Yates: Don't hate...congratulate!

Ring out the old; ring in the new! Happy 2010, everyone!

By the way, I’m on a personal crusade to have everyone start describing this year as “twenty-ten”. I was willing to give the world a pass in the initial decade of the Twenty-first Century, but now it’s time for the world to get on board with my program. Welcome to the year twenty-ten.

And, as sure as I was born in the year one thousand, nine hundred sixty-one, I will surely prevail in this endeavor.

* * * * *

Focus has shifted away from football to basketball…specifically, Yates basketball.  Wow! Thanks, Greg Wise, for giving us something to discuss!

On Tuesday night, the Yates Lions blasted the Lee Corporals (previously known as the Generals, but who were stripped of their rank following the game) by a score of…wait for it…oh, who doesn’t already know this? 170-35.

Since the final buzzer sounded that evening, the earth has begun to first quiver slightly, then shake violently, until now erupting into a national controversy. It’s 2012 (twenty-twelve…see above) two years too soon!

Everyone wants to talk about it, from Houston-area sports talkers on the radio, to the PTI guys on ESPN. And it apparently matters very little how much or little you know about the team or it's opponent that night. Outrage is the order of the day in several quarters.

Most of you won’t be happy with it, but here’s my take on The Blowout—and this opinion belongs exclusively to Lonnie King…not sponsors, not employers, not associates, and not even my wife (‘The Bleeding Heart’) either:

I am not offended or outraged in any way at the final score OR the way that Yates arrived at that final score.

And, let me tell you, I’ve spent the last 24 hours trying to build up some sense of outrage over this, just to be able to go along with the majority. But I can’t do it. I just am not incensed over this game.

It boils down to this: Yates is a very good basketball team, arguably the best high school team in the nation. Lee offers basketball to its student body as an afterthought and they aren't very good at all.  BUT, they are required to play each other; they're in the same district. 

To me, there are many aspects of this whole story that are impressive, or at least very fascinating. Here are just a couple:

First of all, if you look at Yates' body of work through the early part of their schedule, you’ll see that they’ve put up some gaudy numbers against much better competition than Lee. Yates, because of their weak district competition, goes out of their way to schedule tough pre-district opponents. They’ve traveled the nation in November and December and still managed to win impressively.

Also, there are just eight-minute quarters in a high school basketball game. Thirty-two total minutes. There are several NBA teams that cannot scratch 90 points in a 48-minute game on a regular basis and here’s a high school team that can do it routinely in 32.

Most fascinating is the fact that Yates is fortunate to have so much basketball talent that resides within its school attendance boundaries! (I know, I know…leave it alone…) 

By the way, Yates has HISD's magnet program for communications (Broadcast TV, Radio, Print, and Photography).   Budding journalists love basketball.

Wise, the head man at Yates, coaches his team to play full-court pressure defense and run the floor in transition on offense. They have been coached so well at that style of play that they are able to put up large numbers on the scoreboard. The defensive pressure creates offensive opportunities and Yates capitalizes on those offensive opportunities.

By the way, there are coaches all over the area, state and nation who coach with that same philosophy, but while their stifling defense may frustrate opponents, they generally do not have the talent that the Lions have and don’t capitalize AS OFTEN on the offensive end of the floor.

I saw Yates post 94 points last year in the Class 4A state championship against Dallas Kimball. Think about that for a minute: 94 points in 32 minutes against the next-best team in the state. That, to me, is impressive. So, it should be no surprise that, against lesser competition, the Lions could put up gaudy-looking numbers.

And, to get to the point that you are able to score 94 points in a state championship, you have to work on it consistently during the regular season.

A couple of weeks ago, the Indianapolis Colts created a buzz when their coach Jim Caldwell basically quit in the middle of a game against the New York Jets—while his team had a lead. The stated purpose was that the Colts, though still pursuing a perfect season record, already had clinched everything they could conceivably need to give themselves a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. There was nothing to be gained in pushing hard and going all out just to pursue a ‘meaningless’ goal.

The Colts went on to lose the game, which cost them a chance at an undefeated season and also noticeably affected the demeanor of the team. Last weekend (the game that followed the Jets loss), the Colts laid another egg, with starters on the bench resting up for the playoffs, and lost at Buffalo, 30-7. Now they will sit for another week awaiting the outcome of the wild card round games.

Is there anyone out there right now who wouldn’t be surprised if the Colts cannot turn the competitiveness back on in the second round and lose? The Indy starters, who will not have had meaningful competition in more than three weeks, may not be as sharp as if they had played to win throughout their schedule.

I think Greg Wise probably understands this: if you want your sword to be sharp in the playoffs, you have to hone it to precision in the regular season, no matter who the competition may be.

Sure, it turns out 37 points would’ve been enough against Lee. But it would’ve sent up a red flag about the Yates program. And it would’ve been unfair to the athletes under Wise’s command to ask them to not go out and give their best effort on the court.

Yates cannot control who their district opponents are. They have to play the other teams that the UIL has included with them in 21-4A. If those schools decide to field a basketball team, they should be prepared to see a dominant squad.

I’m going to copyright a slogan and mass-produce t-shirts right now: “Jack Yates! Don’t hate! Congratulate!”