Playing ball…


Teams at all levels typically scrimmage a few times before actually playing games. That has always been the way it is done at all levels through today. At MCC, we are allowed four in October. My freshman year at Lee, we did two. One was against the University of Houston’s freshman team (back then, freshmen were not allowed to play on the varsity), and one was against the prison team at the Alvin, Texas, maximum security facility. Coach MacCormick taking us to play guys in the heaviest lock down place around fit his Marine style.


The scrimmage against the UH freshmen was pretty interesting, because they were a program just coming off a Final Four with the great Elvin Hayes, who had moved on to the NBA. Their game against UCLA in the Houston Astrodome during that season was the first nationally televised broadcast of a regular season college game in history. Their freshman class was super talented and they had a guy named Dwight Davis who was the first and only person I have witnessed live touching the top of the backboard. I don’t know if he did it to intimidate us, but it had that effect. I had heard of such feats, and even today, if any of the freakish athletes in the NBA now can do it, I have only seen it live once. Dwight was about 6’9” and when he ran down the floor, I swear it looked like a guy running on a trampoline- like someone playing slam ball, if you can picture that. He was the only guy in my lifetime to ever dunk the ball with me trying to foul him by literally hanging on his arms. I’m sure Dwight would have had a glorious NBA career, but had some bad injuries at Houston down the road.


The scrimmage at the prison was remarkable for a few things. Going in through all the various levels of security, with the tons of razor wire and heavily armed guards was spooky and made us all glad to get back out later. The faces of the guards- deadly serious. Guards were used as referees and went way out of their way to make the calls work in our favor. The “spectators” were other prisoners who knew the guards were sticking it to their fellow inmates, thus they did not show any affection for us. We were fresh meat, that’s all. Craziest of all was the moment before the game, when one of the inmate players came over to our team and was recognized instantly by our returners as someone who had been on the Lee College team the year before. His name was David Anderson, and the returners gathered around and it became clear to me that they had no idea why David was in there. He said, “I killed my mother”, and began to tell them how she was always telling him what to do. I walked away at that point.


The TJCAA back then was divided into a northern and southern division, and being down by the Gulf put us in the southern half. Texas is still divided in half today, but it is more of an east-west alignment. We opened the season as many juco’s do, with a tournament somewhere in the northern half. As we practiced, I began to wonder what Coach MacCormick’s philosophy was in terms of offense and defense. He never really said much and we really didn’t work on any plays or any coordinated defensive plan. We just scrimmaged and conditioned right up to the first game. That’s OK, I suppose, if your talent is just greater than everyone else’s. So, for the first time in my life, I began to say things to the coach that were questioning his way of doing things. That wasn’t smart. The first game, nine of our ten players played- only I didn’t get in. Lesson learned. The less I said, the more I began to play. My freshman year overall was spotty and less productive than I had hoped. But the talent I played with in practice everyday and in the games was vastly superior to anything I had ever been around to that point. If you really tried, you couldn’t help but get better. A few of the guys in the house, including me, were gym rats. In all my years in playing and coaching basketball, I have found that to be a constant- that some guys play the game, but most don’t really love the game. As coaches, we are always prodding our players to work extra, become students of the game, and become gym rats. Most don’t do it, because they don’t really love it like that. And that, my friends, is quite simply the reason that a few players separate themselves from the pack. When I went back to Phoenix for a two week Christmas break, I hung out with friends whom I had played with and against over the past few years, and it became clear to me right away that I had improved by leaps and bounds over the first four months in Texas. Coach Youree had given me a fantastic fundamental base from which to build and I was building.


My friend Lavoy Darden taught me a lot of little tricks and footwork things that would prove useful the rest of my career. He said defense was like boxing- you need to be on the balls of your feet and be bouncy and quick to move. He showed me how that was done and we worked on it together. It really helped with rebounding, as that skill is basically quick reaction to the ball. Every now and then, you see some leaper sky for a rebound, but generally the best rebounders are those who anticipate and move to the ball quickly. They don’t wait for the ball to come to them. Dennis Rodman would be a good visual for that. He was eight years old when Lavoy was teaching me that. Rebounding is one of those things that will get you noticed by recruiters, as well. On weekends, no one ever asked the coaches to come back and open up the gym, because, well, we just never really talked to them. The gym rats found a little junior high gym down the street that had a window we could pry open and go in and work. No one in my two years ever discovered our little secret there- not even the vaunted Baytown police- and we never caused any damage or did anything that might compromise our ability to go work. Down the road in Baton Rouge, there was a kid named Pete Maravich averaging ungodly numbers at Louisiana State, and we were all affected by things he was doing with a basketball. One of our Louisiana teammates, Pat Foy, was from Baton Rouge, and he showed us to the best of his ability the kind of creative things Pistol Pete had brought to the game. So we worked on them.


As mentioned, my freshman season was unremarkable numerically- I had some good games and some stinkers. Started a few, but came off the bench for most. The game that stood out the most that season happened late in the year. We were playing our league rival, San Jacinto, in their gym. Remember, they would go on to win the national title- they were loaded. Their gym, which was really nice compared to ours, was packed, mostly with their fans. We gave them a pretty good game, but down the stretch they began to pull away. Dunking was illegal that year, because of Lew Alcindor at UCLA, so they wouldn’t do that unless they got a big enough lead to not worry about a technical foul. In those days, technical fouls did not count as personal fouls, so you could dunk and trade free throws and possessions as much as you wanted to or as much as your coach would let you. With about two minutes left, Jeff Halliburton decided to dunk it on a breakaway- and it was thunderous. The crowd went nuts. We missed both technical free throws, but got possession of the ball- missed a shot and they got a break out. Their 6’3” point guard, Terry Mullin from New York, looked like he was headed in for another banger. One of our players, Charles McKinney, wasn’t going to allow that, so he took Mullin out with a very hard foul. Both teams went running over to the basket and we grabbed Charles and held his arms so he wouldn’t do anything crazy, and the San Jac guys grabbed Mullin’s arms for the same reason. Mullin, being a savvy New York kid kept telling his teammates that he was OK, so they let him go. He immediately began to pummel Charles while, stunned as we were, we were still holding his arms down. After a few blows, all hell broke loose in the gym. People were coming from all directions, chairs and other objects were flying through the air, and we were being mobbed by players and fans. I remember looking down at the other end of the floor and seeing our big man, Bob Chisum. A fan had jumped on his back and was throwing haymakers from both sides of his head, while Bob was attempting to fight off other people in front of him. He reached up with both arms to try and pull his attacker off, but the guy had kind of rolled up into a little ball on Bob's back. The image reminded of a picture I once saw of Atlas holding up the world. There was no way for us to get to Bob as we were all in individual struggles to get off the court. Beaten and bloodied, we all ended up in the locker room eventually, just sitting on the floor, leaning against the walls, saying nothing. And what came of this? Nothing. No suspensions, no penalties. Just a rough night in the TJCAA. San Jacinto would go on and win the national title and Lee would get bounced in the first round of the playoffs. Coach MacCormick was fired by the college, not we heard for basketball reasons, but something else in his life. Details were sketchy. He would be replaced by his assistant, Mike Hefley.


