HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 C3 ASTROS WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It hurt to run and swing, but maybe more problematic, to throw. So much of Martín Maldonado’s career has revolved around his right arm, the cannon that cuts down base-stealers and coined the Machete nickname teammates still use. He caught 16 of the 62 baserunners who tried to steal against him last season: a 26 percent clip one point above league average. Fifteen of the successful steals arrived after Aug. 28, when Baltimore Orioles reliever John Krehbiel broke Maldonado’s right hand with an errant, 94.6 mph fastball. Maldonado made his way to first base, but even that simple task took its toll. Two months earlier, during Houston’s home series against the Chicago White Sox, Maldonado suffered a sports hernia that he knew would require surgery. “The team needed me. It’s a catcher’s mentality. I had to be out there for my team,” Maldonado said this week. “I know everybody knew we had a good chance to win. There was a no quit, no surgery mentality at that time.” Maldonado delayed the operation for more than five months. His fractured hand only compounded an already excruciating experience after the All-Star break. Maldonado caught 93 of Houston’s 126 postseason innings while battling both injuries. Only afterward did he publicly disclose the pain he played through to guide Houston’s pitching staff to the greatest season in franchise history. When it ended, the Astros tried to replace him. Owner Jim Crane, acting as the team’s general manager after parting ways with James Click, said “we have to look at catching” while discussing the team’s winter needs during a November news conference. The team had strong interest in free-agentWillson Contreras, so much so that manager Dusty Baker publicly disclosed it during the winter meetings. “I felt a little sad. That’s probably the right word,”Maldonado told the Chronicle on Friday. “We just won the World Series and I felt like I sacrificed my whole body playing through injuries for the team. I was a little sad. But I understand the business. I know as an owner, as a front office, they’re going to try to always get the best position players available and help the team get better. Willson was the best free-agent catcher out there. I understand the business.” The St. Louis Cardinals signed Contreras to a five-year, $87.5 million contract in early December, but Houston maintained at least some interest in other catchers. Asked Friday whether he would have accepted a backup role if the Astros signed another catcher, Maldonado replied “probably not.” Signing Contreras — or any other established catcher — could have portended a trade of Maldonado, the clubhouse cornerstone who has one year remaining on his contract. “(Maldonado) is the professor back there,” Baker said Friday. “The guys love throwing to him. He’s here to teach the young guys and hone their skills, hopefully, in an advanced way. He means a lot. These guys follow him.” Maldonado’s presence in Houston’s clubhouse cannot be overstated. On a team filled with veterans, he is the unquestioned leader. Cristian Javier mentioned him, without prompt, during the news conference Thursday to announce his fiveyear, $64 million contract extension. Asked whether the new deal arrived with any extra pressure, Javier said it did not and that he’d continue listening to “my teammates and my catcher Martín Maldonado.” “I try to be a good teammate and take care of everybody,” Maldonado said. “We’re the only players in the game that have to deal with pitchers and position players. You have to have that balance. The good thing is they know me. I know what they like and they know what I like, so it’s about being a good teammate and good friend.” Leadership is essential. Quantifying it like a projectable statistic is impossible — and modern baseball is sometimes betrothed to doing that. The sport is, above all else, a resultsbased business. Maldonado turns 37 in August and offers next to nothing offensively. Wondering whether he can maintain his workload at his age is a legitimate concern. It is understandable, and even wise, that the Astros explored the position this winter. Maldonado himself acknowledged it, crediting Crane on Friday for “trying to get the best position players available for what we need.” The owner’s latest attempt did invigorate the man he tried to replace. “I’ve been in the game many years. It’s something, for me, that motivates me moving forward,” Maldonado said. “It’s funny because you see the comments of the fans, all that stuff. We had just won the World Series. I know they weren’t happy about my batting average, I understand that, but I hit 15 homers — a career-high — a career high in RBIs. I was a little disappointed in some fans that they were a little more against me than happy we were after Contreras.” Criticizing Maldonado for his miserable offense is misplaced ire. Throughout Maldonado’s tenure, the Astros have constructed rosters with the understanding he will not hit. He is a frequent target for taunts when the lineup underperforms, but more anger should be directed toward those Houston pays to hit. Maldonado’s career 72 OPS+ is 28 points below league average. Expecting him to provide offensive firepower is unrealistic. Still, last July, he posted a .908 OPS and struck 12 of his 24 hits for extra bases. Maldonado entered August carrying the torrid streak. His fractured hand that month derailed it. Maldonado’s hand healed without surgery. His hernia did not. Ten days after Houston won the World Series, Maldonado underwent the procedure he put off for so long. He shed 17 pounds afterward, eliminating sugary drinks and snacks. He spent the winter working on his hitting. After he finished, he found his way to West Palm Beach, into a clubhouse captivated by his leadership — the same one he nearly exited this winter. “Same goal,” he said on the first day of camp, “just to win another championship.” [email protected] twitter.com/chandler_rome MAN ON A MISSION Maldonado has added motivation after team tried to replace him during the offseason By Chandler Rome STAFF WR ITER Karen Warren/Staff photographer A slimmed-down Martín Maldonado said he understood the Astros’ pursuit of fellow catcher Willson Contreras in the offseason. But that's not to say it didn't hurt his pride. WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Ryan Pressly is a purist. He prefers playing a more traditional brand of baseball, free from the clocks and constraints that will soon consume the sport and force him into changing how he closes games. “I’m old school. I’m not a big fan of it, but I don’t make the rules apparently,” Pressly said. “I can go quicker if I really wanted to, but if I’m on the mound, why do I need to go quicker if I don’t have to? But now that we have to, I can go quicker. I’m not a fan of it.” Perhaps no Astros pitcher will be more impacted by the pitch clock than Pressly, who averaged 23.7 seconds between pitches with the bases empty last season, according to Baseball Savant. Only five American League pitchers worked slower. “I think every pitcher is taught to be on your own tempo, be controlled, breathe and slow the game down,” Pressly said on Saturday. “Now the pitch clock is going to affect that a little bit, but we’re all big leaguers. We can make an adjustment.” Pressly’s measurement on Baseball Savant does not necessarily indicate problems are looming in the pitch clock era. The website’s statistic measures the time between the release of two pitches. The new rules require pitchers to start their motion before a clock expires — they have 15 seconds with the bases empty and 20 with runners aboard. According to Pressly, most of his time between pitches comes while taking a walk around the mound to settle himself down. He planned to practice at a faster pace during his first live batting practice session on Sunday. The Astros do plan to use pitch clocks this spring during most of those sessions. “It’s still the same mindset, you just won’t be able to escape,” Pressly said. “If you’re getting knocked around or not being able to throw strikes or just don’t have it that day, a lot of guys just step off and take a breath. You’re not going to be able to do that now.” “I think that could be a potential problem in that you could see guys getting hurt, you could see guys hitting more people because they’re getting tired. That’s just what I see. I don’t know if that’s actually going to happen — hopefully it doesn’t happen — so you just have to make the adjustment I guess.” Pressly will get a brief respite next month in the World Baseball Classic, when he’ll pitch without a clock and at his own leisure. The two-time All Star closer is scheduled to report to Team USA on March 6 and said he is “pumped to play with some of the guys that I’ve just been in awe of.” Pressly started his offseason ramp up earlier to prepare for the tournament . “I kind of like it. I came into camp and everything feels really good. I’m ready to go,” Pressly said. McCullers is shut down ‘ temporarily’ Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. is “temporarily” shut down from throwing, but is “feeling pretty good,” according to manager Dusty Baker. Baker provided no substantive update on McCullers’ condition Saturday, one day after revealing the righthander experienced arm soreness during a Tuesday bullpen session. Baker said McCullers is getting treatment from the team’s training staff. “I know it’s news and it’s important news, but we feel like he’ll be all right,” Baker said. McCullers has not been spotted on the field during any of the Astros’ three workouts open to reporters. He missed five months of last season with a strained flexor muscle. Pair of big catches stay with Tucker Two of Kyle Tucker’s most meaningful life moments occurred one month apart. On Nov. 5, the right fielder sprinted into foul territory to secure the final out of Houston’s World Series victory against the Philadelphia Phillies, sending teammates spilling onto the field and a city into delirium. Tucker had to complete a bigger task around Christmas: proposing to his longtime girlfriend, Samantha. Both, brought a belly full of butterflies, but one that had Tucker far more nerve-wracked. “Probably propose,” Tucker said on Saturday with a grin. “I had that fly ball the whole way. I was diving, like, 30 rows in the stands to catch that if there was no net or anything.” Tucker nearly did, but corralled Nick Castellanos’ shallow fly ball just before making contact with the netting down Minute Maid Park’s first-base line. Tucker still has the baseball as a souvenir at his home in Florida. Samantha’s “yes” still brought a far more significant happiness for Tucker. The couple is set to wed during the upcoming offseason. [email protected] twitter.com/chandler_rome NOTEBOOK Pressly not a fan of new pitch clock rules By Chandler Rome STAFF WR ITER Karen Warren/Staff photographer Kyle Tucker runs down a fly ball on Saturday. The Astros outfielder got engaged during the offseason.
C4 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM TEXANS Why is Matt Burke on a mountain? Whyis anNFL coachin his 40s waking up at 2 a.m. on the shore of a frozen lake, shoulder to shoulder with two of his closest friends in a cramped tent, because a six-hour climb to the top ofMount Shasta is more advantageousinicy darkness thanin sunny slush? Hours later, one friend sets down his ice ax to urinate. He stumbles, tumbles 200 yards into a leveled-out patch of snow, and rejoins his companions with a bleeding raspberry on his leg that’s larger than a fist. Burke’s blistered feet also are bleeding. He’d rented all of his equipment for the weekend trip, but his boots don’t fit. There’d been no time for carry-on bags on Saturday’s flight from Philadelphia to San Francisco, or for Sunday’s red-eye back to Philly so Burke could attend Monday’s Eagles offseason staff meeting. Why this urgent need to climb a mountain? It’s days away from the anniversary of his father’s death. But even this distant retreat, this company of friends, this solace of nature only partly explain why choosing to climb a mountain within such drastic confines of time and space was not only an achievable way for Burke to cope but a sensible homage to the man he’d become. There’s conquest in snapping a photo atop the highest peak in sight. Curiosity is quenched by sipping hot tea stowed in a backpack, staring into the horizon’s cloudy maw. But when someone’s desire for discovery is so insatiable it becomes a lifestyle, it’s the mere action of pursuing the unknown that makes him feel comforted and fulfilled. “I think he’s a naturally really curious person, one of the most curious people I know,” says Brad Jefferson, one of Burke’s close friends who made that Shasta climb in May 2019. “He’s the kind of person who looks at a map and thinks, ‘What would it feel like to be there?’ ” That’s why it’s so fitting that Burke, the Texans’ new defensive coordinator and the first major addition to DeMeco Ryans’ staff, has chosen a career so intensely confounding. Jefferson draws the connection: Coaches thrive on curiosity and challenges. It explains how Burke dug through hours of film as a defensive quality control coach for the Titans, his first fulltime NFL job, searching for answers to counter Peyton Manning’s pre-snap adjustments or to defend the Texans’ outside zone runs. What would it feel like to be a defensive tackle in the A gap? Burke, a Dartmouth graduate, once considered attending medical school. It’s not hard toimagine him diving into the myriad mysteries of the human body. But Burke is not a quiet man, those close to him say. Few things other than football can satisfy the adrenaline requirement of a bearded, bold and boisterous New Englander who spent the offseasons before the birth of his two children vaulting off the highest bungee jump in New Zealand, touring Turkey, submerging in Iceland saunas, and going on safari in Botswana. “He wasn’t staying at the Four Seasons,” says Jim Schwartz, a four-time defensive coordinator and former Lions head coach who hired Burke for his Titans, Lions and Eagles staffs. Burke was their vicarious “travel channel,” a wandering wonderer who explored almost 40 countries, helped build an orphanage in Tanzania, and proposed to his wife on a gorilla hike in Uganda. “I remember he’d come back from whatever excursion, and his hair would be long, his beard would be down a little longer, and he’d be telling us all these crazy stories, and we’d be sitting there like, ‘What the hell?’ ” says former Lionslinebacker Vinny Ciurciu, who also knew Burke when he was a graduate assistant at Boston College. “It was kind of foreign for us because we were so regimented, and this guy’s out exploring the world, you know?” There’s always been obvious symmetry in climbing mountains. Burke has reached the peak of plenty. Kilimanjaro. Machu Picchu. Shasta. Football demands the same focus and fervor, and has similar rises and falls. Burke is taking his second shot as a defensive coordinator. He was part of the Dolphins staff that was scattered upon Adam Gase’s 2018 firing after Miami went 13-19 in two seasons. Burke is still pursuing the NFL’s pinnacle, the Super Bowl that’s evaded him these past 20 years. “He likes the big spot, the big moment,” says Jefferson, Burke’s former teammate and roommate at Dartmouth. “Ultimately, he wants to win.” Foundation laid In a now-closed backwoods bar in Bridgton, Maine, called the Punkin Valley Restaurant & Motel,Matt Burke entertained an old Dartmouth roommate with barstools on red carpet and bad karaoke sung between wood-paneled walls. There wasn’t much else to do for a couple of 22-year-olds in a sleepy vacation town that installed its second traffic light upon Burke’s 1998 arrival. Bridgton, a summer haven for southerners, didn’t yet have a Dunkin’ Donuts or even a McDonald’s. But it had a college prep postgraduate academy with a vacancy for an assistant football coach and English teacher, and that was enough for a former Dartmouth defensive back who hadn’t yet seen the world. Burke’s start in coaching is one of the few conventional things about his career. He’d been a heady but not overly talented backup safety, an emotional nucleus of the only 10-0 teamin Dartmouth football history.When RickMarcella,Bridgton Academy’s longtime head coach, called Dartmouth’s defensive line coachin search of a new assistant, Burke was theimmediate answer. Marcella tried to run Bridgton, essentially an all-male developmental one-year junior college, as much like a college program as he could. The academy had eight coaches, a charter bus, and a 14- passenger van for the linemen. They’d leave at “oh dark hundred” on Sunday mornings to play Ivy League JV squads on practice fields and passable dirt patches. All but one game was on the road. Burke taught four classes a week, hosted two-hour study halls and was the “administrator on duty” for a 31-student dormitory. Faculty members referred to the title by its initials, AOD, which Marcella says was short for “Always On Duty.” When Burke wasn’t coaching, teaching or attending 8 a.m. Saturday special teams walkthroughs, he was patrolling Sylvester Hall at night, chaperoning teenagers not much younger than himself. “You’re not coming here as a student or a teacher for your social life,” says Marcella, who retired as Bridgton’s head coach after the 2022 season. Bridgton is where Burke’s patience and proficiency as a teacher were born. The Hudson, Mass., native’s late father was a Navy veteran and longtime nurse at an institution for peoplewith chronic physical and mental conditions. Burke had been a unifying teammate, but Bridgton is where Marcella says Burke crafted a “cerebral but never condescending” quality as a coach that since has endeared him to elite NFL athletes. Jefferson says he once asked Burke a reasonable question for outsiders: Why would this person who’smaking alotmoremoneylisten to you? Burke’s reply was simple: Because I can make them better. There’s a demand for respect, relatability and responsibility in the role. Burke has been a linebackers coach for the Lions, Bengals and Dolphins, and he spent the 2022 season as defensive line coach for the Cardinals. J.J. Watt, a five-time former Texans All-Pro defensive end, had a revival in his final season before retirement with Burke. With 12½ sacks, Watt finished in double digits for the first time since 2018. Their relationship was often documented in HBO’s inseason version of “Hard Knocks,” which aired the team meeting in which the Cardinals showed the surprise farewell video Burke organized for Watt before his final game. “I just found him to be very motivating and easy to play for,” says Tim Bulman, a former Texans defensive tackle who played at Boston College while Burke was a graduate assistant. “That’s one of the big things. Money does one thing: It gets talent to show up. But the thing it doesn’t do all the time is give you that person you want to follow and go the distance with.” Marcella says Burke “was always destined for bigger and better things.” After two years in Bridgton,Burke secured hisjob at Boston College. Marcella still joked with Burke about getting married, returning to Maine and settling down. “Thanks, but no thanks,” Marcella remembers Burke saying. “There’s more of the world I want to see.” Bringing the freight Think of a railroad track, Daronte Jones says. Think of its direction. Think of a train hurtling down the rails and how it will demolish anything between those parallel steel beams, how virtually nothing can stop the train from speeding along its path. No, Jones isn’t describing Burke, although the thrill seeker did persuade Jones to skydive for the first time when they coached together in Miami. The metaphor explains the objective of a defensive front coached by Jim Schwartz or Jim Washburn. At Tennessee and Detroit, Schwartz and Washburn, a longtime defensive line coach, structured schemes around a destructive list of All-Pro defensive tackles that included Albert Haynesworth and Ndamukong Suh. It’s an extremely aggressive, attacking style of defense that Burke absorbed along with a collection of other eventual defensive coordinators in Miami while Washburn was a senior defensive assistant for the Dolphins from 2016 to 2017. Vance Joseph (Cardinals), Lou Anarumo (Bengals), Jones (LSU) and Burke all learned the concept, and Kris Kocurek, the Dolphins’ defensive line coach in 2018, helped implement the schemes with the 49ers while in the same role after DeMeco Ryans replaced Robert Saleh as San Francisco’s defensive coordinator in 2021. It’s a scheme that Ryans and Burke are expected to install with the Texans, a franchise whose defensive identity the past two seasons has been associated with bad tackling, poor angles and an overall scheme that surrendered the most rushing yards in team history last season. “We’re going to stay in the railroad tracks, and whoever’s in the way of the path of the railroad tracks, we’re just crushing them,” says Jones, who rejoined the Vikings as a defensive backs coach after spending the 2021 season as LSU’s defensive coordinator. “It doesn’t matter who’s on the railroad track. We’re not going to veer off that path.” The strategyis also practical. A limited Texans defensive front pressured quarterbacks at the NFL’s 20th-highest rate (20.1 percent), but it often succeeded at the expense of surrendering gashing runs. The Schwartz/Washburn front is playing the run on the way to the pass, Jones says, which creates even pressure within the system. “Really, you’re just trying to destroy blocks on the way to the quarterback,” says Anarumo, whose Bengals defense surrendered the seventh-fewest rushing yards per game (106.6) in 2022. “Once you get the players in place to do that, just look at what the 49ers have done defensively.” That caveat is vital. Can the Texans get the players in place? Ryans fielded the NFL’s top defense with a front that featured three first-round picks, including Nick Bosa, the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. General manager Nick Caserio wields the No. 2 and 12 overall picks, nine other selections, plus a burgeoning free agency budget. Yet it’s likely Houston’s defensive roster initially will resemble the unit Burke struggled with in Miamimore than theProBowl-loaded squad Ryans unleashed in San Francisco. But Schwartz, who as Eagles defensive coordinator hired Burke in 2019, knows his protégé is bright enough to learn from his mistakes. Burke was essentially Schwartz’s assistant coordinator with both the Titans and Eagles, but Schwartz says Burke “proved his mettle” by branching away from his mentor and succeeding as a linebackers coach with the Bengals and Dolphins before his first-time promotion to coordinator. Anarumo shares the same experience. He called plays for 12 games as the interim defensive coordinator for a Dolphins team that surrendered 24.3 points per game and fired coach Joe Philbin four games into the season. Anarumo was retained by Gase, joined the Giants in 2018, then jumped to defensive coordinator with the Bengals in 2019. “I learned so much,” Anarumo says. “I was so much better prepared in Cincinnati. I know he’ll go back on his experiences. That’s the beauty of experience. The next time you’re doing it, you’ll have a chance to reflect on what’s good, what’s bad, what you’ll do differently.” Sounds like yet another mountain for Burke to climb. The onein Houstonjustmight be suitable for his curious mind. [email protected] twitter.com/bkubena A MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB Adrenaline junkie’s experience ideal for challenge of lifting up bottom-feeding defense By Brooks Kubena STAFF WR ITER Photos courtesy Brad Jefferson Matt Burke, center, the Texans’ new defensive coordinator, climbed Northern California’s Mount Shasta with friends in 2019. Burke’s natural curiosity and fearlessness could serve him well in his new job with the Texans.
