Basketball Briefs

Danny Wrenn spent only one season as girls head coach at Kingdom Prep Academy in Lubbock before retiring a second time for health reasons. Wrenn, who had led the Plainview girls for 33 years, took the Kingdom Prep girls to a 9-10 record in 2020-21 and a spot in the TAPPS Class 2A state semifinals before the Lady Warriors fell to district opponent and eventual state champion Southcrest Christian.

Wrenn’s Plainview teams won three state titles and compiled a 772-262 record before he retired as the Lady Bulldog coach. The 61-year-old Wrenn is a native of Seminole and played basketball at Wayland Baptist. He earned a master’s degree at Southwestern Oklahoma State.

Taking the reins of the KPA Lady Warriors is another veteran coach, Tom Hall, who spent 19 years coaching girls summer league teams that used the same system Wrenn used at Plainview. Hall also coached the Plainview Christian girls for four years in the same TAPPS district that KPA was in. He had been retired the past two years.

Hall’s assistant is Aspin Miller, whose mother, Shelly Faught, and her sister, LeAnna McMahan, both played for Hall. “The whole point of this is to be fun and you ought to go out and enjoy what you do,” Hall told George Watson of hubcitypreps.com. “I think if you do those things and work really well with each other and for each other, the wins and losses will take care of themselves. I think we’re going to have a pretty good basketball team.”

A familiar Lubbock basketball name is taking over the Kingdom Prep Academy boys team. Tanner Bruffey, who coached the home school Lubbock Titans for seven years, is replacing Jake Page to lead the Warriors. The KPA boys played in the TAPPS Class 2A state championship game last year under Page, who left the school for a missionary endeavor in Thailand. The Warriors reached the state semifinals four times in the past 10 years.

Tanner Bruffey played for the Lubbock Warriors, Ranger Junior College, Austin’s Concordia University and the University of Dallas. His coach at Concordia was Stan Bonewitz, a former Texas Tech star. His sisters, Tess and Claire, both played for the Lubbock Titans, and Tess was part of Lubbock Christian University’s 2016 national championship team that went 35-0.

“I really love basketball in general, so coaching young guys and having a program here that we can build up was attractive to me,” Bruffey told George Watson of hubcitypreps.com. “My goal is to build great relationships with the kids that, years down the road, they call me up and let me know when their big life events are happening.”

Reggie Gibbs, a graduate of Estacado High School and Texas Tech University, is back in Lubbock after five years as head coach at Caprock in Amarillo.

Gibbs is head boys coach at Lubbock High, where he was an assistant from 2000 to 2003. He also has coached at Slaton, Tahoka, Olton and Morton.

At Lubbock High, Gibbs replaces Matt Embry, who was in his fifth season with the Westerners when he died on Nov.9, 2020. Embry was diagnosed with COVID-19 and also had acute liver and kidney failure. The cause of the organ problems was unclear. Embry had resigned as LHS head coach, and assistant Zane Morris was named the interim head coach, according to Lubbock Avalanche-Journal writer Alexis Cubit.

Gibbs led Caprock to 28 wins, a program record, in 2018-19. The Longhorns lost to Monterey, 57-54, that year in the regional quarterfinals.

Reggie Gibbs

Briley Barnes Bailey Maupin Chloe Callahan

Amarillo High senior Briley Barnes announced this summer that she will play basketball at the University of Tulsa in 2022-23.

The 6-1 Barnes, a member of this year’s Panhandle-Plains Basketball Super Team, was named all-state last season by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches and the Texas Girls Coaches Association. She was the District 3-5A Most Valuable Player as a junior.

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Bailey Maupin, a 5-10 senior at Gruver in 2021-22, announced in July that she will attend Texas Tech University to play for the Lady Raiders. Maupin averaged 23.3 points and 7.6 rebounds as a junior after helping the Lady Greyhounds to the Class 2A state championship in 2020. She was named all-state by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches and the Texas Girls Coaches Association.

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Chloe Callahan of the state champion Canyon Lady Eagles was named the 2021 Athlete of the Year for Classes 1A to 4A by the Texas Girls Coaches Association. The 5-9 Callahan, who also received all-state recognition, signed to play at the University of North Texas.

Basketball News

Leslie Broadhurst’s Randall Raider team gave him his 600th career win as a coach in December 2020. Randall went 22-4 in 2020-21, so Broadhurst ended the season at 618-458 for a 57.4% winning percentage.

While the Emporia (Kansas) State women’s basketball team was in South Bend, Indiana, Nov. 1 to play an exhibition game against Notre Dame, legendary Fighting Irish men’s coach Digger Phelps stopped by the Lady Hornets’ shoot-around. Emporia State head coach Toby Wynn, son of Daryl and Susie Wynn of Booker, said, “He was nice enough to share a few stories with our team.” NCAA Division I Notre Dame won the game over Division II Emporia, 104-46. (Photo courtesy Emporia State Lady Hornet Basketball)

Basketball novel

Fans of novelist John Grisham – or of basketball – might be interested in Grisham’s latest book, Sooley.

The main character, Samuel “Sooley” Sooleymon, is a talented 17-year-old basketball player from South Sudan who gets a chance to play in a showcase tournament in the United States. He doesn’t especially impress U.S. college coaches, and as a civil war rages in his home country, rebel troops have killed his father, his sister is missing and his mother and two younger brothers are in a refugee camp.

In part out of sympathy, the coach of North Carolina Central offers Sooley a scholarship.

The Associated Press said the book is “Hard to put down ... the pages turn quickly ... building to a climax that won’t leave readers doubting whether this is a John Grisham novel.”

Considering the number of international players at some colleges in the Panhandle-Plains region, the novel might hit home for many area coaches, players and fans.

Davide Moretti, right, a key player on Texas Tech’s 2019 NCAA title game team, now plays professional basketball in Italy but returned to Lubbock in summer 2021 to conduct a basketball camp. Afterward, he tweeted, “Dear Lubbock Texas, I would’ve never thought that one day you could become so special to me. In 20 days I was able to run a camp, graduate, attend my best friend wedding and last but not least, I got to see those that I now call my brothers. Can’t wait to see you next summer.” (Followed by red and black hearts.)