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Mar. 16—Time for the P.S.
As we say goodbye to another prep basketball season, it's time to tie up some loose ends, and find some of the images that resonated from the week that was.
HONORING THE 10: No newcomers this year among the 10 state champions. The longest drought ended by any state champion was the 28-year gap between titles for the boys from Artesia. (A couple of schools known more for their football than their basketball, like the Bulldogs and Texico, had themselves a day Saturday.)
The next longest drought was 13 years, snapped by the Logan boys in Class 1A.
Repeaters? There were several. Volcano Vista's boys and Sandia's girls in 5A, Navajo Prep's girls in 3A.
In Week 2, upsets were few and far between. Six of the 10 finals featured 1 vs. 2; Highland's boys as an 8 seed were the lowest seed to reach a championship game, and that hardly seemed out of place given how wide open that bracket was to begin with.
All of the state champions were either a 1 seed (six) or a 2 (four), and nine of the 10 No. 1 seeds played for a title, everyone except the St. Pius boys in 4A.
REFLECTIONS: Gotta be honest, it was a disappointing week of basketball at the Pit if we're talking games that held our attention to the very end. An unusual number of blowouts in both genders.
This was particularly true on the boys side of things. There genuinely were no great games until the last one, the mesmerizing 5A boys overtime final between Volcano Vista and Sandia. The fourth quarter of Texico and Mesa Vista also is worth mentioning. Carlsbad-Farmington in the 5A quarters gets my vote for the best of the girls games at the Pit.
There were comebacks of note. The Matadors erased a nine-point deficit against Volcano Vista in the final 3:20. Mesa Vista was down 15 with under five minutes to go and cut the deficit to one against the Wolverines.
The most stirring and unexpected comeback was out at the Rio Rancho Events on Tuesday. Robertson's girls, down eight in the final minute to Tohatchi, rallied for a 43-41 victory in the 3A quarters.
That crazy comeback included a four-point play by the Cardinals, and also a technical on Tohatchi for calling a timeout it didn't have.
As is often the case, the crowds at the Pit on Friday for the 3A and 4A girls finals were outstanding and bettered most anything we saw for the boys games on Saturday, outside of Volcano-Sandia.
The crowd of the week? Kirtland Central-Gallup on Friday night. My guess was 13,000 or so. They brought the energy and the noise.
BROTHERS: There are quite a few people (me among them) who would like to see Danny Brown, who coaches Sandia's boys, get his own state championship. And perhaps one day it'll happen for him.
He and Greg Brown, his older brother and the Volcano Vista head coach, have now gone head-to-head in two state finals. And they shared an embrace when Saturday night's epic final ended with the Hawks having prevailed 60-53 in OT.
I asked Greg what he said to Danny.
"I love him," Greg said softly. Later, a few minutes before 11 p.m., I finally exited the Pit, and outside the building, a full 75 minutes after their game had ended, I found all the Volcano players, coaches, family and friends huddled in a giant circle for their own sort of postscript to the night and the week.
Family is a strong theme within the Volcano Vista basketball family, and the Brown family, too. As much enjoyment as Greg derives from his own program's success, part of him clearly was hurting for his brother.
"The ball really didn't bounce our way tonight," Danny said. It was obvious on his face how much pain he was in. But Sandia will be back. He's got a stupendous backcourt in freshmen Isaiah Brown (his son) and Gad Harris.
"They even played middle school basketball together at Cleveland, and were pretty dominant," he said. "Their chemistry is off the charts. We're lucky to have both of them."
SISTERS: Amidst the chaos that surrounded the Sandia girls after they defeated Hobbs on Saturday was a wonderful embrace between Sydney Benally, who was playing her last game with the Matadors, and her younger sister, Kaiyah, a freshman.
This was almost certainly the last time they'd share a court together wearing the same uniform. It was, for me, the most touching snapshot of the week.
"It was just a special moment," Sydney told me a little later. "She's my workout partner, knowing all the work we put in ... it was worth it."
It was almost a literal passing of the torch at Sandia, as Kaiyah's brilliance carried the day for the Matadors in their 47-38 win over Hobbs.
"I trusted her and she was the spark to this team," Sydney said.