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 C5 TEXANS It’s not easy to find information on the internet about new Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik. Search on Google, and you’ll likely have to go through three or four pages before finding anything comprehensive. The 35-year-old former 49ers passing game coordinator has moved up the ranks fairly quickly during his time in the league. But those who know him best say he’s ready for this moment. That’s likely why new Texans coach DeMeco Ryans hired him over the likes of former Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury, who also interviewed for the gig. That, and the fact Slowik has the philosophy Ryans was looking for in an offensive play-caller. At his introductory news conference, Ryans said he envisioned the Texans offense playing with precision, effort and physicality. “We want to own the line of scrimmage,” Ryans said. “We want to establish the run game first, but we want to be balanced. We want to be able to operate with play-action pass. We also want to be efficient. We want to have explosive playmakers who we can get the ball to. If it’s not down the field, we want to be able to throw a checkdown and put it in the hands of an explosive playmaker and see him create. “Everything about our offense, we want to make sure that we’re adaptable to the players that we have, making sure we’re playing to the strengths of our players, getting the ball in our playmakers’ hands and letting them make plays.” What Ryans described was how Kyle Shanahan’s offenses are run in San Francisco. So it made sense that Ryans would hire Slowik, who has been in the 49ers’ system learning under Shanahan and moving up the ranks since 2017. That’s where Slowik and Ryans met. They were both defensive quality control coaches for the 49ers in 2017. Fixing this offense won’t be easy. But everyone who knows Slowik says he was built for this. His father, Bob Slowik, is a longtime coach who was a defensive coordinator for the Bears and Packers. His mentor is Hall of Fame coach Mike Shanahan, who gave him his first NFL job. And he’s worked with Kyle Shanahan for the past five years. Kyle is often regarded as one of the best offensive minds in football right now. Slowik been around football his whole life. Now it’s his time to put all of that to the test. A sixth sense Bobby’s parents met when they were students at the University of Delaware. His mother, Caroline, a Delaware native, was a world-class hurdler in the ’70s. Bob, who is from Pittsburgh, played football. They became high-level coaches in their respective sports and had four kids: Ryan, Andrea, Bobby and Steve. Naturally, sports were a huge part of their family. Caroline said Bobby was always a bright child too. She said he always had a different way of looking at and expressing things. His younger brother Steve says Bobby is the smartest of the three brothers. “Bobby has a knack for simplifying complicated things in the way he communicates, which is going to serve him really well as an OC,” Steve, who is now a scout for the 49ers, said in a text. He demonstrated that ability at an early age. When Bobby was in elementary school, he’d sneak into his parents’ room every morning before his father woke up for work and leave him notes. The notes would contain football plays Bobby had drawn up on his own. His father would take the notes with him when he was with the Bears and Packers and look at them for inspiration. “It helped me remember that you’ve got to think a little bit out of the box every now and then,” the elder Slowik said. “It was very beneficial for me, and I’m sure (Bobby) got great joy in doing that.” The plays were elaborate for an elementary school kid. But Bobby had been around football his entire life. He was one of the few kids who played both offense and defense at Green Bay Southwest High School because of how valuable he was to the team. He played wide receiver and cornerback and was a team captain. He wasn’t the biggest or fastest player, but his intelligence helped him compensate for what he lacked. “He was always so consistent, and he was so steady,” said his high school football coach, Scott Mallien. “I remember that he was definitely one of our lockdown corners. We didn’t have to worry about anyone throwing deep on him because he was just so smart. Just had a feel, you know? A sixth sense.” That sixth sense contributed to his success on the football field and in the classroom. Biomedical engineer Bob Slowik says he always tried to discourage his kids from getting into coaching. He knew the challenges that came with it. The long hours. The time away from family. The pressure. The uncertainty of whether he’d have a job from year to year. The criticism and being in the limelight. Bob Slowik, 68, has been a coach at Florida, Rutgers and East Carolina in college, the Cowboys, Bears, Browns, Packers, Broncos and Commanders in the NFL, and the Montreal Alouettes and Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League. Bobby was born in New Jersey, when Bob and was coaching at Rutgers. He graduated from high school when they were in Green Bay. “It wasn’t an easy path for the family,” Bob Slowik said. “I don’t know how many times I was looking for a job when I was a younger coach. I think it was six, seven times, and we had to move back into my wife’s parents’ home twice. Being out of a job with no money and no place to live.” When Bob was the Packers’ defensive coordinator in 2004, he recalls a teacher telling one of his kids, “I hope you do this better than your dad.” For a while, Bob and Caroline didn’t think Bobby wanted to coach. Sure, he loved football and played it in high school and later at Michigan Tech. But he was just as successful in his studies. At Michigan Tech, Bobby played wide receiver and studied biomedical engineering. Steve Short, who played quarterback for Michigan Tech and was roommates with Bobby for four years, said Bobby was so smart, he could sit in chemistry class without taking notes and still remmeber the information. He said he tried to do the same but quickly realized they had different learning styles. “To get a biomedical engineering degree at Michigan Tech is really hard to achieve,” Short said, “and he kind of made it look easy. He definitely put in the work for it, for sure.” His mother likes to joke that she doesn’t know where he got it from. But she always figured her son would go into the biomedical engineering field until the latter part of his college career. Getting into coaching The Slowiks were family friends with the Shanahans, having worked together with Mike Shanahan at Florida and again with the Broncos. Caroline recalls the families having dinner at the Shanahans’ house when Bobby was in college. At one point, Mike Shanahan asked Bobby what he planned to do after he graduated. Bobby told him he was a biomedical engineering major and planned to go into that field. Shanahan looked at Bobby and said, “You should go into coaching.” “So Bobby just started thinking about it and decided that’s what he was going to do,” Caroline said. “He took an interest in it, and the rest is history.” Coaching soon became his primary focus at Michigan Tech. Short said Bobby talked about becoming a coach often. And in their free time, they’d play the Madden NFL football game and design an entire playbook, hoping to draw up something good enough to suggest to their coaches at Michigan Tech. Short said he knew Bobby was going to be a coach based on the way he dissected those plays and discussed audibles. “You knew that if he wasn’t going to be playing it, he was going to be teaching it,” Short said. Short said Bobby was the best route runner on the team as a freshman because of the time he put into getting it right. Short said Bobby always did more than what was required to gain an advantage, whether that was running extra routes after practice, drinking an extra protein shake to gain weight, or doing extra sprints. He was a perfectionist. From the way he ran his routes to the motion of his arms, everything had to be perfect. Sometimes that was a good thing and sometimes it was bad. Bob and Caroline Slowik say Bobby has been a perfectionist his whole life, in everything he does. If he didn’t run a drill correctly while training, he’d get frustrated with himself and have to walk off and take a break before coming back. His goal to be perfect was so apparent, Bob said he often had to have talks to his young son about it. “Do you know how difficult it is for a perfectionist to live in an imperfect world?” Bob would tell Bobby. “You’re going to have to learn how to deal with that. Nothing is perfect. “He ended up doing pretty damn good. He’s found a way to adjust to his perfectionist attitude and develop people skills as well as well as the desire to get things right.” Bobby got his start in football in the video department on Mike Shanahan’s staff in Washington. After a year doing video, defensive coordinator Jim Haslett promoted Bobby to defensive assistant. Bob was also on staff, coaching defensive backs and linebackers. Bob said one of Bobby’s greatest assets is that he’s “cool as a cucumber” under pressure. “Bobby is one of those guys that the more difficult it is, the cooler he gets,” Bob said. “He didn’t get that from me.” Bob said he first noticed his son’s ability to handle high stress situations in Washington. When Bobby was a defensive assistant, one of the jobs he had was spotting personnel of the opposing team from the press box. He’d relay the information to the defensive coordinator so he could call the correct play. Opposing teams are aware of this and try to trick their opponents, which can lead to frustration. “Most of the coordinators will not use great language, and if you don’t get it in to them fast enough, (some people would) get all flustered, but (Bobby) was always so cool,” Bob said. “I was on the headset, so I hear it all going on. It didn’t matter. He never, ever got rattled no matter how many F bombs were thrown at him. ‘What are they in? what are they in?’ Bobby would say, ‘They are not on the field yet.’ “He just knew how to handle it perfectly.” From PFF to the Texans After the 2013 season, Mike Shanahan and his staff were fired inWashington. That meant Bobby was out of a job. Recently married, he was struggling to find another coaching job, so his older brother Ryan suggested he check out Pro Football Focus, which was looking for an analyst. PFF is a sports analytics company that focuses on analysis of the NFL and NCAA. Bobby sent in his résumé and got the job. At PFF, he’d watch game film and assign grades for every player. He’d review controversial grades of other analysts and make the final determination. He demonstrated his value to PFF’s team early on and became a go-to resource. “I’ve learned more or as much from Bobby as pretty much anybody here in my time at PFF,” said Sam Monson, one of PFF’s lead analysts. “He was one of the guys that came in and brought clear NFL knowledge and experience to what we were doing.” When they had group calls because of a tricky play they were grading, or the analysts needed help deciphering what coverage a team was in, or what went wrong on a play, Bobby always seemed to have the answer. “He was immediately one of most valuable people we had,” Monson said. Steve Palazzolo, head of football product at PFF, said Slowik was one of the company’s hardest workers and got things done. He said Slowik made everyone around him better. “Bobby really enhanced our process,” Palazzolo said. Slowik’s goal was always to get back into coaching. He spent two years at PFF before Kyle Shanahan asked him to join his staff in 2017. He spent two seasons as a defensive quality control coach. Slowik became an offensive assistant in 2019 and 2020, then was promoted to offensive passing game specialist in 2021 and passing game coordinator in 2022. Despite injuries to Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo, the 49ers kept winning. Their three quarterbacks — Lance, Garoppolo and rookie Brock Purdy — combined to throw for 4,049 yards, 30 touchdowns and only nine interceptions. The 49ers had one of the most efficient passing attacks in the NFL. They made it to the NFC Championship Game before losing to the Eagles after Purdy was hurt early in the first quarter. The Texans hope Slowik can bring similar success to Houston. Bob Slowik believes his son can. “He has really good people skills, gets along with anybody and has a great attitude towards his other coaches, and that’s a great asset,” Bob said. “He knows how to keep everybody working in the same direction and a positive outlook.” And he knows his son’s nature.When the pressure gets going, Bobby doesn’t flinch. “Cool as a cucumber,” his father says. [email protected] twitter.com/jonmalexander ‘COOL AS A CUCUMBER’ With his unflappable nature and sharp mind, Slowik might just be the man to resurrect struggling offense By Jonathan M. Alexander STAFF WR ITER Michael Zagaris/Getty Images New Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, right, helped coach Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers keep winning last season even after two quarterbacks were lost to injuries.
