La Marque trading wins for experience
LA MARQUE — It wasn’t exactly how coach David Montano planned it.
The La Marque Cougars dropped to Class 3A during the 2016-18 University Interscholastic League biennial reclassification and realignment in February. A few weeks later, La Marque was making its second consecutive trip to the 4A state boys basketball tournament.
The first came with no seniors on the roster. The second came with only two in the rotation.
So to keep his program rolling in the right direction this season, Montano scheduled tough — bigger and better.
“Our region is really, really tough, but the level drops a little bit,” said Montano, now in his fifth season. “We wanted to play a tough non-district schedule so that we could see all that rather than just not see it at all and then — all of a sudden — come playoff time, we’re in there playing cats who are long, athletic and can run.”
A winning model
Call it the Mike Davis program.
Davis is in his fifth year as head coach at Texas Southern, which plays in a college basketball conference that essentially gets only one bid — the conference tournament champion — into the NCAA Tournament. To prepare his team, Davis schedules a rugged non-conference slate that routinely features postseason regulars and minimal home games.
Winning games in November and December doesn’t matter, though they’re nice to have. It comes down to winning the conference and ensuing league tournament. TSU went 4-9 in non-conference this season, a bump from the 1-11 and 3-10 campaigns the two years prior.
But the Tigers have two NCAA Tournament appearances and a trip to the NIT over the last three seasons.
La Marque is 10-14 going into District 24-3A play. The Cougars were 60-19 the last two years.
“I don’t even bother to look at the record,” Montano said. “Nobody’s going to remember that if you do get to where you want to be and win a state championship. Nobody’s going to remember what your record was.
“All they’re going to remember is that you’re there again.”
‘Not used to losing’
Only two other 24-3A teams made playoffs a year ago, with both (East Bernard and Hitchcock) losing in the first round. La Marque started the season ranked atop 3A and has only fallen to fifth despite its losing record.
Current No. 1 Dallas Madison is 10-9.
With nearly his entire roster returning, Montano likes the Cougars’ odds against the teams he scheduled. La Marque needed to break in a new point guard, but freshman Jordan Ivy-Curry is senior Jauron Freeman’s younger brother and has played with most of the varsity team during the spring and summer since the seventh grade.
But natural issues (lack of depth) and others that came up (injuries, illness and immaturity) have kept La Marque from fielding its full roster for most of the season.
That put the Cougars in new territory.
“When we first started losing, it was weird,” senior Keyshaun Ouzenne said. “We’re not used to losing.”
Seven losses have come to 6A schools, which may have five times as many students as the Cougars. They’ve also lost to 4A No. 1 Silsbee (state runner-up last season) and 4A No. 3 Brazosport (regional quarterfinalist).
On Monday, La Marque beat Wharton for a second time. The two met in the regional finals in each of the last two years.
What the Cougars have given up in wins, they’ve gained in experience for younger players asked to step in and become more versatile, with nearly everyone playing out of position at one point or another.
State isn’t a given. Kountze and Hempstead are top-10 teams in La Marque’s region. But the Cougars have done what they can to be prepared, even if it doesn’t look pretty on paper.
“I still look at it, but I was told, ‘It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,’”