What's Up With Wills: Weighing In On 100-0 & Coaching Rumors

Note: Todd Wills writes on area high school sports every Monday on VYPE.com: By Todd Wills By now you're probably tired of Covenant School 100, Dallas Academy 0. You can't turn on the TV in the morning or talk radio on the drive to work and not hear this story being discussed. It has driven the news for a week now. Amazing. Great job of reporting by my former colleague Barry Horn. This is a story that deserved the eight days of attention that it has received. I'm not going to weigh in on whether or not Covenant coach Mical Grimes should have been fired, even though his message posted on on a youth basketball Web site is asinine. His response yesterday, "We played the game as it was meant to be played and would not intentionally run up the score on any opponent" is so ridiculous, well, gosh, it doesn't even warrant any more discussion. But I can offer an interesting perspective because I've lived through what Dallas Academy coach Andrew Lott has been through in the last few weeks. I started coaching my 9-year-old daughter's basketball team this year. I've coached basketball before, but this is the first time with this group, half of which go to her school and others that signed up for the league and were placed on my team. After a few practices, I thought we were going to be pretty good. Then we played two games. We fell behind 18-0 at halftime and remember being in a rage that our opponent's best players were still playing in the third quarter. I told our players at halftime, "Look, this team wants to bury you. Play hard." Knowing that you can full court press to start the second half, I believed that we really in for it for the rest of the game. Instead, the team we played pulled the ball up at half court instead of trying to run on us. They worked the ball. I remember wondering why their best players were still out there in the fourth quarter, but as whole, I give the coach real credit. We lost 32-6. It could have been 52-6. Last week we lost 16-0. That's right. Shutout. You wouldn't believe it if you came to our practices and saw some of the shots our players make. I do believe our players learned something from the week before, and they played hard on defense and deserved to cut the point total in half against a team I felt was equal to our prior opponent. This opponent didn't let up. They ran the ball. They tried to score. I again don't remember having a problem with the coach, but if had been 30-0 and they were still trying to run and score, my thinking might of changed. The moral here — there is a point of no return. For Covenant it was 56-0 at halftime. That was probably enough. Trying to get to 100 points against a team that you're that much better than? Come on, it means absolutely nothing. Anyone that tries to convince themselves otherwise deserves to be on the other end of 100-0. I'm all for the idea that the other team needs to get better. My girls, we know we need to get better. I'm sure Dallas Academy knows that. It's up to us to get there. But it's up to everyone to remember that sportsmanship matters much more than scoring 100 points. VYPE HOT 10 TEAMS (records through Jan. 18) These are the teams that currently have the best chance of winning a state championship: 1. Cedar Hill boys (23-2) 2. Duncanville boys (17-8) 3. Mansfield Summit girls (24-4) 4. Irving McArthur girls (29-2) 5. Plano West boys (21-2) 6. North Crowley boys (23-5) 7. Mansfield Timberview girls (24-3) 8. Frisco girls (24-3) 9. Carrollton Newman Smith boys (23-2) 10. Cedar Hill girls (20-4) VYPE HOT 10 TOPICS Am I the only one who thinks Duncanville has gone a little over board in scheduling games against all of those national opponents? Duncanville's 17-8 record sure says so. And even if the Panthers have only lost a few games to Texas teams, just ask the 2007 Southlake Carroll team what a loss like the one the Dragons suffered to Miami Northwestern can impact a team. McKinney's G.J. Vilarino, who Billy Gillespie snagged two years ago for Kentucky, is playing great basketball right now. Vilarino averaged 24.5 points, eight rebounds and 4.5 assists last week. A few area coaches have told me off the record that they think Vilarino is a little overrated. I don't think I agree. Jesuit put a pounding on McKinney Boyd — what is going on at Boyd? The Rangers crushed Boyd, 108-22, last week. Jesuit is 20-6 and having a great season in what was thought to be a difficult District 8-5A. Of course, not much talk radio time has been giving to 108-22. What are your thoughts? At first glance, the fact that there are no zeros involved makes it easier to live with. Should it? Keep an eye on the Arlington Bowie boys, who lost for the first time in 10 games last week, but still have enough firepower to make a run to the regional tournament. Christian Matthews, who is headed to play football at Kansas, is among the players leading the way for the Volunteers. Fascinating move by Bob Shipley to leave Class 5A Coppell for Class 3A Brownwood. It says a lot about what a big-time high school football coach thinks about the situation at Coppell the offseason after beating Southlake Carroll in the regular season. Coppell's football program, according to insiders, is still in a situation where it loses a of top athletes to sports like baseball and soccer. Maybe this was enough for Shipley to jump at Brownwood, which of course has tons of football tradition, never mind that it's in the middle of nowhere. Shipley will take son Jaxson with him to Brownwood. Jaxson compares well with brother, Jordan, who plays receiver at Texas. So who is next for Coppell? Don't expect the Johnny Ringo to Coppell rumors to start up, probably because he went 1-9 at Plano East last year. The word is Coppell would like to get its hands on a coach like Hebron's Brian Brazil, but don't look for that to happen. The Cowboys could end up with the right coach if they don't shoot to high and try to get a guy who's won big at another place. Finding the next Todd Dodge, even if he's gone .500 for a few seasons at another program, makes much more sense. The word is the Mansfield Summit's Kyle Geller is going to take over at Carrollton Creekview for Gary Childress. On face value this looks like a lateral move, but don't be fooled, a few insiders tell me. The Carrollton schools play well. And Mansfield has always thought of itself as a basketball town first, even though the school district as a whole develops talented football players. Baseball practice starts Friday. Plano West is still the team to beat with Ryan Ford, Blake Parker, Robert Huber and Andrew Blum among the players returning from last year's state title team. Coppell, as always, is loaded. Is track season here yet? That usually means the end of the talk of ice storms. I've been to many cold weather baseball games to use that as a barometer of the change in the seasons. The Randomness That Is Me The talk of Mike Shanahan to the Kansas City Chiefs makes me ill. Meanwhile the Cowboys are set to have Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett back. I always though Jerry Jones was the master of getting into the news during Super Bowl Week, but even the master of making it all about him has turned lame. The Cowboys are headed for 9-7 all over again. Oklahoma's Blake Griffin is the best player in college basketball. His ability to pass of out of double teams might be his most impressive skill. Griffin is dominating the Big 12, and even the Sooners always can shoot themselves out of games, I'm not sure that's going to happen. Willie Warren is the poster child of not handling his high school career the right way, but he's a terrific shooter and for a freshman, he has a lot of presence out there playing with Griffin. Ben Sheets would be a great fit for the Rangers. But why I do think the longer this plays out, the more likely it is that Sheets will wind up with the Mets? It's a fact — "24" is simply back on its game this year. So many cool plot lines going on right now. Not only are Jack and Tony at their best right now, but the other main plot twist involving the "First Man" — remember we have a woman president — really has me looking forward to tonight. I love hockey, and didn't watch a minute of the All-Star Game. Is that bad?