Thursday, May 23, 2019

Guess what #ThrowbackThursday

I've had a chance to see some fantastic players come from the Houston area and I remember the first time I saw Nina Norman and Lindsey Harding play together in the back-court in an AAU game, when it really was AAU not what everybody calls it now because AAU is a NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION, nm, anyway I knew girls' basketball had changed from when  I was in school and it was definitely an eye opener. Along that time, I ran into a couple of guys who would be pivotal in passing down knowledge on what to expect, Greg Cook, played at LSU, went to the Final 4 and just kept it  real, his daughter Aubrey was one of the top posts in the nation , played for Cy Fair and the University of Texas and their daughters graduated in 2005, the DEEPEST class ever from the area I personally witnessed

The other gentleman was Vernon Starks whose daughter is pictured above with my daughter, I think this was during the playoff preview Starks' senior year but both dads, who have passed truly were amazing and honest about the BS that goes with all of this that has not surprisingly gotten deeper. The first time I saw Takia Starks, she was in the 7th grade playing as a guest player on a team and dropped 44 on a loaded 11th grade team with 9 or 10 D1 players, she was in the 7th grade and this is one of the reasons why I stress the "it's not what you do, it's who you do it against" that goes completely over many folks heads that constantly send me stuff on what other people say or have said

Starks went on the break the scoring record, at the time, at Texas A&M and helped lead the squad to multiple NCAA tournaments including an Elite 8 showing . Basketball has changed, and like always, I don't care if anyone agrees with me because if you weren't there, or were and have the knowledge to evaluate, many can't evaluate their  own players let alone eras of players, but the Chronicle used to be on top of it, that has totally changed when BCS players are left off , you didn't have to vote multiple times on websites for Players of the Year, especially when you don't all of the players, but what hasn't changed is the people who actually claimed to make players, that falls into the "gotten deeper" category but this is over 280 characters so let me close lol