Plano boys basketball coach Dean Christian said that this week’s winter storm warning came at a bad time.
For Christian, there’s another layer. Plano, the state’s eighth-ranked Class 6A team, must now reschedule its game vs. crosstown rival Plano East, the state’s 12th-ranked team. They had been slated to play Tuesday night, but the storm forced the game to be postponed, and a makeup date is slated for Saturday at 1 p.m. It’ll be the second game of a back-to-back for Plano, which plays Lewisville on Friday night.
Plano East offers Plano some serious postseason-caliber competition. And on the Dallas-Fort Worth high school basketball scene, success doesn’t come without competition. That’s why teams like Plano schedule games against some of the Dallas area’s best teams — either through nondistrict games, tournaments or district play — to prepare for the playoffs and to develop a stronger culture within the program.
And in Dallas-Fort Worth, coaches and players will tell you, everyone wants the smoke and no one ducks competition.
There’s a method to that mindset.
When The Dallas Morning News asked area coaches last season how and why D-FW became such a high school basketball hotbed, most singled out the fact that the best teams play each other as a decisive factor. The number of state-ranked teams that’ve cut their teeth vs. D-FW area opponents backs that up.
“My father used to tell me all the time, steel forges steel,” Christian said. “That’s really what’s happening. You can’t help but get better by playing against great coaching, great players, great competition.”
Eleven of Texas’ top 25 6A teams, according to the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches’ statewide rankings, are from the D-FW area. Five of the top 10 are within 6A Region I. D-FW teams represent nine of the top 18 teams in 5A, and are No. 1 in 4A, 3A and TAPPS 6A/SPC 4A.
Their collective success is close to a shared one.
No. 1 Lake Highlands has played six games against state-ranked opponents located within D-FW as well as nationally ranked Duncanville, which is omitted from the TABC’s poll due to its self-imposed postseason ban.
No. 3 Arlington Martin played No. 4 Allen and No. 8 Plano in December. Allen has played Lake Highlands, Martin, Plano, No. 18 Keller and Mansfield Summit, the state’s sixth-ranked 5A team. Plano played eight state-ranked teams as part of its nondistrict schedule, and beat Plano East in the two’s first meeting in January. Kimball — ranked No. 1 in the TABC’s 5A poll — opened its regular season against Carter, No. 1 in the TABC’s 4A poll, and played three more state-ranked Dallas-area teams before its district play began.
You get the picture.
“Last year we went 33-0 [in the regular season] and then we run into Lake Highlands [in the area round],” Christian said. “It’s not that we didn’t play well, but it would have been nice to play a Lake Highlands or someone [like them]. It’s always nice to have that experience early.”
Plano didn’t get the chance to play Lake Highlands this regular season, though it compensated with games against Arlington Martin, Allen, No. 19 DeSoto, No. 21 Trophy Club Byron Nelson, Plano Prestonwood Christian (No. 1 in the TABC’s large private school rankings) and Faith Family (No. 2 in the TABC’s 4A rankings).
In that slate, Plano got a taste of everything. Byron Nelson offers Finley Bizjack, a Butler-bound guard who leads the Dallas area in scoring and is capable of taking a game over single-handedly. Plano Prestonwood has one of the nation’s top forwards (four-star junior Jalen Shelley) and a five-star sophomore center named Francis Chukwudebelu. Faith Family has size unlike that of most in Texas, with senior forward Jadyn Toppin, a UNLV signee, and four-star junior center Doryan Onwuchekwa.
Exposure to top teams is important. So, too, is the diversity of that portfolio.
“We like playing different styles, teams that present different styles,” said Faith Family coach Brandon Thomas, whose reigning 4A state champion team played four state-ranked Dallas-area teams before New Year’s Day. “We like to think that when we get to the playoffs, we won’t see anything we haven’t seen before.”
Plano, which went undefeated in the regular season last year for the first time in program history, has a blue chip recruit in four-star forward Justin McBride, an Oklahoma State signee who averages 20-plus points and double-digit rebounds. He played AAU basketball for Dallas-based Drive Nation, which competes on the national Nike Elite Youth Basketball League circuit against other stacked teams and star recruits.
Others on Plano do not play summer ball at that high of a level. But when it reaches the postseason, Plano will need to face more and more players who do compete on the Nike EYBL, Adidas or Under Armor circuits. Players who are used to competing against deep teams and talented prospects.
But in Dallas, Christian said, Plano’s neighboring opponents can help offer a high-level AAU circuit simulation of sorts.
“If your kids don’t play EYBL or at the highest level, how do you make up for that?” Christian said. “If they don’t play that kind of schedule, it’s not part of their DNA. But you have to play against those kids — some of those teams have two or three EYBL quality kids on their team.
“You have to play that [tough] schedule early in case you had kids that don’t have the opportunity to play almost a college-like schedule.”
The beauty of it all? There’s no need to leave the comforts of D-FW to do so. Sure, Faith Family plays a pseudo-national schedule, with 11 of its first 26 games against out-of-state teams. Thomas won’t turn down the opportunity to play a nationally ranked opponent like Link Academy (Mo.), which Faith Family did in December.
But he also recognizes that his team’s development doesn’t hinge on out-of-state competition. Faith Family’s nondistrict games against Plano, Lancaster and Mansfield Summit — three teams with state championship aspirations — provide ample postseason prep for the Oak Cliff-based charter school.
“Playing a local team is not a detriment to your schedule,” Thomas said. “You can play enough teams right here in Dallas-Fort Worth — and throughout the state of Texas, too — and be battle-tested going into the playoffs.”
Ask Mansfield Summit coach Emund Prichett about that. Summit played Faith Family in November and suffered its first and worst loss of the year, a 77-55 defeat.
Summit, ranked third in The News’ 5A/others poll, then won 20 of its next 22 games after that loss.
“I think we just showed up and thought, ‘We’re good, we’re just going to show up and be good.’” Prichett said. “We put [our players] through the ringer earlier in the year, and I think it’s helped them become better as we go through district play.”
That was the plan all along.
“When I was [coaching] in Killeen, I wanted to come up here and play D-FW teams,” Prichett said. “You’ve got to play the best to beat the best. You’ve got to try and figure out what they’re doing to get your kids up to that level. D-FW has a history of state champions, you’ve got to come up here and see how champions play, how champions act.”
Prichett clearly isn’t the only coach who shares that thought. It’s certainly had a hand in turning D-FW into a basketball powerhouse.
“It’s a norm around here to play at a high level now,” Christian said. “Playing at this level every single week, it’s just made the teams better.”
On Twitter: @McFarland_Shawn
Find more high school sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
