calling Sharon Adams (984-9600) . . . Finalists for the Gamble Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside trophies, by the way, will be selected this week. The players chosen will make up the roster for the 4th Annual Port Arthur News/Gamble Award basketball game set for Thursday, April 12 in the Parker Center. A trio of Gamble Award nominees from last season — HJ's 6-1 point guard Ryan Donahoe, WO-Stark's 6-7 Richard Netherly and Ozen's 6-3 Kris Richard, the winner of the 2006 Mr. Outside — appear to be locks to make the team again. Memorial coach Terrul Henderson, who is 0-3 as the visiting team coach, vows that he'll bring a team of Houston area all-stars with enough talent to beat Gamble's all-stars this time around.

Ozen ex Keena Young, a Mr. Outside nominee in 2003, had a terrific senior season for Brigham Young. Keena, who scored 19 points in BYU's overtime loss to Lamar in December, went on to be named Mountain West Player of the Year, averaging 17 points and seven rebounds. He scored 24 in the Cougars 79-77 NCAA first round loss to Xavier . . . Brigham Young, incidentally, was one of five NCAA teams Lamar played in a schedule that first-year coach Steve Roccaforte now admits was a little too ambitious. The Cardinals were 2-3 against NCAA entrants, with victories over BYU and Southland champ Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and losses to No. 2 seed Memphis, No. 3 seed Texas A&M and No. 14 seed Oral Roberts. Roccaforte, by the way, was a guest of his former boss, John Calipari, for Memphis' first-round game against North Texas in New Orleans . . . Wonder if the NCAA selection committee is proud of the two chumps it gave the final tourney at-large bids to, thus keeping a couple of deserving mid majors out. Stanford, an 18-12 team, played like it while losing to Louisville by 20. Arkansas, which at 7-9 was tied for the eighth best record in the SEC, took a 17-point beating from USC. Neither team should have been anywhere near the NCAA and proved it with their sorry play.

Former Texas A&M star Antoine Wright, who now plays for the New Jersey Nets, probably shouldn't expect to be invited back to Aggieland any time soon. Wright, on HBO's Costas Now show that aired Tuesday night, told host Bob Costas that athletes at A&M are steered into agricultural school for grades that will keep them eligible. "In certain classes, you see a quarterback, me, a running back and then a farmer. But we're all in poultry science for a reason. We're in this class because we need to get this grade. We're not really trying to learn about chickens," Wright said. Reckon Longhorn exes will have any fun with that ? ? ? Attendance at last week's Southland Conference tournament should certainly help Lamar athletic director Billy Tubbs' push to get the tourney put up for bid among conference schools. Total attendance for the seven SLC games played in the Campbell Center was 4,372, or about 500 more than LU's per game average. Crowd for the championship game between A&M-Corpus and Northwestern State was 1,811. No way does going back there back financial sense . . . Best suggestion on trying to do the right thing in the NCAA tournament came from one of my listeners on Sportsrap. Since adding teams seems inevitable, what with Syracuse's Jim Boeheim and Big 12 coaches whining, add three more play-in games. But instead of using them to eliminate mid major conferences with an automatic bid, pair-up teams competing for the final four at large-bids. In other words, the four teams that would be No. 12 seeds, and the next four on the bubble, would play each other for the No. 12 seed in each region. Even that's not fail safe for mid majors, but it would be a step toward fairness. Which is exactly why it won't happen.

Chris Stroud remains hopeful of getting into the Shell Houston Open, either on a sponsor's exemption or with his priority number in the pecking order coming up, but it remains a long shot. Most of the sponsor exemptions have been filled with players like Michael Campbell, Bernhard Langher, Lee Westwood, Chris Riley, John Cook and John Daly. Stroud, as of Friday, was the first alternate on the regular player list, but with the entry deadline not until next Friday he's probably going to drop down a couple of notches, depending on how many players commit late. His best shot is probably the Monday qualifier. Stroud will be playing in the Nationwide Tour event this week in Lafayette, La. . . . For those interested in attending the Houston Open, I'll be giving away tickets the next two Mondays on Sportsrap. Thanks to former PA News sports staffer Burt Darden, plenty of tickets are available for all four days of the March 29-April 1 event at Redstone Golf Club. My guest for Monday night, unless he's on a plane flying somewhere to do a game for ESPN, will be Ron Franklin . . . Speaking of tickets, if you want an opportunity to be part of March Madness in 2008, the NCAA South Regional is set for Friday, March 28th and Sunday, March 30th at Houston's Reliant Stadium. That's the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 round. The tickets, priced at $165 each for three games, go on sale Monday at 10 a.m. You can get them by calling Ticketmaster at 713 629-3700 or by going on-line at www.ticketmaster.com. Believe me when I say the tickets will be gone in a hurry.

The Astros biggest headache in spring training, and it’s a good one, is what to do with rookie sensation Hunter Pence. The former Texas-Arlington standout, who batted .283 with 48 homers and 95 RBI last year at AA Corpus Christi, is hitting a sizzling .625 in spring training and drawing across-the-board raves. Chris Burke has been calling him Babe Ruth. Nolan Ryan has labeled him “a real special player.†Houston, however, intends to have him start the season at AAA Round Rock so he can play every day, rather than platooning with Jason Lane, Luke Scott and Richard Hidalgo. Sooner or later, though, it seems a pretty good bet he’ll be a star at Minute Maid Park . . . Among the most interesting stats for NCAA tournament teams is three-point shooting percentages. Four of the Texas teams, headed by No. 1 Texas A&M (.522), ranked in the top dozen. Texas Tech was No. 2 at .416, Texas was No. 6 at .404 and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was No. 12 at .395. Only North Texas, 32nd at .370, didn’t measure up from long distance . . . Great win for the Aggies over Louisville in a hostile atmosphere Saturday. With the South Regional Sweet 16 next weekend in San Antonio, Billy Gillispie’s club should have an excellent chance to reach the Final Four. Especially after a mid major, Xavier, exposed No. 1 seed Ohio State as overrated Saturday afternoon. Pure luck is the main reason the Buckeyes survived. As for Texas, be very wary of Tim Floyd coached USC today. For my money, Floyd is the best coach in college basketball. His team is a year away from being great, but the Longhorns better come with their A game.