Lady Leopards fight

I wasn't expecting much from Norphlet Tuesday when they took on top-seeded Rison in the 7AA-East District Tournament. The Lady Leopards' 48-44 loss was actually a pleasant surprise. I watched the game alongside Strong coach Johnny Jackson. We both marveled with delight as Norphlet players we didn't even recognize, played their hearts out in the win-or-go-home game. Lindsey Martin, bless her heart, played defense as if her life depended on it. Several of her teammates followed suit, diving head first onto the hardwood for loose balls. That's the way a defending state champion is supposed to relinquish its title. The Lady Leopards lost but they were kicking and scratching until the final buzzer. It's the way most of the girls teams in Union County represent themselves on the basketball court. Give Parkers Chapel credit, too, for playing as hard as it could in its loss to Bearden Tuesday.

Parkers Chapel falls short

Parkers Chapel's girls basketball season came to a sudden end. The Lady Trojans' best player, Lauren Brumley, watched from the bench as her teammates struggled in her absence in a season-ending loss. Sound familiar? No, I wasn't talking about Tuesday's 44-24 loss to Bearden in the 7AA-East District Tournament. I'm talking about last year when the Lady Trojans lost in the regional tournament after Brumley, then a sophomore, got into foul trouble and fouled out. Brumley missed Tuesday's loss after sustaining a season-ending knee injury on Feb. 7 against Norphlet. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Several players who struggled getting the basketball up the court without Brumley last year, struggled again on Tuesday. Dribbling the ball with your head up isn't a skill that's learned in practice. You learn that in the backyard on your own. It doesn't take a gym or a camp or another person. All it takes to work on your ball handling is a ... basketball. Well, that and a desire to improve. I'm not picking on the Lady Trojans. There's not a girl in South Arkansas who doesn't need to improve her ball handling skills. But, how many times will the same girls fall down the same hole? If you don't enjoy getting your heart broken two weeks before the state tournament, do something about it. If you care, pick up a ball, go outside in your driveway and work on the fundamentals. Hopefully, Brumley will be back at full speed for her senior year. Some of her teammates will be back, too. It takes a team to achieve success. But, a team consists of individuals who have to hone their individual skills away from the team, on their own when no one is keeping score. For two straight years, the Lady Trojans have left the court in tears because no one was able to pick up the slack when the primary ball handler and scorer wasn't around. If it happens next year, there will no one to blame except for the girl in the mirror.

What did you say?

I really love how white folks love to tell black folks how to act. An Oklahoma State basketball player fell into the stands Saturday at Texas Tech. A local Red Raider fan was yelling something at the player as he lay on the floor. The player heard the man, jumped to his feet and verbally confronted the gentleman. He then shoved the fan in the chest before being separated. The player was issued a technical foul but was not ejected by the officials. No one knows what the fan said to the young black man. But, all of the talking heads on ESPN have been quick to lay blame at the young man's feet. ESPN has made it clear. It doesn't matter what the fan said to the kid, he was not justified. It must be easy to sit back and tell someone else how they should feel when you have no idea how they feel. As a black man I can tell you, there are a couple things that, if said to me at the right time, would make me jump knee deep into somebody's ass. I don't know if the kid was just in shoving the fan. To me, it depends on what the fan said. But, to say no matter what he said, the kid was automatically in the wrong ... I'm not good with that. If that's a black man's opinion, I can discuss it with them. White guys? Don't tell a black man what he should be offended by. Trust me, there are some things that, if said to me at the right time, will get your ass kicked. Some people don't understand that and they never, ever will.