JimThorpe

28-23 Tigers at the half.

28-23 Tigers at the half.

Sounds like both teams are playing good defense?

I think Silsbee got the first dunk….. so theoretically they won the game. 

One last comment on this from me.  Silsbee would have won the game if they'd played it at a high school stadium.  High school goal posts are 23'-4" wide.  The NFL goal posts are 18'-6" wide.

I thought it would be cool to play at NRG but it really wasn't.  It's too big for 4A football from small town schools.  The traffic was a nightmare and it cost the Tigers the game.  Let's don't do that again if we can avoid it. 

You could see this coming almost from August.  These two would meet in the quarterfinals and the one that scored last would win.  It was a classic.
It’s not too much of a stretch I think to assert that any team that Cuervo beats we could and would beat.  And any team beats Cuervo could and would beat us.  Based on what I saw today we’re that close.  It’s almost as if the Cuervo kids celebrated a victory over their identical twin.
 
 

You could see this coming almost from August.  These two would meet in the quarterfinals and the one that scored last would win.  It was a classic.
It’s not too much of a stretch I think to assert that any team that Cuervo beats we could and would beat.  And any team beats Cuervo could and would beat us.  Based on what I saw today we’re that close.  It’s almost as if the Cuervo kids celebrated a victory over their identical twin.
 
 

Cuervo is battle tested.  Two overtime wins 4 post season games.  That’s bound to stand them well in the next game and maybe the next.  Wimberly is an offensive machine of late.  But I don’t think they have the power to handle  the Gobblers.

I think Gobblers is a cool mascot name.  Quirky but fun.  I can't help but think of that famous "WKRP" Thanksgiving episode with my favorite line in all sitcom history,  "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"

But if you have a turkey for a mascot you've got to have a chip on your shoulder.   And Toby the Gobbler certainly has.  He's a tough old bird.  He's been an All American mascot several times.  

According to Massy Ratings Tigers is the second most popular high school mascot with 879 schools using it.  Practically a dime a dozen.  I wonder how many have "The Eye of the Tiger" as their fight song?  The various big cat species are far and away the most popular with Tigers and Lions and Panthers abounding.

By contrast there are only three high schools in America, according to Massey, that have chosen the noble bird as their mascot and Cuero is the only one in Texas.  

The way FBM handled Lake Creek was a big surprise to me.  And I still don't believe those two teams are 37 points apart.  But matchups can be funny things.  Huge credit to Marshall for a brilliant win but I just don't think the spread has much bearing on what happens Friday.

With high school kids the 4th round in December is usually quite different than what happened back in September.  Plus the neutral site will bring the teams closer together.  Seems to me the spread should be more like 9.  And it might just come down to the one that scores last wins.  

I'll be at the stadium Friday but I listened to all three previous playoff games and I came to really enjoy the broadcast.  The play by play is pretty good considering they are volunteers and I enjoyed the banter as well.  So if you're in the car are somewhere you can't watch I highly recommend tuning in.  

The way FBM handled Lake Creek was a big surprise to me.  And I still don't believe those two teams are 37 points apart.  But matchups can be funny things.  Huge credit to Marshall for a brilliant win but I just don't think the spread has much bearing on what happens Friday.

With high school kids the 4th round in December is usually quite different than what happened back in September.  Plus the neutral site will bring the teams closer together.  Seems to me the spread should be more like 9.  And it might just come down to the one that scores last wins.  

I’m sure they won’t mind what shirt you’re wearing as long as you BUY your ticket to watch another team play 

From my perspective this game looked like a pretty even matchup.  Wouldn’t surprise me a bit to see Silsbee take them if the met again tomorrow.  I’d bought into the conventional wisdom that FF was pretty much unbeatable in 4A.  Having seen this game I realize that’s simply not true.  The Tigers made a lot of mistakes and were in no way playing over their heads.  They played the same kind of game they’ve been playing for the last two weeks. In fact I think they played at least as well last Saturday and maybe better.  The Tigers certainly didn’t catch a break from the officiating.  I’ll be generous and call it about even both ways.
Once the Tigers had fought back, which they were bound to do, it came down to pure happenstance, the bounce of the ball, two very good, evenly matched teams playing as hard as they could trying to catch a break or make a break and close it out.  Obviously these two teams strengths were very different but they played off about evenly.  
 
Next year the state had better watch out for whoever comes out of Region III.
 
 

It's not the Championship game but it kind of is.  Know what I mean?  

In our minds we remember Team USA beating the Russians in the 1980 Winter Olympics for the Gold Medal.  But that's not exactly what happened.  Team USA had to come from behind to beat team Finland 4 - 2 for the Gold Medal.  That game was played two days after we defeated Russia in the first game of the gold medal round.

