2009/10 Wildcats Off to a Great Start

Posted by Dan Jensen

Last year's basketball team that finished dead last in district play and lost to Dickinson on the road and AT HOME was an embarrassment to many of the former players and long time followers that remembered the wonderful tradition that had been built over the years but was now gone with the wind and hiding in the tall grass.

 

Well, give Coach Chris Romine and the current Wildcats some credit this year.  The challenges of district play began last Tuesday and the team record entering district competition was 15-3, after winning third place in the Alvin tournament.  I am in no way comparing this squad to the glory teams of yesteryear but their  record through 18 games is as good or better than some of them from this sampling:

 

1956 18-0 (3rd, state)

1957 17-1 (3rd, state)

1958 15-3 (3rd, state)

1959 9-9 (regional finals)

1960 17-1 (3rd, state)

1961 17-1 (2nd, state)

1962 14-4 (3rd, state)

1963 13-5 (State Champion)

1964 13-5 (2nd, state)

Comments

[Dan Jensen]

Our guys are continuing to roll in District 24-5A play, defeating Brazoswood, 80-68 at home and Alvin, 62-44 on the road. Retired coach Buddy Carlisle is close to the scene and hopefully will keep us updated on this surprising club. He thinks we are one of five teams battling for the four playoff spots. But it's early. Let's just hope our guys can keep winning.

[Buddy Carlisle]

The Wildcats have a very big early showdown at home vs. Clear Lake tomorrow night at 7 in Carlisle Field House. Lake is 1-1, having lost to Dickinson on the road and beating Brazoswood on Friday. Certainly not a do-or-die game but would be a big victory and important to win those home games and try to steal some on the road, as they say.

[Dan Jensen]

Good to hear from Buddy. He's on the scene and I value his analysis better than any. The district seems to have good balance this year. Buddy, who do you feel are the best teams? Who are our best players? I know we don't have a Bennie Lenox, Bill Doty or Paul Timmins but do we have any college prospects?

[Dan Jensen]

Here's a report via Buddy Carlisle who has a busy schedule today:
"Cats took it on the chin 71-63. Had a great second quarter outscoring them 22-12 but that is the only quarter that we bested them. we are pretty even teams and they won last night. Sad that the crowd was probably one of the worst I have ever seen for a Creek-Lake game, on both fronts. I would say the field house was about half full. It is final exam week."

[Mark Cook]

Cats beat Clear Brook on Friday night. Lake lost to Ball - which looks like a good team.

[Dan Jensen]

Big game tonight at Dickinson. Big game. Records don't matter. Big game.

[Buddy Carlisle]

OK, the long awaited showdown with the Gators has come and gone and I reported to those on our email chain immediately after the game last night that the Wildcats won 72-65. It was close all the way and we led at the half by 1. We took a 53-47 lead in the 3rd quarter but the Gators scored 8 straight to lead 55-53 early in the 4th. With 2 minutes to play it was knotted up and Tre Webb, Creek's junior forward, who can play like a guard,took it to the hole and made a tremendous move from left to right and scored right-handed(he is a lefty) to give Creek a lead they would not relinquish. A couple of nice defensvie stops and some clutch free throw shooting gave the Wildcats the final margin of victory.

There is one more game in the first round of 24-5A play and that is a home date with pre-district favorite Clear Springs on Tuesday. The Cats beat Springs in the Alvin tourney a few weeks ago in a close one so it should be a dandy at Carlisle Field House.

I will probably not be able to make that one as my wife and I are celebrating our 19th anniversary that night and it will probably not include the game! I can catch them in the last regular season game.

Ball leads the district at 6-0 and Lake, Creek and Springs are 4-2. Brook, Dickinson and Bwood are 2-4 and Alvin is 0-6. So it is looking good for playoffs right now but lots of tough games to play including road games in the second round at Brook, Lake, Bwood and Springs.

Even though i will not be at the game Tuesday I will have something to report from my roving reporters at the game, some former coaching friends of mine who will attend.

[Buddy Carlisle]

i wanted to mention another showdown of sorts between two guys from my last team at Creek in 2006. Lance Pevehouse and Coy Custer are squaring off Wednesday at Huntsville as Sam Houston hosts Lamar. Lance and Coy are both juniors and are making significant contributions to their teams.

I hope to be there with some of my former coaches who worked with Lance and Coy. We made the trip to Huntsville and had a great time. Keith and Sarah Mathis are regulars at the games I understand and I hope to run into them.

Good topic for all is when has Creek had 3 guys playing basketball at the same time at Div. 1 schools? I know it is the only time 3 of the guys I coached were gracing the D1 hardwoods concurrently.

[Dan Jensen]

In 1963 we had three with Bennie Lenox and Paul Timmins at Texas A&M and Bill Doty.

In 1964, we had four. In addition to the above three, we had Curley Lenox at Texas A&M although freshmen played on separate teams then.

In 1965, we also had four. Timmins and Doty with Jimmie Dale Lenox at Texas A&M and Bill Howard at Rice. Curley Lenox had transferred to Southwest Texas.

