Only two other teams in Dallas-area history finished as undefeated state champions — Duncanville in 5A in 2007 and Lincoln in 4A in 2002. Plano East is the first team to do it in 6A, though 5A was the UIL’s largest classification when Duncanville won.
Those Lincoln and Duncanville teams have gone down as two of the best high school basketball teams in history, and Plano East will enter that same conversation after Saturday night.
However, Plano East’s feat may have been even more impressive. It doesn’t have a single college-committed player on its roster.
“I absolutely think this will change that,” Plano East head coach Matt Wester said. “We have a lot of really good basketball players that know nothing but winning. Everything they do well translates to the next level.”
The 2006-07 Duncanville team was full of future Division I players. D’walyn Roberts (Texas Tech), Shawn Williams (Texas and SMU), Roger Franklin (Oklahoma State and UNT), Kevin Butler (TCU and UT Arlington) and Brent Stanton (Texas A&M Commerce) all emerged from that team. It finished 39-0 and No. 1 in multiple national polls after defeating another nationally ranked program in Humble Kingwood 60-46 in the state title game.
Lincoln boasted arguably the best basketball player to ever come out of Dallas the year it went undefeated. Two-time NBA champion and Hall of Famer Chris Bosh was the star of the team that finished 40-0 and became mythical national champions. In the state title game against Beaumont Ozen, Bosh had 21 points, 11 rebounds and seven blocks.
It just so happened, the Dallas basketball star was in the Alamodome hours before Plano East’s historic victory to watch his former coach from Lincoln, Ferrin Douglas, lead Lancaster to a state title in Class 5A.
But Bosh (Georgia Tech) wasn’t the only player that went on to play college ball from that Lincoln team. Point guard Bryan Hopkins (SMU) and shooting guards Kevin Shipman (Baylor) and Jason Allen (Texas Southern) each played at the next level.
Plano East’s roster had 11 seniors this season, none of which are set to play in college. Its only college-bound player will likely be center DJ Hall, a junior who currently holds an offer from Texas State. He finished with 18 points and six rebounds in the 53-41 win over Round Rock Stony Point.
“I hope it awakens the coaches that I can play at this top level, too,” Hall said postgame.
Having no college-bound players is unheard of for an undefeated state champion and rare for a state champion at any of the UIL’s three highest classifications. Plano East’s opponent Stony Point had four-star Villanova signee Josiah Moseley, who finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. The other two Dallas-area teams competing Saturday had Division I-bound players as well — Temple signee Dillon Battie for Lancaster and Doryan Onwuchekwa for Faith Family, who holds 15 Division I offers.
But even without any marquee names, Plano East managed to complete the seemingly impossible, finish the season ranked among the best in the nation and go down in history as one of the best high school basketball teams in Texas history.
“This team, our chemistry, we’ve been playing with each other since fourth grade,” Hall said. “If you don’t play as a team, I don’t think you can do this.”
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