JMT

[quote name="Scooter!" post="914398" timestamp="1290278227"] Lol. Madison will get smoked. [/quote] Fantastic.

[quote] lol Got ya.  They play Dallas Madison in Corsicana Fri night.  Talked to my sister who lives in Carthage and said the team is looking good.  I take her word because she follows football pretty closely as my niece is one of the trainers. [/quote] Carthage should be a prohibitive favorite against my guys on Friday night in Corsicana. Our coaches saw them awhile back and said they're really good. If they beat us, it's cool. I'm satisfied with seeing my Trojans make it to the 3rd round. Basketball season started for us last night as well so I'm looking forward to our basketball team getting our starting center, as well as a kid off the bench, back. I do hope we keep winning football games, but it'll be nice to have them back when football ends. We don't have many basketball players who crossover and play football. Pearson does both and it's been fun watching a 6'7" kid play QB for the last two years.

[quote name="Scooter!" post="914382" timestamp="1290277402"] So he was running it up at Burnet?  ::) [/quote] When he could, yes. They actually played a few teams that could fight back though when he was there.

[quote name="rollinac" post="913972" timestamp="1290227466"] I guess Bridgeport must be hitting late and taking cheap shots.  Or maybe Brownwood just likes to run up the score... [/quote] I didn't buy his reasoning on running up the score last week. Even though I was there and saw several of those cheapshots, I found it disingenuous to use that as a reason to run it up. Coach Shipley has always ran the score up when he's had the chance to. He didn't get to run it up much at Coppell because he found out that playing against teams every week that had as good or better athletes than he had meant it wasn't going to happen. I'd have a bit of respect for him if he'd just come out and say he likes to run it up. I'd at least respect his honesty.

[quote name="kvillecats9876" post="913070" timestamp="1290193330"] Im going to watch brownwood tonight. want to SEE them in person. stand next to them when they come out to see size. little ways but im done with class and just a buisness law paper to do this weekend. so, it works out. [/quote] You'll enjoy watching them. Shipley is such a precise route runner and he's got some deceptive speed. They're not unbeatable though.

Well not every town cares as much for high school football as others do. You can't force folks to go out and support a team or sport that they might not enjoy. I look at it like this. I'm a Madison fan (the one in Dallas.) and we're having the best season we've ever had as a UIL school in football this year and we're still playing in front of somewhere between 300-500 fans tops on our side of the field each week. The South Dallas Super Bowl against Lincoln is the only time they play in front of a crowd with more than a 1000 people in the stands. I can't make folks in that neighborhood enjoy football as much as I do. It'd be cool if more people in South Dallas came out to support the Trojans, but it's not going to happen. Some of it is the school being what many consider to be a basketball school and some of it is folks just don't have the money to travel and watch the team every week or, in many cases with the players parents or guardians, job related conflicts. That's just how it goes.

I went to see Brownwood in the opening round of the playoffs against Iowa Park. It was hard to really figure out much about them because Iowa Park had just one good athlete on the team and he had a pretty good game against them. The kid actually pulled a much more impressive version of what Sam McGuffie did and hurdled a defender on his way to a touchdown. Shipley can play. They have two other WR's that are pretty good as well. Their QB is pretty good, but it's nothing that Class 3A hasn't seen in recent years. He's not in the Stump Godfrey or Manuel Johnson class of guys at the QB position. Forgive me for not remembering the kid's name from Jasper that was their QB in 2004, but he's not in his class either as an athlete. Their lineplay on both sides was okay, but I can't say it was overwhelming. Shipley's offensive line that he had at Burnet in 2002 and 2003 are superior at every position up front to this one. Brownwood can play and is deserving of being ranked #1, but they aren't unbeatable.

[quote name="AggiesAreWe" post="912178" timestamp="1290098292"] [quote author=mstngfan07 link=topic=76308.msg912134#msg912134 date=1290096516] Im not complying this to WOS only. I was just saying. On 3adownlow all you hear about is BW this BW that. It seems as if they think BW could take out Katy or Trinity. [/quote] My advice, don't go over to that other site. ;) It's much better over here anyways. ;D [/quote] That's some sound advice. There are some nice folks on there, but by and large it's a homer board. I realize every message board has homers, but that one is completely ridiculous and it's why I quit posting there a couple of years ago.

