Basketball - Senior Year part 1

The highlight of my high school years was easily my senior basketball season. We had a good team and I was elected co-captain. Our two stars were Ricky Hall and Jay Worley. Both had started as juniors, both made all-district as seniors, and both got scholarships to TCU.

Jay, a 6'2" guard, was a great shooter. He had a really pretty shot and wanted to shoot every time down the court. As good as he was on offense and as much as he cared about offense, he was the direct opposite on defense. It's not that he couldn't play defense, he just didn't want to. In my opinion, he was also a selfish player. He wanted to be the leading scorer and wouldn't pass you the ball if you might outscore him. The exception was Hall, he had to pass the ball to Hall. I think Jay averaged 17-18 points a game and had a high game of 31 points. Jay got a scholarship to TCU but was gone after one year. I heard he flunked out.

Ricky Hall was a 6'3" forward. He hustled, played hard defense, and worked to get rebounds and shots around the basket. He also averaged 17-18 points a game and was right around that number game in and game out. There were no big fluctuations. Ricky also got a scholarship to TCU , played a lot, and was a 2-year starter.

Kim Riddle was a 6"4" center. He was a really good defensive guy and rebounder. Offensively, he was weak and probably averaged only 5-6 points a game. I think he got a scholarship to Tarleton State and played there 4 years.

John Groody was a 6'3" forward. He was a red-headed, goofy guy. "Goofy", not meaning dumb or anything derogatory, but goofy as in funny, crazy, silly, etc. He was a big wrestling fan and would mimic the fake punches and stuff. He was a good shooter, defender, etc., just a good all around player. He played a couple of years at McClennan Junior College and then, I think, went to school at A&M. I know he was a big Aggie fan. He probably averaged about 8-10 points a game.

I filled out the starting lineup at guard. When we did the height measurements I stood in at a little over 5'11" but the guys wanted everyone to be at least 6'. Groody, who was measuring me, told me to stretch and I stood up just a litle taller until I reach 5'11 1/2". When I hit 5'11 1/2" he said that rounds to 6'0" and that is what was put in as the official height and on the scorecards. I averaged 10 points a game. Actually, it was 9.5 but that rounds to 10 and 10 sounds better. I had 2 games where I scored 17.

Typically, we only played a 6-man rotation with the sixth guy being a 6'4" sophomore who could play any position. I can't remember his name but he was a good player and a good guy. Coach Howerton always called him "Sophomore" and he averaged about 4 points a game. I usually played the entire game unless we subbed at the end because we were well ahead.

We played Nolan in the first game of the season in our gym. Even though they were a private school they were about the same enrollment size as we and the game was close, although we were clearly the better team. At halftime it was tied or a 2-point game. I had played rather tentatively in the first half. David O'Dell was the senior team manager when I was a sophomore and he was now at Texas Tech on scholarship as the trainer/manager for their basketball team. He was at the game and came into the locker room at half. He pulled me aside and told me that I needed to make this my team and that I needed to step it up. In short, he gave me a really good pep talk and gave me some additional confidence. Early in the second half I scored my first basket. I drove the middle of the lane, did a 180 in the air at the basket, and put it a reverse layup from the left side. It was a really pretty shot. From then on we controlled the game and won by about 10.

A few games later we went to Arlington Sam Houston to play a game. If we hadn't moved to the country I would have gone to Sam. I went to elementary school with a lot of their players and still knew them from church and other functions. A lot of their fans also knew me. Before the game I was talking to a bunch of girls. There was one girl, Carolyn, who always seemed so tall in elementary school. In 6th grade she seemed a foot taller than me. Now, I was almost a foot taller than her. She hadn't grown an inch since 6th grade. I also remember that we had to dress in the girl's locker room. We beat Sam by 6 points and I scored 8. Phil Kevil told me we were "lucky" and that they'd beat us when we played again at our gym. Every time we saw each other at church he'd again talk about us being lucky and how they'd beat us the next time we played.

