no comments BY GREG SELBER
Raul Lopez Weslaco
MISSION – They are the perfect antidote for football withdrawals, bad weather outside, and let’s face it, a sweet excuse to miss class. Basketball tournaments provide all these plusses and, as the commercial says, more. For coaches the games come in rapid-fire succession, as teams troop from the bus to the Whataburger and back, depending on the bracket and how far they’ve traveled. The Diamondback Classic in Sharyland boasted mostly local clubs, except for Laredo United South, and well, Roma too, more or less, so a little more luxury. Thursday’s first day offered a one-and-done for each of the schools, and the event heads into Friday before wrapping up Saturday.
The Diamondback, as with other tourneys going on this weekend like the BISD down in Brownsville, gave the attending groups a chance to develop depth, try different combinations on the floor, and continue to build toward the district slate which begins in earnest with the advent of 2010.
If fans thought they noticed a bunch of underclassmen on the court Thursday, it’s because there were indeed a gaggle of sophomores and juniors in prominent roles for the majority of the entries. Economedes (7-3) is working with a largely 10th-grade group this season, while the Edinburg Bobcats depend on a junior core. One by one, the coaches in attendance weighed in on the pros and cons of going with new faces.
“Some sophomores are not really sophomores,” noted EHS’s Zeke Cuellar, whose Bobcats pounded Donna 89-47 with a super early run and 26 points from amazing 11th-grade point guard Aaron Olvera. “These days you get a lot of kids who came up playing basketball at an earlier age, we’ve had AAU and elite teams around here for the past 10 or 12 years, and those kids come to the varsity level more ready to contribute than in the past.”
Truly, select teams like the Stallions of Mission, a group for which many of the current EHS stars toiled, are all the rage, meaning that instead of one season a year, participants play the equivalent of two or more. Also fading are the days of the generalist playing multiple sports, as the Age of the Specialist has made the one-game kid an increasingly common reality in the Valley.
“That’s one of the reasons we are catching up the rest of the state, breaking through to the regional tournament,” said Cuellar, the long-time assistant to RGV Sports Hall of Famer Joe Filoteo who took the reins last season after Filo became city AD. “It used to be rare, but now it’s not, and it’s mainly due to the increased amount of basketball our kids play all year long.”
Cuellar said that with his guys getting way more games per year, the downside is a tendency toward injury or burnout. But he countered that this can be countered.
“If you get your kids into a good offseason training program when you have them in school, they can handle the pounding,” he said. “Remember, you’re dealing with young folks who are still growing. But if they work out hard, it will be a benefit and they won’t be getting hurt any more than anyone else.”
Sharyland’s David Keith just wishes there had been more opportunities for 24-7 hoops when he was coming through the ranks as a gym rat guard under Filoteo at EHS. Now he says that when a coach sees an athlete, he should grab him as early as possible.
“I like to identify the kids who are ready to step up when they are freshman or sophomores,” said Keith before his team dropped a first-round outing in a surprise upset against Hidalgo. “You can keep them in the program for four years that way, and really see early on who has potential leadership skills. Kids are definitely coming to school more ready than they used to.”
During the tournament season it is not unusual to see coaches in the stands scouting for future reference, even though their teams are not slated for the event in question. Thursday brought out McAllen’s Roy Swift, Pharr North’s Jaime Gongora and McAllen Rowe’s Jose Yebra, among others, and the latter had an opinion about early risers.
“I love to get guys on the varsity when they are freshmen,” said the Warrior boss whose club is off to a sharp 7-3 start led by junior Raul Villarreal, himself an athlete who saw minutes as a frosh. “The more time they are up there, that means I can work with them one on one. Heck, if they can play, they will play.”
Keith echoed that sentiment, commenting that he tells the seniors every year that no job is safe at Sharyland.
“It makes for more intensity in practice for one thing,” he suggested. “I make sure all the kids know that if there is a freshman or sophomore who is better than they are, that kid will play, no doubt about it.”
FIRST-DAY HIGHLIGHTS
The upset of the day came at the end, as the Pirates nicked the 5-3 Rattlers 59-57 when a last-second loose ball ended up in the hands of Fabian Nino. Though he had been held to six points to that stage, Hidalgo’s leading scorer took a pass from Andrew Espinoza in transition and made a smart play with the clock running down. Instead of trying to go all the way for an uncontested layup, he took off at the free-throw line and launched a 5-foot floater that beat the buzzer, bouncing straight up and in to hand Coach Gus Sanchez’ contingent its fifth win in eight tries.
Sanchez, a former All-Valley guard for the Pirates who helped the squad – then coached by Gongora – to the regional tournament in 1992, was matched up against Keith, a good friend and a guy from the same playing era. Sanchez noted that for the first time all season, the Pirates put a complete game together at both ends of the court.
“That is what we are trying to do and I am glad it happened today, good timing,” said Sanchez, who played a year of college hoops after high school and later got into coaching; he’s taken the Pirates to the playoffs eight years in a row. “That’s the kind of kids we have at Hidalgo, they never back down and they never give up. Playing against a really good 5A team didn’t bother them, they just kept on playing.”
In a slugfest of a game, the Rattlers carved out a 3-point halftime lead and appeared set to put things away after the break, running out to a 42-30 advantage in the third after a hoop from physically imposing sophomore Joaquin Pistokache.