Next…sophomore year, good things happen….

The Rebels….


My parents drove me down to Baytown, Texas, to start my career at Lee College. Our goodbyes were painful, because I had lived at home my whole life and was pretty attached to it and them. But, this is how life is and it was time for the next step. What made it a bit more frightening was that I knew nothing about Baytown or it’s inhabitants, nothing about the college, nothing about the living arrangements, nothing about my teammates, nothing about the league, nothing about the level of play, and most of all, nothing about the coaches. Other than that, I was ready to go.


Let’s start with Baytown. It is right at the tip of Galveston Bay, but is not a resort town on the beach by any stretch. It lies next to the Houston Ship Channel, which was reputedly one of the most polluted waterways in the world. Nearby were several chemical plants and a huge refinery run by Exxon. The air constantly smelled like industry- in other words, it stunk. It was extremely humid and the combination of the smell and the high humidity was not intoxicating in a good sense. Baytown was not a rich area- those were closer to Houston- and most of the inhabitants were blue collar industrial workers. There was a definite line between the white part of town and the black part of town in those days. The line was classic- railroad tracks. I would find out that walking on the railroad tracks, which were not far from the college, with my black teammates was not seen as a good thing on either side.


The college was a quaint series of red brick buildings just off the main street. There was a gym that was quite old and stuffy. Basketball was a winter sport right? So they never bothered to put in any kind of cooling system, because people don’t play basketball year round, do they? There were no dormitories, so the basketball team- almost the entire basketball team- was put into a house just across the street from the campus. It was a five bedroom, dilapidated Texas style house with a big front porch. The beds were all single, with a few bunk beds, because we started out with ten guys in there. There was a large living room with a chair and a couch, and an old TV with rabbit ears, as cable TV had not been invented. The address was 311 South Whiting, so the place must have had some memories or I could never be expected to remember that. Meals were bought on your own and paid for with a monthly allowance that each player was given. I didn’t have any idea, nor ever asked how that fit in with NJCAA rules.


I never had any prior contact with any of my teammates before being dropped off by my parents. The ten guys in the house were from New York, Louisiana, some other Texas towns, and me. We just grabbed rooms and beds as we could, no one really said anything about that. This was the sixties, so basically the black guys grouped together as did the white guys. There was never really any discussion about it, it’s just the way it was. The first couple of days, we just kind of hung around since school hadn’t started and kind of listened to the stories being told by the three returners amongst us. The third evening, most of us filtered into one of the bigger bedrooms and began talking about where we were from and just anything else that came to mind. Just teammates sort of trying to bond, right? One of the Louisiana kids was a pretty big guy- about 6’9”- and he really had been very quiet the whole three days. Guys started pushing him to speak up a little and tell us about himself. It sounded pretty normal at first, then he said that he had been fascinated by death and that he wondered what is was like to die. I, and the others began to feel a bit uncomfortable at this point. He went on- he said he was standing outside of a laundromat in Louisiana and he saw a woman inside by herself. So he shot her. That is where our meeting fell apart. He couldn’t be serious right? The next morning, he was gone, and a few days later some detectives showed up at the house, showed us his picture, and asked if we knew him. We said we did, said he told us that story but that it sounded so crazy that no one believed him. They asked us if we had reported this to the coaches? We said no, because no one believed him. It couldn’t possibly be true, could it? It was. I don’t know where he went or whatever happened to him. I can’t even remember his name. So, then we dropped to nine in the house. Welcome to Junior college.


The league was the Texas Junior College Athletic Association and it had some national powerhouses, as it still does today. Right down the street from Lee College was San Jacinto College, who would be the eventual national champions my freshman year. They had two guys who would end up in the NBA- Jeff Halliburton who would go on to Drake University, and Bob Nash, who would go on to the University of Hawaii. Most of the teams were loaded with players from across the nation. This was a level that was instantly much higher than what I had seen in high school, and it was not going to be easy.


Our head coach was John MacCormick and I fully, and naively, expected him to be a step up from my great high school coach. He most definitely was not. He was an ex-Marine drill instructor, who was very impersonal and didn’t teach basketball. He taught physical training. I don’t know about the other guys, but I was thankful that I had gone through all those things at East High, because Coach MacCormick put us through hell the first two weeks. All we did each day was run a quarter mile in the gym (eight laps), full speed, then immediately go to a station where we did rebounding, shooting, push ups, sit ups, dribbling drills, etc. After each station, we hustled to the starting point for another quarter mile. The running was timed, of course, and if we didn’t make it- well, I’m sure you know what happened. Run it again. We were supposed to do that eight times, but always missed a time or two, so it was always around ten quarter miles. Every day for two weeks, that’s all we did. Nobody in the house quit, but a couple of local guys quit within a few days. We ended up with only one local guy on the team- Lavoy Darden, who became a close friend of mine. We would drag ourselves over to the gym each day and dread the start of the routine. Within two days, absolutely every part of my body ached. Some guys actually cried before we started because we were all in pain. Nobody stretched- we just laid on the floor until Coach MacCormick came in. There was no warm up, but before you think how absurd that was, remember there was no cooling system in the gym except for a big box fan over in one corner that blew hot, humid air. You were sweating as soon as you walked in the gym. The coaches (we had no trainer) made salt pills available to us. There was no drinking fountain in the gym, which was the first time of many over my lifetime that I wondered who actually designs these junior college gyms? Even today I wonder that as I go around Arizona. Our gym at MCC has one bathroom in the lobby that has one urinal and one stall. I mean, what did the designers envision would be going on in a gymnasium at a college?