[Dan Jensen]

I sure messed things up above in regard to Bill Doty. In the first paragraph, Doty should have been listed at Rice.

Then, in the last two paragraphs, I have him an Aggie. I hope he doesn't hear about this.

[Mark Cook]

Creek beat Clear Springs on Tuesday. I guess that makes them 5-2 for the 1st half of district play. Not a bad turn around from last year.

[Buddy Carlisle]

Dan has chastized me for not filing my report on the Creek vs. Springs game in a timely fashion so here goes. Not the first time I have been ripped on by Dan!

The Wildcats led pretty much the entire game and won 61-50 I think it was. Not nearly as close as the score indicated.

We played well and totally dominated them. We are now 5-2 and in sole possession of 2nd place going into the 2nd round of district play.

We travel to Bwood tomorrow night and that is another big one as they are not bad at all and that is always a tough place to play.

Talked with Bubba Mathis for a while in the first half and it was good to see him and talk some Creek basketball. Sat with Ralph Parr and Greg Smith, the superintendent of schools, for some of the second half.

I traveled with former coaches at Creek, Dave Ward, Greg Eanes, Ricky Paul and Tony Wooldridge, to Huntsville last night to watch Sam Houston destroy Lamar by about 30. Lance Pevehouse scored 8 for Sam and played a solid game. Coy Custer got in early foul trouble and scored 8 for Lamar but his minutes were cut short by the fouls. Got to visit with Keith Mathis and Sarah before the game as we ate at the same place, the Farm House, and it was outstanding. Great trip and many good times from the past discussed re/ Creek basketball. Go Cats in the second round and hope they keep improving toward the playoffs.

[Dan Jensen]

Buddy, excellent report above, including names that many of us know. But you must not value your reputation much, being seen in public with Ralph Parr.

[Dan Jensen]

I don't have the details but we stumbled in the opening game of the second round in District 24-5A. We lost on the road to Brazoswood, 65-58.

We were in sole possession of second place at the end of the first round but now have slipped back into a tie--not sure how many teams involved.

We are now 5-3 in league play and 20-6 for the season. We host Alvin tonight.

Galveston leads the district but in the realignment just announced, will drop down to 4A next year with Pearland moving into our district.

[Dan Jensen]

Two wins last week for our guys, 40-34 over Alvin and a road win over Clear Lake, 64-56. We had lost at home to Clear Lake in the first round by the same eight points.

After a road game Tuesday at Clear Brook, we host Galveston on Friday. Ball is still in first place but has dropped two league games now and we have lost three.

[Buddy Carlisle]

The wildcats fell behind by 10 late in the first half but outscored the Falcons by 12-0 late in the second quarter and early in the third. We trailed by 4 at half and led by four at the end of 3. It stayed close till the end but we got em for a big win.

Ball is now 8-2 and we are tied for second with Springs at 7-3. Best news is that Lake and Brook are 2 games back of us at 5-5. We go to Brook on Tuesday in another big one and a win there would put us almost in the playoffs. We still have Ball and Dickinson at home and Sprngs on the road so work left to do but looking good right now and playing well as a team.

[Buddy Carlisle]

OK two games to go and here is where we stand. Ball beat Creek on Friday at Carlisle Field House 62-55. A very well played game by both teams with a nice crowd and the free throw line was the difference where Ball hit 9 out of 10 in the last minute and the Wildcats missed 10 for the game.

So...Ball leads the league at 10-2, Springs is 9-3 and they play at Springs on Tuesday for the title, basically. Creek and Brook are 7-5 and Lake, Dickinson and Bwood are 5-7. We host Dickinson on Tuesday and a win would eliminate the Gators. A loss would make it way too interesting so hope we get em. We do not want to tie with them because they would advance as would Brook instead of us because the both beat Ball once and we did not. So let's just win and we don't have to go down that path. If we tie with just Brook for 3rd we would get the 4th playoff seed due to their aforementioned win over Ball.

[Dan Jensen]

I have mixed emotions about our 7-5 record putting us in contention for a playoff berth. In days of yore, Coach George Carlisle probably would have disbanded the team with such a poor district record at this point. In those days, only the first place team advanced.

So we need to beat Dickinson, period. Clinching a playoff spot is only secondary. I do not have access to all of the records, but I am quite sure that losing to Dickinson in League City last year had NEVER happened before. To lose at home another year is unthinkable.

We are a lot better than last year's disgraceful bunch but we are in a two loss spiral and need to get back on track Tuesday.

[Dan Jensen]

A three pointer at the buzzer propelled the good guys to a 68-65 over the bad guy Gators last night and clinched a playoff spot with an 8-5 record. Hopefully, Buddy Carlisle will give us some details on a bizarre ending.

[Dwayne "Curley" Lenox]

s a mediocre district record of 8-5 really something we want to get excited about? After all, the eight wins were barely enough to get the team into the playoffs as the fourth place representative. Excited? I don't think so.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the youngsters will have an extended season, even if it is as a fourth place team. I don't know if 8-5 is the final record or if they have any more district games to play.