But Espinoza and football receiver Freddy Chavez rallied the Pirates back into the mix and after a 9-0 run, Hidalgo was in range. Chavez raided the rack for 15 points on the day while the lanky Espinoza made some killer drives. With tight end Gino Quiroz inside banging away at the physical Shary line (paced by sharp-elbowed Jared Denton), the Class 3A contender was ready to strike.
Pistokache made two free throws for a 53-50 lead but Chavez tied it soon after; the teams were knotted at 55 and 57 before exchanging turnovers inside the final 30 seconds. Espinoza, who had bagged a clutch jumper for the final deadlock, chased down the final free ball and pitched to Nino, who redeemed himself for a rough afternoon with the game-winner. Earlier in the fourth the senior guard had come up with two blocked shots to stem Rattler possessions.
“This is the most relaxed I have seen my guys all season, oddly enough,” Sanchez said. “Fabian made big plays when we needed them and Andrew played well, though we had to sit him for almost a whole quarter because of foul trouble.”
Hidalgo earned a second-round matchup with the winner of an early Day Two game featuring another sub-5A power, Santa Rosa, and Laredo United South, which knocked off a sluggish Roma team Thursday.
Santa Rosa has been battling injuries so far this season but is still a dangerous foe for anyone. The Warriors beat off a challenge from P-SJ-A on Day One, running from a 48-all mark late in the game to win, 63-55. Mark Cordero led the way with 21 points for the Warriors, who got Dario Mendoza back from the training room in time for the tournament. The 7-5 small-school scourge has faced a slew of solid 5A teams this season, and in the Bears, they got an enemy with a poor record but much hope for the future.
“I went in there after the game and told them, you’re 1-8 but you’re not a 1-8 team,” said a visibly frustrated Coach Roy Garcia Jr. “We just didn’t execute down the stretch, and we were right there, we had our chance. I could kind of tell we were not focused for this one, because the kids were late to get dressed, late to get warmed up, they just didn’t get ready to play and it cost us.”
Garcia, who will take his P-SJ-A band on the road to face off with his dad’s San Benito team Monday, said that though it’s been a rough start to 2009-10, he still has confidence that the Bears will get it together soon.
“Just a few plays here or there and we could have won it today,” he noted. “I need to see kids step up and do positive things for us out there when they get the chance.”
MORE RECAP
Speaking of San Benito, the Greyhounds started slowly at the Diamondback, finding themselves in a 12-12 tie with upstart Idea Academy after one. But the deep and tough ‘Hounds eventually blasted their way to a 60-45 victory behind 14 points from Ernie Villarreal and 10 from Oscar Guzman. SB will tackle Edinburg for the second time in seven days, after the ‘Cats handed Garcia his first loss of the season in second-round action at the Craig Smith Tourney in Edinburg last weekend.
Edinburg was simply fabulous against Donna, as Olvera had a hand in all 12 of the team’s first dozen points and the Runnin’ Cats cruised all the way home. Starting a pair of rugged footballers paid off for Cuellar, as Steve Trevino and Joe Fuentes (16 combined points) were very effective in the up-tempo game. Make that three gridders, actually, as quarterback Stevie Guerrero was also in the lineup. Expect that to continue for the junior passer, because he is a terrific basketball player with great court vision, obvious leadership skills, and a knack for driving into traffic only to whip precision feeds to all corners once he gets there. The 6-foot Guerrerro has averaged 12 points in six games since arriving from football. He sees the play unfold before anyone else.
The Bobcats shot well, defended with their usual malice, and every time they subbed, the new man came in and did something well. Donna got 24 points from Rick De los Santos, but it was EHS all the way in this one, setting up the noon second-rounder with San Benny. With a strong 10-deep rotation, imagine what EHS is going to do when injured starter Phillip de la Rosa (broken hand) returns from the shelf for district. Post Marquis Holiday was not there Thursday either, but a program with talent coming out its ears did not miss a beat. Junior Cord Arriola returned from a hand injury to connect for 13 points Thursday. Olvera’s average is 23.7 for the 6-3 ‘Cats.
Also advancing on the winner’s side of the bracket Thursday was Gabe Valdez’ Weslaco unit, which caught a good shot from Econ early on but recovered well with junior Raul Garcia a major factor. The long-haired lefty ended with 21 points and a variety of clever passes as the Panthers took it 56-40. The young Jags led at the end of one, 13-10 but Weslaco went on an 11-0 run as Econ bumbled through seven minutes without a point. Valdez told his team, which was starting to rush things and make mistakes, to look at the scoreboard during a timeout.
“See that?” he hollered. “Quit acting like we have to run down there and score. We can win this damn game 21-13!”
The object lesson appeared to pay off, as Weslaco controlled the pace from there on out in preparation for Friday’s clash with city rival East. If the Hidalgo upset over Shary was the big news, second place goes to the Wildcats, who outplayed a struggling Harlingen South (4-9) to advance. Kenny Valenzuela had a big game for East, which overcame a size disadvantage and the speed of Rajonn Lassiter to clip South after trailing in the second half. Valenzuela booked 20 to match 20 from South’s Big Rico Herrera, and his mates outscored the Hawks 21-13 in the fourth for the surprise.
FRIDAY’S SCHEDULE
Roma vs. P-SJ-A, 10:30
United South vs. Santa Rosa, 10:30
Edinburg vs. San Benito, noon
Donna vs. Idea Academy, noon
Econ vs. Harlingen South, 1:30
Weslaco vs. Weslaco East, 1:30
Sharyland vs. Roma/PSJA winner, 3
Hidalgo vs. USouth/SRosa winner, 4:30
Tags: baskebtall, diamond back classic, sharyland