In fact this 4A Championship is very much like the 1980 Winter Olympics hockey Gold Medal round.  We have 4 teams.  2 Good teams, 1 Better team, and one Best team.  The Better team has to play the Best team in the the semi.  And the odds are stacked pretty high Better team because the Best team is so strong.   But even if the Better team manages to defeat the Best team the Better team still has a tough game against one of the Good teams to win the Championship

And in spirit it's exactly the same.  The Best team in the 1980 Olympics, which was supposed to be strickly amateur athletics at that time, the Russians, were really a professional national team from the largest nation on earth that considered hockey it's national sport.  The other three really were amateur national teams, especially team USA which was mostly NCAA players and very young.  Faith Family doesn't have a football team so basketball is in reality their "national sport".  Silsbee, Boerne and Hirsch all play football.  And thought all three are basketball schools football is still their biggest draw.  This is Texas after all.  

And another similarity was that team USA didn't have to win a series against the Russians, just one game.  A 1979, a year before the Olympics, team Russia beat the NHL All Star team in a best of 3 series held at Madison Square Gardens.  2 - 4, 5 - 4, 6 - 0.  No way could team USA have beaten Russia in a series, even a three game one.  They would have figured us out and that would have been that.  

FYI:  The Canadian NHL All Star team DID beat the Russian national team in an exhibition series in 1976.  Arguably it was the hardest fought sports series in the history of team sports at any level.  The national pride of two sporting nations, both of whom considered hockey to be their national sport, sport was on the line..  The Canadians fell behind in first games held in Canada and had to make their comeback and win the final game in Russia.  Epic.  Look it up.  

It's not the Championship game but it kind of is.  Know what I mean?  

In our minds we remember Team USA beating the Russians in the 1980 Winter Olympics for the Gold Medal.  But that's not exactly what happened.  Team USA had to come from behind to beat team Finland 4 - 2 for the Gold Medal.  That game was played two days after we defeated Russia in the first game of the gold medal round.

In fact this 4A Championship is very much like the 1980 Winter Olympics hockey Gold Medal round.  We have 4 teams.  2 Good teams, 1 Better team, and one Best team.  The Better team has to play the Best team in the the semi.  And the odds are stacked pretty high Better team because the Best team is so strong.   But even if the Better team manages to defeat the Best team the Better team still has a tough game against one of the Good teams to win the Championship

And in spirit it's exactly the same.  The Best team in the 1980 Olympics, which was supposed to be strickly amateur athletics at that time, the Russians, were really a professional national team from the largest nation on earth that considered hockey it's national sport.  The other three really were amateur national teams, especially team USA which was mostly NCAA players and very young.  Faith Family doesn't have a football team so basketball is in reality their "national sport".  Silsbee, Boerne and Hirsch all play football.  And thought all three are basketball schools football is still their biggest draw.  This is Texas after all.  

And another similarity was that team USA didn't have to win a series against the Russians, just one game.  A 1979, a year before the Olympics, team Russia beat the NHL All Star team in a best of 3 series held at Madison Square Gardens.  2 - 4, 5 - 4, 6 - 0.  No way could team USA have beaten Russia in a series, even a three game one.  They would have figured us out and that would have been that.  

FYI:  The Canadian NHL All Star team DID beat the Russian national team in an exhibition series in 1976.  Arguably it was the hardest fought sports series in the history of team sports at any level.  The national pride of two sporting nations, both of whom considered hockey to be their national sport, sport was on the line..  The Canadians fell behind in first games held in Canada and had to make their comeback and win the final game in Russia.  Epic.  Look it up.  

And at least two times during those years, including this year, Silsbee beat the 3d place, 2nd place and 1st place teams from 23 4A.  

It doesn't much matter about the seeding.  Everybody knows, especially after today, that Silsbee could and would beat either Boerne or Hirsch.  Friday is the 4A championship game for all intents and purposes.  If Silsbee comes up short they are the second place team in 4A in 2022.

These kids can play for hours and they often do.  But after a while you start making mistakes.  You don’t even realize it in pickup games or at practice.  But at this level it’s crucial.  Silsbee made mistakes too but they were making fewer in the second half.

The Tigers of Bush/McCain/Adams period were pretty good at getting the opponents posts in foul trouble, especially in the postseason play. One year they did it against Yates in the Region final and then again against Brazosport in the championship game.  
Some of that would be real handy right about now.  Thing is we'll have to actually foul McDurmott out.  They won't sit him down with even 4 fouls.

 

LBJ is giving them a pretty good game but Washington is to strong inside.

That was the difference.  It was no blowout.

The score at Athens is in the 30's I think.   Maybe it's still the 3rd quarter.  Maybe.

Back at the Center game.  The score fluctuates pretty radically here.  Now it's Center 25 Connally 2.   I think the scoreboard says Connally 29 - Center 25.

I guess they are completely dependent on the arena's wifi and the arena couldn't care less. 

It's the end of 1 I think and Connally may have 11.  I think I saw that.  Don't know about center.  The graphic is showing Center 1 Connally 5 with 3:14 left.

Not the graphic shows Center 10 Connally 1.  That's interesting.  But in reality I think Connally has 14.  I'm guessing it's 10 for Center.  With 7:04 left in the 2nd.
The difference in the atmosphere between this and last night is stark.  That Dayton arena was rockin.  It was intense.  A Silsbee fan was thrown out.  The atmosphere here is more like a holiday tournament.  "Which ones are playing next?"  "Hmm, I think it's Center and some team from Waco."