Losing to Dickinson last year had to be the low point in the history of Clear Creek basketball. It could have been worse, though. Sounds like we could have lost this year's game as well. I don't think none of us could have stood losing to Dickinson two years in a row.

Personally, I don't like the UIL system of allowing the top four schools in a district the opportunity to participate in the playoffs. Some of the schools actually have losing records but, because the other teams in the district are so bad, they get the honor of participating in the post-season.

The current system seems to be watered down and takes some of the prestige away from being a true state champion. The five divisions in Texas high school athletics are divided into Division I and II. That means, for instance, in class 5A, there are two state champions, one for Division I and another for Division II. Therefore, the prestige of being the sole state champion for a particular division is eliminated.

The whole mess started during Dr. Bill Farney's tenure as the UIL Director in Austin. His wife is the girls basketball coach at Georgetown High School I talked with him several times during her games about the two division championship system. He informed me that the superintendent's throughout Texas were in favor of it. They got the backing of their individual school boards and it became policy. I'm sure they saw it as an opportunity to bring in more revenue and that is always the driving force behind most school board decisions.

The Clear Creek program does seem to be making some progress. I hope Coach Romine continues to lead them in the right direction until they become a team to be reckoned with each year. Until then, I will continue to be glad when the basketball team makes the playoffs. However, I will never be excited about mediocrity. dll

[Dan Jensen]

We win at Clear Springs, 58-49 to climb into a three way tie for second with Clear Springs and Clear Brook, three games behind champion Galveston. We play Dulles in the opening playoff game.

[Dwayne "Curley" Lenox]

I saw in the paper where the Wildcats lost their playoff game with Fort Bend Dulles by the score of 75-66. One and done. Maybe next year. dll

[Dan Jensen]

That closes out the season at 24-9, almost a direct reversal from last year's embarrassing 9-23 season mark and last place 1-13 district record. The league record was 9-5 this year but still not good enough.

Maybe Buddy Carlisle will post and tell us about next year's prospects. It was just three years ago that he retired after winning district without a single loss.

[Dan Jensen]

Actually, it has been four years since Buddy retired. He's getting older quicker than I thought.

Danny Randall coached one year before Chris Romine took over. Neither were worthy successors to Buddy.

[Buddy Carlisle]

Dan is too kind in his mention of my successors not being worthy. I did enjoy following the Wildcats this year as they were fun to watch and reminded me of some of my teams at Creek. I also worked with them in the fall some and coached most of them in the summer before their freshman year. They shared the ball well, shot it pretty good and played good defense.

They lost to a very good Dulles team and were very competitive against an experienced team who has been a consistent playoff team in recent years, including a trip to Austin 2 years ago.

As far as next year, there is a lot to look forward to with 4 returning starters who were juniors and another guy who came off the bench and was only a soph. They also had a district co-champion JV team that should add some players to those 5 returners. So back to back playoff teams is certainly a strong possibility if those guys work hard this spring and summer.

I have enjoyed posting as the season has gone along even though I was tardy occasionally with my report. The good thing is that we always have Dan to keep us in line if we forget our responsibilities on the blog! I am oUT, my new signoff since my daughter is a freshman at UT but still pulling for the Bears this weekend in Waco!!!

[Jim Finley]

I found my way to your site doing a search for Paul Timmins. When he came to Texas A&M in the fall of 1961, he was married (Cookie) and lived in the other half of a duplex on Milam Street from my wife and me. Bennie Lennox lived a couple of doors down, so Coach Metcalf would show up in our neighborhood quite often.

I'm just trying to find out where Paul is now so I can contact him. It's been a VERY long time since I've seen him.

Jim Finley
Texas A&M '62

[Buddy Carlisle]

Here is a wrapup on the 2010-11 Wildcat basketball season. The Cats were district co-champs with Clear Springs and finished 22-9 on the year and 12-2 in district 24-5A play.

Creek was 12-0 before dropping their final 2 disrict games to Springs at home 45-41 and to Clear Lake at Lake. The Wildcats were beaten in bi-district action by a very good Ft. Bend Elkins team by a score of 69-50.

Creek was paced by a solid group of seniors in 6"3" Tre Webb, 6'5" Dustin Hobaugh(an HBU commit), 6'5" Devin Caskey, and 5'10" Ian Hill. All were solid contributors along with Matt Smythe, Dion Lewis, Kendrick Whitaker and Brion Croyle.

The district title was the first for the Wildcats since 2006 when they won their second of back to back championships in my last year as head coach.

Congrats to Coach Chris Romine and his top asst Jeff Carroll, former district MVP in 1997, and all of the players on a job well done!

[Dan Jensen]

Buddy has retired as a coach but he still knows "coachspeak."

The Wildcats were on the cusp of a golden undefeated district season and stumbled badly down the stretch. In sports, if is usually how you finish and we were plumb pitiful.