After two weeks of boot camp, ten of us Marines were ready to actually attempt to play basketball. It became apparent immediately that basketball strategy and tactics was not a strong point of Coach MacCormick’s. His assistant, Mike Hefley had coached a state championship team at Sour Lake, Texas, but he didn’t seem to be able to contribute much. Neither coach was really approachable to talk to, so most of the things that went on in and around the house on Whiting Street went unreported. We just kind of handled them ourselves. For example, Baytown had a stereotypical for the period police force. They knew who we were and we got to know them. There was a kind of mini-mart close to our house where we would walk to and buy food for the house sometimes. One night, one of our black players, Lafayette Spivey, was walking back from that store and was stopped by Officer Parker, who we knew. He asked Lafayette what he was doing, even though that was fairly obvious. He put Lafayette in his car and drove him to the house. He brought him to the front door and asked a group of us, black and white, who were sitting in the living room watching TV if we knew Spivey. We all thought it would be spontaneously funny to say no, we didn’t know him. Despite his loud protests and our laughter, Officer Parker put Spivey back in the car and hustled him off to jail. He was booked on “suspicion”, which was a Southern way of controlling everyone. We ended up having to shell out $50 to “bail” him out- money which probably never saw the light of day in the justice system, and all learned a hard lesson about joking around in the South. Of course, no one ever told the coaches. That’s the way we lived.


Next up…playing ball…

On to college….


By the time my senior season ended, I was thinking seriously about playing basketball at the next level. I had been given all three of the individual awards at our banquet from Coach Youree- Team Captain, Most Valuable Player, and Best Defensive Player. That was the only time in the history of East High basketball that would happen and it has always been so special to me that I still have all three of those trophies in my office at Mesa Community College. East, of course, would go on to have some phenomenal teams and players in their history, so I have always been proud of that achievement in Coach Youree’s eyes. There were really a lot of things I enjoyed about basketball by then- the skills that must be acquired, the flow of the game which was definitely not boring, the closeness of the fans to the action, and yes, the constant chatter that went on out there among the players. There was a closeness to it that made it seem more intense, more urgent than other sports. You had to play offense and defense and any lack of ability at either end was quickly exposed. Many years later, one of my assistant coaches, Rex Morrison gave the best description of offense and defense. He said if there existed an Insanity Meter that went 1-10, offense would be about a 3 or 4, because you could relax a little bit, take a deep breath, move the ball around, and think. Defense, however, was about a 9 or 10 because it was like someone trying to break into your house and you had to be very reactionary and courageous.


I was a skinny 6’6” white kid in 1968, coming from a brand new high school with a new coach who had not put any players into college to that point. Phoenix was not a recruiting hotbed for basketball in those days, and I had put up nice numbers in a tough local league, but they certainly weren’t eye popping. As I have since spent 15 years coaching college basketball in my career, I would term such a prospect as myself as what we call a “tweener”. Not big enough to be a big time rebounder at the D1 level nor the kind of scorer that they would seek. I dreamed of playing D1, but that was mainly due to the fact that college games were rarely shown on TV, and were always D1 schools being shown. I was recruited by some smaller colleges, most notably Pepperdine University, which in those days was a small NAIA school in the Los Angeles area. Their head coach, Gary Colson came to visit me at East, but I really had no interest in them. If I would have known more about their location in Malibu at the time, perhaps I would have shown more interest.


The area had a junior college powerhouse, Phoenix College, which at the time, was a top five school among the JUCO’s. This was the era when junior colleges didn’t have divisions- all 400+ were in the same division- junior college; so being top five was really something. Their coach, Leon Blevins, was an old friend of Coach Youree and he came by for a visit. I could tell he wasn’t that interested and was more or less doing coach a favor. Phoenix’s roster was heavily out-of-state kids and they were ready to go D1 type players, but probably didn’t have the grades. One of them was Dennis “Mo” Layton, who would go on to USC and then play for the Phoenix Suns. I can’t remember if Mesa or Glendale even had programs back then, but none of the other Arizona junior colleges talked to me.


As the Spring moved towards graduation, it was pretty obvious that no NCAA D1’s were going to come knocking, so I took the initiative of choosing one and writing to the coach. It was the University of Texas, in Austin. Why them? Well, my Dad was a Texan, growing up in the small town of Krum, which was about 40 miles north of Dallas. That was one reason. Another was that the University of Texas football team was always on TV when I was a teenager and they were really good. That had nothing to do with basketball, of course, and I really knew nothing about their program in that sport. They also had a great law school and, at that time, I still wanted to go into law. And finally, they were the Longhorns, which was the same mascot as East High. None of these were good reasons to want to go there for basketball, but it was a different time- no computers, no cell phones, and none of the quicker ways to find things out that we know so well today. I didn’t know if UT played in a conference or what it might be. Turns out it was the Big 8 (today’s Big 12) and they were terrible. Surprisingly, I received an answer from an assistant coach named Carroll Dawson. He said they were basically full on scholarships, but he was traveling to California in early June and could stop by and work me out. When you’re bad like they were, you could break NCAA rules and work some kid out off campus, but he didn’t mention that. When he arrived, it was June all right, which means in Phoenix, it would be very hot. He asked to meet me at that old concrete court with the chain nets, because he was just driving through and didn’t want to hunt down a gym. He decided that around noon would fit his schedule, so there I was, working out for the University of Texas in Phoenix in June at noon on an outdoor court. He stood in the shade and for about an hour, he put me through every skill determining exercise he could think of. Did I mention there was no drinking fountain close by? There wasn’t. I even did full court defensive slides, for God’s sake. When we finished, he said he was impressed and would get back to me. Then he said bye, or baah as they say in Texas and was off to California.


