Pumper

Solid player and good kid.  6'3"-6'4".  Can slash and can shoot from 3.  Needs to work on his mid-range some more.  Caught the attention of several scouts over the weekend at the Kingwood Classic with some highlight dunks and overall good play.  Very athletic.   Good kid from good family.  Mother is ex-military and has raised Rodney to be a respectful, nice young man.  I had the pleasure of coaching him many years ago in Little Dribblers, and he is the type of kid you really pull for.  Good grades too.

I know these kinds of conversations are interesting, but from my point of view both of these kids are awesome.  It's not easy to excel in multiple sports at any level.  Both kids will play at the next level.   I can't say which is best, so I just say CONGRATS to both on great success in high school sports (and they are not done yet!) and best of luck in college also. 

Wonder why the slam on Ray Alborn at the start of the article. From what I recall, Ray's last season was the first "non-losing" season in years for LU football. Then the board of regents led everyone along, lied, and then cancelled the program. If you ask me, Alborn did a pretty decent job, and then got screwed by Lamar for his efforts.

Because he is over the age requirement and he has already played 4 years of varsity basketball. Other than that, no problem, right? Seems like a good kid, and he's a heck of a player.  But honestly this one is a bit of a "head scratcher"...

A&M in basketball?  Really? That's the island of misfit toys.....................

Prestige Worldwide! (Boats 'n Hoes!).........

Good luck to your son.  Hope he gets lots of offers, and gets to play where he wants to play, and the best fit for him.  As an LSU fan, it would be really cool to have a local kid to watch over there.  Think there is a good chance that an Ozen kid is going there for football.  Already got a girl's track star from Ozen signed there.  Just need a basketball player now! Good luck with everything and enjoy every minute of it.  Know you are proud.

Shorter drive to Baton Rouge than to College Station or Austin. Johnny Jones played on a final 4 team at LSU in '81 and asst coached on another final 4 team there in '86.  He has brought some energy back into the program and people are starting to get excited about basketball again.  They have a great legacy, but frankly have been pretty bad in recent years.  Recruiting will fix that, and so far it looks like Jones may be the guy to get them back on the right track  again.  And he's from just down the road in Deridder.

Curious how it was and what you thought about Johnny Jones and the facilities over there?  Practice facilities, locker rooms, etc are pretty new; just wonder how they compare.  Jones seems to be rebuilding quickly over there...

I've heard that Yates accepts transfers occasionally...................but only if he wants a future in communications!

Was a good game and close all the way.  Memorial made their free-throws down the stretch and HJ didn't.  Pretty much as simple as that.

Cardinals team is a group from Beaumont (Beaumont Athletic Club) I think.  Best of my knowledge they are not all from one school. HJ JV team was predominantly freshman, with a couple of sophs mixed in.  HJ had 4 freshman playing with the varsity group, although 2 of those also played JV. 

Or a WOS fan.  That group was pretty salty last year, and I think most all of them are back.

I think it was 1985.  LaBradford Smith was a sophmore at BayCity, playing against LaMesa in the state semi-finals.  He did not miss a shot, 12/12 from the field and 5/5 from the line for 29 points.  Poor kid from LaMesa tried to take a charge in transition and LaBradford jumped over him and dunked on the way down.  SuperDrum went nuts.  Great performance in a big game from a sophmore.

Haters gonna hate!

Mostly unrelated side note.  Pretty famous Waltrip alum, although much older; graduated in about 1983, none other than..."The Undertaker" of pro wrestling fame.  Real name Mark Calaway.  Played college basketball before becoming a wrestler.

