Anyone who has been around the profession for any length of time knows that coaches are a superstitious lot.
Stay at the same hotel. Eat at the same restaurant. Use the same bus.
That’s the formula that Hall of Fame Coach Donnie Victorick used when Snook was dominating Texas high school basketball back in the 1970s and 1980s.
Adhering to that mantra willed the Bluejays to an unprecedented seven straight championships.
Thorndale coach John Kovar fits easily into that category with his shirt fetish.
You may—or may not— have noticed that the fi ery Kovar wears the same checkered long sleeve maroon dress shirt every game.
Now, he assures me there is more than one of the lucky large Ariot brand shirts (which can be purchased at Cavender’s) and he doesn’t push the superstitious thing to the limit—he does wash them.
“It’s not all stanked up,” he joked.
According to my sources, the lucky shirt of choice is washed all by itself in special tropical detergents and distilled water, then transported by special courier to Kovar’s mother Martha’s house where she uses a secret mix of starch and coconut water to iron the shirt to the exact specifications of Kovar’s approval. It is then hung on special Zebrawood hangers in a hyperbolic closet.
I’m kidding of course. Well, kind of.
According to Kovar’s wife Kelly, the shirt is washed with all the other clothes with regular store-bought detergent, taken to Martha Kovar’s house where she irons it with regular starch.
Kelly Kovar is responsible for hanging them in the closet.
“She always puts the one she wants me to wear in the front, but sometimes, I will choose the second or third one if I don’t like the first one. Then, she’ll ask me why I didn’t wear the first one.”
Kovar—a 1994 Thorndale grad—will not wear the shirt he wore at last year’s state tournament when the Bulldogs lost in the semifinals.
And let’s not forget the ever-present khaki pants, which have a symbiotic relationship with the shirt.
A little luck would be welcome as Kovar and the Bulldogs head to San Antonio to face a treacherous Class 2A bracket.
Last year, Thorndale entered the tournament ranked No. 25 with the most losses of any team in the tournament.
This year, they’re numero uno on the 10th anniversary of Thorndale’s last hoop title.
There should be no intimidation factor for the Bulldogs. Seniors Ty Prince, Logan Fisher, Mason Fisher and Ashton Albert will be making their third straight Alamodome appearance.
“For sure we are a more mature team,” Kovar said. “We weren’t real consistent last year, we had 10 losses.”
Being ranked No. 1 most of the season kept Thorn-dale on high alert.
“When the news came out that we were No. 1, the kids were fired up about that.
“We played each game with more of a sense of urgency. The pressure has been out there from the beginning and I think they handled it pretty well. They have been up to the challenge.”
The Bulldogs—who are riding a 19-game winning streak—have failed to make it to the finale in two different ways—losing in a close game in 2016 and being blown out in 2017.
In their 59-35 loss to Clarendon last year, leading 10-9 with 3 minutes, 18 seconds left in the first quarter, Thorndale could not withstand a Clarendon blitz and was outscored 30-6 over the next 11 minutes and trailed 39-16 at intermission.
The Broncos’ frenetic pace forced the Bulldogs into 22 turnovers and 31 per cent shooting from the floor. Thorndale was one-for-11 from three-point range.
Thorndale point guard and leading scorer Ty Prince was limited to six points and put up just 10 shots.
Prince—who averaged 15.6 points per game on the year—had four points in the first four minutes of the game and just two the rest of the way.
“We weren’t real pleased about the way we played and it will be talked about this week. It defi nitely left a bad taste in our mouths.”
In 2016, the 34-2 and No. 3 ranked Bulldogs suffered a controversial 47-46 loss to eventual state champion Canadian, when it appeared that Americo Vasquez was fouled on a shot with three seconds left that could have given Thorndale the win.
In the present, the Bulldogs admittedly have not put together a fully cohesive outing in four playoff games.
“I defi nitely don’t think that we have played all four quarters yet, no.”
In the past two playoff wins, Prince has stepped up his game and used his 6-foot-6, 230-pound frame to take advantage of the smaller defenders, with 21 and 20 points.
“Our offense is always going to run through him. He’s not an easy stop. You can guard him big and he’ll take you outside. You can guard him small and he will take you inside.”
Despite his physical tools, Prince has received no offers to continue his career in college.
Facing the defending state champions, they will need to pitch a complete game.
“They have some size like we do, but our goal is to play really disciplined defense. We’re going to go play Thorndale basketball. That’s our goal.”
No matter what the outcome, the Bulldogs have put together an impressive year.
“I think what we have done already is incredible,” Kovar said.
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