LJ b BB: Give the architect credit

By Ed Piper

All the king's Mustangs/and all the king's men/couldn't stop Jacob Ohara and Behzad Hashemi.

Bad takeoff on "Humpty Dumpty", but I thought it apropos. After the first game of the Hilltop tournament, I asked a couple of people what they thought of Ohara's quickness. He went around people, even against a zone defense.

Manny Silva, assistant coach of Hilltop: "He's talented."

Zac Ohara, Jacob's older brother who played at La Jolla five years ago: "He's quick."

And Hashemi, another guard, wasn't looking like a slow freight train either.

Finally, the two got recognized in La Jolla's first basketball tournament of the new season, and the recognition comes from people not in the Viking family. That's called validation.

But after writing my other piece, congratulations to the team for winning the tournament title (see other entry), my mind quickly got to thinking:

Paul Baranowski, in his sixth year as head coach at La Jolla (he has decades of head coaching experience before that in Tucson), designed the offense so that Ohara's and Hashemi's--and their teammates'--gifts could be unleashed.

Give him credit, along with the stars.

Jacob and Behzad could still be out top, on the perimeter of the offense, wishing they could do something. But Coach B made it possible.

Now, Baranowski would be the first to tell you that people say coaches are geniuses after they've won tournament titles, but the coaches are doing the same thing they always do. They didn't suddenly become a good coach. They weren't a bad coach when they didn't win a tournament title.

I'm not a band-wagoner. But let's give credit during the celebration to the man who designed the offense that allowed the quick Ohara and Hashemi to do what they did to be named, respectively, tournament MVP and all-tournament honoree.

And, looking back, who would have thought that it would be these two on this team to achieve all-tournament recognition? In another piece, I called December the tournament month and said this is where the fun stuff happens. Individual players suddenly sprout. Unknowns made an impact. Unlike the playoffs at the end of the season--three months from now--there is nothing big at stake in these tournaments.

Holiday basketball tournaments are like sports festivals: Everyone gets to mingle, see a lot of basketball, see a little of the game before our team's and some of the game after. You may recognize someone from the year before.

So, La Jolla's entry in the 41st tournament at Hilltop High came up flush. They got whacked by Helix, but they whacked a few others. They led Friday's championship game by 20 points at one juncture.

"Happy days are here again," dah-dah-dah-dah.