Let's do it again.
Wadie Moore Jr., longtime high-school editor of the Arkansas Gazette, led many a story that way when teams that played in the regular season met by chance in the state playoffs.
That was a natural reaction Sunday when thumbing through the state-tournament pairings one saw Lake Hamilton vs. Little Rock Parkview. In other words, strength against strength, a historical favorite engaging a live opponent. Call it the battle of Adam Brown and John Barrow roads.
They tangle at 2:30 p.m. Thursday in the Class 5A first round at Pine Bluff. For those needing a history lesson, Lake Hamilton won 72-64 at Parkview's Ripley Arena in November. Their game of last March at Sheridan, won in five overtimes by Lake Hamilton, is among the most famous played by a Garland County team in my 40-something years at the hometown newspaper.
Which Scotty will glow this time after getting within one game of the state final next week at Bank OZK Arena in Hot Springs?
Will it be Scotty Pennington again, himself the son of a state tournament-winning coach and whose best player is son Zac, a Southern Arkansas signee? Or Scotty Thurman, who replaced Al Flanigan coaching boys basketball at Parkview.
Perhaps you remember Thurman for making the biggest shot in Razorback basketball history, Antonio Lang defending mightily for Duke in the 1994 NCAA championship game in Charlotte, N.C. Arkansas 76, Duke 72, to refresh the memory. First-term president Bill Clinton hugged coach Nolan Richardson and Corliss Williamson was named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.
That's been almost 30 years ago, and Arkansas seeks its first FF appearance since the following season, when UCLA slipped up on the Hogs on championship night in Seattle.
Lake Hamilton's varsity boys basketball team has gone longer without trimming a net in the last game. What were you doing in 1963, when oil-rich Jed Clampett and his family became the Beverly Hillbillies? The '63 Wolves, coached by Tommy Barrett, won the Class B title; a Hot Springs man, playing for unbeaten Yellville that night, remembers their semifinal opponent.
Since then, Lake Hamilton has had teams almost as good, making the state finals in back-to-back seasons. The 1996 group lost to Hot Springs, the first of two titles for 1963 Wolf star player Alvin Corder on the Trojan bench. How the 1997 team lost to Magnolia, which it handled in the regular season and that bounced Hot Springs out at tournament time, remains a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie.
The 1998 Wolves, surely one of the best nontitle teams from Garland County, lost two regular-season classics to Hot Springs and in triple overtime to state-tournament host Greenwood in the semifinals. Ex-Lake Hamilton star LaJuan Christon made the winning basket for Hot Springs in the final against a Greenwood team coached by Lance Taylor and assisted by his best player while at Cutter Morning Star, Chris Meseke.
Parkview is the gold standard of Arkansas prep basketball, no matter its L2 streak against Lake Hamilton. It has the multiple championships that Lake Hamilton lacks.
Pennington, a basketball lifer, defined the mission for his players in a chat with our Krishnan Collins.
"The first thing you've got to do when you play Parkview is get over the name on their jersey. They garner respect just by being Parkview alone. The history behind that and the history behind their program, they're obviously one of the elite basketball programs in the history of the state."
But on Thursday, Parkview will not have Derek Fisher to make a key bucket or Charles Ripley to make sideline adjustments. Lake Hamilton, in short, can't let the opponent's mystique obscure that the Wolves, 25-4 and 13-3 in 5A-South, belong on the same stage.
Pennington, in my years of watching, has few peers in masking weaknesses. He does not play someone who, in every way, cannot help his team win. You'd be surprised how many coaches -- some good ones included -- flunk that question.
Lake Hamilton lost one at home to Hot Springs that moved a local man with a high basketball IQ to say, "I'd have lost money on that game." The Wolves lost twice to Pine Bluff, which along with Marion may be the tournament favorite, but the rematch issued a truer bill on the Wolves after playing the first after a long trip to Missouri. And in a game that may be the most important of the Garland County season, Lake Hamilton beat 4A power Magnolia at home over the holidays.
No Garland County boys' team since the 2000 Lakeside Rams has won a state title in basketball. Here's one that with a few breaks might change all that.