The next time we played, Kay Ellen, Jean, and Greg were supposed to come to the game. I wanted them to see me play but, when it came game time, Jean and Greg backed out. I left class early that day because I was running 102 fever but I was still going to play. I remember washing our yellow 1965 Mustang before I went by to pick up Kay Ellen and then using my hankerchief to wipe off some of the wet spots. When I put it back in my pocket it I could feel the wetness through my pants. I was a little embarrassed to pick up Kay Ellen, afraid the wet spot might show in the back of my pants. Anyway, I brought her to the game, got her up in the stands, and I think a couple of my girl friends from school sat with her. Also at the game were our Training Union teachers, a young couple who had recently moved to Arlington. Ken was a former Marine and his wife was the daughter of the President of East Texas Baptist College. Ken was later the coach of our 18 & under fastpitch softball team. That's another story.

I had a great game. I didn't miss a shot from the field all night. In the first half I had the ball on a 1 on 2 fastbreak. As I came to the top of the key I slowed down, turned to the side a little and dribbled the ball a little behind me, and prepared to back out and wait for the offense to set up. However, I saw the two defenders relax and separate like they were going to pick up their normal defensive assignment. When they did, that left a seam down the middle of the lane. I quickly drove the lane and put in a layup. I scored a couple of goals in the first half and at halftime we were leading by 6 or 8. Sam's coach was mad so our coach let him have our locker room for halftime and we went to a classroom just outside of the gym. Coach teased me about bringing a girl to the game and said I need to do it more often if it meant I was going to play like that.

In the second half we continued to lead, although they did get close at one point. Worley was shooting every time down the court and wouldn't pass me the ball even though I hadn't missed a shot all night. Worley ended up scoring 31 points but also took over 30 shots from the field in addition to some free throws. Down the stretch, when we had to have a score, I was the guy to do it or Hall's defender had to come help on me and I passed to him for the basket. On one play, Phil Kevil was guarding me. I drove the from beyond the top of the key to the free throw line, stopped quickly and shot a jumper that went in and got fouled. With the free throw we were up 6 or 7. I scored 17 points in the game and we won by 6 or 8. After the game Phil said, "You guys just beat us. You have a better team." Years later I was talking to Owen Barnett, a guard and the star of Sam's team along with Bill Ford their center. He said, "Ford and I could match Hall and Worley, but we had no answer for you. You were the difference in the games." That was almost 35 years after we'd played and he could remember it too, just like it was yesterday. The Star-Telegram listed Worley's 31 points but said nothing about my 17.

One other game stands out in our non-district schedule. It was against Castleberry at their gym. We were a much better team than Castleberry but Coach Howerton wanted us to change the way we were running our 1-3-1 defense. I was on the top of the zone, Riddle in the middle, Hall and Worley on the wings, and Groody on the baseline. I was extremely active on the top covering more ground, especially pressuring the wings, than the coach wanted. He wanted Hall and Worley to step up more aggressively on the wings. In retrospect, I think he knew he had no one to sub for me who could cover the same ground defensively, so I had to play the whole game. In the first quarter I stopped at the edge of the lane extended where the coach had told me to stop and relied on Hall and Worley to pick up the man on the wing. They were making every shot and were killing us. Coach called time out out, yelled at us to play better defense, and they still killed us. At the end of the first quarter they had scored 25 points or so and we were behind by 10. Coach Howerton was livid. "You guys won't listen to me! I'm not going to talk to you! You figure it out!" and sat down. I pulled the guys together and said we were going back to our old way of playing the 1-3-1. I was going to come further out on the wings and help with the defensive pressure. At halftime we had erased their 10 point lead and had a 10 point lead of our own. In the lockerroom Coach Howerton said, "Y'all are doing pretty good on your own, so I'm not going to say anything" and he left. We won the game 96-60 something. We would have scored 100 but I missed two layups on open fast breaks.

That's enough for this post. Next post will be tournament time and you'll get to hear, again, about my last second heroics and some not so heroic moments.