I didn’t hear anything from Coach Dawson for a few weeks and was really getting concerned that I would have nowhere to go play the next season. Then, out of the blue, I got a letter from UT. Remember, this is how people communicated in those days. A letter could take up to a week to come all the way from Texas and another week for your response to get back. Long distance phone calls were expensive and were usually only reserved for the guys a coach was really after. In his letter, Coach Dawson said how much he liked me as a player, but that they had no scholarships available. He went on to say that, if I was interested, they could place me in a junior college down there and I could go there for a year or two, get bigger and stronger, and then perhaps become a Longhorn. And I wouldn’t have to pay for anything, as any junior college I went to down there would give me a scholarship. That sounded very interesting so I replied that I was definitely interested. In the next letter from Coach Dawson, he had enclosed a piece of paper with the outline of the state of Texas on it. Inside that drawing, it was completely blank- no roads, cities, towns, rivers, lakes, or anything except five dots. He said those were the locations of five junior colleges that I could choose from. One of the dots was way down in the southeast part of the blank map, so I was assuming that it must be close to the Gulf of Mexico. Since I grew up in the desert, that dot seemed to be the most intriguing dot. So without too much more thought, I circled that dot and sent it back to Coach Dawson. A week or so later, I got a phone call from John MacCormick, who was the head coach at Lee College in Baytown, Texas. He said his college was the dot that I circled and welcome aboard! Caution: don’t ever get recruited this way. If I hadn’t lived through it myself, I wouldn’t believe this was even possible.

Next time- the Rebels...

East High, part 2...

I did, in fact, continue on with my friends into the baseball season after the glorious basketball season. Certainly nothing I had done so far would give anyone reason to think that athletics was going to be in my future. Not even I thought so. I dreamed of being a lawyer and then going into politics as my idol, John F. Kennedy had done. The baseball season was a better overall experience for me, however, so I did think I would continue on in sports at some level. Coach Youree coached the jayvee team, but the freshmen and jayvee practiced together most of the time, as there was only one baseball field at the new school. Baseball was a 180 from football and basketball- totally relaxed, great weather in the Spring- almost boring. Well, in fact, it was boring compared to what many of us had gone through all year. Even Coach Youree seemed more mellow and friendly. He said he was going to have a summer basketball program, which was something most of us had never heard of. He would run it through the City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation, and it would be a chance to get in somewhere cool and work out in the hot months ahead. Oddly enough, there wasn't going to be any summer baseball program, so anyone interested in that would go on to someplace else and play Babe Ruth or Pony League or whatever the progression was. Most of my friends were going to show up for Coach Youree's summer program. He also made it sound like if you were serious about basketball, then you pretty much had to be there. I wasn't too sure how serious I was about basketball, but I really took a liking to Coach Youree and his style of coaching and decided to give it a try.

Then, some marvelous things began to happen that would alter my life path forever. First, Coach Youree's summer program was fantastic. He taught the game from the ground up and insisted on constant repetition of fundamentals. Every session some progression was added and they were always challenging. We worked on things with great effort, because you just never wanted to disappoint Coach Youree on that front- we learned that in football. We worked until we got it right and never played until he was satisfied that progress had been made. I actually enjoyed learning the game at that point much more than playing it anyway. Coach Youree was intense, but had a great sense of humor. He could talk some trash, as well- you always had to be on your toes, which is something I try to be with him to this day. Second, I found myself to be somewhat ambidextrous, which lent itself well to basketball. I did most things left handed, like eat and write, but because my Mom, the softball great, was right handed, I learned to do a lot of sport things right handed. Some of the important basketball fundamentals like dribbling, shooting around the basket, and passing came much easier to me than most of my teammates. That was the first bit of separation that I had from some of my friends who were better athletes. Third, I began to grow. I grew at an unbelievable rate that first summer- a little over four inches. I went from 5'10" to 6'2" and then even started to look like a basketball player. Remember, there was no club ball or anything like it then, so we spent June and July in Coach Youree's summer program, four days a week. I really began to have an affinity for basketball after that, so much so that I decided I wouldn't play football the next year. I would concentrate on basketball, then go out for baseball to have a relaxing Spring again. And fourth, Coach Youree put me in his seventh hour PE class, a place where I would stay for the next three years. This class was for athletes, and not just basketball ones, as most people thought. We developed a bond in that class with our coaches and fellow athletes that was incredible. We would play a variety of games in that class- flag football, volleyball, handball, basketball, softball. What was great was that the coaches would also play and generally the games were "no rules". It was always about toughness there.

My sophomore year, I was rapidly improving, but so were some other guys, so I did not start out the year being a starter. I didn't really expect to anyway, as my resume from the previous three seasons was hardly stellar. But I did play a lot, kept improving, and about halfway through that season, became a starter. I was still growing, as well, and was 6'3" by the time the season ended. The season was such a success that I decided not to go out for baseball, but concentrate more on basketball. I wasn't sure how Coach Youree would take that decision, but he agreed with it. I now looked very much forward to finally playing for him. Again, we had a great summer program, which was now something more schools were doing. We actually ended that second summer by playing against some other schools in July.

As my Junior year began, I was now 6'4" and still growing. I was skinny and never a starter, but played a lot. This would be East High's last year as what they called an Independent. It was like a probation period before you could actually join the AIA. We played anyone who would play us from AAA (the biggest classification back then) to A (the smallest), or private schools or whatever. As players, we never gave any of that too much thought anyway.