[quote name="shorttexas1" post="784001" timestamp="1269955498"] Forget the East Coast... I like the talent there but he has let some jewels here in Texas pass...  Chris Bosh, Tommy Mason-Griffin, Wesly Johnson, Perry Hill, Ray Penn,Deandre Jordan, Anthony Randolph, and Willie Warren.  You have to remember that local Talent got you there.... TJ Ford, DJ Augustine, Daniel Gibson, etc.  The last few years he has been reaching for far away talent and missed some of the top talent in the Nation from Texas to LSU, Oklahoma, Baylor, Iowa State, and A&M....  No way any of those prorams have more attraction than UT!!!! [/quote] You don't ignore the east coast in basketball, you just don't. It would be like the rest of the country ignoring Texas, Florida or California when recruiting football players. I'm 100 percent certain that if you were to ask Deloss Dodds how important it is that Barnes has east coast ties he'd tell you it's absolutely huge. It was one of the big reasons Barnes got the job at The University of Texas. He just isn't going to get every talented player in Texas and knowing that it's great that he has a base on the east coast to draw players from. A lot of the basketball kids also want to leave the state to play basketball. Chris Bosh wanted to leave and there was nothing Barnes or any other coach in Texas could do to change that. Often the top flight talent gets steered in a certain direction by their AAU coach. You can look at Sherman's Cameron Clark and Denison's TJ Taylor for evidence of that with both of them headed to UT-Norman thanks to an AAU coach. Anthony Randolph is not a local product. He moved to Dallas from Arkansas before his junior year. You can thank AAU basketball for that one. Augustine is also not a local product.

Rick Barnes the recruiter is great. He is going to keep bringing in top shelf talent from Texas, and more importantly, the east coast. Rick Barnes the basketball coach leaves a lot to be desired. This year isn't what sold me on his inability to make adjustments in-game. In 2007 he let USC rattle off the first 16 points of the 2nd half before calling a timeout. I could understand letting that happen in an early season non-conference game if he's trying to teach his players a lesson, but in the NCAA tournament? That was beyond atrocious to watch how things played out. To be the head coach at Texas you have to have east coast recruiting ties and Barnes has a plethora of those. For those old enough to remember, Tom Penders stuck around in Austin for a decade because of those same ties. He was able to bring players in from New York such as Terrence Rencher and Reggie Freeman among others. As long as Barnes continues to bring in guys from back east he'll have a job. If that area of the country ever dries up for him, you'll see Barnes be replaced by someone else with a similar background.

I didn't attend as many games as I usually do, but the officiating I saw was a bit better than usual. As long as Grady Dale isn't one of the officials at The Drum I'm cool with them sending out Mickey Mouse to do a game.

Congratulations to the players from Yates on achieving the national ranking. The players for the Lions should be commended for how hard they played and they'll be rememebered as one of the top 10 teams in state history.

[quote name="Kountzer" post="781643" timestamp="1269501491"] Then there was that pg that went on to star at U T Austin for 2 or 3 years. [/quote] I believe that was BJ Tyler.

For Madison I'll go with... Dave "The Rave" Stallworth He was a 6'7" forward who played for the Trojans almost 50 years ago. More than 45 years later, Harrison Hamm, a good friend of mine and our former head coach, brought Stallworth back to have his number 22 retired during halftime of a game in 2006. This would be a bit difficult to pick one (I had to leave out Archie Beason, Jerome Rogers, Donnie Beacham and most recently Desmond Flentroy among many others.) but I'll pick the player that paved the way for future NBA players from Dallas. He was the first NBA player to come from Dallas for those that don't know. I'm obviously way too young to have ever seen this man play, but anyone who blazed a trail for so many others from Dallas in the ensuing decades deserves top billing. Stallworth played for Madison during the PVIL (Prairie View Interscholastic League.) era. Knowing the history of the school that was a rough period because the school had previously been an all-white school named Forest Avenue High School. It had students such as Aaron Spelling and Stanley Marcus before it became James Madison High School in 1956. From Wikipedia: [b]Dave Stallworth entered the program in the 1961-62 season. Nicknamed "The Rave", Stallworth became the Shockers' first consensus All-American in 1964. He finished with a career scoring average of 24.2 points per game and was second on the all-time scoring list with 1,936 points.[/b] He played in the NBA from 1965-75. He won a championship as a member of the 1970 New York Knicks championship team. What folks bring up often about him being on that team is that he had missed the prior two seasons due to a heart attack, but he came back and had a big role off the bench for the Knicks that year. He also has a scholarship named after him at Wichita State. [Hidden Content] Dave Stallworth All-American Scholarship On February 2, 1962, Shocker basketball player Dave Stallworth officially became a member of the varsity team, putting an end to the days of small crowds and sub par competition. Describing his first game with Marquette, he said, “I was completely full of energy. It was such an exciting atmosphere.” He estimated his first shot was at 22 feet, a carefully selected attempt that paved the way to a 79-71 victory. Following his initial game, Dave “The Rave” Stallworth led the team to NCAA Tournament appearances in 1963-64 and 1964-65. He established several university records and received the All American title for his final two years as a Shocker. After college, he went on to play professionally for the New York Knicks and the Baltimore Bullets. In 1979, Mr. Stallworth became a charter inductee into the Shocker Hall of Fame and, in 1997, a charter member of the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame. He was the first Shocker to have his number (42) retired. The Dave Stallworth All-American Scholarship is awarded to student athletes as a lasting reminder of Mr. Stallworth’s contributions as a talented and memorable Shocker basketball player. This is a quote from, Mike Kennedy, the voice of Wichita State athletics... [Hidden Content] [b]I have had many special “Shocker moments” in my 61 years. I can remember my first Shocker football and basketball games with my dad, and I was in the stands as a high school student to see Dave Stallworth score 40 points in his final college game.[/b]

[quote name="Aiden1" post="778141" timestamp="1268862073"] Most of those guys from Yates are playing to further their careers after highschool and have to be in the best shape and show there best. [/quote] The kids at Yates, like most players who wind up going to a Division I school, get their scholarship offers based off of what they do with their AAU team during the spring and summer and not off of what happens during in-season games.

