Never underestimate Sherman boys head coach Ryan Purtell in his ability to scout opponents.
Despite having not faced Whitehouse this season, Purtell has assembled quite a dossier on the Wildcats, whom his team will face tonight in their Class 4A Region II playoff opener.
“They’ve got a great basketball tradition,” Purtell said. “They’re one of the best basketball programs in East Texas over the last several years, particularly at the 4A level.”
The Bearcats (15-15) are in the playoffs for the first time under Purtell, who took over the program in 2010. They’ll play in the second game of a bi-district doubleheader at Wills Point High School at 8 p.m., with Greenville and Kilgore preceding at 6. The Bearcats will be the visiting team.
Last year, the Bearcats finished a game out of the playoff hunt and couldn’t find a holiday spark as they customarily do, winding up 11-19 overall and 5-7 in District 13-4A play.
But this year, the Cats blew the door wide open, finishing 9-3 in the district and winning the 13-4A title outright.
Sherman’s season-ending 63-62 loss to Greenville last Tuesday may have been tough for fans, but not for Purtell, who knows a good tune-up game when he sees one.
“I’m very disappointed in the outcome,” he said. “Any time you’re up by 10 with three and a half (minutes) left, you shouldn’t lose, period. And that’s not something we’ve done this year.
“But it was good for us for a couple of reasons. One, if it would’ve been a pansy, patty-cake game, that wouldn’t have helped us, particularly between that game and the first playoff game. We need to be challenged and pushed, and we were. Another thing is with Tre Mask out … we forced people into different roles, and it didn’t always go 100 percent well. But every time you do that, you learn and you grow.”
Mask, a sophomore starter, did not play against Greenville because of an ankle injury, but Purtell thinks Mask, who could’ve played if the game had more playoff importance, will be ready to go tonight against a guard-heavy Whitehouse lineup.
The Wildcats (18-9), who finished tied for third with Kilgore in the District 14-4A standings, are led by Patrick Mahomes, a strong 3-point shooter with great outside range who plays both ends of the floor well, Purtell said. Mahomes, a sophomore, is the son of former major-league pitcher Pat Mahomes.
“They’ll run on you if you give them a chance to run, but for the most part they’ll run their offense,” Purtell said. “They run the five-out open post offense that Bob Huggins originated at Cincinnati and still runs today at West Virginia. They run it well and execute it.”
Qualin Hayden, T.J. Ball, Alex Polk and Mask continue to be steady performers for the Bearcats, but Purtell has been especially pleased with the improvement of his post tandem of Armon Jones and Brandon Colon.
“Our post play is continuing to get better and better,” Purtell said. “One of the sidelights from (last Tuesday) is that Brandon Colon really hurt them inside. Whitehouse doesn’t have a lot of size, so that could be something that we can exploit.”
With no games this weekend, the Bearcats have been given a full week to practice and heal, and get ready for tonight’s game.
“I’m not a big warm-up-game guy,” Purtell said. “I have nightmares about people getting hurt with ACL injuries and things like that. I just don’t think it’s worth it to do that. I know a lot of coaches live and die by those things; I don’t think that’s where we need to be.”
