By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
Hooper Vint.
I wonder where Hooper Vint?
I can tell you where the 6-11 Van Buren center is going. Assuming Arkansas coach John Pelphrey hangs on to his job — or Vint can handle a coaching change — he will play for the Razorbacks next year.
I can tell you where Vint is not going, at least not as a player. He is not going to Summit Arena today to play in the 6A state championship game.
That’s because during the state tournament, Vint and his Van Buren comrades ran into the buzzsaw that is the 6A-East Conference, which will produce this year’s state champion sometime around 5:45 this evening.
Jacksonville and Little Rock Parkview, who finished tied for first in the 6A-East, tip off at Hot Springs’ Summit Arena in the most important of their three meetings this season. Game time is 4:15 p.m.
In the 6A state quarterfinals, No. 5 seed and 6A-East member Marion beat top-seeded Van Buren 45-34. Van Buren earned its top seed playing up a classification in the 7A-Centeral Conference.
In a confusing solution to various logistical problems caused by almost constant reclassification, the Arkansas Activities Association mandated certain 6A schools play in the 7A, and vice versa, with a so-called power-ratings system thrown in to help make up competitive disparities.
Yeah, reading that last paragraph, I don’t know what I just said either.
The bottom line is that Van Buren played in the 7A-Central, and won it, then dropped into the 6A state tournament as the top seed, which clearly did it little good. Van Buren might have been better off playing in the 7A tournament.
But then, anyone running into a 6A-East team this year would have found trouble.
Jacksonville and Little Rock Parkview, who split their season series, survived an all-6A-East semifinal round in which Parkview beat Marion and Jacksonville beat Jonesboro.
Technically, the 6A-East will be able to lay claim to the 7A championship too, as 6A-East members West Memphis and Little Rock Hall jumped up to the 7A tournament and advanced to tonight’s 7A final.
What has made the 6A-East so tough? Well, duh, good players.
Jacksonville’s Raheem Appleby is drawing the attention of college recruiters after going up against 6A-East teams like Searcy, featuring Ole Miss signee Jamal Jones, and Parkview, featuring Arkansas signee Aaron Ross.
What has made the 6A-East so tough? Well, duh, good coaches.
Jacksonville’s Vic Joyner is gunning for his second state championship in three years; Al Flanigan led 10-time state champion Parkview to its most recent championship in 2006, and 30-year veteran Larry Bray has coached the Blue Devils to multiple titles, including two in a row in 2004 and 2005.
Has the 6A-East always been this tough? No. Will it always be? Probably not. Talent pools shrink and expand and players and coaches come and go, so my advice to the state’s basketball aficionados is to sit back and enjoy the ride.
Today’s Jacksonville-Parkview game should leave fans of both programs biting their fingernails down to the wrist.
Jacksonville beat Parkview by 16 at the Devils Den and Parkview won the return meeting by 10 in Little Rock. The games were played consecutively in the span of a week because of makeup dates made necessary by winter weather.
Today they will square off on a neutral site after a week’s rest. Seriously, it’s too bad the chairs at Summit Arena don’t come with air bags and roll bars.
Jacksonville’s 61-51 loss to Parkview on Feb. 8 was its last, as the Red Devils then beat defending 6A champion Hall to begin the nine-game winning streak that carried them back to the Summit today.
Parkview is on a seven-game streak after suffering its last loss to, of course, a 6A-East member — the Jonesboro Hurricane.
There is one drawback to this week’s state final festivities — the playing of Queen’s “We are the Champions” after each and every boys and girls game, all 14 of them.
You think if I let on that I was one of Freddie Mercury’s backup singers I’d get a royalty?
But when the song plays for Jacksonville or Parkview it will truly mark the crowning of the best team in the state.