NCAA PROJECTION SOUTH 1. Alabama 2. Baylor 3. Virginia 4. Indiana MIDWEST 1. Houston 2. Texas 3. Tennessee 4. Xavier WEST 1. Kansas 2. Arizona 3. Kansas St. 4. Gonzaga EAST 1. Purdue 2. UCLA 3. Iowa St. 4. Marquette C6 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 HHHH HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM COLLEGE BASKETBALL The University of Houston was the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament men’s basketball committee’s bracket preview revealed Saturday, a significant first step as the Cougars bid to play in the Final Four in their own backyard. Three weeks until Selection Sunday, the committee announced its top 16 seeds as of now, with Alabama (South), Houston (Midwest), Purdue (East) and Kansas (West) as No. 1 regional seeds. Alabama is the No. 1 overall seed. Baylor, Texas, Arizona and UCLA were the No. 2 seeds. The 3-seeds were Virginia, Tennessee, Iowa State and Kansas State. Indiana, Marquette, Gonzaga and Xavier were the 4- seeds. The Final Four will be played April 1and 3 at NRG Stadium. And this year’s tournament could be one of the most wide-open in years. “What is different this year compared to previous years is there aren’t superior teams at the top,” NCAA selection committee chairman Chris Reynolds said on CBS’ live broadcast. “There aren’t those dominant teams. There’s a lot of parity this year.” Reynolds said UH received the No. 2 overall seed based on being “undefeated on the road (nation-best 9-0) and impressive win at Virginia.” The selection committee placed the Cougars in the Midwest Region, where the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight will be played at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. The other top seeds in the Midwest include No. 2 Texas, No. 3 Tennessee and No. 4 Xavier. At 24-2, the Cougars are among the title contenders, ranking first nationally in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) and KenPom, two key metrics used by the selection committee. But while dominant at times this season, the Cougars are only 4-1 in Quadrant 1 games, significantly fewer than Kansas (13-5), Purdue (9-4) and Alabama (7-4). UH’s loss to Temple qualifies as a Quad 3 loss; no other top seed has a loss outside a Quad 1. UH has been a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament once in program history, in 1983 when Phi Slama Jama advanced to the national championship game against North Carolina State. “The goal for every team in September and October is you want to make the tournament,” UH coach Kelvin Sampson said prior to Saturday’s announcement. “There’s no guarantees. It’s hard to make the tournament. I know you do it so often that people takeit for granted,whereas before are (it was) ‘You guys going to have a team this year?’ But that’s the growth of programs. You want to be in that position. I’ve never lost sight of how hard it is to make the tournament.” There is plenty of incentive for the Cougars to reach a second Final Four in the last three years. UH is attempting to become just the fifth school to play in the Final Four in its hometown, joining Butler (2010), UCLA (1968, 1972), Louisville (1959) and City College of New York (1950). The biggest winner Saturday was the Big 12, which had three of the top five seeds and five of the 16, Entering Saturday, Kansas, Texas and Baylor were tied for first placein the Big 12. UT and Baylor each have nine Quad 1wins, tied with Purdue and second only to Kansas, but both are lower in the advanced metrics. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi said the Big 12 could have “a historic impact on the bracket” with eight of the league’s 10 teams making the 68-team NCAA field that will be announced March 12. “No matter how you slice it, the Big 12 is breaking every bracket record,” Lunardi said on ESPN’s “College Gameday.” Reynolds said Alabama’s case for the No. 1 seed was bolstered by 13 wins in Quad 1and 2 games and a strong resume that includes a 71-65 win at Houston in early December. “That win over Houston put them over the top,” Reynolds said. Creighton, Miami, Saint Mary’s and Connecticut were the other teams under consideration for the final spots, Reynolds said. After the first- and second-round games, the four regional sites are: T-Mobile Center in Kansas City Cougars closing on No. 1 seed Preliminary NCAA bracket has UH atop Midwest Regional as second overall behind Alabama By Joseph Duarte STAFF WR ITER Karen Warren/Staff photographer Marcus Sasser, right, and the Cougars are trying to secure Houston’s first No. 1 NCAA seed since 1983. (Midwest), T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (West), KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky. (South) and Madison Square Garden in New York (East). Saturday’s bracket reveal will be the only before Selection Sunday. “This is a fun process that gets people talking about March Madness, which is right around the corner,” Reynolds said. “But a lot can change, with literally hundreds of games left in the regular season. The only thing that’s guaranteed is it’s going to be a fun tournament because that’s the case every year.” [email protected] twitter.com/joseph_duarte AUSTIN — No. 6 Texas charged back from a second-half deficit to beat Oklahoma 85-83 in overtime Saturday afternoon at the Moody Center. Thanks to their season sweep of the Sooners, the Longhorns (21-6, 10-4 Big 12) will enter next week tied for first in the Big 12 with No. 5 Kansas (22-5, 10-4), which beat No. 9 Baylor (20-7, 9-5) on Saturday. Oklahoma (13-14, 3-11) remained in last place with the loss. “Lot of energy in the building for a rivalry game, playing against a wellcoached Oklahoma team,” Texas interim coach Rodney Terry said. “Knowing we were really going to have to be in a dogfight kind of a game, we were prepared for that.” Texas graduate forward Brock Cunningham provided a needed spark midway through a sluggish first half. He scored eight straight points, including a rare heat-check 3 from the wing, to pull Texas into a 16-16 tie. Cunningham scored all 10 of his points in the first half and finished with four rebounds and four assists. The 6-foot-6 Cunningham was also thrust into the role of center for a few stretches early on as senior bigs Dylan Disu and Christian Bishop both battled foul trouble. Cunningham managed to wrestle away three offensive rebounds that led to six secondchance points, but Oklahoma exploited its size advantage with a 24-12 edgein points in the paint through one half. Texas looked poised to take a lead into the break before Oklahoma guard Grant Sherfield used a ball screen to create room and knot the game at 34-34with a late layup. “Brock was tremendous in that first half,” Terry said. “He was just playing winning basketball all over the floor. He really willed us into halftime. Made a point at halftime that he was one of the guys out there that was competing at the level we needed to compete in the second half to get it done against a tough Oklahoma team.” The final 20 minutes of regulation between these two SEC-bound rivals turned combative. Bishop and OU center Tanner Groves received offsetting Flagrant I fouls early in the second half after a chippy exchange in the post. On the ensuing inbound, Texas super senior forward Timmy Allen cut inside and finished an and-1 layup with a chestthumping roar. Sherfield (18 points) answered with two straight transition 3s to give Oklahoma 46-44 lead and prompt Terry to call for a timeout. The Longhorns spent the next few minutes trying to retake the lead, falling behind by seven on several occasions before reeling off a 9-0 run to seize a 70-67 edge with 4:51 remaining. Allen kicked off that tide-turning scoring spree with a physical and-1 finish inside. Sixth man Sir’Jabari Rice then buried consecutive 3-pointers off a pair of Oklahoma turnovers to erase the Sooners’ lead. Rice pushed Texas’ lead to four with a baseline fadeway jumper that narrowly beat the shot clock, and Disu (12 points) tacked on one with a free throw. “I was just trying to do whatever possible to come out with the win,” said Rice, who matched his season high with 24 points on 8-for-13 shooting. “Shots were falling. And that’s credit to my teammates. Marcus (Carr) found in a lot in transition.” “I think Riceis one of the most unheralded players in this league,” OU coach Porter Moser said. But Rice’s flurry wasn’t enough to put Oklahoma down for good. The Sooners scored the final five points of the second half, including an offkilter game-tying 3 from Sherfield with seven seconds left. Carr’s last-second shot fell short, drawing the Longhorns into their second overtime game of the season with the score knotted at 73-73. Oklahoma seized a brief 75-73 lead before Disu responded with two soft push shotsin thelane.Carr then poked away a steal and finished a run-out layup, followed closely by another and-1 finish from Allen (15 points, 9 rebounds). But after falling behind by seven, Oklahoma put itself back in position to extend the game with six straight points and a questionable offensive foul turnover on Disu with 35 seconds remaining. After Texas sophomore guard Tyrese Hunter went 1 of 2 at the line, OU had six seconds to sprint downcourt and score. Junior forward Sam Godwin’s lastsecond shot from a couple feet out caromed off back iron, allowing Texas to escape with gritty win that kept its first-place status intact. “Every single game in this conference is a championship game for us,” Carr said. “We’re trying to win the Big 12. And as far as having close games, the coaching staff does a good job of having us prepared for that. When we’re in those moments, it’s not anything new.” [email protected] twitter.com/nrmoyle NO. 6 TEXAS 85, OKLAHOMA 83 (OT) Horns rally to win, stay tied atop Big 12 By Nick Moyle STAFF WR ITER UP NEXT TEXAS A&M VS. TENNESSEE When/where: 6 p.m. Tuesday at College Station. TV/radio: ESPN; 92.5 FM, 97.5 FM. Texas A&M 69, Missouri 60 TEXAS A&M (20-7) Coleman 3-3 3-5 9, Marble 3-8 1-1 7, Dennis 7-15 0-0 17, Radford 4-10 2-2 12, Taylor 4-7 10-10 21, Garcia 1-4 1-1 3, Gordon 0-2 0-0 0,Washington 0-0 0-0 0, Hefner 0-10-0 0. Totals 22-50 17-19 69. MISSOURI (19-8) Carter 2-7 2-2 6, Gholston 2-7 2-3 7, Hodge 4-9 1-3 12, Honor 0-4 0-0 0, Ko.Brown 8-13 3-4 24, Diarra 2-3 1-2 5, East 2-7 2-2 6, Shaw 0-10-0 0, Gomillion 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-51 11-16 60. Halftime: Texas A&M 39-25. 3-Point Goals: Texas A&M 8-21 (Taylor 3-5, Dennis 3-7, Radford 2-7, Gordon 0-1, Hefner 0-1), Missouri 9-26 (Ko.Brown 5-7, Hodge 3-7, Gholston 1-2, Shaw 0-1, East 0-2, Carter 0-3, Honor 0-4). Rebounds: Texas A&M 38 (Dennis 10), Missouri 22 (Diarra 7). Assists: Texas A&M 12 (Taylor 6), Missouri 11 (Carter, Gholston 3). Total Fouls: Texas A&M 13, Missouri 18. No. 6 Texas 85 Oklahoma 83 (OT) OKLAHOMA (13-14) Hill 3-5 4-6 11, T.Groves 3-6 2-2 8, Oweh 2-9 2-2 6, Sherfield 7-16 0-0 18, Uzan 6-10 2-3 15, Godwin 4-6 4-5 12, Bamisile 4-6 3-4 13, Cortes 0-1 0-0 0, J.Groves 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-60 17-22 83. TEXAS (21-6) Allen 7-14 1-3 15, Disu 5-8 2-4 12, Mitchell 0-0 0-0 0, Carr 4-14 9-1117, Hunter 2-7 1-2 5, Rice 8-13 4-5 24, Cunningham 4-7 0-0 10, Bishop 1-2 0-0 2, Morris 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-65 17-25 85. Halftime: 34-34. 3-Point Goals: Oklahoma 8-22 (Sherfield 4-8, Bamisile 2-3, Hill 1-3, Uzan 1-3, J.Groves 0-1, Oweh 0-1, T.Groves 0-3), Texas 6-18 (Rice 4-6, Cunningham 2-3, Disu 0-1, Hunter 0-1, Carr 0-7). Fouled Out: T.Groves, Disu, Cunningham. Rebounds: Oklahoma 30 (Hill, Godwin 6), Texas 29 (Allen 9). Assists: Oklahoma 15 (Hill, Uzan 4), Texas 19 (Allen, Carr 4). Total Fouls: Oklahoma 24, Texas 20. UP NEXT TEXAS VS. IOWA ST. When/where: 8 p.m. Tuesday at Austin. TV/radio: LHN; 790 AM. Texas A&M and Missouri were in a tight game late in the first half Saturday night in Mizzou Arena when A&M guard Dexter Dennis skied for a block of what appeared to be an easy layup on a fast break by the Tigers’ Sean East. A&M guard Tyrece Radford hustled to keep the slapped ball from bouncing out of bounds, and the result was a hardearned Dennis basket in the paint on the other end. It was that kind of night for the high-flying, hustling Aggies, who earned their fifth straight victory in Southeastern Conference play, this time 69-60 before a crowded house in Columbia, Mo. The Aggies, buoyed by a long-range 3-pointer by Wade Taylor IV at the halftime buzzer,led 39-25 at the break and were never seriously threatened the rest of the way in jetting to their fourth consecutive victory in Mizzou Arena, and in sweeping the regular season series from the Tigers (19-8, 7-7 SEC) and firstyear coach Dennis Gates. A&M also cruised to an 82-64 victory in College Station on Jan. 11. The Aggies on Saturday were led by Taylor’s 21 points and Dennis’ 10 rebounds to go with his 17 points. They prevailed by nine points despite committing 21turnovers compared to a dozen by the Tigers, and A&M led for nearly 36 of the game’s 40 minutes. “There was a moment in time we had nearly as many turnovers as made shots,” A&M coach Buzz Williams said on his postgame radio show of the Aggies’ 13 early miscues. The Aggies (20-7, 12-2) return to Reed Arena on Tuesday night against No. 10 Tennessee and ex-Texas coach Rick Barnes. A&M has lost three consecutive games to Tennessee, once in College Station in 2021 and twice last season, in Knoxville, Tenn., during the regular season and in the SEC tournament title game in Tampa, Fla. The Volunteers (20-7, 9-5) lost 66-54 at rising Kentucky on Saturday, after defeating top-ranked Alabama 68-59 on Wednesday in Knoxville. Meantime A&M under its fourth-year coach Williams remains unranked despite standing alone in second in SEC play behind Alabama, primarily because of what happened to the Aggies in nonconference play: head-scratching — especially in retrospect — losses to Murray State, Colorado, Boise State and Wofford leading to league play. ESPN NCAA Tournament pundit Joe Lunardi now has A&M as a No. 9 seed in the NCAA postseason after having the Aggies just on the outside looking in only a couple of weeks ago. A&M has never come close to winning a dozen of its first 14 league games in prior seasons since joining the SEC in the summer of 2012. Former coach Billy Kennedy’s 2016 and 2018 A&M teams that advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament were 9-5 and 6-8, respectively, after 14 SEC games. “Our team is still finding ways to improve, and our staff is still searching and trying to discover ways to make us a possession better, or two possessions better,” Williams said. Brent Zwerneman reported from College Station. [email protected] twitter.com/brentzwerneman TEXAS A&M 69, MISSOURI 60 Surging Aggies win fifth straight in SEC By Brent Zwerneman STAFF WR ITER Jay Biggerstaff/Getty Images Texas A&M’s Dexter Dennis shoots as Missouri’s Kobe Brown, left, defends in Saturday’s victory.
