It's upsetting times in Texas basketball tournaments

If early December basketball tournament action proves anything, it is that even in the early stages of the season it is easier to be the hunter rather than the hunted.

This past weekend bore ample proof of that theory as a number of highly ranked teams in the TABC/Tex Preps Basketball state rankings bit the dust in tournament play.

The top ranked teams in Class A Division I and Division II both were knocked off, with Division I Clarksville falling to Class 3A power Kennedale, 64-49. Meanwhile, Division II's top ranked team in Bronte suffered a 59-40 setback at the hands of No. 10 Eula.

Move up a classification to 2A and you have No. 1 Hallettsville falling to Class 4A Pearland Dawson, 86-79, in the Leroy Miksch Tournament.

Even the top team in Class 5A fell as Converse Judson stunned Flower Mound Marcus, 52-50, in the South Padre Island Invitational. Class 5A No. 2 DeSoto was upset by Ennis, 72-66 in the Spring Creek Holiday Classic.

No, life is not easy at the top, but the good thing for all of these programs in that the tough tests so early in the season will help prep the teams for difficult opposition down the road. And as coaches are fond of pointing out, it is not where you are ranked in December but how you end the year in March, which means you have reached the state tournament.

ANDREWS AWAITS MILESTONE VICTORY
One story closely followed over the past week involved Leta Andrews, the legendary coach of the Granbury girls' program. Coach Andrews picked up career win No. 1,333 last Thursday when her Lady Pirates topped Denton Guyer, 53-44. The victory enabled Andrews to tie former Fort Worth Dunbar boys' coach Robert Hughes as the nation's winningest high school basketball coach. She should move to the top of the list this week.

I don't claim to know coach Andrews well, but can say with certainty that her career has nothing to do with numbers but more to do with coaching and molding young players.

A classic example happened earlier this year. Coach Andrews, as always, returned her team questionnaire for inclusion in the 2010-11 Tex Preps Basketball magazine. In May, while we manned our booth at the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches clinic, Coach Andrews dropped by the booth with another completed questionnaire touting her players, likely not realizing she had already completed the information a couple of months earlier. She is about promoting her kids, not herself, and that small example speaks volumes to the type of coach and person she is. Here is an early congratulation for the record she will soon have.

HEARTBREAK IN PHARR FOLLOWING DEATH OF COACH
Pharr Valley View lost a 63-50 game to Mission Sharyland last week at the Edinburg Tournament. The loss of a game was a very distant afterthought after the loss just three days earlier of the team's coach, David Harper, who suffered a heart attack at the age of 43.

Assistant coach Anthony Pinal was named interim coach for the rest of the season and told rgv.com, "It's been a real tough day. All of us are still in shock. The school and the community are still in a big shock after losing coach Harper."

The Valley View position was Harper's first as a head coach after serving as an assistant at Pharr-San Juan-Alamo High School for 15 years. The Edinburg CISD presented the Valley View team with the Edinburg Inspiration Award to commemorate the team's courage for participating in the tournament so soon after the loss of its coach.

BOYS TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS
Academy Classic — Salado 63, Troy 34
Aldine ISD Invitational — Madison (Houston) 81, Killeen Harker Heights 73
AMA-TechTel/Kids, Inc. Tournament of Champions — Trinity Christian (Lubbock) 59, Canyon Randall 51
Anton Invitational — Anton 68, Olton 52
Archer City Tournament — City View (Wichita Falls) 61, Archer City 52
Ballinger Invitational — Brownwood 63, Colorado City 45
Big Sandy Tournament — Silsbee 69, New Waverly 45
Blackwell Tournament — TLCA 53, Blackwell 13
Broaddus Tournament — Wells 55, Broaddus 44
Bronte Tournament — Eula (Clyde) 59, Bronte 40
Coahoma Invitational — Stanton 58, Coahoma 43
Coby Davidson Memorial Tournament — Petrolia 65, Chillicothe 45
Corpus Christi Coaches Association Tournament — Ball (Galveston) 79, Houston Kashmere 55
Craig Smith Tournament — Edinburg 72, Victoria East 59
Cushing Tournament — Douglass 68, Cushing 19
Dime Box Tournament — Milano 63, Dime Box 36
Fox Classic Tournament — Parkland (El Paso) 51, El Paso Austin 49
Garden City Booster Club Klassic — Grady (Lenorah) 63, Forsan 32
Gene Messer Tournament — Azle 50, El Paso Coronado 34
Granger Tournament — Thorndale 68, Florence 41
Huntington Coca-Cola Tournament — Paris 80, Crockett 69 (OT)
Italy Tournament — Italy 68, Keene 67 (OT)
James Bowie Pirates Tournament — Linden-Kildare 76, Hooks 74
Levelland Tournament — Decatur 61, Dalhart 49
Lindale Hoop Heaven Tournament — Longview 59, Longview Pine Tree 40
Madisonville Tournament — La Vega (Waco) 66, Magnolia 48
Marble Falls McDonald's Classic — Killeen 73, Copperas Cove 53
McDonald's Fall Classic Tournament — Lincoln (Dallas) 68, El Paso Franklin 52
New Home Classic — Ira 51, Loop 26
Prairiland/Screen Graphic Holiday Tournament — Chapel Hill (Mount Pleasant) 70, Honey Grove 43
Roby Roundball Classic — Stamford 76, Roby 51
Rockdale Tiger Classic — Mumford 69, Hearne 57
Rotan Invitational — Abilene Hawks 50, Knox City 30
San Isidro Tournament — San Isidro 60, La Villa 44
South Padre Island Invitational — Judson (Converse) 36, Houston St. Thomas 34
Troup Classic — Troup 46, Tyler Grace Community 40
Twin Cities Classic — Laredo LBJ 73, Brownsville Lopez 59
Van Tournament — Kennedale 64, Clarksville 49
Whiteface Invitational — Crosbyton 49, New Deal 46 (OT)
Woodson Invitational — Gold-Burg (Bowie) 38, Baird 36
YMBL Tournament — Fort Bend Hightower (Missouri City) 47, Dallas Kimball 45

