fairweatherfan

Who at PG averaged 21 ppg, and shot 40%from behind the arc, and has good handles?

Pleasant Grove boys basketball team ended the season ranked 5th by TABC. This was an honor being ranked the top team that did not make the final four and the first time I have seen TABC give Texarkana Boy's Basketball any love. Two of PG's boys received all Region honors - Guards Neronte Threatt and Damien Watts I was surprised to see Threatt did not receive All State Honors http://tabchoops.org/allregionboys.html

I agree 100%

The kid from Yates who hit the five threes is one of the purest shooters I have ever seen at the high school level. His father played on the University of Houston team they dubbed "Phi Slamma Jamma"

This was actually an upset, but seeing the game the better team won.

Ponder is not all they are cracked up to be? If they beat you by double figures what does that make you? I don't have a dog in this fight but you seem to love and shoot teams down but do you have the ability to evaluate your team? As for not being as exciting as the Yates game...I do not think there is a high school team in this country as exciting to watch as Yates. Did you bother staying around for the 5A final? That was also boring compared to watching Yates. Since you are mentioning boring - how do you think the fans felt watching NW stall the entire third quarter of the regional finals? Once again, you shouldn't throw stones if you live in a glass house. Congratulations to NW on a fantastic season.

+1

Ponder never ceases to amaze me. Boxell gets so much out of his players and his team as a whole. Everytime I look at the kids from Ponder I think of when I first saw them last year - looking at them you would think you could grap four guys from the stands and beat them in a game of pick-up. Kinda like the movie 'White Men Can't Jump". You can think this all you want, but when you walk out on the court with them, you usually walk away with a kick in the butt from being outplayed. Congratulations to Ponder. They work their butts off and they win state - gotta love it.

If Mrballer05 is not banned from Smoaky for being the absolutely rudest person in its history, then I am wondering what's going on. I have read on other forums where somebody (probably the same guy) was laughing about Tehana's loss and calling the players a bunch of thugs. This has to be a high school kid that lost to them earlier. If it is an adult he needs to be put in time out and stand in the corner for a week. Act like a child, you should be treated as one.

Coach Stine should be commended on working for these kids. It says a lot about a coach to help find his players somewhere to play. Unfortunately there are a lot of coaches that do not feel this same degree of dedication - some are in the same district as Redwater.

You are right about Region 2 being the toughest region, but don't think I am going to let all of you off because some of you above were dogging this region just a month ago.

Pops, Are you in Austin this weekend? I have been sitting behind a few gentlemen from Paris and they are some great guys. I have been kinda wondering if one of them is you.

Were you at the game? Although I think it would have been a good game to plan to make Threatt go left (although he does have a left hand), Madison did not do this. They attempted to do so at the beginning of the game, but after he went left effectively they backed off this game plan. Threatt penetrated many times on Madison (not as easily as on every other team we played this year) but he got deep in the pant numerous times. He just didn't finish as well as he normally does (Madison's big man had a lot to do with this though). Madison also did a great job of covering up the drop off to Wacha and the kick out to Watts, but in the fourth quarter Graves, Brodus and Reid took the pressure off this by dropping baskets. As for slowing it down, once again were you at the game? Madison did not slow down anything or stop taking shots, they just stopped hitting the threes they were making in the second and first half of the third quarter and Wacha and Graves made adjustments to stop their big man down low (who had the best moves I have seen on a big man this year in 3A). I read a lot of your posts and agree with most of them, but I am not sure you saw the game correctly or you may be going by info provided to you by somebody else.

You are your friend came to the right compromise on the missed dunk. Threatt, at 5'8" didn't block it but he contested the attempted dunk, and I feel that it was the only reason this kid missed it.

I wish I could tell you I looked at the film and know 'exactly' what happened. I can tell you what I saw, in the heat of the moment'. Five Madison players on the floor (just got there), one picking up a ball, while two PG players had taken a few steps onto the floor, with two others right behind, and one still on the bench. I did not see a ref counting to five and I do not remember Madison rushing out to beat a count, but this is my memory concerning a very 'exciting' situation. Do you know where I can buy a filming of the game? We were not allowed to take pictures or film in Commerce, but I had hoped somebody did so.