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COMHHHH SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 C7 COLLEGE BASKETBALL LAWRENCE, Kan. — DaJuan Harris scored all 14 of his points in the second half as No. 5 Kansas stormed back from a double-digit halftime deficit and beat No. 9 Baylor 87-71 on Saturday. The Jayhawks (22-5, 10-4 Big 12) outscored the Bears 55-26 in the second half. Jalen Wilson led Kansas with 21 points and 13 rebounds. KJ Adams added 17 points and Gradey Dick had 16. The Jayhawks are tied with Texas for the top spot in the Big 12 Conference. Baylor (20-7, 9-5) got nearly all of its scoring from its three-guard combo of Adam Flagler (22 points) Keyonte George (20 points) and LJ Cryer (15 points). The rest of the team scored just 14. NO. 22 TCU 100 OKLAHOMA ST. 75 Mike Miles Jr. had 15 points in his first game in three weeks, five other Horned Frogs also scored in double figures as TCU snapped a four-game losing streak with a victory over the Cowboys at Fort Worth. The Frogs (18-9, 7-7 Big 12) had lost five of six games, a stretch that began with a Jan. 28 loss at Mississippi State — where Miles hyperextended his right knee in the first four minutes. Emanuel Miller had 18 points to lead TCU. Bryce Thompson had 18 points and John-Michael White 15 for Oklahoma State (16-11, 7-7). TEXAS SOUTHERN 80 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ST. 62 PJ Henry scored 19 points and the Tigers won at H&PE Arena. Henry was 8-of-14 shooting with two 3- pointers for TSU (10-17, 6-8 Southwestern Athletic Conference). John Walker III scored 18 and Joirdon Karl Nicholas pitched in with 15 points, eight rebounds and three steals. The Delta Devils (4-24, 3-11) were led by Terry Collins with 23 points. Rayquan Brown had 19 points. RICE 83 WESTERN KENTUCKY 77 Quincy Olivari scored 34 points as the Owls outlasted the Hilltoppers at Tudor Fieldhouse. Olivari added 12 rebounds for Rice (17-10, 8-8 Conference USA). Mekhi Mason added 14 points. Max Fiedler scored 12 points, while adding five rebounds and six assists. Dayvion McKnight led the way for Western Kentucky (14-13, 6-10) with 21 points and eight rebounds.. TEXAS TECH 78 WEST VIRGINIA 72 Jaylon Tyson went off for a career-high 27 points and Fardaws Aimaq scored the visiting Red Raiders’ last eight points in a win over the Mountaineers. Tyson and Aimaq combined for 25 secondhalf points for Texas Tech (15-12, 4-10), which started the day tied with Oklahoma for last in the Big 12, a game back of West Virginia (15-12, 4-10). The Raiders have won three straight including wins over No. 6 Texas and No. 12 Kansas State. PRAIRIE VIEW A&M 82 ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF 71 Will Douglas had 31 points, eight rebounds and five assists as the Panthers won at home. Yahuza Rasas added 17 points for Prairie View A&M (10-17, 6-8 SWAC). HOUSTON CHRISTIAN 93 LAMAR 74 Maks Klanjscek put up 33 points as the host Huskies beat the Cardinals at Sharp Gym. Klanjscek was 10 of 19 shooting and 9 for 10 from the line for the Huskies (9-19, 6-9 Southland Conference). Brycen Long scored 22 points. Nate Calmese finished with 23 points for the Cardinals (9-19, 5-11). SAM HOUSTON 64 TARLETON ST. 59 Donte Powers and Cameron Huefner scored 20 points each as the Bearkats won at Stephenville. Powers also contributed five rebounds for Sam Houston (20-6, 10-4 Western Athletic Conference). Freddy Hicks led the Texans (14-14, 8-8) with 18 points.. STATE Colin E. Braley/Associated Press Kansas forward Jalen Wilson, top, is fouled by Baylor guard Keyonte George during the first half of Saturday’s game at Lawrence, Kan. The Jayhawks overcame a 15-point deficit to beat the Bears 87-71. Kansas rallies to top Baylor W IRE REPORTS Waves (9-10, 2-12) to 45 games. NO. 15 MIAMI 96 WAKE FOREST 87 Isaiah Wong scored 27 points for the host Hurricanes (22-5, 13-4 ACC). NO. 14 INDIANA 71 ILLINOIS 68 Trayce Jackson-Davis finished with 26 points and 12 rebounds, and the host Hoosiers (19-8, 10-6 Big Ten) rallied from a nine-point second-half deficit to beat the Fighting Illini (17-9, 8-7). NO. 16 XAVIER 82 DEPAUL 68 Jack Nunge had 18 points and 10 rebounds as the host Musketeers (20-7, 12-4 Big East) bounced back from a pair of narrow losses to beat the Blue Demons (9-18, 3-13). NO. 17 SAINT MARY’S 71 BYU 65 Logan Johnson scored 27 points as the Gaels (24-5, 13-1 WCC) won their 15th in the last 16 games. NO. 18 CREIGHTON 77 ST. JOHN'S 67 Arthur Kaluma hit three straight 3-pointers down the stretch and the visiting Bluejays (18-9, 12-4 Big East) overcame a second-half scoring drought to quell the Red Storm (16-12, 6-11). NO. 20 UCONN 64 SETON HALL 55 Jordan Hawkins scored 20 points, and the host Huskies (20-7, 9-7 Big East) used a big second-half run to beat the Pirates (16-12, 9-8). NO. 24 PROVIDENCE 85 VILLANOVA 72 Ed Croswell scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the host Friars (20-7, 12-4 Big East). MANHATTAN, Kan. — Markquis Nowell hit a 3-pointer from near midcourt with 2:42 remaining to help boost No. 12 Kansas State to a 61-55 win over No. 19 Iowa State on Saturday. Nowell finished with 20 points for the Wildcats (20-7, 8-6 Big 12). Aljaz Kunc led Iowa State (17-9, 8-6) with 15 points. NO. 1 ALABAMA 108 GEORGIA 59 Brandon Miller scored 21 points to lead the host Crimson Tide (23-4, 13-1 Southeastern Conference). NO. 4 UCLA 78 CAL 43 Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 20 points as the host Bruins (23-4, 14-2 Pac-12) cruised. NO. 7 VIRGINIA 57 NOTRE DAME 55 Kihei Clark scored 15 points, including a pair of critical free throws with 22.6 seconds left, and became the career assist leader for the host Cavaliers (21-4, 13-3 Atlantic Coast Conference). NO. 8 ARIZONA 78 COLORADO 68 Oumar Ballo had 18 points and 16 rebounds as the host Wildcats (24-4, 13-4 Pac-12) dominated inside. KENTUCKY 66 NO. 10 TENNESSEE 54 Cason Wallace and Oscar Tshiebwe each scored 16 points for the host Wildcats (18-9, 9-5 SEC). NO. 13 GONZAGA 97 PEPPERDINE 88 Drew Timme scored 34 points to help the visiting Bulldogs (23-5, 12-2 West Coast) extend their winning streak over the MEN’S TOP 25 Travis Heying/Associated Press Kansas State’s Markquis Nowell, who had 20 points, celebrates a defensive stop against Iowa State. Kansas State edges Iowa State W IRE REPORTS VILLANOVA, Pa. — Lou Lopez Sénéchal scored 22 points, including a crucial rainbow jumper late in the fourth quarter, to lead No. 6 Connecticut to a 60-51 victory over Maddy Siegrist and No. 14 Villanova on Saturday. “I think she’s been absolutely remarkable,” Huskies coach Geno Auriemma said of Sénéchal. “If we didn’t have Lou, I hate to think where we would be.” Dorka Juhász added 14 points and 10 rebounds and Aaliyah Edwards had 13 points and 14 boards for the Connecticut (24-4, 16-1 Big East). Siegrist, the nation’s leading scorer, had 21 points for the Wildcats (23-5, 14-3). Villanova lost just its second contest in the last 16 — both to the Huskies. Lucy Olsen added 13 points for Villanova. The game was close throughout the first three quarters; the Huskies entered the final quarter leading 44-39. Sénéchal made a pair of free throws and then swished a 3 from the top of the key to give Connecticut its largest lead to that point at 49-39 with 8:55 left. The Huskies pushed their advantage to a game-high 12 at 52-40 on Juhász’s fastbreak layup from Sénéchal with 7:44 left. The Wildcats came roaring back, scoring the next 10 points over 3:49 to make it 52-50 with 3:55 to play on Olsen’s drive. The Huskies committed four of their 22 turnovers during the Villanova spurt, which featured back-to-back 3-pointers by Siegrist and Olsen. Edwards ended Connecitcut’s 4:39 scoring drought with a layup to make it 54-50. Then Sénéchal nailed her higharching shot from close range to give the Huskies a 5-point advantage that proved enough cushion. “I just tried to put some arc to it,” Sénéchal said. “Didn’t think too much and just tried to make the shot.” HOUSTON 56 TEMPLE 48 Laila Blair and Britney Onyeje each contributed 15 points as the Cougars took down the Owls on the road. Onyeje added seven rebounds and two assists and Blair pulled down five rebounds as Houston (11-14, 8-4 American Athletic Conference) bounced back from a loss to Memphis with their fifth win in the last six games. RICE 82 WESTERN KENTUCKY 64 India Bellamy put up 27 points on 11-of12 shooting to pace the Owls in a win over the host Lady Toppers. Bellamy grabbed six rebounds while hitting 5-of-7 free throws for Rice (18-7, 9-7 Conference USA). NO. 22 IOWA STATE 81 BAYLOR 77 (2OT) Ashley Joens scored 27 points as the visiting Cyclones got double-digit scoring from all five starters en route to a win over the Bears. Lexi Donarski hit a jumper and Joens added a 3-pointer to put Iowa State up 76-71 in the second OT. In the final minute, first Jaden Owens and then Ja’Mee Asberry scored to get Baylor within 78-77 with 10 seconds left. Joens was fouled and made both free throws with nine seconds left. Her steal with seven seconds left and a free throw sealed the win for the Cyclones. NO. 7 IOWA 80 NEBRASKA 60 Caitlin Clark scored 30 points and Monika Czinano added 20 as the Hawkeyes pulled away in the second half for a road win over the Cornhuskers. Iowa (22-5, 14-2) moved a game behind Big Tenleading Indiana with two regular-season games left. NO. 8 MARYLAND 66 MICHIGAN STATE 61 Spartans players wiped away tears as they stood shoulder to shoulder during a moment of silence before losing to the visiting Terrapins, less than a week after three students were killed in a shooting on campus. Diamond Miller scored 29 points and helped Maryland (22-5, 13-3 Big Ten) hold on for the win. LAMAR 55 HOUSTON CHRISTIAN 53 Julija Vujakovic tallied 14 points to lead four Huskies starters to score in double digits in a close home loss to the Cardinals. N’Denasija Collins added 11 points and Abbey Sutherland and Kennedy Wilson each scored 10 for Houston Christian (11-15, 6-9 Southland Conference). OKLAHOMA STATE 92 TEXAS TECH 80 (3OT) Bre’Amber Scott had a double-double with 30 points and 11 rebounds as the Lady Raiders came up short in a marathon loss to the visiting Cowgirls. PRAIRIE VIEW A&M 78 ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF 68 Diana Rosenthal came off the bench to score 14 points as the host Lady Panthers topped the Golden Lions. TEXAS SOUTHERN 72 MISS. VALLEY STATE 36 Micah Gray scored 25 points and Taniya Lawson added 17 as the Tigers came away with a home win over the Devilettes. WOMEN Sénéchal helps No. 6 Connecticut outlast No. 14 Villanova W IRE REPORTS
C8 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 HHHH HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM NBA SALT LAKE CITY — The presumed future of the NBA was a few hours from taking the All-Star weekend stage. Stars in waiting would be on display in the league’s well-practiced blending of basketball exhibition (and perhaps excess) and marketing. The show, strategically — and the league hopes presciently — named Rising Stars, would pit and showcase the league’s young bright lights to kick off the All-Star weekend’s festivities. Yet, in many ways, for all the gifted prodigies and name brands who would take the Vivint Arena floor Friday, the teenager not yet in the NBA would be the center of attention. And he knew it. Scoot Henderson was fine with that. He has become accustomed to that part of his basketball celebrity. But more than familiar with the attention and evaluations that follow him, he is comfortable with the idea that every time he takes a court, from his seasons with the G League Ignite to Friday’s Rising Stars event — he is judged by how he measures up to his place as the next big thing. “I’m glad. It’s a great position to be in,” Henderson said. “I’m here to embrace that. And I’m going to stay confident throughout the process and I’m enjoying myself as well. So, I’m ready. “I don’t think it’s (about) proving myself. I think it’s just going out there and doing my job every single time down the court. Every time I’m on the court, you know, just give it up, give it my all.” The confidence comes naturally, easily to him. It’s been called a swagger, and in games the soaring athleticism of a 6- foot-2 guard earns comparisons to the MVP versions of Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook, though he prefers not to be compared. “I want to be myself, my own player, to where people are saying the next upcoming guy is like Scoot Henderson,” he said. “It’s pretty dope to be compared to guys like that, the greats.” But his poise and self-assurance are less showy than swagger, more matter of fact, as if it is as much a part of him as his explosive first step. That was why he skipped his senior year of high school in Marietta, Ga., to graduate early and turn pro in the G League’s program for elite prospects. It is why he could take his place with other G League players in the Rising Stars games and seem in no way out of place, much less out of his league. It is also why it is so difficult to consider the presumed No. 2 pick of the NBA draft this June to be a consolation prize. It is more like the difference in those raffles when one winner gets the “Grand Prize” and another “First Prize.” Henderson will not even concede that he will — or should — be the second choice after Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 wonder who is considered the most certain top pick since LeBron James in 2003, is selected. “Yes, I always see myself as (the first pick of the draft),” Henderson said with a release as rapid as any he would take in the game. When he sees references to Wembanyama as the presumptive first pick, Henderson said, “I just keep swiping. I keep going. I don’t (care) what other people’s opinions are. I just control what I can control and giving it my all when I work out and producing on the court. “Of course, I know I have a chance to go No. 1.” Henderson was so sure of his potential, that when asked if he and Wembanyama would be “dominant” players, he said that’s his plan, but cannot be as sure about anyone else, even Wembanyama. “I think I’ll be that, for sure,” Henderson said. “I can’t speak on what Victor is going to be. Of course, he has tremendous upside with his length and his ability to score in all areas and play defense. But I control what I control. I want to be that.” He will not be able to control the draft lottery and cannot begin to guess where he might land given the way lottery odds have been flattened. With the worst record in the NBA, a half-game worse than the Spurs, the Rockets have a 14 percent chance at landing the top pick if the standings remain unchanged, a 13.4 percent chance of picking second. Henderson said he does not know the young Rockets players, though he follows them on social media and was inspired to begin his career in the G League after watching Rockets guard Jalen Green go from one season with the Ignite to the second pick of the 2021 draft. “I think it would be a good experience to go through, to play with young guys,” he said of potentially joining the Rockets. “I think I’m good in all areas, to play with young guys or play with veterans. That’s what the Ignite is about as well, to play with a mixture of age groups. “Seeing Jalen go No. 2 definitely kind of just put that confidence in me to put my trust in the Ignite and trust in that path.” His work ethic has already drawn praise but not just for the hours spent on the court, but for a studious nature. An avid reader, he would like to be a student of the game, if a 19-year-old in the G League can be viewed as having achieved that level of understanding. But there is a seriousness about his approach and style, even a stillness as he discusses it. “Scoot lives, breathes, everything about basketball,” said Leonard Miller, his Ignite and Rising Stars teammate. “He’s really devoted himself to his craft and what he does on the basketball court. He takes great pride in himself. “Scoot’s very special. He’s a great guy. He’s always checking up on us, on his teammates. He’s always doing the right thing. He’s always focused and locked in. It’s good to be around him. It’s not just the on-court stuff you see, the stuff he does, but off court, as well. He’s one of the best individuals I’ve ever seen in my life.” His numbers are not eyepopping. He has averaged 17.1 points on 45.5 percent shooting along with 5.9 assists and 4.5 rebounds. He made 1 of 5 shots, scoring four points in the Rising Stars game Friday. The eye test, however, leaves little doubt about his potential. But when asked to cite the skill that defines him, presumably from among his ballhandling, finishing or that stunning first step, he did not pick any of those traits, citing instead the attitude that touches them all. “I think it’s just my confidence and how I carry myself, really,” Henderson said. “I don’t think you will ever see me doubting myself at all. I think that stands out.” He was so confident that when asked about the NBA player he would most want to put on a poster, Henderson said, “Whoever is in the paint.” Henderson was in last season’s Rising Stars but said he is “more confident in myself and more confident in the abilities that I have. I worked all summer and from there on to be in the position I am today. I think I’m pretty much a lot better. “I’m blessed to be here and get this opportunity to run with my teammates. I’m just ready to play everybody, for real.” He meant that he was ready to take on anyone in the Rising Stars game, but he had left little doubt that he felt that way about the actual stars whose club he plans to be joining. [email protected] twitter.com/jonathan_feigen DRAFT Scoot has swagger to spare Henderson embraces the expectations that come with being one of this year’s top prospects By Jonathan Feigen STAFF WR ITER Rick Bowmer/Associated Press Scoot Henderson is the presumed No. 2 pick in this year’s draft. But don’t tell him that. The 19-year-old, who plays for the G League Ignite, won’t concede to going after Victor Wembanyama. FERTITTA URGES FANS TO ‘PRAY FOR VICTOR’ Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta wasn’t subtle about his desire to draft French basketball phenom Victor Wembayama on Saturday night during a live interview on KPRC (Channel 2) at his Mardi Gras soiree in Galveston. At the end of an interview with meteorologist Frank Billingsley, a festive Fertitta said “Thank God we’ve got 10 days off. And pray for Victor!” The interview, as one would expect, promptly went viral on social media. The NBA generally frowns on owners mentioning draft prospects by name or talking about or suggesting tanking, so Fertitta figures to hear from the league office sometime soon. Jonathan Feigen SALT LAKE CITY — Somewhere, someone that was hanging on the results of the NBA’s Skills Challenge had to be shaking their head. Asif the Rockets’ past two seasons had not provided ample evidence of how difficult it is for young players to win, in the revamped skills competition on Saturday, the Rockets’ Jabari Smith Jr. and his fellow rookies, Jaden Ivey and Paolo Banchero, were done in by, of all things, a rookie mistake. The rookies had moved into the third and final round tied with the Jazz for the lead, having won the ballhandling round. The Jazz won in passing. That pushed the win of the competition to the shooting round. The rookies clanged their way around the court, Banchero making only themid-range floater worth the fewest points possible. The Jazz team of Jordan Clarkson, Walker Kessler and Collin Sexton easily won the round and the Skills Challenge. The rookies, however, questioned their own strategy, oddly choosing to take the toughest shots, rather than pile up points with the shots they were more likely to make. “Man, we were definitely trying to win,” Smith said. “We couldn’t make shots. But I had fun. “It comes down to what you do every day. That’s how we lost it. If I was to do it again, I feel like we’d have a different strategy. We settled for the 3-ball a lot. We should have taken some easy ones. We shouldn’t have started in. That was our strategy. We didn’t plan to miss that much, though.” The rookies got off to a fast start. They set up their relay team in order of fast, faster, fastest — Banchero to Smith to Ivey. Though Banchero and Smith each missed all three of their 3s, and Ivey missed his first two, rendering the third attempt meaningless since only three attempts are required. But Smith and Ivey went end to end and through the obstacle course as rapidly as any of the nine participants. With that, the rookies won the relay portion of the Skills challenge with a time of 1:14.8. In the Team Passing round, each team member must complete each of the three passing targets in 30 seconds with the score determined by the number of accurate passes. Smith missed his first two passes, but he and his teammates put together an extended run, closing the gap on the Antetokounmpos, falling just short, 84-78. The Jazz topped that score, getting an 88 to earn 100 challenge points to tie the rookies heading into the final round, team shooting. In that round, players must take turns shooting from five spots, ranging from mid-range to a long 3, with greater points awarded for shots with greater difficulty. The Antetokounmpos — Alex, Thanasis and Jrue Holiday, who filled in for the injured Giannis — made enough shots for just eight points. But that was enough to tip the misfiring rookies, if not to come close to topping the Jazz team with homecourt advantage — and shooters that put the ball in the basket. Still, Smith could not stop smiling. “Great experience, something I’ll be looking forward to every year of my career,” he said of playing in the Rising Stars on Friday and Skills Challenge on Saturday. “I want to be in this the rest of my career. That’s the plan.” Next time, he won’t be a rookie, having collected yet another lesson from the experience. McClung slams competition K.J. Martin’s dunks were suitably spectacular. The crowd approved. His father, Kenyon Martin, made a cameo. It was not enough. Nothing would have been the wayMacMcClung so completely stole the show and won the first Julius Erving award as the dunk champion. McClung scored a 50 on three of his four dunks and came one point from one judge — Lisa Leslie — from going four-for-four. With that, the player who was largely unknown before the night began, having spent the season in the G League before signing a two-way contract with the 76ers on Tuesday, topped the Rockets player who proudly carries the recognizable name of his All-Star father. Martin, however, knew all about McClung before he put on a show. “I’ve seen his dunks since high school,” Martin said. “He’s talented. He can jump for sure, especially for his size (6-2).” [email protected] twitter.com/jonathan_feigen ALL-STAR WEEKEND Smith, rookie squad falter in Skills final By Jonathan Feigen STAFF WR ITER Rick Bowmer/Associated Press The Rockets’ K.J. Martin competes Saturday in the slam dunk competition of NBA All-Star weekend in Salt Lake City.
