6:45: Bruce Reed. Now doesn’t that just sound like the name of a guy who should dominate basketball, especially on the high school level? Actually, it kind of sounds like a guy who would’ve dominated the ABA. I picture him playing for the Carolina Cougars. Anyway, THIS Bruce Reed is dominating so far for Olathe East against SM East.

Reed appears to be a beast. It’s too early to say for sure, but…well, let’s just say he has beast-like qualities, how’s that? He’s already got three power dunks and a major swattage — that’s a blocked shot for those who aren’t clued into my cool basketball lingo. Swattage. Olathe East was up 10-3, now it’s 12-8. Looking forward to seeing more of this Reed kid. Second Bruce of the tournament, too. I thought that name went out in the early 70s, at the latest.

6:22: Part of the fun of covering events like these is seeing and talking to other sports writers from around the state whom you don’t often get a chance to talk to. I’m sitting right next to award-winning (coolest guy ever award) Topeka Capital-Journal preps writer Brent Maycock. Man, it’s been great catching up with him. Actually, we’ve spoken about three words to each other all night

I failed my first eyeball test, as SM Northwest beat Goddard 54-44, holding Goddard to a ridiculous 13 points in the second half. That’s not good, because I’ve been told scoring is one of the most important part to winning a basketball games.

A lot of teams with orange in their color schemes today. First SM North, now Olathe East. I personally think Olathe East hammers SM East in the next quarterfinal game. This time, the eyeball test might be reliable, since I’ve already seen SM East play this season and wasn’t at all impressed.

Carl Taylor has showed up, and the Southeast coach appears to have lost some weight. Or maybe it’s just that whole “black is slimming” thing. Either way, he looks good. I’m sure he’ll be his usual animated self on the sideline, jumping up and down and whistling and all that. Uh, no.

Not overly impressed with either of the student sections in this game, and neither comes close to that of SM Northwest. But I’m giving the edge to the SM East youngsters. The Lancers are going to need the support from their crowd, because I like O-East by double D.G.’s.

5:36: We have another star sighting. Former Dodge City High star and Wichita State player L.J. Goolsby. I saw him….upstairs somewhere. But do you like how I called him a star at Dodge City and a “player” at WSU? Well, that’s accurate. And he ended up playing at Mississippi anyway, so whatever.

I haven’t really gotten to see too much of the Goddard-SM Northwest game, but SM Northwest (actually black and Orange; I misspoke earlier) is up 38-33 with 3:46 to go in the third. Goddard has pretty sweet uniforms and SM NW has the way-better student section. They’re doing the Duke thing where they shake their hands at the opposing team in-bounding the ball. But those fans should know that teams that blatantly steal college hoops traditions are 0-1 in this tournament — see Dodge City with Indiana’s pants. Don’t think this stuff doesn’t matter, folks.

4:48: How do you like the exact times I’m posting? Pretty awesome, right? Riiiiight?

Sorry for the delay in posting, but as Joanna probably informed you, Heights moves on with a 63-56 win over Dodge City in the quarterfinals. I don’t want to spoil my story, but…well, I don’t really know what I’m writing yet anyway. The key for the Falcons was their superior size and physicality. They outrebounded DC 42-22 and took 19 more free throws.  Ellis responded better to Dodge City’s defensive philosophy (which I’ve dubbed Hack-A-Frosh; which is a stupid name). But he finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds despite making just four baskets.

Could be Goddard and Heights tomorrow. We’ll see if the Lions can make the Wichita area proud by beating SM Northwest. See you later; I’m off to write.

4:02: Dodge City is playing the role of underdog well, but Heights has to take over at some point, right?

It looks like that’s happening. The Falcons stepped up their effort on defense and closed the third quarter on a 9-0 run. They now lead 43-39 heading into the fourth. Heights probably needs to kick it up one more gear to bury the Demons. The Falcons can’t relax now that they have the lead.