Had Silsbee played them, Stallworth would've had the length, footwork and necessary athleticism to give Wagner fits.

Well the revenge factor played a big role for the Matadors. Wagner had a say in things as well. The kid is an elite athlete and makes great decisions with the ball. The way to slow him down is to put a rangy defender on him, but the one player we had with the range and athletcism to slow him down, Anthony Hollins, never did get to 100 percent this season after suffering that broken wrist in fall league. Having a guy that's 6'4" defending him for lengthy stretches would've made a difference, but it's cool. You win some and you lose some and Estacado seized the moment and just played a great game on both ends. It was their day and they earned it.

[quote name="ST413" post="776667" timestamp="1268515277"] Not expecting to be back next year? Sounds like Estacado played a great game. [/quote] Honestly I don't expect to see us down there for a 3rd straight year. We're going to have 6 sophomores on the varsity and while they're the most talented class to ever come through Madison, they just won't have the experience to get down there yet. The only way I could see us making a return trip in 2011 is if Anthony Hollins puts up around 20-22 points a game and 10 or so rebounds. I expect something close to that statline from our next big thing, but it likely won't be enough. I feel the following two years is when things will come together.

Even though the title came at the expense of my Little Trojans today, I couldn't be happier for those boys from the South Plains! They got their revenge and they played a great game! I'm looking forward to our next two trips in 2012 & 13. Today is the Mats day though and I hope those fans party as much as we did last year.

Nice game today Silsbee and while you didn't achieve what you wanted, there's about 180 or so other teams in 3A that'd love to have had the experience of making it to "The Drum". It was a really good game down the stretch and the game unfolded just about like I figured it might (Not talking about the outcome, just what happened during the game.). I thought it would be a close game and in the end it was. It was much more fun to watch than the 2nd one. That was an ugly game to sit and watch. This was a much better semi-final game than we had last year against Stafford who was out of it midway through the 2nd quarter of that one. Hope y'all are proud of your Tigers. They sure made our guys work hard today.

[quote name="AggiesAreWe" post="774981" timestamp="1268281649"] [quote author=JMT link=topic=67203.msg774974#msg774974 date=1268281191] Our game against Heights was in the Killeen tournament. We were put in pool play with Pflugerville, Westbury Christian and then Heights. It was by far the toughest pool of the 4 down there. We lost the first two games and then played Heights on an hour and a half turnaround on their home floor. We had three games in an eight hour span that day. By the time we got to Heights our guys had nothing left in the tank and a kid that started that game has since found his way to the 10th spot in the rotation. After that game they had a "Come to Jesus meeting" and they apparently got the message going 25-3 since that game. The only losses since then were to Lancaster, Desoto and Kimball. I saw parts of Silsbee's game against Heights, but didn't watch enough to gather much from it as I was in a bit of a rush. [/quote] Silsbee beat HH without 6 starters. ;) ;D [/quote] Haha..

[quote name="AggiesAreWe" post="774949" timestamp="1268279011"] Silsbee played HH in mid December, Madison played them after Silsbee played them. Madison didn't go very far in the football playoffs. ;) [/quote] We never do. A comical approach to offensive football prevents our team from ever doing much of anything on the gridiron. Our RB went to Purdue and our LT went to Okie State and we were a one and done the last three years in the playoffs (West and Kennedale twice). We had two kids who played football who are on the basketball team. The QB (The 6'8" kid) and a WR (About 6'3"). Both are bench players.

Our game against Heights was in the Killeen tournament. We were put in pool play with Pflugerville, Westbury Christian and then Heights. It was by far the toughest pool of the 4 down there. We lost the first two games and then played Heights on an hour and a half turnaround on their home floor. We had three games in an eight hour span that day. By the time we got to Heights our guys had nothing left in the tank and a kid that started that game has since found his way to the 10th spot in the rotation. After that game they had a "Come to Jesus meeting" and they apparently got the message going 25-3 since that game. The only losses since then were to Lancaster, Desoto and Kimball. I saw parts of Silsbee's game against Heights, but didn't watch enough to gather much from it as I was in a bit of a rush.

And enjoy yourself down there. Many of y'all have been down there in the past, but for those that haven't been to "The Drum" it's a great experience. It's something that every basketball fan should do at least once. Anyhow y'all have a safe trip from down there in Southeast Texas.

[quote name="homeless" post="774116" timestamp="1268187565"] Silsbee's biggest asset: Madison possibly being oveconfident [/quote] I can see how this perception could be out there due to being there last year, but they really aren't a cocky or overconfident team. They follow the lead of our leader on the floor and they're a pretty quiet group most of the time. We've had some cocky teams, (Who had no business being cocky to begin with.) but this hasn't been one of them.