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COMHHHH SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 C9 SALT LAKE CITY — Those who braved the freezing temperatures to trek to Utah for NBA AllStar Weekend have been rewarded with clear skies, beautiful views of the snow-capped Wasatch Mountains and a basketball-crazed city that has waited three decades for its turn to host. In 1993, the last time the NBA’s midseason showcase convened in Salt Lake City, the Utah Jazz were a steady powerhouse thanks to longtime owner Larry H. Miller, no-nonsense coach Jerry Sloan and the Hall of Fame duo of John Stockton and Karl Malone. These days, Utah CEO Danny Ainge is a well-known NBA lifer, but many of the franchise’s other key figures have arrived since Qualtrics founder Ryan Smith purchased the Jazz in 2020. Last summer, Smith, a mid-40s tech billionaire who favors all-black outfits topped with a backward hat, hired rookie coach Will Hardy and executed a roster overhaul by sending out Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell in trades while acquiring Lauri Markkanen, a firsttime all-star forward who has stepped into the void. As such, the weekend has felt like a grand introduction rather than simply a reunion of basketball royalty. “This is really an important moment for our state to shine,” Smith said, hailing Salt Lake City’s standing as one of the country’s 10 fastest-growing markets and its booming “Silicon Slopes” hightech industry. “It’s been 30 years. There’s probably 120,000 people coming into town, and we’re ready for it.” The focus on hospitality seems intentional, given some of the negative impressions that have dogged Utah. In 2019, Russell Westbrook accused a Jazz fan of making “racial” comments toward him during a game, and Mitchell told the website Andscape that his offseason move to Cleveland was “comforting” after years of “draining” criticism from some fans over his comments about the racial climate in Utah, where more than 77 percent of residents are white. Meanwhile, Utah’s state legislature passed a bill last year that banned transgender students from competing in girls sports, raising questions about whether the NBA would relocate this weekend’s festivities. Ultimately, commissioner Adam Silver, who had previously moved the 2017 All-Star Weekend out of Charlotte in response to a North Carolina bathroom bill, said that Salt Lake City would remain as host because the NBA didn’t “want to be in a position where we’re chased from state to state around the country.” By the frenzied standards of All-Star Weekend, this year’s edition has gotten off to a sleepier start than usual, perhaps because of the frigid temperatures. A comedown was inevitable after the NBA pulled no punches with its 75th anniversary celebration in Cleveland last year, and a wave of injuries has dimmed the star power. Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and ZionWilliamson have all been ruled out for Sunday’s showcase, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, DeMar DeRozan and Jaylen Brown are all nursing various maladies. Even the slam dunk contest endured a notable defection when highflying rookie Shaedon Sharpe withdrew, forcing the NBA to assemble an underwhelming field that included Mac McClung, who has spent the entire season in the G League. Nevertheless, visitors can walk down John Stockton Drive next to the Vivint Arena, where statues of the NBA’s all-time assist leader and Malone, his top target, stand sentry. Inside, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced that the finalists for its 2023 class include Gregg Popovich, Dwyane Wade, Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol and Tony Parker. Purple-and-teal throwback jackets from the 1993 showcase dot various pop-up shops, and hundreds of fans queued up Friday to meet Markkanen at the family-friendly NBA Crossover experience inside the downtown Convention Center. A few blocks south, teens took photos next to a life-size figurine of Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant that was fully encased in an ice block. Nike’s Jordan Brand even built a faux pizza parlor in honor of Michael Jordan’s famous “Flu Game” in the 1997 Finals against the Jazz, when the Chicago Bulls legend purportedly suffered from food poisoning after eating a tainted Pizza Hut pie. NBA ALL-STAR GAME Utah shows warm hospitality By Ben Golliver WASH INGTON POST Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images Salt Lake City is hosting All-Star Weekend for the first time since 1993. “This is really an important moment for our state to shine,” Jazz owner Ryan Smith said. DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — “New leader ... 84.” Jimmie Johnson sent a jolt through the track when he shot to the top of the leaderboard in practice for the Daytona 500. The seven-time Cup Series champion has returned to NASCAR after a humbling two years in IndyCar as part owner and sometimes driver at what’s called Legacy Motor Club. Legacy is the Johnsonled rebrand of what began as Petty Enterprises in 1949 — a year after NASCAR began. The Daytona 500 on Sunday starts NASCAR’s celebratory 75th season and all eyes are on Johnson, who just over three months ago did an about-face, returned to NASCAR and energized Richard Petty’s limp race team. Johnson is not driving the No. 48, the only number he’s ever used at NASCAR’s top level; that now belongs to Daytona 500 pole-sitter Alex Bowman, Johnson’s successor at Hendrick Motorsports. Johnson is in the No. 84 Chevrolet. Everything is different at this new Legacy organization, which Petty said Saturday would be completely run by Johnson within five years. But Johnson showed he still knows his way around Daytona International Speedway, even if FanDuel lists him as 40-1 longshot for Sunday. “The large majority of it is familiar. I’m remembering little details as I make laps and get into the zone,” Johnson said. “It drives like a stock car. It doesn’t drive like an IndyCar, thank God. We know how that went.” Try no podium finishes in two seasons. As a team owner, Johnson is a stabilizing figure for the two-car organization of Erik Jones and Noah Gragson. The two-time Daytona 500 champion turns 48 this year, and is a mentor for Gragson — who has the wattage to be a superstar but struggled with maturity issues during his climb into a Cup ride. He signed last year with what he thought was Petty GMS, a mediocre team with a legend in Petty in the team masthead. In reality, the 24-year-old has gotten is unrestricted access to one of the greatest sportsmen of his generation. Gragson is soaking in every bit of wisdom Johnson has to offer, and the deal came with spotter Earl Barban, who debuted with Johnson in that 2006 Daytona 500 victory. “New leader ... 48,” was Barban’s trademark call as Johnson led nearly 19,000 laps in his career. Although Petty won the Daytona 500 seven times, the last Petty-owned car to win the Daytona 500 was in 1979. Johnson has the organization in the conversation for Sunday. “I’m glad we’re at the top of the board and not at the bottom,” Johnson said. “I’m sure the headlines would read a little differently if we were on the other end of it.” Other things to watch on Sunday: Hamlin’s history Denny Hamlin seeks a fourth Daytona 500 victory in a career he already finds beyond fulfilling. The knock on Hamlin is that he’s never won a Cup championship in 17 tries. But when asked this week whether he’d trade a Daytona 500 trophy for just one title, Hamlin snapped: “No. I got asked that last year. No way. No chance.” Hamlin finished ninth in his qualifying race and the entire Toyota fleet sat out of Saturday’s practice. Both the Ford and Chevy camps seemed both fast and organized — Hendrick Chevys Bowman and Kyle Larson start on the front row, Ford drivers Joey Logano and Aric Almirola start on the second — but Hamlin still likes his chances. “I LOVE my car,” he wrote on Twitter. Bumper cars NASCAR is in the second year of its new Next Gen car and still seeking solutions to a problem with the bumpers that caused several concussions last season. The rear bumpers were supposed to be softened this year so that the car would absorb more energy during routine contact, but drivers earlier this month complained the hits were just as hard in the exhibition race at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Racing at Daytona requires deliberate bump drafting and it’s an aggressive race in which the stakes are higher than a typical Sunday.. “Daytona hasits own set of rules that everyone plays by,” said Brad Keselowski, who was fastest in Saturday’s final practice. ”At the end of the race at Daytona, you have to ask yourself, ‘What am I willing to do to win this race?’ More often than not, especially over the last three years, it’s taken wrecking the leader to win the 500.” Who to watch IndyCar driver Conor Daly and action sports star Travis Pastrana make their Daytona 500 debuts in a twist of fate for the good friends. Pastrana always wanted to start the Daytona 500. A decade after running one full season of NASCAR at his second-tier level, he gets the chancein a Toyota. “A lot of the guys that follow NASCAR, just the fans, they know me as a TV personality or a stuntman,” Pastrana said. “Really in my heart, racer, motorcross racer, built the reputation as a race car driver as well.” Daly barely made the race is probably the least prepared in the field, but like Pastrana he’s excited to showcase motorsports. 1. (48) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet 2. (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet 3. (22) Joey Logano, Ford 4. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford 5. (20) Christopher Bell, Toyota 6. (2) Austin Cindric, Ford 7. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford 8. (9) Chase Elliot, Chevrolet 9. (17) Chris Buescher, Ford 10. (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford 11. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford 12. (7) Corey Lajoie, Chevrolet 13. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford 14. (38) Todd Gilliland, Ford 15. (23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota 16. (19) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota 17. (36) Zane Smith, Ford 18. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota 19. (21) Harrison Burton, Ford 20. (41) Ryan Preece, Ford 21. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet 22. (42) Noah Gragson, Chevrolet 23. (1) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet 24. (99) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet 25. (43) Erik Jones, Chevrolet 26. (45) Tyler Reddick, Toyota 27. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet 28. (31) Justin Haley, Chevrolet 29. (16) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet 30. (14) Chase Briscoe, Ford 31. (47) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Chevrolet 32. (78) BJ McLeod, Chevrolet 33. (54) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet 34. (15) Riley Herbst, Ford 35. (51) Cody Ware, Ford 36. (8) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet 37. (77) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet 38. (15) Riley Herbst, Ford 39. (84) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet 40. (67) Travis Pastrana, Toyota NASCAR Johnson is back for another Daytona run By Jenna Fryer ASSOC IATED PRE SS John Raoux/Associated Press Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson returns to the Daytona 500 after spending the last two years on the IndyCar circuit. DAYTONA LINEUP ALL-STAR WEEKEND FRIDAY Celebrity game; Rising Stars SATURDAY Skills competitions (skills, 3-point, dunk) Winners: Skills (Utah Jazz), 3-point (Damian Lillard, Portland), dunk (Mac McClung, Philadelphia) SUNDAY Pregame draft, 6:30 p.m. (TNT) All-Star Game, 7:30 p.m. (TNT) ALL-STAR GAME PLAYER POOLS Captains will draft teams before the game ELIGIBLE FROM WESTERN CONFERENCE STARTERS c-LeBron James LAL Stephen Curry* GS Ja Morant** MEM Luka Doncic DAL Nikola Jokic DEN Zion Williamson* NO Lauri Markkanen** UTA RESERVES Domantas Sabonis SAC Shai Gilgeous-Alexander OKC Paul George LAC Damian Lillard POR Jaren Jackson Jr. MEM Anthony Edwards** MIN De’Aaron Fox** SAC ELIGIBLE FROM EASTERN CONFERENCE STARTERS c-Giannis Antetokounmpo MIL Jayson Tatum BOS Kevin Durant* BKN Joel Embiid PHI Kyrie Irving BKN Donovan Mitchell CLE RESERVES DeMar DeRozan CHI Jaylen Brown BOS Bam Adebayo MIA Jrue Holiday MIL Julius Randle NY Tyrese Haliburton IND Pascal Siakam** TOR c-captain; *injured; **replacement ALL-STAR SATURDAY NIGHT 3-point contest Tyrese Haliburton IND Tyler Herro MIA Buddy Hield IND Kevin Huerter SAC Damian Lillard POR Lauri Markkanen UTA Anfernee Simons POR Jayson Tatum BOS Slam dunk competition KJ Martin HOU Mac McClung PHI Trey Murphy III NO Jericho Sims NY Skills challenge Team Antetokounmpo Giannis AntetokounmpoMIL Thanasis Antetokounmpo MIL Alex Antetokounmpo Wilsconsin Herd Team Jazz Jordan Clarkson Utah Collin Sexton Utah Walker Kessler Utah Team Rooks Jabari Smith Jr. HOU Paulo Banchero ORO Jaden Ivey DET LeBron James will be honored Sunday for becoming the NBA’s all-time scoring leader earlier this month. The Los Angeles Lakers star and Antetokounmpo will also serve as all-star captains and pick their teams in a televised pregame draft. Courtside tickets for Sunday’s game were listed for nearly $10,000 a piece on a secondary site, and Smith estimated that the festivities could have a $250 million impact locally. “What I want to show kids is that it’s 100 percent possible to do great things in Utah,” Smith said. “Utah is not going to get in the way.”