Really hesitate to jump into this thread, but I'm just too tempted... First off, the Super Gold team certainly shows that we have a great deal of talent here in the Golden Triangle.  Since the thread veered into a discussion of Bosha, I have been thinking about his talents and the criteria that might be used to make the selections: 1) Scoring average; 2) Other pertinent stats (like assists/steals for a guard, or blocks/rebounds for a big); 3) MVP/leader of his team; 4) Overall team success; 5) All-district/All-Region/All-State selections; 6) Character (if that matters, and I think it does); 7) Eyeball test (if you know, then you know);  8 Defensive skills; 9) College prospect (if that matters, and it probably shouldn't for SuperGold); 10) Respect - from other teams, from team-mates, from anyone. Did I miss some criteria?  Maybe, but you get my point. All of the kids who made the list (1st, 2nd, & HR) deserve our congratulations.  And I don't believe in talking down any kids, so I won't be comparing Bosha to any others specifically.  But I will say this, if I was an attorney and had to take the case to argue for Mr. Bosha to be included on the 1st team based on the criteria above, I'd take it any day.  I think he'd rate near the top of the list in every one of these areas.  You'd have a really, really hard time convincing me that he wouldn't at least be in the top 10, and I could make one heck of a case that he'd be in the top 5. And on a side note, we just had a kid get a full ride who was "only" Honorable Mention on the list.  Congratulations Mr. English!  You earned it.

Pretty sure Lance Blanks went to McCullough.  Don't think the school exists any more, does it?  I think it is now Woodlands HS. I have a vague memory that Blanks dad played some pro football.  Not that it's relevant, but just popped into my head. Lance drove a white corvette with the license plate "UDUNK1" or something like that.  Cocky dude, but he could play.  Had a heck of a college run under Penders at UT.

Lance Blanks - UT, then Detroit Pistons for a while Sean Gay - Texas Tech, then "cup of coffee" with the Spurs Gerry McGee - UH (at the end of the Guy Lewis days) Tracy White - D-1 for sure, but don't rememer which Tiko Crawford - pretty sure HBU, bach when they were D-1 Tony Gatlin - TSU Steve Smith - UH Ivan Jones - Baylor Wendall Nibbs - Juco (only because of grades) Andy Gilchrist - Rice Pat Crocklin - Central Florida There were 8 guys from that Houston Madison team in that summer league and all got scholarships of some kind, including Gay, McGee, Gatlin, Jones, Nibbs, Crocklin, etc.  That team went 40-0, won state, and the closest margin of the year was 11 pts.  Best HS team I've ever seen and had nobody over 6'5".

Yep.  I came along during that time.  You could only play in sanctioned leagues, and there were only a couple in the Houston area, and they were basically all-star leagues (BCI run by Jay Parker).  And summer camps were not allowed if you were playing varsity the next school year. Stupid, stupid rules.  Never understood it. Was a BCI league between my jr and sr year for the top 60 returning srs in the Houston area.  I did not get picked, but my HS coach lobbied for me.  A couple kids did not make grades and couldn't play because of summer school, so I got in.  Tons of scouts at all the games, and a small school scholarship followed for me.  Great league.  BD, since you are an old Houston guy, you may remember some of the names; Lance Blanks, Sean Gay, Gerry McGee, Tracy White, Tiko Crawford, Tony Gatlin, Steve Smith, Ivan Jones, Wendall Nibbs (Kemo), Andy Gilchrist, etc.  Lots of D-1 talent, but that was a long time ago...

Just a big picture thought:  Why does Little Dribblers have American, Continental, & National Divisions?  Why does select baseball have Elite, Premier, etc?  Why do colleges have D-1, 1-AA, D-2, D-3, NAIA?  Why does the UIL have 1A - 5A (soon to be 6A apparently)? I think the answer to all of the above is so that they can try to get the best competition, with as level a playing field as possible, for all participants.  BD or DV said "the best should play against the best", and that's right.  And that's the problem with the current system in place, as I mentioned several posts ago.  If the goal is to create the best competition on as level a playing field as possible, the UIL is not meeting it's goal.  Notice I did not accuse anybody of cheating.  Make a rule, and someone will find a way around it, and I've found that to be the case in every sport since my kids started T-ball at 5 years old.  Also, no matter what you do, some teams will always be better than others; that's just life.  But regardless, the point is the same.  If the goal is as I stated, then the goal is not being met.  Not sure I have the solution, but the current state is pretty darn clear, unless you just don't want to see it.  And no it's not whining, just stating the facts...