The next summer was equally a time of learning from a great coach as the others had been and finished with a much more organized summer league. Going in to my senior season, I was 6'6" and we were placed in the AAA Metro Conference, where all the power was in Arizona at that time. North was great, as was Central, Maryvale, West High, and Alhambra. And there was two time defending state champions Phoenix Union, coached by the legendary "Wimpy" Jones. Their gym was a palace and was unlike any high school gym I had ever seen before or since. When I was a seventh grader, my friend, Keith Kenney, took me to see a game there. His brother played for North and I just remember thinking how cool it would be to play there. Our third game of the year was against Phoenix Union and would, in fact, be played in their gym. We started 1-1. Our opener was against West, and we went over there thinking we were going to handle them. They handled us- 75-50 and we were thoroughly embarrassed. In the third game against Phoenix Union, they were on a 38 game winning streak and had clobbered their first two opponents. My parents decided not to go to the game, fearing the worst outcome. I just remember not being nervous, but being very excited to be on that court with them. They were so athletic and big- we were going to have to play out of our minds to beat them. We did. We won 65-64 and I remember how it felt to this day. Coach Youree said that was the moment when he knew East would have a great program, which they subsequently did. He said it was like watching a college game. When I got home, my parents had no way of knowing how the game went (no cell phones back then). I told them we won and they were amazed. Typical of parents, they asked me how many points I scored and I said I didn't know. They asked how many rebounds I had, and I said I didn't know. We won and that's all that mattered. Back in those days, there was a sister newspaper to the Arizona Republic called the Phoenix Gazette. They covered prep sports heavily and had players of the week in all sports. That week, I was the first East High player to be so honored in any sport in the first four years of the school. Turns out I had 6 points and 16 rebounds against Phoenix Union, followed by 25 points and 17 rebounds against Yuma Kofa the next game. I ended up the year averaging more rebounds than points (12.6 points and 13.5 rebounds) and was the first East High player to be named to the All-City team, which was a big deal back then. We had an up and down year, ending up 13-10. The Metro was predictably tough and Phoenix Union would go on and win another AAA title. They beat Maryvale for the title, which was tough to watch, as we had beaten both teams during the year. Nobody could really predict what Coach Youree would do over the next 13 years until East closed. He would win 5 state championships. In those years, he would never finish worse than state quarterfinals. He would lose only one state championship game, and that was a four overtime loss to Alhambra, with their great player Steve Malovic. In one stretch, East won 54 games in row, then lost a state quarterfinal game in four overtimes, and then won 35 more in a row. His 1980-81 team was named the best high school basketball team of the 20th Century by the Arizona Republic, and was also honored as the Coach of the Century. I didn't know all of those things would happen, but I did know that he was a great coach and man, and someone that I still lean on for support to this day. I also thought that if this is high school, then boy, college coaches really must be something great. Boy, was I wrong.

Next time- On to college.....

East High and a Legend....

After graduating from the eighth grade in 1964, I had the unusual opportunity in those days to have a choice of where I could go to high school. Open enrollment was not a feature in our education system in those days, so normally you went to high school in the attendance zone of a particular institution roughly where you lived. My brother, who was older than I, had gone to North High, because we lived in their attendance zone. In 1964, however, the Phoenix Union District was opening a new high school at 48th Street and Van Buren called East High. You can see that the naming systems for high schools in those days were fairly uncomplicated. My family lived at 37th Street and Palm Lane and everyone east of 36th Street could go to the traditional and established North High or go to the new school. I didn't choose East because I knew Coach Youree and wanted to play for him. In fact, I had never heard of him or any of the teachers at the new school. I chose East because it was a chance to start something from the beginning of its existence. It was the challenge of it and a decision that I have never regretted. John F. Kennedy had given a speech in Houston where he said "we choose to go to the moon and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard." He challenged us and those words had a great impact on my life and have always stuck with me through the many challenges that I have had over the years.

I didn't go to East to play basketball. The first sport up was football, and it was real football with helmets and pads and jock straps. These were things that I was totally unfamiliar with, as Papago Elementary had only a flag football team. I was pretty good at that, but knew nothing of the rigors of tackle football. This is where I had the first encounter with Royce Youree. East High did not have enough students to have freshmen, jayvee, and varsity football the first year. We, in fact, did not have any seniors, so they settled on just having one team- a jayvee level squad. This gave the coaching staff the opportunity of establishing a baseline of expectations for the future of their programs- not just football- and not just worrying about pandering to kids and parents to have numbers. One of the expectations that they decided to create was that East High kids were going to be tough as nails, so with an initial group of about eighty boys they put on a Marine style training regimen that I am positive would get them all fired today. Within a couple of weeks they had it down to the mid-twenties, and not a day went by where I did not think about quitting. Two things kept me going- my Mom was as tough an athlete as I ever knew and I knew quitting would hurt her, and my good friend Eddie Hall, with whom I went to practice every day. Eddie was clearly going to be an outstanding football player, where I was not. I was skinny, scrawny, and not very tall, but Eddie kept encouraging me to hang in there and not be a quitter. So I did. I made it all the way to the last week when I broke my wrist. I was there when East played it's first game against a new Tempe school- McClintock, who was also playing their first game with their new coach Karl Kiefer. East won 8-6 on a last second play. I didn't get in, but remember well celebrating on the field. As we celebrated, I remember running into Tom Vermillion, an offensive tackle, who obviously had a concussion and didn't even know the game was over. Tough, baby. A different time for sure. I barely played all year, but as the season went on, I grew to respect the coaches a great deal, in particular Coach Youree. I had never been around someone like him before.

After football, it was known that Coach Youree was going to head up the basketball program. There would be a jayvee team and TWO freshmen teams strategically called A and B. Most of my friends from football, including Eddie, were moving on to play basketball, so I wanted to do that also, even though my training at Papago was zero and my career there comprised twenty seconds. I had a career line of one rebound and 0-1 from the field. I came up to Coach Youree on the first day of practice and told him that as soon as the cast came off my wrist, I would be coming out. That wouldn't be for another seven or eight weeks, which would cover a fair amount of the season. I remember to this day the look he gave me- a look of respect for surviving the football experience to almost the end, a look of sympathy for my condition, and a look of no way you're going to play basketball. He had heard that I was a pretty decent baseball player and told that by the time I got my cast off, baseball would be just around the corner. Maybe I should skip basketball and come out for baseball. He would be coaching that, too. But I was insistent- I wanted to play basketball with my buddies. I truly believe that if I hadn't stuck in there through that hell of football, he would have told me no, but he eventually relented and let me come out for Freshman B.

By the time I was able to play, there were only a few games left. Being out so late and being on the B team, I did not get a good choice of uniforms. Mine was way too big and was not a good look. Fortunately, I did not get in any games until the very last one. There were about 30 seconds left in the game when the Freshman B coach, who had also been one of the football coaches, called for me to go in, so I ran to the scorer's table to check in. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, the clock was running while I waited at the table and I was not able to get on floor until only seven seconds remained. So, I ran out, the ball was inbounded to someone else and the game was over. That was my freshman season of basketball- one game, seven seconds, no rebounds. So, think if you will about my basketball career to this point. Seventh grade, eighth grade, and freshman year- a total of twenty seven seconds played, one rebound, 0-1 from the field.

