Ram teams hope to see variety in Littlefield

PORTALES — The Rams’ boys basketball team will embark on the 26th annual Littlefield Wildcat Classic starting today. The always-anticipated tournament, which runs through Saturday, is one that Portales has never won.

But if the Rams can do certain things over the next few days, they’ll have a shot to win it, according to coach Rickie McBroom.

“It’s always a tournament that’s really helped us. We haven’t ever won it, but it comes at the right time for us to get three games in,” McBroom said. “Coming back into the new year, with our kids playing football, it becomes extremely important to get those three extra games in. Usually at this time, we kind of turn the corner, coming from football into basketball. So, the importance there is huge for us.”

For the Rams (4-3), this year’s Littlefield Tournament could be an even bigger turning point than recent years, including last year. Portales carried a 7-0 record into the 2016 tournament, and hadn’t faced any real adversity to that point in the season, which ultimately resulted in a 25-5 season and an appearance in the 4A title game.

This year, however, a combination of injuries and rough performances have plagued the Rams thus far. All three of their losses are by at least 17 points, and most recently, they lost to Clovis for the first time in five years. To make matters worse, Portales was at home and was routed, 76-37.

Since then, Portales has had four practices, with a four day break in-between for Christmas. “After the Clovis game, we practiced last Wednesday and Thursday and worked really hard, the kids did a really good job,” McBroom explained.

“We competed well, we did a lot of up and down, full-court drills to work on conditioning, because we were fixing to give them four days off. Then we came back on Tuesday and again on (Wednesday) morning. I guess we’re ready to go — I hope.”

Portales will play Sundown (0-1) at 7 a.m. (Mountain Time) and will either play Dumas or Levelland, depending on whether the Rams win or lose their first game. Portales stayed overnight on Wednesday to avoid having to wake up at 4 a.m. to drive to the tournament, but the school can only afford to do that once, meaning that the Rams must win their opening round game to get an afternoon start on Friday, or else they’ll be stuck with morning games each day.

As for the teams involved, other than the aforementioned four teams, eight others will go head-to-head today, including Friona facing Happy, Tulia battling Andrews, Tahoka taking on Lamesa and Sudan facing Littlefield.

While some Rams have played in the tournament before, sophomore guard Rico Diaz will be playing in his first. The youngster has been one of the surprises for Portales so far, and is excited to play in one of the more prestigious tournaments around.

“I feel like we have a chance to win this, and I’m just gonna go out there and compete — we’re gonna go out and compete and give it our best,” Diaz said. “(The older Portales players) just told me to do my job and don’t try to do something you’re not. Just do my part and we’ll be good.”

As for what it’ll take for Portales to take the tournament crown, McBroom believes consistency and showing up to play each game is the key. He envisions that this tournament will be a wide-open one, as he looks to teams like Littlefield, Lamesa and Levelland to all be tough competitors, especially considering that all of them got extra time to practice and rest over Christmas break, as well.

McBroom has pointed out before that Texas basketball is much more physical than New Mexico, and he certainly feels that the Wildcat Classic will be a battle everyday — but one his Rams are still capable of winning.

“I think it’s gonna be very physical, but I’ll be honest, if we’re in the right mindset, that plays to our advantage,” McBroom said. “We don’t mind playing physical — we’ve got strong kids, we can do that. We gotta have good footwork, because they have a tendency to call walks in Texas, too.

“We got to make sure that we’ve got a good pivot foot and the we take care of that part of the game. The main thing is we just need to show up ready to play. We play, we’re gonna be fine. If not, we’re gonna be in battles and that’s all gonna depend on us. We gotta overcome us right now, that’s the biggest challenge we have right now.”

The Portales girls (9-1), meanwhile, will also make a return trip to the popular Texas tournament. The Rams will face Stratford (12-4) today at 10 a.m. MST, in what should be a pretty challenging opener for Wade Fraze’ squad.

“Stratford’s lost to nothing but powerful teams,” Fraze said. “They’ve lost to Amarillo, Nazareth and Canyon — twice. Canyon is the five-time defending 5A champion in Texas, while Nazareth has like 16 or 17 state titles.”

According to Fraze, Stratford features two exceptional guards who can both shoot, while the Elks’ post play is equally strong. In all, Fraze calls Stratford a “well-rounded team.” Stratford, however, won’t be the only challenge in this year’s tournament.

“It’s a really good tournament, a very competitive one,” Fraze explained. “You got small schools, you got bigger schools. But, the size of the school doesn’t matter, because some of the best teams in Texas are 1A schools.”

Besides Portales and Stratford, three other matchups will take place today, including Sundown facing Friona, Tulia playing the Lubbock Titans and Andrews facing Littlefield. For Fraze, getting back on track after a long layoff is just one more thing he’d like to see out of his team during the Wildcat Classic.

“Oh gosh, just take it one game at a time,” Fraze said, laughing. “We also gotta try to get back into a groove after not playing for a while over Christmas break.”