Nope, it was a BISD 5th grade league.  There were tryouts with cuts.  Although the PE coach gave me a list of kids who I should not include (behavior or grade issues) and a list I should include (good kids who try hard and have good conduct).  I had no problem with it. Some of the other schools had a junior high coach come down to coach an elementary team.  In other cases, like mine, it was a volunteer dad approached by the elementary PE coach.  Was a good league, the kids learned a lot, and it was very competitive; a huge step above Little Dribblers for kids that age. But most teams we played were out to win, period.  My charter was to try to win, but to make sure all kids got at least a little playing time.  We went 7-2 and lost in the 3rd round of the tournament, and I was dang proud of it.  At the time, I thought we didn't have that much talent, but now looking back, a handful of those kids have a great chance to be good, productive high school players.  Was a great experience for all involved I think.

To DV's comments: Totally agree.  Never boo kids; ever.  Even if the boos were meant for another reason, the kids don't know that, and it's wrong. Being in the drum at the time, the crowd is mixed.  This was not a racial issue at all in my opinion.  It's a right and wrong issue, and you know it when you see it.  The crowd knew it. And yes, any school can end up with a kid or even a couple that transfer (HJ, Nederland, Ozen, Silsbee, or whoever else you want to mention), but that is very different than what AAA does.  And it's even very different than what Yates or Dallas Madison do.  Not saying it is illegal by the letter of the law, just saying it's different.  Apples and oranges.  Anybody who knows basketball (and DV you obviously do) knows what I am talking about.  Time to the UIL to sit down and figure it out...

A couple of years ago I had a parent approach me after a game to tell me his son was disappointed that he wasn't playing more, and to ask me what he had to do to get more playing time.  Fortunately I didn't go with my first thought, which was "maybe if he wasn't terrible, I could find him some more minutes".  This kid was the worst of about 12 on the team, and I thought I was being very nice to give him a couple of minutes each game as it was. Best thing I could think to say was that he needed to work on his rebounding and not turning the ball over.  I was a volunteer coach of a bunch of 4th and 5th graders.  When I asked the principal what my charter was (win games or get everybody playing time), her answer was both.  Nice.  Was an interesting year.

I watched all of the state championship games in Austin.  We have all watched Sesame Street and the little song "one of these things just doesn't belong here".  The worst example was AAA against Mumford.  Mumford is a very, very good 1A team, but they had to play an AAU team for the state championship.  AAA got booed when receiving their trophy,[b] loudly[/b].  I do not advocate booing high school kids; never done it, never will.  But the crowd knew what they just watched and it made them sick. Then the 3A  championship pitted the Houston all-stars against the Dallas all-stars.  Oops, sorry, I meant to say Yates vs Madison.  Again, looked like an AAU tourney championship instead of a 3A high shool one.  Great talent on the floor, entertaining game, but again--"two of these things just don't belong here". Look, I am not saying whether these schools break the rules or not; in fact it is very possible that they are smart enough to stay just within the bounds.  But any objective observer can clearly see the difference.  The 2A, 4A, & 5A games looked a lot more like what I would have expected to see.  Competitive high school basketball.  In fact the 2A game might have been the best and most entertaining game.  The UIL needs to decide what it wants to be.  We all have our opinions, and maybe we all can't agree.  But I believe that there will be a lot of heat from coaches, fans, etc after the "show" that was put on in Austin.  It's time to call it what it is, make a decision, and go from here.  At least there should be a serious discussion among the adults in the room about where this is going and what the UIL is all about. I enjoyed the tournament very much because I love basketball[b][/b], but until you see it live and in person, maybe you won't understand.  The system is broken....