Kaiyah strikes me as a little bit like Sydney was when Sydney was a freshman. Shy, soft spoken.
But that embrace on Bob King Court, Kaiyah understood its bittersweet meaning.
"Yeah it was," he said. "Kind of hard."
FAMILY TIES, CON'T: The week saw several interesting officiating pairings among the three-person crews.
For example, Erin and Bobby Trujillo of Silver City, who are married, worked the 5A girls semifinals on Thursday.
Albuquerque's Amanda and Andres Gallegos, aunt/nephew, worked one of the 4A boys semis.
And Ed and Matt Flores of Las Cruces, father and son, were part of the crew on one of the two 2A boys semifinal contests.
IT'S JUST A GAME: It is easy to forget that when teams arrive at a state tournament, the teenagers and the coaches who arrive here, so many of them have their own back stories filled with interesting tales. Some you hear about, others you don't.
For example, I was curious about the first name of Roswell's head coach, Dude Burrola. Asked him about it the other day.
He told me he was a little boy, hanging out with his dad, who was heavily involved in the Roswell Boys and Girls Clubs. One day, someone made a remark about him, referring to him as a little dude. It stuck and became a lifelong name.
Other stories you know. Like Lori Mabrey of Rio Rancho, whose husband, Buster Mabrey, died during the season. She's been trying to push through, although she never ran the team this season, sitting on the bench for the second half of it in support of interim coach Eric Jack.
On Tuesday, as the Rams and Sandia shook hands after their quarterfinal meeting, Mabrey and Sandia coach Lee Kettig paused to chat for a moment. Kettig put his hand up to his heart as he spoke to her. Lori took something off her wrist and handed it to Kettig, who put it on his own.
It was a bracelet.
"Coaches changed my life — Buster Mabrey" is what it said, Mabrey told me.
It was a reminder of how close the prep coaching fraternity can be, and Kettig said it was "great to be supportive of her." More than that, it was a reminder that all of these people who come to the metro area to play basketball for those five days, for so many of them, teenagers or adults, basketball is just a small portion of what defines them as human beings.
And now they've all gone their separate ways. The next group arrives in 51 weeks.
Continue reading...
As we say goodbye to another prep basketball season, it's time to tie up some loose ends, and find some of the images that resonated from the week that was.
HONORING THE 10: No newcomers this year among the 10 state champions. The longest drought ended by any state champion was the 28-year gap between titles for the boys from Artesia. (A couple of schools known more for their football than their basketball, like the Bulldogs and Texico, had themselves a day Saturday.)
The next longest drought was 13 years, snapped by the Logan boys in Class 1A.
Repeaters? There were several. Volcano Vista's boys and Sandia's girls in 5A, Navajo Prep's girls in 3A.
In Week 2, upsets were few and far between. Six of the 10 finals featured 1 vs. 2; Highland's boys as an 8 seed were the lowest seed to reach a championship game, and that hardly seemed out of place given how wide open that bracket was to begin with.
All of the state champions were either a 1 seed (six) or a 2 (four), and nine of the 10 No. 1 seeds played for a title, everyone except the St. Pius boys in 4A.
REFLECTIONS: Gotta be honest, it was a disappointing week of basketball at the Pit if we're talking games that held our attention to the very end. An unusual number of blowouts in both genders.
This was particularly true on the boys side of things. There genuinely were no great games until the last one, the mesmerizing 5A boys overtime final between Volcano Vista and Sandia. The fourth quarter of Texico and Mesa Vista also is worth mentioning. Carlsbad-Farmington in the 5A quarters gets my vote for the best of the girls games at the Pit.
There were comebacks of note. The Matadors erased a nine-point deficit against Volcano Vista in the final 3:20. Mesa Vista was down 15 with under five minutes to go and cut the deficit to one against the Wolverines.
The most stirring and unexpected comeback was out at the Rio Rancho Events on Tuesday. Robertson's girls, down eight in the final minute to Tohatchi, rallied for a 43-41 victory in the 3A quarters.
That crazy comeback included a four-point play by the Cardinals, and also a technical on Tohatchi for calling a timeout it didn't have.
As is often the case, the crowds at the Pit on Friday for the 3A and 4A girls finals were outstanding and bettered most anything we saw for the boys games on Saturday, outside of Volcano-Sandia.
