"This season is an anomaly. When it's all said and done, when we look back on what we did here, we're going to look back on this season as an anomaly."
Those were the words of Blytheville head basketball coach Jeff Flanigan before the Chickasaws played Greene County Tech last week.
Following their loss to Tech on Tuesday, the Chicks finished up the 2012-13 season with a 60-50 home loss to Batesville last Friday night on "Senior Night." For the year, the Chicks finished with a 4-23 record and 1-13 in the 5A-East tied for last with Batesville.
I've only been around this town for eight years but it didn't take me long to realize that high school sports were the equivalent of professional sports growing up in Chicago. There are expectations, fair or unfair, even out of a high school team and their coaches. When you talk to people in their 60's who've lived here all of their life and they can't remember a season like this, you know it's been a while and you know people will ask questions.
Why? Is it the players? They did, after all, have to learn a new system with a new coach and it wouldn't be the first time in human history that teenagers didn't respond well to change. Besides, if you look at a team like Forrest City with their size and athleticism, sometimes you wondered if they were just in a different league.
Speaking of which, was it the league? The 5A-East lived up to its tradition of being a crap-shoot this season. Anyone could beat anyone on any night. In fact, of the Chicks' 13 losses, there were only two games that I thought the Chicks just were just completely out of. So, one could say that the Chicks could have just as easily been closer to first than to last this season.
Was it the coaching? Flanigan has stood up and taken much of the blame for his team's struggles to his credit. To his defense, it's not an enviable task to replace what some consider a legend in former head coach David Hixson. It's often said that you don't want to follow a legend, you want to follow the one who followed the legend. NBA coaching legend Phil Jackson has been replaced three times in his career. Without doing a Google-search, can you name the three coaches who followed him? Time's up. Tim Floyd (99'), Rudy Tomjanovich (05') and Mike Brown (11'). Hixson had a reputation around the state, especially around my media colleagues, of getting the most out of his players and always having a competitive team no matter what the talent or skill level was. We often joked on press row that Hixson could have taken any of us out there and won a game or two. So, Flanigan had a lot to live up to in his first year but it's still fair to question if he has the team headed on the right track. Sometimes impressive resumes and great game plans just don't always equal success in one location for one reason or another.
Over the last five years, the Chicks have missed the playoffs three times including this season. The first two times (Glintborg in '09 and Hixson in '12) the head coach did not return to the bench the following season -- assuming Flanigan is back next season, that would be an anomaly in and of itself. Flanigan has enough experience and has been around long enough to know that he has to be correct on his prediction. This season has to be an anomaly.
afitzpatrick@blythevillecourier.com