Next time- East High, part 2

As we can all relate to, this is an unbelievable moment in history that we are living through. It is not possible to have workouts with players or to have safe interaction with just about anyone else at this time. But we can communicate en masse through a medium like this and share thoughts, ideas, and stories that bind us all together in the basketball world. Basketball has been a huge part of my life since the day I enrolled in a brand new high school called East Phoenix in 1964. There I encountered a young, tough, and demanding coach named Royce Youree. None of his knew him or knew of his exploits at Arizona State University, just down the road. But he would become a big part of our lives and, in my case, continue to be a coach, colleague, friend, and mentor to this day. So let's share first how the game gripped us enough to want be part of it forever. I hope to be able to read your stories, and you mine, as let's face it, we don't have much else going for us right now. So I'll start...

I grew up in a much smaller Phoenix. Until individual household air conditioning systems were mass produced, that's all Phoenix would ever be- small. After that happened, Phoenix has mushroomed to the mega metropolis that we know today. My first sport of passion was baseball. My mother was an elite professional softball player who played first base for the A-1 Queens, who in their heyday, was one of the best softball teams in the world. Along with the PBSW Ramblers, Phoenix had become a hub of women's softball in the 40's and 50's. My mother had been approached by the people who put together the women's baseball league that is featured in the movie "A League of Their Own", but had turned them down. Her logic was that she was at the top of her game as a professional- why would she sacrifice that for what she felt was a circus act. So by age five, I was a bat boy for the Queens and loved everything about a ball, a glove, and a bat.

We lived right next to Papago Elementary School and there was an outdoor concrete basketball court at one end of the property. It had chain nets. I never had much interest in it until about sixth grade. There was no club ball in those years and Papago only had a seventh grade team and an eighth grade team. Around my sixth grade year, I began to watch some NBA broadcasts on one of the three available TV channels- ABC. They would show one game a week, on Sunday, and it usually included the Boston Celtics, who won most of the titles in a league that we knew little about. The Celtics had an extraordinary big man named Bill Russell. The other team that would get a lot of airplay was the Philadelphia 76'ers. They had another extraordinary big man named Wilt Chamberlain. Every now and then on a Sunday, we would come home from church to find that the Celtics were playing against the 76'ers, so we got to see both big men at once. I really enjoyed those games and as my interest grew, I was able to get a basketball and go to that concrete court right after watching a game and start to learn how to play solely based on what I saw on TV. I had no coach nor received any instruction early on. Sometimes, there would be some grown ups at the court, and if they needed an extra body, they would let me play. The only thing I was really allowed to do in those games was rebound, so I got pretty good at it.

My seventh grade year, I tried out for the school team. The tryouts were after school on the concrete court with the chain nets, and I don't really know how I made the team other than most of the boys were sort of like me in terms of prior coaching. We didn't have any. But I was clearly not very good- wasn't a starter and didn't have any prospects of getting any better, as we only practiced twice before our first game. Now, in those days, the basketball "season" consisted of a tournament among the various schools in the Creighton Elementary School District. If you won, you advanced, but if you lost your "season" was over. Our first game was against Squaw Peak Elementary School. We lost and the coach didn't put me in. That was my seventh grade "season" in a nutshell. I went back to shooting around on Sundays or getting picked in those occasional adult games where I was only allowed to rebound.

The eighth grade year, I tried out again and once again made the team. Last year's seventh grade coach had been elevated to the eighth grade coach, so he knew me. That can be a good thing, but can also be a bad thing. As luck would have it, we drew Squaw Peak again for our opener, and once again, we were defeated. This time, however, I was inserted into the game midway through the first half. I got a rebound right away (I was good at that), but then dribbled the length of the floor to roughly the top of the key and shot the ball. I was lifted immediately and did not return to the floor. So my eighth grade "season" was over. In two "seasons" I had played approximately twenty seconds. Who would have thought at that time basketball would play such an important role in my life. Certainly not me.

Next up- East High and a legend. Share your early beginnings if you wish, or any other thoughts about the game. I am eager to read your stories.

I am Interested to see if we:

A. Will we have June summer ball
B. Will all these head coaching vacancies be filled before then.
C. Will the NCAA make up these April "live periods" that most kids get recruited to go to college.
D. If they are making it up, will it be late May or add a live period in July?
E. Will the NCAA allow College Seniors to do it over and if so, this will truly affect the HS seniors from getting a scholarship since the colleges will obviously be happy to keep their older players!

https://arizonavarsity.rivals.com/news/4a-2019-2020-individual-awards

We start off with 4A..

Buena beat Marana 74-63 in Marana tonight to run its record to 18-2 and 3-0 in the 5A South.
The win was the Colts 13th in a row which is the longest winning streak at Buena since the early 1970s!!

Jovany Featherston led the Colts with 24 points, Brock Fenton had 15, 13 of which came in the second quarter, Jaylen Mcfadden had 12, and Christian Gouchie and Isaiah Baugh both had 10.

Buena hosts Nogales on Tuesday before travelling to Sunnyside next Thursday.

How does AIA figure "Average Opp Rating?" Just trying to wrap my head around some of the rankings/playoff spots. Seems like they take into account who teams play in both conference and division games for wins & losses, but take into account only who they play in early tourney/invitational games and not the results of those games? Or do those games have no bearing?

Here we go
The annual weekly rankings
6A-4A Top-10
3A Top-5

Anyone have any more insight on this situation? Obert was vague, but it sounded like they weren't giving up much information to public. If the video is the full extent of the "incident", there has to be more to the story, since that footage shows a coach keeping his athlete from making some stupid decisions. I didn't see anything egregious from Coach Crump, IMO.

Highland got by Gilbert in a low scoring game 38-37 I believe or 39-38.

Desert Mountain beat Chaparral in a thriller I was told!

DM was down 25 pts in the 3rd!! and stormed back to win it in 2OT!!

Please post in here if you know about some new ones!

