The Jack Yates Tigers have a pretty good basketball team. I think that might be the understatement of the new decade and maybe the previous one too.

            But are the Tigers too good? They are 14-0, have won 39 straight games and have scored more than 100 points eight times already this season. And with their latest win, a 170-35 trouncing of HISD’s Lee High School in which the new Texas single-game state scoring record was set.

Now, Yates’ sportsmanship is beginning to come into question.

“I feel very disrespected right now,” Lee coach Jacques Armant told the Houston Chronicle. “I don't understand why Yates just kept scoring and pressing when they were up so much. These are kids. It isn't good to do that to other young men.”

           Yes, Coach Armant, it may seem crazy and rude and disrespectful, but the boys are just doing what they have always done in practice.

           “We practice running, pressing, trapping every day,” Yates’ coach Greg Wise said. “If we get to a game and I tell them not to do what we do in practice, I am not coaching well. I am not leaving my starters in the whole game. We have 15 guys and all 15 play.”

     You see, when you have a team that is as deep and as talented as Coach Wises’ you can’t tell those second and third string guys not to play. Who is going to replace the starters this year, next year and the year after that? The second and third string players – that’s who!

            Coach Wise has a system and how can the other boys learn it if they never get a chance to play in a real game?

           This may seem outrageous, but that’s only because Yates is putting up outrageous

points per game - three straight 100 point games. These are staggering statistics for any level of organized basketball.

           How can you build a program if you can’t teach your players your system and get them game experience? Yates won its first state basketball title ever in the 83-year history of the school last year and they are on track for a repeat this year. I think Coach Wise knows what he’s doing.

           “They work really hard in practice, and when they go in, they deserve the chance to play hard and compete, too,” Wise said. “We are looking for another state championship and we can't get that unless we are continuing to get better and perfect our game. We aren't scoring on other teams out of disrespect.”

            What’s the point of playing high school basketball and you can’t play your game? Little league maybe?