I would like to congratulate Sabine on an incredible season. I admire the support the community gives to these young men.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but how I was wondering how you came to the opinion that Madison was a tad bit better, when POOR officiating resulting in a 8 point swing in the favor of Madison in a game they only won by 3. You do understand that Madison only scored one field goal in the entire fourth quarter. That's right just one! And guess what that field goal was as a result of them receiving the ball from the technical call that came from a ref feeling he had to have a bearing (in a then three point game with 2:00 minutes left) by allowing Madison to inbounds the ball with only two Hawks barely on the floor! By the way, the great young player from Madison did not just miss the dunk as I have read and heard - our 5'8" point guard sprinted from the sideline and contesting the dunk above the rim! We rebounded the ball and were on our way. The the tech. I will not go into my thoughts why I feel the tech was still an incorrect all (because although I do not think it was supposed to be a tech - I think the ref that made that call thought it was and did nothing malicious but made what he thought was the right call - this happens, but it was the actions by the other official that led up to the tech call that were truly sad). I will reiterate that if the ref had not pulled the stunt he did the there would be no tech to debate. Why would he do this? There was no clock on the score board to count down the time remaining for the timeout - as I have seen all year. There was no warning given by any of the refs (the other two I feel were just as surprised), or notice that the time out had expired, the ball was just given to Madison for an attempt a free goal (in a game that kids on both sides had played their hearts out). What is strange is that I don't even think he was keeping up with the time. I believe he determined when the time out was finished by when Madison was ready. Bad calls happen and I do not even remember a time when I thought it was malicious. This guy handled the inbounds regarding time outs probably 5 times in this game. Three times he pulled this stunt when PG was on defense. The times that PG was inbounding the ball though and stood ready, Madison was allowed to completely prepare themselves. I have always been told that a ref was not supposed to be the determining factor in a game. I have always felt that almost all refs feel this way. This guy did not! If this was a controversial block or charge call, then I wouldn't even be addressing it, but what this ref seemed malicious and was certainly the wrong thing to do. Madison was a very, very good team and I feel that if PG played them 10 times, it could very well be a 5-5 split. What would have been nice though was to have an opportunity to really see who the better team was Saturday between 2:00-3:30.

Thanks and Paris lived up to what their fans were saying and should have shut up all their critics.

Thank you and good luck to your guys also.

Correction: The UIL website now has the game scheduled at 2:00. This takes any questions out of the matter. Come on Hawk fans we need you here supporting the team. Once again, thank you so much for all of the Texarkana, NB, Clarksville people that came to the game last night to support the boys. It meant a lot to them. Hope you make again today!!!!

Smoaky posted the game time of the Regional Final between Pleasant Grove and Madison at 7:00. I understand this because that is what the UIL website states, but the time listed on the bracket at the university has the game played at 2:00. I just wanted to let all the people coming here for the game, if you get here at 7:00 you are way too late.

Good Luck Cardinals from the old Weatherfan. Play this one hard, leave it all on the floor and you are headed to Austin.

They have been number one for over 20 weeks in both the texashoops/rivals poll and the TABC poll.

Thanks Pops and let me congratulate you on a VERY good Paris team this year! These kids are not only athletes they can really play the game. Paris is not the #17 team in the state, I promise you they are higher than that. I do not know 23's name but his playing ability is matched by his class. I really like this young man. I watched one of our guards get hammered at the half court line and he walked from about 30 feet away to attempt to help him up. Seeing him crying after the game kinda got to me. He seems to be a stellar athlete and I truly hope he is continuing his athletic career in college. If you know him, tell him a little guy from Texarkana has a world of respect for him. Do you know if the Texarkana Gazette was even at the game tonight??

Man we really appreciate the love. Are you going to make the game tomorrow? I want you to know that Paris really surprised the heck out of me. They were very solid. I had know idea that they athletes of that caliber that could really play the game. #23 (who is a true class act), #3, and #44 could play for any 3A team in the state. If we didn't show up that game, we would not have won. But man I am so proud of our boys for showing up and playing like they are capable of playing. Every player that touched the floor for PG was a major contributor. I stayed and watched most of the Madison/Princeton game. Madison really exposed Princeton's lack of ball handling. They had their way with their guards (excluding Erger). This kid played his heart out. They had their best defender (#31) denying him the ball from the tip. Many times when he got it they trapped it out of his hands. With all of this I still think the kid hit close to 20 points. I am almost sure this is the same defensive style they used to contain Argyle's top player to single digits. That makes it even more impressive that Erger played so well and dribble penetrated so often. He had little or no help at all. Madison had five real players on the court and Princeton had one. That added up to about a 25 point difference. This game tomorrow is going to be a classic. I am confident after tonight that our boys are going to show up. We will be playing a very good team in Madison and the match ups are going to be great to watch. They have two guards that are quick, shoot well and can handle the rock (so do we). They have a shooter that can light it up (so do we). I think the guards are going to offset each other fairly well. I actually give us the advantage in the paint and off the bench. I think our first two coming in off the bench have got to be as strong as any 3A team's first two subs in the state (and I mean strong in more than one way - Brodus and Graves are very physically strong and use it when they play). As for post play, Michael Wacha is a man! This kid plays stronger and better ever time he faces a good team. Seeing Nay and Deante penetrate and drop the ball off to him and then watch him finish every time he got it was a thing of beauty. Our defense was very solid tonight (and I am never satisfied with any team's defense I ever see). We made Paris earn every shot they took and that made me even more impressed with them. They scored with us all over them. We will have to do this tomorrow. Stop dribble penetration, body up anybody trying to get in the paint, bang on the blocks and contest every shot. Madison won the Coca Cola because they had three players catch absolute fire from behind the arc. I saw this ability tonight. I just want to see our boys keep it going. My Prediction Sorry not going to make one.