BLUEDOVE3

I'm sure many of those people you refer to sat in their seats till half time, and then moved towards the restrooms during thi time. I would almost bet that these same people went to the bathroom prior to leaving home. Sometimes, mother nature has it's own clock.

Will it be on Dish???

Houston just improved to 2-0. Cypress Springs defeated Montverde Academy (Florida) 65-59 at Houston vs. the Nation at the Campbell Center on Friday afternoon. Kingwood defeated De La Salle (Minnesota) on Thursday to kick off the three days of basketball. Montverde was ranked No. 2 in the nation by ESPN prior to the game. The Eagles hadn't lost a game in two seasons and came in a perfect 11-0. Cy Springs (19-2), fresh off winning the Houston ISD Jaycees/Reebok Tournament last weekend, pressed the Eagles from start to finish and relied on scoring from wings Phillip McDonald and Erik Williams to get the job done. "We came in really confident and we weren't intimidated by their ranking or record," McDonald, who had a game-high 26 points said. "We were just ready to get out here and play." After the first half, Cy Springs led 30-29, but was having trouble rebounding. Montverde boasts a roster full of height—only three players are shorter that 6-foot-3— and the Eagles were controlling the offensive glass. "That was an adjustment we had to make at halftime," Cy Springs coach John Harmatuk said. "We were going to be outsized, but we like to press. If they run their offense the way they want to, they will just grab rebounds and get putbacks. We really improved on stopping that in the second half." Williams added 23 points and seven rebounds for the Panthers, while Marcus Capers led Montverde with 16 points.

I hate when people blame the refs for a loss. Play the game and the best man (team) wins.

oKAY, the local teams should be excited for district play now.

I guess I'm not a true hard core Lamar believer. I arrived in the area during the late 1980's and every year the Lamar program would promote/hype their players & coaches as if they were potential champions. I'm just in a Missouri state of mind now; show me!

I get the impression that Soccer is not a high priority on the AD's list.

Another example of why ranking sometimes don't mean a thing. Sometimes you can think your rankings will do the playing for you. Bad mentality to have.

yEP, thats what I heard from "horse's mouth" about two years ago. It makes sense. Maybe the recruiting won't be so difficult the first season. I'm sure there are plenty of local talent around to fill up a team.

The one thing many people don't consider is that a lot of times, good teams playing lesser teams tend to "play down" to the lesser team's level. A good example was when Lamar played ( Duke?) a few years ago in the NCAA tournament. By the half, Lamar was behind by only a few points. The intensity level for Duke was not there until the 2nd half. In fact, you could see the intensity level was entirely different in the second round after Duke(?) went on to play Kansas(?). I remember hearing people say Lamar played Duke (?) a good game. Well, Duke wasn't going all out. Lamar can beat Texas Tech as soon as they feel some belief thst they can win against the big D-1 schools.

Thats true, he is young and by the time he is a senior, he may be as good as JoCovan (sp?) Brown at Memorial.

I'm really surprised about how serious the football talk has been going. I was told we would have softball before football would be considered. Hmm? You never know how this will turn out.

If Al Barbe was coaching Lamar, then I would predict a win for LU. Otherwise, I have to be realistic and say Tech wins. ;D

The thing I keep remembering when questions like this come up is the kid from Hardin-Jefferson last season. His name kept popping up as one of the better players in the area. But based on recruiting news I received, there wasn't a big interest in his basketball skills from the big D-1's. I guess this is one of the downfalls of too much publicity over shadowing your skills. Obviously Brown may be the real deal.

I just started watching area high school games, but I always hear Brown from Memorial Port Arthur and DeCarlos Franks from Ozen. I've only seen Franks play, but you can get into his head and disrupt his game at times.

Brandon is a good example of how hard work pays off. The kid went to Vegas and did his thing in front of the scouts. I'm really proud of him.

wELL, don't forget about those who get in free with their I.D. cards. I was sitting there mentioning to someone else that there isn't a lot to do in Beaumont, and you would expect more fans out. But I have to admit, this was my ist game this season after attending the final two games last season.

Well, I saw in the 2nd half a call made against one of the Cardinals for a blocking foul near the basket. The crowd booed their disapproval, but it wasa good call by the ref. Players tend to throw their hips in instead of moving their feet to play defense. And yes, Rice basketball is terrible.

HF-1 what do think needs to happen in order to help better the basketball program at H-F? The one thing I did notice is that I saw H-F guys playing in the local summer tournaments. That was good.

Anyway, I will try and be there to cheer them on. I do hope we win.

A win over Rice won't prove anything but a win against a weak D-1 basketball program. Bottom line is this, we all expected Lamar to do better this year. We fell for all the hype once again.

Obviously Sam Houston is making it known that a Southland Conference team can compete on a national level in this day and age. It also looks like they are playing good basketball programs.

Penders has a history of being a winner. I think the mighty Coogs have risen again to be the powerhouse they are accustomed to.

I hope it wasn't Silbee's bench that played most of the game. Sheez!