The crowd of the week? Kirtland Central-Gallup on Friday night. My guess was 13,000 or so. They brought the energy and the noise.
BROTHERS: There are quite a few people (me among them) who would like to see Danny Brown, who coaches Sandia's boys, get his own state championship. And perhaps one day it'll happen for him.
He and Greg Brown, his older brother and the Volcano Vista head coach, have now gone head-to-head in two state finals. And they shared an embrace when Saturday night's epic final ended with the Hawks having prevailed 60-53 in OT.
I asked Greg what he said to Danny.
"I love him," Greg said softly. Later, a few minutes before 11 p.m., I finally exited the Pit, and outside the building, a full 75 minutes after their game had ended, I found all the Volcano players, coaches, family and friends huddled in a giant circle for their own sort of postscript to the night and the week.
Family is a strong theme within the Volcano Vista basketball family, and the Brown family, too. As much enjoyment as Greg derives from his own program's success, part of him clearly was hurting for his brother.
"The ball really didn't bounce our way tonight," Danny said. It was obvious on his face how much pain he was in. But Sandia will be back. He's got a stupendous backcourt in freshmen Isaiah Brown (his son) and Gad Harris.
"They even played middle school basketball together at Cleveland, and were pretty dominant," he said. "Their chemistry is off the charts. We're lucky to have both of them."
SISTERS: Amidst the chaos that surrounded the Sandia girls after they defeated Hobbs on Saturday was a wonderful embrace between Sydney Benally, who was playing her last game with the Matadors, and her younger sister, Kaiyah, a freshman.
This was almost certainly the last time they'd share a court together wearing the same uniform. It was, for me, the most touching snapshot of the week.
"It was just a special moment," Sydney told me a little later. "She's my workout partner, knowing all the work we put in ... it was worth it."
It was almost a literal passing of the torch at Sandia, as Kaiyah's brilliance carried the day for the Matadors in their 47-38 win over Hobbs.
"I trusted her and she was the spark to this team," Sydney said.
Kaiyah strikes me as a little bit like Sydney was when Sydney was a freshman. Shy, soft spoken.
But that embrace on Bob King Court, Kaiyah understood its bittersweet meaning.
"Yeah it was," he said. "Kind of hard."
FAMILY TIES, CON'T: The week saw several interesting officiating pairings among the three-person crews.
For example, Erin and Bobby Trujillo of Silver City, who are married, worked the 5A girls semifinals on Thursday.
Albuquerque's Amanda and Andres Gallegos, aunt/nephew, worked one of the 4A boys semis.
And Ed and Matt Flores of Las Cruces, father and son, were part of the crew on one of the two 2A boys semifinal contests.
IT'S JUST A GAME: It is easy to forget that when teams arrive at a state tournament, the teenagers and the coaches who arrive here, so many of them have their own back stories filled with interesting tales. Some you hear about, others you don't.
For example, I was curious about the first name of Roswell's head coach, Dude Burrola. Asked him about it the other day.
He told me he was a little boy, hanging out with his dad, who was heavily involved in the Roswell Boys and Girls Clubs. One day, someone made a remark about him, referring to him as a little dude. It stuck and became a lifelong name.
Other stories you know. Like Lori Mabrey of Rio Rancho, whose husband, Buster Mabrey, died during the season. She's been trying to push through, although she never ran the team this season, sitting on the bench for the second half of it in support of interim coach Eric Jack.
On Tuesday, as the Rams and Sandia shook hands after their quarterfinal meeting, Mabrey and Sandia coach Lee Kettig paused to chat for a moment. Kettig put his hand up to his heart as he spoke to her. Lori took something off her wrist and handed it to Kettig, who put it on his own.
It was a bracelet.
"Coaches changed my life — Buster Mabrey" is what it said, Mabrey told me.
It was a reminder of how close the prep coaching fraternity can be, and Kettig said it was "great to be supportive of her." More than that, it was a reminder that all of these people who come to the metro area to play basketball for those five days, for so many of them, teenagers or adults, basketball is just a small portion of what defines them as human beings.
And now they've all gone their separate ways. The next group arrives in 51 weeks.
Continue reading...