GIRLS TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS
Aldine ISD Invitational — Lincoln (Dallas) 63, Killeen Harker Heights 48
AMA-TechTel/Kids, Inc. Tournament of Champions — Canyon 46, Wall 26
Anton Invitational — Floydada 59, Anton 36
Apple Springs Tournament — Apple Springs 40, Latexo 24
Archer City Tournament — City View (Wichita Falls) 61, Newcastle 53
Avalon Tournament — Rice 50, Avalon 20
Ballinger Invitational — Goldthwaite 40, Big Lake Reagan County 29
Big Sandy Tournament — New Waverly 58, Splendora 31
Bland Invitational Tournament — Campbell 54, Merit Bland 51
Bronte Tournament — Hamlin 38, Roscoe Highland 34
Buena Vista Tournament — Trinity (Midland) 45, Dell City 19
Clint Tournament — Horizon (El Paso) 53, Clint 20
Coby Davidson Memorial Tournament — Petrolia 66, Byers 28
Coolidge Tournament — Coolidge 30, Dawson 26
Ennis Tournament — Bowie (Arlington) 48, El Paso Burges 37
Hughes Springs Tournament — Spring Hill (Longview) 53, Hughes Springs 36
James Bowie Pirate Tournament — Wickes (Ark.) 59, Simms Bowie 15
Kristen Corbin Classic — Caprock (Amarillo) 50, Big Spring 40
Levelland Tournament — Plainview 62, Levelland 44
Lindale Hoop Heaven Tournament — A&M Consolidated (College Station) 72, Lindale 39
McHi Border Bash — Cedar Park 68, Del Rio 48
McKinney Tournament — Liberty (Frisco) 57, Huntsville 52
Nazareth Invitational — Spearman 39, Whitharral 31
New Home Classic — Springlake-Earth 75, Loraine 54
Polk-Key City Tournament — Monterey (Lubbock) 82, Lubbock Coronado 48
Prairiland/Screen Graphic Holiday Tournament — Honey Grove 50, Pattonville Prairiland 32
R-F Toast of the Coast Tournament — Rockport-Fulton 61, Cisco 40
Riesel Tournament — Snook 59, Centerville 56
Rising Star Tournament — De Leon 48, Abilene Christian 43
Roby Roundball Classic — Albany 60, Ralls 46
Rotan Invitational — Guthrie 43, Rotan 40
San Isidro Tournament — Rio Hondo 50, San Isidro 28
Shallowater Shootout — Littlefield 58, Shallowater 53
Spring Hill JoAnn Sparks Shootout — Southwood (Shreveport, La.) 52, Longview Spring Hill 28
Varsity Rangerette Shootout — Snyder 60, Midland Greenwood 37
Vicki Mitchell and Lauren Timmons Invitational — Lorena 61, Mexia 44
Whiteface Invitational — Slaton 44, Whiteface 30
Woodson Invitational — Strawn 59, Woodson 32
YMBL Tournament — Beaumont Central 54, Beaumont Ozen 49

R.V. Baugus is the publisher of Tex PrepsBasketball magazine and texprepsbasketball.com.