2020 (Top-27)
1. Osa Ighodaro 6'9 PF Desert Vista--Committed to Marquette
2. Evan Nelson 6'1 PG Salpointe Catholic--Committed to Harvard
3. Jason Harris 6'7 PF Higley--like 99% playing football but he is still really good at hoops lol
4. Jerry Iliya 6'5 F Paradise Honors
5. Hunter Ruck 6'9 PF Rancho Solano Prep--Committed to UC Irvine
6. Juhlawnei Stone 6'7 PF Dobson--Committed to Cal Baptist
7. Tay Boothman 6'0 PG Buckeye
8. Byrcen Long 6'2 CG Gilbert--Committed to Houston Baptist
9. Logan Phillips 6'7 F Valley Christian--Committed to D2 Univ of Purdue Northwest
10. Dominic Gonzales 6'3 SG Ironwood
11. Dayton Harris 6'2 PG Skyline--Committed to NAU
12. Trent Hudgens 6'0 PG Ironwood
13. Devon Brooke 6'7 F ALA-QC
14. Tanner Poeschl 6'6 PF Skyline
15. Terrence Green 6'6 SF Carl Hayden
16. Xzavier Lino 6'5 SF Sunnyslope
17. Paul Hayden 6'5 SF Sunnyslope
18. Shermar Morrow 6'4 SF Shadow Mountain
19. Chance Garland 6'5 SF Tock
20. Dyson Lighthall C 6'8 ALA-QC
21. Byron Brown SG/SF 6'4 Sahuarita
22. Anthony Irvin 6'3 SG CDS
23. Caleb Alonso 6'6 SF Desert Ridge
24. Jackson Risi 6'2 SG Valley Christian
25. Anthony Giliberto 6'7 PF PV
26. Zeke Thompkins 6'6 point forward Apollo
27. Justice Marmara 6'3 SG Millennium

Here is the schedule today at the Phhacility.


Oct 12th (12:00-6:00)
12:00 Ct 1 Chandler Gilbert vs PC and Ct 2 Tohono O’Odham vs Mesa

1:00 Ct 1 South Mtn vs Glendale and Ct 2 Cochise vs Eastern AZ

2:00 Ct 1 Scottsdale vs Pima and Ct 2 Arizona Western vs Central AZ

3:00 Ct 1 Chandler-Gilbert vs Mesa and Ct 2 Tohono O’Odham vs PC

4:00 Ct 1 South Mountain vs Eastern and Ct 2 Cochise vs Glendale

5:00 Ct 1 Arizona Western vs Scottsdale and Ct 2 Pima vs Central AZ

Tentative schedule: (Due to change like always)

Thanksgiving Week
Mon Nov 25th Chinle at Holbrook ?like 3 hours 30 mins away SMH
Tue Nov 26th Hoopsgiving Basketball tournament at Sunnyslope HS (Apollo, Thuderbird, Greenway, Ironwood, O'Connor, Deer Valley, Verrado, Rancho Solano, Liberty, Peoria, Moon Valley, Estrella Foothills, Chaparral, Cactus Shadows, Glendale Prep and Sunnyslope)
Wed Nov 27th Fear the Hop Tourney at Mesa HS (Mesa, Desert Vista, Hamilton, ALA-QC, Desert Mtn, Highland, Casteel, Westview, Seton, Saguaro)
Fri Nov 29th Gilbert HS Tourney (Basha, Chandler, CDS, Desert Ridge, Perry, Williams Field, Valley Vista, Gilbert)

Regular HS Season
Tue Dec 3rd Paradise Honors at American Leadership Academy-Queen Creek
Thur-Sat Dec 5th-7th Hoophall West at Chaparral HS

Thur
5:00 Pinnacle vs Albany Academy (NY)
7:00 Hillcrest Prep vs Prolific Prep (CA)
9:00 Chaparral vs Christ The King (NY)

Fri
3:00 Shadow Mtn vs Regis Jesuit (CO)
4:30 Pinnacle vs Crossroads (CA)
6:00 Rainer Beach (WA) vs Rancho Christian (CA)
7:30 Gilbert vs Slope
9:00 Paradise Honors vs Coronado (NV)

Sat
9:00 Albany Academy (NY) vs Regis Jesuit (CO)
10:30 Apollo vs Liberty
12:00 Rancho Solano Prep vs Crossroads (CA)
1:30 Shadow Mtn vs Coronado (NV)
4:00 Perry vs Mater Dei (CA)
5:30 Christ The King (NY) vs Sierra Canyon CA)
7:00 Hillcrest Prep vs Hamilton Heights Christian Academy (TN)

Tue Dec 10th Brophy Prep at Desert Vista
Thur Dec 12th Williams Field at Desert Mountain
Fri Dec 13th Prescott at Tempe ?

Mon Dec 16th Pueblo at Casa Grande
Tue Dec 17th Chandler at Chavez or Estrella Foothills at Tempe
Wed Dec 18th Desert Edge at Mesquite ?(depends when I leave for Vegas)
Dec 18-21 Jerry Tarkanian Classic Tourney at Bishop Gorman (NV)

Mon Dec 23rd Peoria at Buckeye

Thur Dec 27th & Sat Dec 28th McClintock Shootout (McClintock, Hamilton, Desert Mtn, PV, Highland, Arcadia, Mesa, Chavez, Tempe, Gilbert, Liberty, Central, Skyline, Deer Valley, Basha and Centennial)
Thur Dec 26th & Mon Dec 30th? Visit Mesa Basketball Challenge (Mercer Island (WA), King's (WA), Gardena Serra (CA), St Patrick's/St Vincent, MTV, Red Mtn, Perry, Rancho Solano, Paradise Honors, Slope, Salpointe, Apollo, CDS, Chaparral, Brophy, Pinnacle) at Mesa Mountain View
or Mon Dec 30th Judy Dixon Tourney

Tue Jan 7th Mesa at Skyline
Thu Jan 9th Valley Vista at Dobson
Fri Jan 10th Basha at Perry

Tue Jan 14th St. Mary’s at Shadow Mountain
Thur Jan 16th Estrella Foothills at Deer Valley
Fri Jan 17th Ironwood at Sunnyslope

Tue Jan 21st South Mountain at Paradise Valley
Thur Jan 23rd Mesquite at Arcadia
Fri Jan 24th Chandler at Perry

Tue Jan 28th Queen Creek at Mountain Pointe
Thur Jan 30th Desert Vista at Hamilton
Friday Jan 31st Casteel at Gilbert
Sat Feb 1st Horizon at Central (day game)

Tue Feb 4th Centennial at Sunrise Mountain
Thur Feb 6th St. Mary’s at Thunderbird
Fri Feb 7th Ironwood at Apollo

Tue Feb 11th Paradise Honors at Valley Christian

State playoffs (no dates yet)

Well here we go again.