3:45: I just noticed a sweet video screen in the northwest (I actually have no idea about directions, I just made that up) corner of White Auditorium. It has graphics of all the team and player stats and looks pretty impressive. If I’m an 18-year-old marginally successful high school basketball player, I’m thinking about attending ESU next season.

By the way, I did the eyeball test of the teams warming up for the next game, and I’m officially picking Goddard over Shawnee Mission Northwest. SM NW has a cool navy blue and orange color scheme, though.

3:35: The second quarter was dramatically different from the first. Heights didn’t play near as well as it did in the first and Dodge City played a lot better. The result is a 31-28 lead for the Demons at halftime. After Roberts’ hot start, nobody has really been able to get anything going for Heights.

The Falcons are trying to get the ball inside to Perry Ellis, but so far the big freshman is playing like…well, a freshman. The contact he’s drawing inside from a much smaller DC squad seems to be intimidating Ellis a little bit, and he’s not going to the basket with the authority we’re used to seeing. Maybe at halftime coach Joe Auer will remind Ellis that’s he’s the best player in history. OK, I exaggerated. But you know what I mean.

I still like Heights to win, but this is pretty interesting. It’s easy to tell when a team isn’t going to win; when nothing is going right for it, all the calls are going the other team’s way. Heights certainly hasn’t reached that point yet, but not much is going wrong for Dodge City so far. Stay tuned

3:20: Heights leads Dodge City 19-12 after the first quarter. Dodge is playing pretty well, but Heights is playing better. The Falcons have a lot of energy, and Dorrian Roberts has started well, with eight points. Perry Ellis has two points and three rebounds. Evan Wessel has four points and five rebounds for Heights.

3:05 p.m.: I always get frustrated with how national anthem performers sing the word “perilous” and today I heard a new pronunciation. The Emporia madrigals sang it as “Perry-less.” Are they perhaps foreshadowing an early exit for Mr. Ellis and his Heights squad today? We’ll know in about 90 minutes if Emporia high schoolers have psychic powers.

2:55 p.m.: Now the ultimate celebrity is here. One that definitely won’t be topped at any site all weekend, unless Don Rickles shows up in Salina or something. It’s Danny Manning, KU legend and current assistant coach. He’s here to scout Perry Ellis, I assume. Unless Taggart Ketron has some game for Dodge City or something. I actually just wanted to type “Taggart Ketron” so I’m better now.

2:38 p.m. I capitalized the ‘B’ in blog, making this blog more official than Joanna’s. So there. I can actually see our dueling 6A blogs turning into a game of “Can You Top This” so you should definitely keep checking back. This will get pretty entertaining, I’m sure. So let me take this opportunity to fire the first shot — I’ve got a free hospitality room ticket for the first person who can pick all four winners from the Class 6A boys tournament today. I’ve been directed to not mention the hospitality room, but it’s worth it this time to make fun of Joanna. It won’t happen again, boss(es).

So far, Dodge City isn’t my favorite team of the tournament. They’re wearing candy-striped red and white pants, stealing the look Indiana University has patented — and as a side note, remember Bobby Hurley as an Indiana player in the movie “Blue Chips”? Was that weird, or what? Anyway, Dodge City also did a running drill where their shoes screeched across the floor in an annoying high-pitched tone. So the Red Demons have some ground to make up so far.

As far as celebrity sightings go, we’ve witnessed North High (my alma mater!!!) basketball coach Gary Squires, apparently here as a radio analyst for somebody somewhere. And we also have former Wichita South soccer coach and legendary good guy Jim Stewart, now affiliated with Goddard somehow — I’m not sure in what capacity. He’s sitting right next to Eagle photographer Kelly Glasscock. So that’s a star-sudded section of White Auditorium right there.

I’m ready to watch some basketball. I have never written a game story on a 6A boys basketball game, so you’ll witness history in tomorrow’s Eagle, as long as I’m not overcome by nerves so much that I buckle under the pressure. So look for that. Oh, the biggest celebrity of them all has just arrived — THE Mr. Bob Lutz. Talk about buckling under the pressure — how can I write with him just two seats down?