(NOTE TO READERS – As 2025 approaches, the SBJ has been featuring some of our favorite content from this year. This Doug Ireland column originally ran in the Journal on March 5. Enjoy!)
I cannot reconcile this double barrel of craziness:
- After taking over dual coaching duties, in charge of both the LSUS men (as usual) and women (as urgently needed days before the season began), and steering the Lady Pilots to an unbeaten and all-but-unchallenged 22-0 regular season championship, Kyle Blankenship was not chosen as Red River Athletic Conference women’s basketball coach of the year.
- Iowa women’s basketball superstar Caitlin Clark is said to have broken the NCAA career scoring record set a half-century ago by LSU’s Pistol Pete Maravich, who is a man.
As to the insane voting by the other RRAC women’s basketball coaches, I can only assume they were looking out for their own fannies. If the LSUS men’s coach could lead the women’s team – yes, a very talented one – to an undefeated league championship, while continuing to coach the men and keeping them in the chase for their own title and NAIA Tournament berth, well, why couldn’t more men’s coaches pull double duty, their bosses might wonder?
Of course, that wouldn’t happen. But it’s as plausible as not giving Blankenship his due. He shies from the spotlight and redirects credit, but it discredits the RRAC’s award for him not to win that one.
Now to Miss Clark breaking Pistol Pete’s record; she didn’t. She passed a scoring milestone he established. But she’s a she, and he’s a he.
Nobody is out there claiming that other records are co-mingled and gender doesn’t matter. Nor should they.
Clark is sensational. She’s one of the great players in college women’s basketball history, no doubt. She deserves all the applause even though it is preposterous to say she “surpassed” Maravich’s record. But in the eyes of too many media members looking to sensationalize a story that needs no extra mustard on the hot dog, that’s the baloney being served.
While talking hoops …
There are a couple more top-notch local college basketball coaches who deserve some run in the sun: Centenary’s Chris Dorsey and J.A. Anglin of Bossier Parish Community College. Neither is coaching men AND women’s teams, but both warrant praise.
Dorsey’s case is obvious. In his seventh season on Kings Highway, he again kept the under-resourced Centenary program very competitive in its league, again turned out a winning record, and got the Gents to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the second time in four years.
Did I mention “under resourced?” That brings to mind BPCC competing in the same conference with the Texas junior colleges, which are infinitely better funded than BPCC in every respect, including athletics. But overlooked if you glance at the Cavaliers’ 12-17 record this year, heading into the home finale Wednesday evening at 5:30, is how a very young team has been very close to beating superior opponents in district play. There’s also an unprecedented – not even by the great teams Mike McConathy built (after a few years of middling records while developing the program) – feat of sweeping Tyler Junior College, something this year’s Cavs did under Anglin’s guidance.
BPCC would be much better positioned to compete on an even scale relocated to the NJCAA district with its Mississippi peers, who don’t have the massive Texas budget backing them either.
Switching to high school …
It was great seeing Parkway pull off a second straight girls basketball state title, and it led to a funny moment on the LHSAA TV postgame coverage after the championship game. Lady Panthers’ coach Gloria Williams was asked about bragging rights at home. Her husband is former Bossier boys coach Jeremiah Williams, who last decade led the Bearkats to a couple of state championships.
She paused, smiled, and said, “but he did not win two straight!” ….
…. How bone-headed is the national high school rule regarding team names on jerseys, that resulted in Parkway giving up a game-opening technical foul and a point in the semifinal game against Walker? By now you might have heard Parkway broke out jerseys with “SoBo” across the chest instead of “Parkway” or “Lady Panthers.” It was a tribute to their home community.
We’ve seen those type jerseys for several seasons now in the pros, and recently in the local high school ranks. They’re cool. There’s no harm.
Everybody knows who the teams are. No deceit is involved.
But at the state tournament, the LHSAA follows the rulebook adopted by the national high school federation, and its rule doesn’t allow specialized jerseys. Hopefully that changes this summer ….
…. Last item: team records. If you see different W-L records for the same high school team in the playoffs, it’s because the LHSAA doesn’t recognize out-of-state games when posting team records. Now, I get that when it comes to power rankings, but how about considering what really happened on the court this season? Walker was not undefeated. They lost to Duncanville, Texas. Parkway picked up some out-of-state wins. Not noted by the LHSAA.
Those games happened. They ought to be reflected in the final team records. I’ll bet that the stats ARE counted – and should be. And the same kind of games ARE counted in football season when our teams cross the state lines to play teams in Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas.
Ignoring games that happened. Brought to you by the same mindset that denied Kyle Blankenship a Coach of the Year award, and the rationale that the incredible Caitlin Clark broke Pistol Pete’s record.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com