Orangefield 74 Fairfield 68/FINAL

[Boogy1000]

Congratulations 

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

Good job Bobcats! 

[ECFAN#1]

Congratulations Bobcats !!!!!!

[No-look1]

Congrats OF! Take care of business with London. 

[oldschool2]

I actually went to the game.. (invited by an old friend).  Orangefield's defense is much more aggressive in person than I saw each time I watched them play on NFHS.  I'm impressed with how they get in your pocket.. so to speak.  And.  I really like 24's game.  His ability to penetrate the paint at the end was one of the differences in the game.  However.. could someone tell him that it's not necessary to have a conversation with an official literally every dead ball situation?  I'm surprised OF didn't catch a tech because of that annoyance alone.  There were a couple times I thought for sure they would've gotten one but didn't.

Either way, congrats on the hard fought win.  Definitely a positive that WW went small.  That'll make it more attainable.. but Madison won't be a pushover by any stretch should you get this win over London.  Best of luck, guys.

[TxHoops]

1 hour ago, oldschool2 said:

I actually went to the game.. (invited by an old friend).  Orangefield's defense is much more aggressive in person than I saw each time I watched them play on NFHS.  I'm impressed with how they get in your pocket.. so to speak.  And.  I really like 24's game.  His ability to penetrate the paint at the end was one of the differences in the game.  However.. could someone tell him that it's not necessary to have a conversation with an official literally every dead ball situation?  I'm surprised OF didn't catch a tech because of that annoyance alone.  There were a couple times I thought for sure they would've gotten one but didn't.

Either way, congrats on the hard fought win.  Definitely a positive that WW went small.  That'll make it more attainable.. but Madison won't be a pushover by any stretch should you get this win over London.  Best of luck, guys.

Orangefield has never played that level of defense and I give almost of all of that credit to Whitmire.  It wasn’t the easiest gig in the world but he’s gotten his system in place now and most of those kids have learned how to really play aggressive defense under his tutelage. 

I was watching online so I didn’t see the dead ball stuff.  I guess it depends on the official and the nature of the conversations.  Some players are great at chopping it up with them and some officials like it, some don’t want to be engaged at all.  By and large, it kind of depends on the context.  From what I’ve seen this year, the team has greatly improved with that stuff (granted they needed vast improvement from last season) and have seemed to have matured.  But again, I didn’t notice any of that so I can’t really speak intelligently on what happened on Friday. 
 

I, like you, have been greatly impressed with his game.  I’ve seen him since he was barely bigger than the ball shooting on goals between varsity games and knew he was a talent.  But he seems to get better every time I see him.  Obviously Fairfield was the more athletic team (apparently full of football kids which made sense after watching the game) but he was seemingly doing whatever he wanted with the ball.  They couldn’t stay in front of him, disrupt him in the slightest with full court pressure, and he’s just so smooth with the ball.  One play in particular really impressed me.  After making 4 FTs in a row and the ball his hands up 2 with under 2 minutes to go, he had sliced through the backcourt pressure and was approaching mid court.  I see him about to advance the ball off the dribble with his left hand to his teammate up the floor which is, in general, the correct basketball play (obviously).  But in the situation (Fairfield had to foul), I’m thinking “no! Keep it!”  But instinctually and unselfishly, he flipped the ball ahead and his teammate was fouled.  That particular teammate is also a good FT shooter and made both to put the lead back to 4.  But it showed me what I knew to be true about the Scales kid.  As gifted as he is, he knows how to play the game and is unselfish (sometimes to a fault).  But he’s one of those rare players who just makes all of his teammates better.  When you are at a school like Orangefield, I don’t think you can make a run like this one without a kid like that.  And I haven’t seen one close to him in the 30ish years I’ve been watching Bobcat basketball. 

[Cu Chulainn]

13 hours ago, TxHoops said:

Orangefield has never played that level of defense and I give almost of all of that credit to Whitmire.  It wasn’t the easiest gig in the world but he’s gotten his system in place now and most of those kids have learned how to really play aggressive defense under his tutelage. 