C10 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 HHHH HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM HIGH SCHOOLS AUSTIN— Goldmedals and gold hair make a great pair. Just ask The Woodlands’ Jeremy Wade. The Highlanders’ sixthyear swimming coach can vouch for both. With his hair dyed blonde, Wade eagerly watched from the pool deck as his girls team reclaimed its throne as the No. 1 team in Texas. The Woodlands weaponized its depth once again during a dominant performance at the UIL Class 6A state swimming and diving championships Saturday at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. The Highlanders finished as the runners-up last year to Southlake Carroll after winning the crown in 2021. This time around, they came out on top with 300 points. That was enough to hold off Carroll (284). The victory marked the 11th state title for The Woodlands’ girls program, all of which have come since 1989. “Total team effort,” Wade said. “Every single point mattered coming into this meet. We had a fantastic prelims, but Southlake Carroll, they had a really good prelims, so they tightened the gap coming into the meet. Kudos to them — they swam great, well-coached team. But I’m so proud of our girls. Our senior girls stepped up and led the way.” The Woodlands started strong with a silver-medal finishin the 200-yardmedley relay for the second consecutive season. The team of Maria Uranga, Evlin Riederer, Mary Nordmann and Brooke Miller clocked in at 1:42.52. The Highlanders also had a strong showing in the 500 freestyle. Junior Zoe Nordmann led the charge with a silver at 4:50.78, and senior Abigail Pope took bronze in 4:52.84. The Woodlands extended its lead even further with a gold in the 200 freestyle relay, clocking in at 1:33.67. That winning squad was comprised of Sophia Cristal, Chloe Corbin, Mary Nordmann and Zoe Nordmann. Miller, Corbin, Zoe Nordmann and Riederer closed out the competition with a bronze in the 400 freestyle relay, touching the wall at 3:25.51. The Woodlands picked up its only individual medal of the day in the 100 breaststroke as Riederer, a junior, claimed silver at 1:01.28. Highlanders shine The Woodlands boys were no slouches, either. The Highlanders moved up one spot fromlast year’s finish, taking second place with a score of 238. Keller won the state title with 260, and Kingwood took third place at 137. “Going up against a team as stacked as Keller’s is, thisis probably themost talented boys team — like I said at the beginning of the year — to ever come out of The Woodlands,” Wade said. The Woodlands started the meet with a strong performance in the 200 medley relay, taking gold with a time of 1:29.81 after finishing second last year. That set a new state record, beating the Highlanders’ time of 1:30.08 from 2021. The team was comprised of Ryan Rautenbach, Tyler Tannenberger, Roberto Bonilla Flores and C.J. Sorensen. The Highlanders collected another batch of points in the 200 freestyle relay as the team of Aidan Flanagan, Wesley Foster, Slade Stephens and Sorensen captured bronze with a time of 1:23.33. The Woodlands also took bronze in the 400 freestyle relay as Flanagan, Foster, Stephens and Rautenbach finished the race at 3:03.17. Flores reached the podium twice individually. He took bronze in the 200 IM at 1:46.83 and silver in the 100 breaststroke at 54.62. Tannenberger contributed to The Woodlands’ medal count as well, taking bronze behind Flores in the breaststroke at 55.42. Junior diver Jacob Jones was also a factor, taking silver in the 1-meter event with a score of 566.35. Scholl wins 2 golds When Benjamin Scholl emerged from the water and looked up at the scoreboard, the Cypress Woods senior began celebrating the “1” perched next to his name. But then, there was another revelation. His friend and competitor, Round Rock Westwood senior Sonny Wang, was also clamoring over his performance in the 50 freestyle, the fastest race of the entire meet. “Ben, we tied!” Wang shouted from his lane. Indeed, they had. Both swimmers touched the wall at 19.94 seconds. It marked the second consecutive gold and third medal in the event for Scholl, who took bronze as a sophomore. It was also the third medal for Wang, who captured gold as a sophomore and silver as a junior. “We’ve been racing each other at state for the past four years,” Scholl said. “We’ve just been going atit, and the last year, we tie? It’s just great. … Me and him, we warm up together and pretty much get ready for our races together. I see him at all my national meets, and we go at it with each other. At the national meets, it feels like we’re kind of teammates because we’re going against the whole country. But here, it’s just like a fun little duel.” There would be no sharing for Scholl in his second race of the day, the 100 freestyle. But, once again, he had to battle Wang for the top spot on the podium. He came out with a solo victory at 43.42. [email protected] twitter.com/jonpoorman CLASS 6A SWIMMING The Woodlands girls win 11th title By Jon Poorman STAFF WR ITER Jason Fochtman/Staff photographer The Woodlands girls swimming and diving team won the program’s 11th state title, its second championship in the last three seasons Saturday in Austin. AUSTIN — The journey to the state podium has been a long one for Lauren Matula. Less than two years ago, the Lake Creek junior had a metal bar removed from her chest. It was surgically placed there to treat Pectus Excavatum, a condition in which the sternum is caved in due to abnormal growth in the chest cavity. The bar took her out of swimming for a year, and it took another sixth months to fully recover after its removal. Since that time, her trajectory as a swimmer has continued to rise. Now, she has reached the pinnacle. Matula continued to show her resilience and captured two medals at the UIL Class 5A state championships Saturday, taking home a gold in the 500 freestyle in 4:57.39 and a silver in the 200 free in 1:51.50 after facing elite competition at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. “It’s been really hard but really fun,” Matula said. “I never really imagined how much I would improve in just two years. I knew I would improve, but not this much in such little time. It’s really just been great.” With her victories came personal triumph. But she also made history. Matula became the first swimmer from her school to win a state medal. Mason Williams, a diver, was the first Lake Creek athlete to accomplish that in 2020. Laurito dominant Tony Laurito was on a mission Saturday evening. When he captured gold in the 200 IM as a sophomore, he admitted, he wasn’t really expecting it. But this year was different. This year, he had something more to prove. Not only did the Friendswood junior successfully defend his title, but he set a new Class 5A record in the process with a time of 1:47.34. It was a significant improvement over hiswinning time of 1:49.62 from last year. Laurito collected his second gold later in the meet, winning the 100 backstroke at 48.98. “It means a lot,” Laurito said. “I didn’t really think I could (medal) freshman year. Coming from there to here and then also breaking the record at the same time, it means a lot. I came into this year with a lot more confidence.” Magnolia girls third Magnolia was the topfinishing girls team from the Houston area, collecting a score of 158. The Bulldogs trailed only Cedar Park (194) and Frisco Reedy (160). Magnolia reached the podium just once, but it did so with loads of points on the line. Magnolia came out of the gates strong, collecting silver in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:48.03. That team was comprised of Sarah Culberson, Claire Culberson, Olivia Suarez and Emma Huma. “That was awesome, man,” Magnolia ISD coach Kenneth Nelson said. “When you start a meet like this on a good note, your brain and your energy and your adrenaline is there with it through the entire day. It was fantastic.” Moons makes history Julie Moons became the second Lake Creek athlete to win a medal Saturday. After taking sixth place in the 1-meter diving event last year, she moved up and took silver this time around. Moons finished with a score of 430.60, trailing only two-time champion Maria Faoro, a Lucas Lovejoy sophomore. Like Matula, Moons made history. The junior goes down as the first female diver to win a state medal for Lake Creek. “I’ve been working all year, and I’ve been practicing hard on my dives,” Moons said. “It was a great experience. I was definitely very nervous, but I’m happy with how I did.” Magnolia junior Jake Bigler was the top Houstonarea boys diver, taking bronze with a score of 432.60. Four apiece for pair After winning three state medals as a freshman last year, Avery Dillon added to the haul Saturday. The Fulshear sophomore captured two individual medals, taking bronze in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:51.64 and silver in the 500 freestyle behind Matula at 4:58.83. Junior teammate Kailey Kennedy also won two individual medals, taking bronze in the 50 freestyle (23.22) and 100 breaststroke (1:05.62). Dillon and Kennedy were joined by teammates Emma Nowotny and Ellie Paisley on the Chargers’ 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay teams, which took gold and bronze, respectively, with times of 1:37.74 and 3:34.20. Fulshear finished fourth with a score of 146. [email protected] twitter.com/jonpoorman CLASS 5A SWIMMING Lake Creek’s resilient Matula strikes gold By Jon Poorman STAFF WR ITER Jason Fochtman/Staff Lake Creek’s Lauren Matula won gold in the Class 5A 500 freestyle. For the second time in three years, the College Park boys wrestling team finished in third place at the UIL Class 6A meet and is the top program in Greater Houston. The Cavaliers totaled 110 points Saturday as they took home a trophy, just like in 2021. “I’m always happy to bring home a trophy from the state tournament,” College Park eighth year coach Erik Spjut said. “Coaching so many individuals out there, you’re really happy for some and you’re really down for others. Once you take time and step back, you’re really happy with the trophy with third.” Sophomore Caio Aron was the lone championship qualifier, and his match went the distance against two-time defending state champion Shawn Ryncarz of Arlington Martin. Caio lost for just the fourth time all season (and second time to Ryncarz) on a 2-1 tiebreaker. Caio finished the season 55-4. “I’m very proud of him,” Spjut said. “He’s only a sophomore and he’s got a lot of big events coming up that he’s going to train for.” College Park had three silver medalists as freshman Andrew Huerta (113), junior Kolten Oborny (150) and senior Alec Robeson each ended on a high note. Lew makes history The Westside boys wrestling team has been represented well at state but never had a champion. That all changed with the 138-pound final. Junior Kyle Lew held on for a 3-2 decision to defeat 2022 state champion Garrett McChesney, finally putting the Wolves atop the podium. “My coach is here, I’m the first state champion and I know it means a lot to him and to this program,” Lew said. “It’s everything. It’s really big for me and family. Coming off of Fargo, All-American at Fargo, All-American at duals, this is just icing on the cake.” In a rematch of the Region III-6A championship, which Lew won by pinfall, Lew scored an early takedown before McChesney scored two escapes to tie the match at two entering the third period. “I knew that last time we wrestled he got a really good takedown on me, so I really had to be careful with his offense but also try to impose mine,” Lew said. “Once I got that first takedown, settle in the match, I know he’s going to be aggressive, going to be shooting. A lot of it is just positioning and footwork, if I could just stalk him forward I knew I’d have the match.” Lew chose the down position to start the third and escaped for what proved to be the championship point. He stayed sturdy and averted attacks the rest of the match, wrapping up his opponent as time expired. The Wolves produced three state medalists, as Juan Cantu took silver in 113 and Santiago Ramirez took bronze in 106. [email protected] [email protected] twitter.com/jack_marrion twitter.com/taterconroe WRESTLING College Park boys lead area with third-place finish By Jack Marrion and Rob Tate STAFF WR ITERS Tim Warner/Contributor Westside’s Kyle Lew won the program’s first state title with a win in the 138-pound division.
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COMHHHH SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 C11 FOR THE RECORD MERIBEL, France — Mikaela Shiffrin wanted to cap off the Alpine world championships in signature form, finishing the biggest skiing event outside of the Olympics with another gold medal at the end of nearly two weeks of drama. But it was not to be, even though the event finished with slalom, her best discipline event. Shiffrin lost her lead at the top of the second run and had to settle for her second silver in these world championships and her third medal of the meet. She won the gold medal in giant slalom and last week won the silver in super-G. Laurence St-Germain of Canada was 0.61 behind in third place but took the lead on her second run. Shiffrin made too many mistakes at the top of her run and finished second. GOLF Rahm moves to lead at Genesis Jon Rahm kept mistakes off his card Saturday at Riviera, allowing him to post a 6-under 65 for a three-shot lead over Max Homa at the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles. Tiger Woods lost ground. Woods had a tap-in eagle on his way to a 67, his lowest Saturday round in an official event since 2019. Even so, he was 12 shots back. Keith Mitchell made his only bogey on the final hole and had a 69 to fall four behind. The only other player within five shots was Patrick Cantlay (68). NFL Commanders hire Bieniemy Eric Bieniemy has agreed to be the Washington Commanders’ offensive coordinator and assistant head coach. The team announced Saturday that the twotime Super Bowl-winning assistant with Kansas City will be joining Washington. NBA Love, Cavaliers finalize buyout Kevin Love and the Cleveland Cavaliers have completed a buyout of his contract. The five-time All-Star is strongly considering a move to the Miami Heat. Love will still have to clear waivers before he can sign with a new team. TENNIS Swiatek retains Qatar Open title Top-ranked Iga Swiatek successfully defended her Qatar Open title by beating No. 4-ranked Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-0 in the final. WNBA Griner re-signing with Mercury Brittney Griner resigned with the Phoenix Mercury on a one-year contract according to a person familiar with the deal. The Mercury also resigned the WNBA’s alltime leading scorer Diana Taurasi to a multiyear contract. AROUND SPORTS Shiffrin finishes 2nd at worlds W IRE REPORTS Odds Home team capitalized College basketball Sunday FAVORITE LINE UNDERDOG UCF 3½ Cincinnati NC STATE 1½ North Carolina PURDUE 12½ Ohio State DETROIT MERCY 18 IUPUI Bradley 1½ SOUTHERN ILLINOIS SAINT BONAVENTURE 4½ George Washington TEMPLE 14 Tulsa Niagara 1 MARIST MOUNT ST. MARY’S 2½ Canisius Wright State 1½ PURDUE FORT WAYNE FAIRFIELD 5½ Manhattan CLEVELAND STATE 2½ Northern Kentucky UIC 1 Valparaiso HOUSTON 13½ Memphis SMU 5½ East Carolina BUTLER 6½ Georgetown DRAKE 7½ Belmont Maryland 6½ NEBRASKA FURMAN 13½ East Tennessee State Iowa 1 NORTHWESTERN WASHINGTON STATE PK Oregon BOISE STATE 7½ UNLV FAVORITE LINE O/U UNDERDOG NHL Sunday FAVORITE LINE UNDERDOG LINE MINNESOTA -188 Nashville +152 OTTAWA -156 St. Louis +130 COLORADO -118 Edmonton -102 Toronto -285 CHICAGO +230 NEW JERSEY -132 Winnipeg +110 ARIZONA -134 Columbus +112 Auto racing Nascar Xfinity Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. 