Already know of two job openings!

Next week I'll start my HS team rankings. Way too early but that's what makes it fun.

Going to the ASU HS Team Camp this weekend and will end up seeing most of the top teams I NEEDED to see.

The main issue is ALWAYS transfers. Multiple kids transferred AIA to prep and AIA to AIA schools.

I'll try and sift through and start ranking.
I'll make my Top-51 overall list as well. Always fun and almost impossible to pull-off lol.

A very top heavy 3A leads to a hopeful amazing Final-4 or maybe an Elite-8.

Here are the top teams to keep an eye out for:
1. Paradise Honors
2. Valley Christian
3. ALA-Queen Creek

These 3 all can easily win it. All have D1 talented players and good coaching.
PHHS has the deepest roster of talent led by Jalen Scott and Jerry Iliya plus stud soph transfer Nate Pickens.
VC has the top shooting senior duo in Logan Phillips and Jackson Risi. Phillips may be top player period in 3A.
ALA-QC has one of the biggest front lines regardless of 6A-3A with Dyson Lighthall and Devon Brooke but also have some decent complimenting guards. Both Holmes brothers can play. Sr and Jr.

4. Sabino
5. Gilbert Christian
6. Chinle
7. WInslow
8. Page

All 5 teams have senior scoring.
Sabino have seniors Pablo Gutierrez and Cesar Saenz.
Gilbert Christian has one of the top guards in 3A in Trey Donaldson.
Chinle has the Netflix senior star Cooper Burbank plus senior Curtis Begay.
Winslow has do it all senior Zachary Wagner.
Page have senior guards Dainian Sloan and Gabe Gomez.

Maybe 2 sleepers could be:
9. Payson
10. Show Low

Both teams have senior shot blockers.
Payson has Will Howell who I viewed at Ironwood JV team 2 years ago and last year led 3A in Blocks and was 4th in rebs while avg over 10 ppg. He was around 6'5+.
Show Low have 2 in the top-5 shot blockers which include 6'3 Thadeus Carlyon and 6'6 Colton McGinnis. Both avg over 10 ppg in points.

Region-1 (Desert Sky)
1. Arcadia
2. Mesquite
3. Seton Catholic Prep
4. Saguaro
5. Poston Butte
6. Marcos de Niza

Region-2 (West Valley)
1. Peoria
2. Desert Edge
3. Deer Valley
4. Cactus
5. Lake Havasu

Region-3 (Southwest)
1. Buckeye
2. Estrella Foothills
3. Gila Ridge
4. Youngker
5. Yuma

Region-4 (Skyline)
1. St. Mary's
2. Shadow Mountain
3. Moon Valley
4. Tempe
5. Thunderbird
6. Greenway

Region-5 (Grand Canyon) (ALWAYS get this one wrong) I have never seen any of these teams play EVER except Flagstaff.
1. Prescott
2. Bradshaw Mountain
3. Coconino
4. Lee Williams
5. Mingus
6. Flagstaff
7. Mohave

Region-6 (Black Canyon)
1. Dysart
2. Washington
3. Cortez
4. Combs
5. Apache Junction
6. Glendale

Region-7 (Gila)
1. Pueblo Magnet (Sleeper team)
2. Rio Rico
3. Amphi
4. Palo Verde
5. Douglas
6. Walden Grove

Region-8 (Kino)
1. Salpointe Catholic
2. Catalina Foothills
3. Sahuaro
4. Casa Grande
5. CDO
6. Vista Grande

Region-1 (Southern)
1. Cienega
2. Buena
3. Marana--(D'Marco Dunn moved to NC)
4. Ironwood Ridge
5. Nogales
6. Sunnyside

Region-2 (Sonoran)
1. Cholla
2. Mountain View Marana
3. Flowing Wells
4. Rincon
5. Desert View
6. Empire

Region-3 (Metro)
1. South Mountain
2. Carl Hayden
3. Central
4. Camelback
5. Fairfax
6. Sierra Linda
7. Metro Tech

Region-4 (Northeast Valley)
1. Paradise Valley
2. McClintock
3. Desert Mountain
4. Horizon
5. Cactus Shadows
6. Notre Dame Prep
7. North Canyon

Region-5 (San Tan)
1. Gilbert
2. Williams Field
3. Casteel
4. Higley
5. Campo Verde
6. Maricopa

Region-6 (Northwest)
1. Sunnyslope
2. Ironwood
3. Apollo
4. Centennial
5. Sunrise Mountain
6. Kellis

Region-7 (Desert West)
1. Millennium
2. Agua Fria
3. Willow Canyon
4. Goldwater
5. Independence
6. Verrado

Region-1 (Metro)
1. Chavez
2. Tucson
3. Maryvale
4. North
5. Alhambra
6. Trevor Browne

Region-2 (Desert Valley)
1. Chaparral
2. Pinnacle (Super star football players are reportedly all going to play--(Baker/Libman/Goodlow)
3. Liberty
4. Mountain Ridge (Lost starting PG for year most likely)
5. Sandra Day O'Connor
6. Boulder Creek

Region-3 (Southwest)
1. Valley Vista
2. La Joya
3. Westview
4. Tolleson
5. Copper Canyon
6. Shadow Ridge

Region-4 (East Valley)
1. Skyline
2. Mesa
3. MTV
4. Dobson
5. Red Mountain
6. Westwood

Region-5 (Southern)
1. Cibola
2. Kofa
3. San Luis

Region-6 (Premier)
1. Chandler
2. Perry
3. Hamilton
4. Basha
5. Brophy Prep

Region-7 (Central)
1. Desert Vista
2. Mountain Pointe
3. Desert Ridge
4. CDS
5. Highland
6. Queen Creek

Maybe I'm late to the game, but seems like the last 30-45 days had an epic buildup, followed by an mass exodus?

POLL