I was watching online so I didn’t see the dead ball stuff.  I guess it depends on the official and the nature of the conversations.  Some players are great at chopping it up with them and some officials like it, some don’t want to be engaged at all.  By and large, it kind of depends on the context.  From what I’ve seen this year, the team has greatly improved with that stuff (granted they needed vast improvement from last season) and have seemed to have matured.  But again, I didn’t notice any of that so I can’t really speak intelligently on what happened on Friday. 
 

I, like you, have been greatly impressed with his game.  I’ve seen him since he was barely bigger than the ball shooting on goals between varsity games and knew he was a talent.  But he seems to get better every time I see him.  Obviously Fairfield was the more athletic team (apparently full of football kids which made sense after watching the game) but he was seemingly doing whatever he wanted with the ball.  They couldn’t stay in front of him, disrupt him in the slightest with full court pressure, and he’s just so smooth with the ball.  One play in particular really impressed me.  After making 4 FTs in a row and the ball his hands up 2 with under 2 minutes to go, he had sliced through the backcourt pressure and was approaching mid court.  I see him about to advance the ball off the dribble with his left hand to his teammate up the floor which is, in general, the correct basketball play (obviously).  But in the situation (Fairfield had to foul), I’m thinking “no! Keep it!”  But instinctually and unselfishly, he flipped the ball ahead and his teammate was fouled.  That particular teammate is also a good FT shooter and made both to put the lead back to 4.  But it showed me what I knew to be true about the Scales kid.  As gifted as he is, he knows how to play the game and is unselfish (sometimes to a fault).  But he’s one of those rare players who just makes all of his teammates better.  When you are at a school like Orangefield, I don’t think you can make a run like this one without a kid like that.  And I haven’t seen one close to him in the 30ish years I’ve been watching Bobcat basketball. 

Thank you very much for the kind words and explaining what you have seen over the years! I will make sure he sees it and I know your post will inspire him even more tonight. I really appreciate you sir!

[BBfan061]

43 minutes ago, Cu Chulainn said:

Thank you very much for the kind words and explaining what you have seen over the years! I will make sure he sees it and I know your post will inspire him even more tonight. I really appreciate you sir!

I was hoping the game was gonna be in Katy and I was gonna come watch since my job is in Katy… Will the game be streamed somewhere?

[Cu Chulainn]

1 minute ago, BBfan061 said:

I was hoping the game was gonna be in Katy and I was gonna come watch since my job is in Katy… Will the game be streamed somewhere?

Shannon King (Teacher in Orangefield) usually goes on fb live when it isn't broadcasted on NFHS.

[AggiesAreWe]

2 minutes ago, BBfan061 said:

I was hoping the game was gonna be in Katy and I was gonna come watch since my job is in Katy… Will the game be streamed somewhere?

Sadly, NFHS did not pick the game up as of last night. I haven't checked this morning.

Texan Live was going to do the game if it would have been at Merrell Center (that's where Orangefield wanted). But decided not to do it since it is in Bay City (where London wanted).

It was a battle to get London to agree to anything closer to Houston. Also, some sites were not willing to host because of spring break. In the end, Orangefield agreed to Bay City. That was as close to Houston as London was willing to go.

I also think London wanted a smaller venue than Merrell Center. It doesn't make much sense though since their next game if they would win will be in the biggest venue in the playoffs. I guess he has his reasons.

[Elessar]

10 minutes ago, AggiesAreWe said:

Sadly, NFHS did not pick the game up as of last night. I haven't checked this morning.

Texan Live was going to do the game if it would have been at Merrell Center (that's where Orangefield wanted). But decided not to do it since it is in Bay City (where London wanted).

It was a battle to get London to agree to anything closer to Houston. Also, some sites were not willing to host because of spring break. In the end, Orangefield agreed to Bay City. That was as close to Houston as London was willing to go.

I also think London wanted a smaller venue than Merrell Center. It doesn't make much sense though since their next game if they would win will be in the biggest venue in the playoffs. I guess he has his reasons.

I truly don’t understand not wanting to play in one of the nicest high school facilities in the state for this game. 

[AggiesAreWe]

28 minutes ago, Elessar said:

I truly don’t understand not wanting to play in one of the nicest high school facilities in the state for this game. 

I don't understand it as well. Good prep for next game at Alamodome.

If I am a coach, as the playoffs progress, I am trying to get as large a facility as I can get that is reasonable for both sides.