300 Lineup At Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Fla. Lap length: 2.50 miles (Car number in parentheses) 1. (21) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 182.563 mph. 2. (48) Parker Kligerman, Chevrolet, 182.441. 3. (00) Cole Custer, Ford, 182.319. 4. (2) Sheldon Creed, Chevrolet, 182.216. 5. (7) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 182.208. 6. (11) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 181.778. 7. (20) John H. Nemechek, Toyota, 181.664. 8. (16) Chandler Smith, Chevrolet, 181.598. 9. (98) Riley Herbst, Ford, 181.254. 10. (78) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 181.068. 11. (9) Brandon Jones, Chevrolet, 181.291. 12. (5) Jade Buford, Chevrolet, 181.273. 13. (19) Myatt Snider, Toyota, 181.152. 14. (1) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, 181.123. 15. (18) Sammy Smith, Toyota, 181.046. 16. (31) Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet, 180.883. 17. (45) Caesar Bacarella, Chevrolet, 180.875. 18. (8) Josh Berry, Chevrolet, 180.854. 19. (10) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 180.661. 20. (27) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 180.502. 21. (6) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 180.115. 22. (38) Ryan Sieg, Ford, 180.011. 23. (08) Gray Gaulding, Chevrolet, 179.716. 24. (44) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 179.587. 25. (92) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 179.297. 26. (28) Kyle Sieg, Ford, 179.290. 27. (07) Blaine Perkins, Chevrolet, 179.208. 28. (02) David Starr, Chevrolet, 179.183. 29. (39) Joe Graf Jr, Ford, 179.179. 30. (4) Bayley Currey, Chevrolet, 179.072. 31. (35) Cj McLaughlin, Toyota, 179.055. 32. (25) Brett Moffitt, Ford, 179.051. 33. (26) Kaz Grala, Toyota, 178.944. 34. (24) Parker Chase, Toyota, 178.525. 35. (43) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 178.211. 36. (53) Joey Gase, Ford, 176.060. 37. (34) Jesse Iwuji, Chevrolet, .000. 38. (51) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 178.610. Colleges Men’s basketball Saturday’s results Top 25 No. 1 Alabama 108, Georgia 59 No. 4 UCLA vs. California, late No. 5 Kansas 87, No. 9 Baylor 71 No. 6 Texas 85, Oklahoma 83 (OT) No. 7 Virginia 57, Notre Dame 55 No. 8 Arizona 78, Colorado 68 Kentucky 66, No. 10 Tennessee 54 No. 12 Kansas St. 61, No. 19 Iowa St. 55 No. 13 Gonzaga 97, Pepperdine 88 No. 14 Indiana 71, Illinois 68 No. 15 Miami 96, Wake Forest 87 No. 16 Xavier 82, DePaul 68 No. 17 Saint Mary’s (Cal.) vs. BYU, late No. 18 Creighton 77, St. John’s 67 No. 20 UConn 64, Seton Hall 55 No. 22 TCU 100, Oklahoma St. 75 No. 24 Providence 85, Villanova 72 EAST Boston U. 77, Bucknell 61 CCSU 94, Stonehill 90 (3OT) Colgate 96, Holy Cross 73 Delaware 75, UNC-Wilmington 66 Elon 75, Monmouth (NJ) 68 Fairleigh Dickinson 66, Wagner 48 Howard 80, Coppin St. 70 Lehigh 62, American 59 Maine 74, Albany (NY) 72 Mass.-Lowell 84, Binghamton 70 Md.-Eastern Shore 78, SC State 62 Merrimack 67, Sacred Heart 55 NC Central 66, Delaware St. 58 Navy 65, Loyola (Md.) 53 New Hampshire 75, UMBC 66 Northeastern 69, William & Mary 57 Providence 85, Villanova 72 St. Francis (Pa.) 93, LIU 82 Texas Tech 78, West Virginia 72 Towson 87, NC A&T 75 UConn 64, Seton Hall 55 UMass 69, Rhode Island 45 SOUTH Alcorn St. 75, Jackson St. 60 Austin Peay 73, North Florida 71 Boston College 75, Florida St. 69 Campbell 74, Presbyterian 57 Charlotte 74, Louisiana Tech 67 Davidson 76, Saint Joseph’s 75 George Mason 70, La Salle 66 Georgia Tech 79, Florida Tech 56 Hampton 75, Drexel 72 High Point 81, SC-Upstate 66 Kentucky 66, Tennessee 54 Longwood 73, Radford 63 Miami 96, Wake Forest 87 Mississippi St. 69, Mississippi 61 (OT) Morehead St. 71, Lindenwood (Mo.) 58 Murray St. 74, Evansville 58 Nicholls 84, Incarnate Word 74 Norfolk St. 72, Morgan St. 50 Old Dominion 74, Appalachian St. 63 Queens (NC) 83, Kennesaw St. 76 Samford 96, VMI 61 South Alabama 81, Louisiana-Monroe 45 South Carolina 82, LSU 73 Southern Miss. 73, Georgia Southern 62 Texas A&M-CC 77, McNeese St. 54 Texas St. 78, Coastal Carolina 75 UNC-Asheville 75, Gardner-Webb 63 UNC-Greensboro 93, Chattanooga 76 UT Martin 100, Tennessee Tech 91 VCU 80, Fordham 61 Virginia 57, Notre Dame 55 W. Carolina 71, Mercer 68 Wofford 72, The Citadel 68 MIDWEST Indiana 71, Illinois 68 Indiana St. 80, Illinois St. 64 Kansas 87, Baylor 71 Kansas St. 61, Iowa St. 55 N. Iowa 69, Missouri St. 66 Ohio 76, Cent. Michigan 59 Rutgers 58, Wisconsin 57 W. Michigan 78, Ball St. 68 Xavier 82, DePaul 68 Youngstown St. 95, Green Bay 65 SOUTHWEST Arkansas 84, Florida 65 Arkansas St. 75, Georgia St. 70 TCU 100, Oklahoma St. 75 Texas 85, Oklahoma 83 (OT) Texas-Arlington 75, Stephen F. Austin 70 UAB 83, UTSA 78 UALR 81, E. Illinois 77 (OT) WEST Denver 86, South Dakota 68 N. Arizona 72, Idaho 50 Texas Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico St., forfeited Friday’s results EAST Canisius 81, Rider 78 Cornell 95, Dartmouth 83 (OT) Fairfield 70, Marist 61 Harvard 83, Columbia 65 Iona 71, Manhattan 60 Mount St. Mary’s 70, Niagara 66 Penn 66, Yale 64 Princeton 78, Brown 67 Quinnipiac 66, Siena 63 MIDWEST Cleveland St. 85, Wright St. 68 Dayton 65, Loyola Chicago 49 Detroit 96, Oakland 74 Kent St. 81, E. Michigan 54 N. Kentucky 63, Fort Wayne 50 WEST Air Force 75, Wyoming 69 Chicago St. 103, Calumet College of St. Joseph 56 Grand Canyon 94, Abilene Christian 84 New Mexico 96, San Jose St. 68 S. Utah 81, Utah Tech 71 Women’s basketball Saturday’s results Top 25 No. 6 UConn 60, No. 14 Villanova 51 No. 7 Iowa 80, Nebraska 60 No. 8 Maryland 66, Michigan St. 61 No. 20 Gonzaga 65, Saint Mary’s (Cal) 51 No. 22 Iowa St. 81, Baylor 77 (2OT) EAST Army 72, Lafayette 51 Boston U. 66, Bucknell 57 Colgate 60, Holy Cross 56 DePaul 86, Providence 64 Duquesne 83, Richmond 69 George Washington 61, Loyola Chicago 50 Houston 56, Temple 48 Iona 50, Mount St. Mary’s 37 Manhattan 67, St. Peter’s 57 Mass.-Lowell 62, Binghamton 55 Md.-Eastern Shore 76, SC State 34 Merrimack 73, Sacred Heart 66 Miami (Ohio) 72, Buffalo 67 NC Central 62, Delaware St. 50 Seton Hall 72, Xavier 59 Stonehill 61, CCSU 50 UConn 60, Villanova 51 UMBC 90, New Hampshire 43 Vermont 85, NJIT 73 SOUTH Charleston Southern 64, Winthrop 57 Coppin St. 52, Howard 41 E. Kentucky 78, Cent. Arkansas 51 ETSU 66, Furman 63 East Carolina 63, UCF 57 Florida Gulf Coast 55, Austin Peay 42 Georgia Southern 75, Coastal Carolina 66 Georgia St. 55, Marshall 54 High Point 83, SC-Upstate 51 Incarnate Word 65, Nicholls 50 Jackson St. 81, Alcorn St. 49 Jacksonville 59, Jacksonville St. 53 (OT) James Madison 73, Old Dominion 68 (OT) Lipscomb 68, Stetson 52 Longwood 65, Radford 63 Louisiana Tech 83, Charlotte 79 (2OT) Mercer 70, Samford 59 Middle Tennessee 85, FIU 46 Morehead St. 67, Lindenwood (Mo.) 62 Norfolk St. 74, Morgan St. 37 North Florida 84, Kennesaw St. 76 Northwestern St. 82, New Orleans 81 (OT) Presbyterian 60, Campbell 56 Rice 82, W. Kentucky 64 Southern Miss. 84, Louisiana-Monroe 82 (OT) Southern U. 54, Grambling St. 50 Tennessee St. 87, SIU-Edwardsville 83 Tennessee Tech 74, UT Martin 63 Texas A&M-CC 75, McNeese St. 62 UAB 67, UTSA 64 MIDWEST Bowling Green 65, W. Michigan 53 Cleveland St. 87, Wright St. 49 Creighton 75, Georgetown 34 Denver 79, South Dakota 74 Drake 83, Illinois St. 67 Fort Wayne 65, N. Kentucky 59 IUPUI 87, Oakland 73 Iowa 80, Nebraska 60 Kent St. 87, Akron 46 Marquette 61, St. John’s 38 Maryland 66, Michigan St. 61 N. Dakota St. 103, Oral Roberts 86 N. Illinois 84, Ball St. 77 N. Iowa 76, Bradley 50 North Dakota 61, UMKC 39 Northwestern 76, Minnesota 62 Ohio 83, Cent. Michigan 75 S. Dakota St. 87, Omaha 54 SE Missouri 63, S. Indiana 59 St. Thomas (MN) 71, W. Illinois 57 Toledo 84, E. Michigan 64 Tulane 65, Cincinnati 54 SOUTHWEST LLamar 55, Houston Christian 53 Memphis 69, Tulsa 44 SE Louisiana 66, Texas A&M Commerce 55 Sam Houston St. 59, Tarleton St. 58 Texas St. 77, South Alabama 57 Texas-Arlington 82, Abilene Christian 73 UALR 46, E. Illinois 42 WEST Boise St. 89, Utah St. 41 Cal Poly 54, Cal St.-Fullerton 48 Colorado St. 67, Air Force 64 E. Washington 57, N. Colorado 53 Gonzaga 65, Saint Mary’s (Cal) 51 Grand Canyon 78, Seattle 43 Montana St. 75, Montana 73 N. Arizona 87, Idaho 78 New Mexico 70, San Jose St. 61 S. Utah 67, Stephen F. Austin 59 Sacramento St. 75, Idaho St. 62 San Diego 69, Santa Clara 62 (OT) San Francisco 72, BYU 59 UC San Diego 57, CS Northridge 46 Utah Tech 89, Texas Rio Grande Valley 86 Weber St. 62, Portland St. 55 Wyoming 70, San Diego St. 58 Friday’s results EAST Canisius 73, Fairfield 60 Columbia 75, Harvard 70 Cornell 53, Dartmouth 40 Delaware 65, Hofstra 54 Green Bay 61, Robert Morris 37 Northeastern 71, Drexel 64 Penn 72, Yale 58 Princeton 80, Brown 37 SOUTH Elon 57, Monmouth (NJ) 48 Hampton 63, UNC-Wilmington 53 Stony Brook 82, Coll. of Charleston 75 Towson 66, William & Mary 59 UTEP 88, UAB 61 MIDWEST Belmont 80, S. Illinois 70 Evansville 68, Ill. Chicago 65 (OT) Milwaukee 75, Youngstown St. 54 Missouri St. 92, Murray St. 86 (2OT) Valparaiso 54, Indiana St. 47 WEST Arizona 82, Utah 72 Colorado 70, Arizona St. 62 Stanford 50, Southern Cal 47 UCLA 67, California 54 Washington 64, Oregon St. 59 Washington St. 64, Oregon 57 Football XFL North Division W L Pct PF PA DC 0 0 .000 0 0 Seattle 0 0 .000 0 0 St. Louis 0 0 .000 0 0 Vegas 0 1 .000 20 22 South Division W L Pct PF PA Arlington 1 0 1.000 22 20 Houston 0 0 .000 0 0 Orlando 0 0 .000 0 0 San Antonio 0 0 .000 0 0 Saturday’s results Arlington 22, Vegas 20 Orlando at Houston, late Sunday’s games St. Louis at San Antonio, 2 p.m. Seattle at DC, 7 p.m. Thursday’s game St. Louis at Seattle, 8 p.m. Feb. 25 game DC at Vegas, 6 p.m. Golf PGA Tour The Genesis Invitational At Pacific Palisades, Calif. Yardage: 7,322; Par: 71 Saturday’s third round Jon Rahm.......................................................65-68-65—198 Max Homa .....................................................64-68-69—201 Keith Mitchell ................................................64-69-69—202 Patrick Cantlay..............................................68-67-68—203 Gary Woodland .............................................69-68-67—204 Tom Hoge.......................................................67-71-68—206 Denny McCarthy ............................................71-71-64—206 Collin Morikawa.............................................66-68-72—206 Adam Svensson.............................................67-71-68—206 Lee Hodges....................................................67-66-74—207 Matt Kuchar...................................................66-70-71—207 J.J. Spaun ......................................................68-72-67—207 Sahith Theegala ............................................71-68-68—207 Will Zalatoris .................................................69-68-70—207 Seamus Power ..............................................71-70-67—208 Scottie Scheffler ...........................................70-68-70—208 Danny Willett.................................................68-69-71—208 Tommy Fleetwood........................................68-70-71—209 Lucas Herbert ................................................70-71-68—209 Luke List .........................................................70-71-68—209 Shane Lowry..................................................69-69-71—209 Peter Malnati.................................................68-71-70—209 Rory McIlroy...................................................67-69-73—209 Justin Suh.......................................................71-70-68—209 Cameron Young ............................................68-74-67—209 Jason Day .......................................................72-67-71—210 Kramer Hickok ...............................................69-69-72—210 Viktor Hovland ...............................................69-71-70—210 Stephan Jaeger ..............................................68-71-71—210 Justin Thomas ...............................................68-73-69—210 Kevin Tway.....................................................68-73-69—210 Tiger Woods...................................................69-74-67—210 Wyndham Clark..............................................71-72-68—211 Thomas Detry.................................................71-67-73—211 Luke Donald ...................................................69-73-69—211 Tyler Duncan ...................................................71-71-69—211 Harris English .................................................66-73-72—211 Doug Ghim .....................................................67-74-70—211 Tyrrell Hatton .................................................70-71-70—211 Adrian Meronk................................................74-67-70—211 Sam Ryder ......................................................71-70-70—211 Adam Schenk.................................................69-70-72—211 Sepp Straka ....................................................70-71-70—211 Kevin Streelman.............................................68-71-72—211 Tony Finau ......................................................72-69-71—212 Rickie Fowler..................................................68-75-69—212 Sungjae Im.....................................................69-69-74—212 Tom Kim..........................................................71-70-71—212 Nate Lashley..................................................69-73-70—212 Adam Long .....................................................70-71-71—212 Trey Mullinax .................................................74-68-70—212 Scott Piercy ....................................................69-71-72—212 Aaron Rai .......................................................70-73-69—212 Jhonattan Vegas ...........................................67-72-73—212 Mackenzie Hughes.........................................72-70-71—213 Seonghyeon Kim ...........................................69-73-71—213 David Lipsky ...................................................68-71-74—213 Xander Schauffele ........................................69-74-70—213 Matthias Schwab ..........................................70-73-70—213 Nick Taylor......................................................69-74-70—213 Ben Taylor ......................................................69-72-72—213 Michael Thompson .......................................74-67-72—213 Christiaan Bezuidenhout ...............................71-72-71—214 J.B. Holmes ....................................................71-72-71—214 Adam Hadwin ...............................................67-73-75—215 Adam Scott ...................................................69-73-75—217 Corey Conners ................................................71-72-75—218 Emiliano Grillo ...............................................68-75-76—219 Champion’s Tour Chubb Classic Tour At Naples, Fla. Yardage: 6,909; Par: 72 Saturday’s second round Bernhard Langer .................................................64-70—134 Steven Alker ........................................................70-65—135 Paul Goydos .........................................................64-71—135 Jerry Kelly.............................................................69-66—135 Dicky Pride ...........................................................65-70—135 Fred Couples........................................................67-69—136 Steve Stricker ......................................................67-69—136 Olin Browne .........................................................67-70—137 Ernie Els ...............................................................65-72—137 Retief Goosen ......................................................66-71—137 Padraig Harrington .............................................67-70—137 Paul Broadhurst ..................................................70-68—138 Scott McCarron ...................................................69-69—138 David Toms..........................................................70-68—138 Duffy Waldorf......................................................65-73—138 Darren Clarke .......................................................71-68—139 Steve Flesch ........................................................69-70—139 Lee Janzen ...........................................................70-69—139 Rob Labritz ..........................................................72-67—139 Justin Leonard.....................................................66-73—139 DP World Tour Thailand Classic At Bangkok Yardage: 7,505; Par: 72 Saturday’s third round Thorbjorn Olesen, Denmark.........................67-67-64—198 Nicolai Hojgaard, Denmark .........................70-66-64—200 Yannik Paul, Germany .................................65-69-66—200 Joost Luiten, Netherlands............................69-67-65—201 Kazuki Higa, Japan.......................................70-64-68—202 Hole-in-one Name, course, hole, yards, club Anthony Pham, Pine Forest CC, 7, 123, 8 iron High schools Girls basketball playoff results Class 6A Region II Cypress Ranch 69, Grand Oaks 60 Cypress Springs 64, Oak Ridge 31 Langham Creek 63, Spring 43 Tomball Memorial 62, Westfield 44 Region III Katy 54, Jersey Village 38 Shadow Creek 40, Deer Park 29 Summer Creek 57, Hastings 44 Hightower 64, Cypress Creek 34 Clear Brook 49, Beaumont West Brook 48 Pearland 56, North Shore 31 Tompkins 54, Cypress Ridge 43 Memorial 63 Seven Lakes 54 Class 5A Region II Huntsville 55, Princeton 52 Region III Fulshear 70, Friendswood 38 La Porte 57, Randle 30 Lake Creek 45, Georgetown East View 36 Manvel 53, Willowridge 25 Barbers Hill 52, Foster 40 Pflugerville Hendrickson 55, Montgomery 36 Class 4A Region III La Vega 123, Yates 20 Salado 63, Worthing 36 Region IV Boerne 56, Sealy 27 Fredericksburg 66, Bay City 31 Navasota 61, La Vernia 57 Brookshire Royal vs. Navarro 55, Brookshire Royal 23 Class 3A Region III Huntington 52, Boling 32 Hitchcock 72, Nacogdoches Central Heights 63 Region IV Columbus 51, Crystal City 50 Boys basketball bi-district pairings Class 6A Region II Tomball Memorial vs. Cy Springs 7 p.m. Tuesday, Bridgeland HS Grand Oaks vs. Westfield 7 p.m. Tuesday, West Fork HS Cy Falls vs. Klein 7 p.m. Tuesday, Cy Lakes HS Klein Oak vs. Langham Creek 7 p.m. Tuesday, Cy Park HS College Park vs. Nimitz 7 p.m. Tuesday, Kingwood Park HS Conroe vs. Aldine Davis 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oak Ridge HS South Houston vs. Beaumont West Brook 7 p.m. Tuesday, Port Arthur Memorial HS Region III Dobie vs. Beaumont United 7 p.m. Monday, Port Arthur Memorial HS Clear Lake vs. Dawson 7 p.m. Tuesday, Alvin HS Clear Springs vs. Shadow Creek 6 p.m. Clear Creek HS Dickinson vs. Alief Taylor 7 p.m. Tuesday, Manvel HS Clear Falls vs. Strake Jesuit 7 p.m. Tuesday, Pearland HS Atascocita vs. Deer Park 7 p.m. Tuesday, North Shore Summer Creek vs. Pasadena Memorial 7 p.m. Tuesday, Channelview HS Stratford vs. Lamar 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Delmar Fieldhouse Hightower vs. Katy Taylor 7 p.m. Tuesday, Wheeler Fieldhouse Seven Lakes vs. Fort Bend Elkins 7 p.m. Tuesday, Alief Taylor HS Cy Fair vs. Heights 7 p.m. Tuesday, Morton Ranch HS Bellaire vs. Memorial 6 p.m. Tuesday, Delmar Fieldhouse Fort Bend Bush vs. Katy Jordan 7 p.m. Tuesday, Merrill Center Class 5A Region II Kingwood Park vs. Tyler 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Lufkin HS Porter vs. Mt. Pleasant 7 p.m. Tuesday, Palestine HS Region III Galveston Ball vs. Barbers Hill 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sam Rayburn HS Friendswood vs. Port Arthur Memorial 7 p.m. Tuesday, Summer Creek HS Fulshear vs. Sharpstown 7 p.m. Tuesday, Fulshear HS Foster vs. Sterling 6 p.m. Tuesday, Barnett Fieldhouse Milby vs. Marshall 7 p.m. Tuesday, Hopson Fieldhouse Kempner vs. Madison 7 p.m. Tuesday, Butler Fieldhouse Magnolia West vs. Belton 7 p.m. Tuesday, Giddings Lake Creek vs. Killeen Ellison 7 p.m. Tuesday, Caldwell HS Goose Creek Memorial vs. Texas City, TBD Manvel vs. Port Neches-Groves 7 p.m. Tuesday, C.E. King HS Class 4A Region III Yates vs. La Grange 6 p.m. Monday, Merrill Center Leland vs. TBD Booker T. Washington, TBD Furr, TBD Region IV Brookshire Royal vs. Iowa Colony 7 p.m. Tuesday, Mayde Creek HS La Marque vs. Navasota 7 p.m. Tuesday, Katy HS El Campo vs. TBD 7 p.m. Tuesday, Needville HS Bellville vs. TBD Class 3A Region III Hitchcock vs. Shepherd 7 p.m. Tuesday, Kingwood HS Hockey NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE GP W L OT Pts GF GA a-Boston 55 42 8 5 89 207 117 m-Carolina 55 37 10 8 82 188 147 m-New Jersey 55 36 14 5 77 191 147 a-Toronto 56 34 14 8 76 191 148 m-N.Y. Rangers 56 33 14 9 75 191 152 a-Tampa Bay 54 35 16 3 73 191 157 Pittsburgh 55 27 19 9 63 178 174 N.Y. Islanders 59 28 24 7 63 171 168 Washington 58 28 24 6 62 175 170 Florida 59 28 25 6 62 205 207 Detroit 54 26 20 8 60 170 175 Buffalo 53 27 22 4 58 197 185 Ottawa 54 26 24 4 56 164 174 Philadelphia 56 22 24 10 54 151 177 Montreal 56 23 29 4 50 151 205 Columbus 56 18 34 4 40 144 209 WESTERN CONFERENCE GP W L OT Pts GF GA c-Dallas 57 30 15 12 72 185 148 p-Vegas 55 33 18 4 70 179 153 c-Winnipeg 55 34 20 1 69 175 143 p-Los Angeles 56 31 18 7 69 190 188 p-Seattle 55 31 18 6 68 193 172 Edmonton 56 30 19 7 67 209 186 c-Colorado 54 30 19 5 65 167 150 Minnesota 55 29 21 5 63 163 158 Calgary 56 26 19 11 63 180 173 Nashville 53 26 21 6 58 149 159 St. Louis 55 26 26 3 55 173 198 Arizona 55 19 28 8 46 147 191 Vancouver 55 21 30 4 46 186 227 San Jose 56 17 28 11 45 168 209 Anaheim 56 17 33 6 40 141 236 Chicago 54 17 32 5 39 131 198 NOTE: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss. Top three teams in each division and two wild cards per conference advance to playoffs. (a, c, m, p)-top three in their division Friday’s results N.Y. Islanders 5, Pittsburgh 4 Chicago 4, Ottawa 3 (OT) Minnesota 2, Dallas 1 (SO) Los Angeles 6, Anaheim 3 N.Y. Rangers 5, Edmonton 4 (SO) Saturday’s results Colorado 4, St. Louis 1 Nashville 7, Florida 3 Boston 6, N.Y. Islanders 2 New Jersey 5, Pittsburgh 2 Columbus 4, Dallas 1 Toronto 5, Montreal 1 Carolina 4, Washington 1 Calgary 3, N.Y. Rangers 2 (OT) Philadelphia at Vancouver, late Arizona at Los Angeles, late Buffalo at San Jose, late Detroit at Seattle, late Tampa Bay at Vegas, late Sunday’s games Nashville at Minnesota, 1 p.m. St. Louis at Ottawa, 1 p.m. Edmonton at Colorado, 2 p.m. Toronto at Chicago, 5 p.m. Winnipeg at New Jersey, 6 p.m. Columbus at Arizona, 7:30 p.m. SCOREBOARD Television AHL Hartford at Lehigh NHL 4 p.m. Auto racing NASCAR Cup: Daytona 500 Fox 1:30 p.m. Col. basketball Louisville at Boston College (w) ACC 11 a.m. Col. basketball Purdue at Indiana (w) Big Ten 11 a.m. Col. basketball Auburn at Tennessee (w) ESPN2 11 a.m. Col. basketball Cincinnati at Central Florida ESPNU 11 a.m. Col. basketball Arkansas at Georgia (w) SEC 11 a.m. Col. basketball Miami at Syracuse (w) BSSW noon Col. basketball Ohio St. at Purdue CBS noon Col. basketball North Carolina at North Carolina St. ESPN noon Col. basketball Georgia Tech at Florida St. (w) ACC 1 p.m. Col. basketball Bradley at S. Illinois ESPN2 1 p.m. Col. basketball Tulsa at Temple ESPNU 1 p.m. Col. basketball Colorado at Arizona (w) Pac-12 1 p.m. Col. basketball LSU at Florida (w) SEC 1 p.m. Col. basketball George Washington at St. Bonaventure USA 1 p.m. Col. basketball Memphis at Houston ESPN 2 p.m. Col. basketball Georgetown at Butler FS1 2 p.m. Col. basketball Wake Forest at North Carolina (w) ACC 3 p.m. Col. basketball Belmont at Drake CBSSN 3 p.m. Col. basketball North Carolina St. at Virginia Tech (w) ESPN2 3 p.m. Col. basketball West Virginia at Texas (w) ESPNU 3 p.m. Col. basketball Oregon at Washington (w) Pac-12 3 p.m. Col. basketball South Carolina at Mississippi (w) SEC 3 p.m. Col. basketball Maryland at Nebraska FS1 4 p.m. Col. basketball East Tennessee St. at Furman ESPNU 5 p.m. Col. basketball Iowa at Northwestern Big Ten 5:30 p.m. Col. basketball Oregon at Washington St. FS1 6 p.m. Col. basketball UNLV at Boise St. FS1 8 p.m. Col. gymnastics Auburn at Missouri (w) SEC 5 p.m. Col. softball Arkansas vs. Nebraska SEC 8:30 a.m. Col. softball Louisiana-Lafayette vs. UCLA ESPNU 9 a.m. Col. softball Incarnate Word at Texas LHN 12:30 p.m. Col. softball Alabama vs. Florida St. ESPN 4 p.m. Col. softball Central Florida vs. Mississippi St. ESPN 7 p.m. Col. wrestling Arizona St. at Nebraska Big Ten 1:30 p.m. Col. wrestling Oklahoma St. at Iowa Big Ten 3:30 p.m. Fishing Bassmaster Elite Series FS1 7 a.m. Golf Asian: International Series Golf 4 a.m. Golf PGA: Genesis Invitational Golf/NBC noon 2 p.m. Golf PGA Champions: Chubb Classic Golf 2 p.m. Horse racing America’s Day at the Races FS2 1 p.m. NBA All-Star Draft TNT, TBS 6:30 p.m. NBA 72nd All-Star Game TNT, TBS 7 p.m. NBA G League Next Up Game NBA 2 p.m. NHL Columbus at Arizona NHL 7:30 p.m. Soccer Leicester City at Manchester United USA 8 a.m. Soccer West Ham at Tottenham USA 10:30 a.m. Soccer U.S. vs. Japan (w) TNT 2:30 p.m. Tennis WTA: Dubai Duty Free Championships Tennis Tennis 5 a.m. 2 a.m. Mon. Tennis ATP: ABN AMRO Open Tennis 8 a.m. Tennis ATP: Delray Beach Open Tennis 8 a.m. Tennis ATP: Argentina Open Tennis 8 a.m. Tennis WTA: Qatar Total Open Tennis 8 a.m. 2 a.m. Mon. Tennis ATP: Qatar ExxonMobil Open Tennis 2 a.m. Mon. XFL St. Louis at San Antonio ABC 2 p.m. XFL Seattle at D.C. ESPN 2 p.m. Radio Col. basketball North Carolina at N. Carolina St. 610 AM noon Col. basketball Memphis at Houston 950 AM 2 p.m. ON THE AIR
C12 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM Honolulu Anchorage Havana Belmopan Cancún Villahermosa Mérida Mexico City Guadalajara Monterrey Chihuahua Hermosillo Veracruz Acapulco El Paso New Orleans Dallas Washington New York Miami Atlanta Detroit Houston Chicago Minneapolis Phoenix Salt Lake City Denver Los Angeles San Francisco Portland Little Rock Seattle Boston Montreal Ottawa Toronto Thunder Bay Winnipeg Regina Saskatoon Calgary Vancouver | Go to AccuWeather.com Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2023 HOUSTON’S SEVEN-DAY FORECAST METRO AREA OUTLOOK NORTH AMERICA TODAY UV TODAY COMFORT INDEX RIVERS, CREEKS AND BAYOUS Yesterday’s readings by the Houston Health Department: Note: No measurements on weekends; charts in Sunday and Monday papers reflect forecast ratings from the previous Friday. Count percubicmeter of air Low Medium Heavy Extremely heavy Tree pollen Weed pollen Grass pollen Mold spores Values indicate the exposure to the sun’s Ultraviolet rays. 0-2, Low 3-5, Moderate 6-7, High 8-10, Very high 11+, Extreme Today’s forecast for the entire metro area by the TCEQ: Good Moderate Unhealthy for sensitive groups Unhealthy Very unhealthy Hazardous Ozone watch The comfort index takes into account how the weather will feel based on a combination of factors. A rating of 10 feels very comfortable while a rating of 0 feels very uncomfortable. KEY TO CONDITIONS SUN AND MOON POLLEN AND MOLD AIR QUALITY NATIONAL 8 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m. 10 a.m. COASTAL FORECAST FOR THE RECORD INTERNATIONAL GALVESTON TIDES 110s 100s 90s 80s 70s 60s 50s 40s 30s 20s 10s 0s -0s -10s T-storms Rain Showers Snow Flurries Ice Jet stream TEXAS TEXAS LAKES Cold front Warm front Stationary front NATIONAL cont. WEATHER Highs Feet Lows Feet Flood Latest 24-hr. Location stage stage chg. Full Latest Release pool level cfs s - sunny pc - partly cloudy c - cloudy sh - showers t - thunderstorms r - rain sf - snow flurries sn - snow i - ice Temperature Degrees F Precipitation Inches Other readings 73 60 TODAY Warmer with partial sunshine 77 65 Periods of sun with a quick shower MONDAY 82 68 TUESDAY A shower or two in the p.m.; breezy 84 65 WEDNESDAY Warm; a t-storm around in the p.m. 79 59 THURSDAY Pleasantly warm with clouds and sun 76 66 FRIDAY Nice with times of clouds and sun 81 63 SATURDAY Times of clouds and sun GALVESTON BAY: Wind from the south-southeast at 6-12 knots today. Seas 2 feet or less. Visibility clear to the horizon. Tonight: Wind from the south at 6-12 knots. Seas 2 feet or less. Some clouds. MATAGORDA SHIP CHANNEL TO HIGH ISLAND OUT 20 TO 50 MILES: Wind from the south-southeast at 6-12 knots today. Seas 2 feet or less. Visibility clear to the horizon. Tonight: Wind from the south at 6-12 knots. Seas 2 feet or less. Increasing clouds. Canyon Dam 909 898.02 63 Conroe 201 201.06 0 Houston 41.73 42.35 N.A. Lake Travis 681 639.72 224 Livingston 131 131.51 N.A. Brays Bayou South Main 54 16.73 -0.06 Brazos River Bryan 43 8.05 -0.18 Hempstead 50 12.63 -0.63 Richmond 48 11.89 -0.47 Buffalo Bayou Piney Point 50 35.40 +0.95 Shepherd Dr. 23 6.02 +0.03 Clear Creek Friendswood 12 1.02 +0.65 Colorado R. Austin 29 10.94 -0.02 Bastrop 25 2.40 +0.01 La Grange 32 2.50 -0.02 Columbus 34 9.27 -0.05 Wharton 39 8.45 -0.11 Bay City 44 2.58 -0.33 Greens Bayou Eastex Fwy. 61 39.11 -0.32 Guadalupe R. Hunt 12 7.77 -0.03 Comfort 26 3.30 -0.01 Spring Branch 36 1.80 -0.04 New Braunfels 13 9.41 none Gonzales 31 11.33 none Cuero 20 7.42 +0.01 Victoria 21 5.21 -0.05 Dupont 20 9.53 -0.19 Little River Little River 30 1.39 -0.05 Cameron 30 1.58 -0.08 Navasota R. Easterly 19 3.79 -0.15 Neches River Evadale 19 10.88 -0.36 Pine Island B. Sour Lake 25 15.72 -0.14 Sabine River Bon Wier 30 24.39 -0.16 Deweyville 24 24.62 +0.01 Orange 4 0.01 -0.36 Burkeville 43 23.76 -0.09 San Bernard R. E. Bernard 17 8.79 +0.15 E. San.Jac. R. Cleveland 19 5.52 -0.03 W. San.Jac. R. Conroe 116 94.67 +0.23 San Jacinto R. Sheldon 10 1.20 +0.79 Sims Bayou Telephone Rd. 30 -0.75 -1.33 Trinity River Goodrich 36 16.65 +0.05 Liberty 26 19.57 +0.96 Village Creek Kountze 20 7.60 -0.17 White Oak B. Heights Blvd. 48 7.80 -0.30 1:03 a.m. 1.2 5:20 p.m. 1.1 9:20 a.m. -0.8 9:16 p.m. 0.9 Today Mon. Cleveland 55/41/pc 45/33/pc Columbus 56/42/pc 53/38/pc Denver 46/30/pc 49/33/pc Des Moines 45/23/pc 48/24/pc Detroit 52/36/pc 46/33/c Duluth 31/7/sn 24/7/sn Fairbanks 8/5/sn 12/11/sn Great Falls 42/25/sf 32/22/sn Hartford 49/36/pc 56/31/c Honolulu 81/72/sh 79/73/sh Indianapolis 56/41/s 55/38/pc Jackson, MS 65/53/s 74/64/c Juneau 40/30/sf 37/12/sn Kansas City 58/32/pc 61/34/pc Las Vegas 65/44/s 67/47/s Little Rock 62/55/pc 71/56/pc Los Angeles 68/46/pc 69/48/s Memphis 61/54/s 70/55/c Miami 84/71/pc 86/68/c Milwaukee 48/30/pc 39/30/pc Minneapolis 35/18/c 36/14/sn Nashville 62/50/s 60/52/sh New Orleans 67/55/pc 76/65/pc New York City 50/44/pc 56/39/c Oklahoma City 66/44/pc 68/43/pc Orlando 83/59/pc 86/61/pc Philadelphia 56/45/c 58/40/pc Phoenix 72/52/pc 73/51/pc Pittsburgh 55/42/pc 49/36/sh Portland, OR 49/44/c 52/40/c Sacramento 65/37/pc 66/44/pc St. Louis 62/39/s 60/41/pc Salt Lake City 46/32/sn 44/38/c San Diego 64/48/pc 66/50/s San Francisco 62/45/s 63/47/pc Santa Fe 44/29/r 47/27/pc Seattle 48/44/c 49/39/r Tucson 68/49/c 69/48/c Washington, DC 59/46/pc 58/42/pc Today Mon. Africa Cairo 69/49/s 69/50/s Cape Town 79/61/s 66/55/r Casablanca 70/54/pc 71/55/pc Dakar 78/63/pc 75/64/pc Johannesburg 75/59/t 79/54/t Lagos 94/75/s 94/76/s Asia/Pacific Beijing 52/26/pc 44/17/pc Ho Chi Minh City 93/76/c 90/75/pc Hong Kong 81/61/c 73/59/pc Islamabad 80/56/c 72/49/pc Jakarta 89/75/t 89/75/sh Karachi 86/67/s 88/69/s Kuala Lumpur 90/74/t 90/74/t Manila 85/77/r 87/76/pc New Delhi 86/62/pc 88/64/pc Seoul 45/21/pc 38/18/s Shanghai 57/32/pc 57/34/c Singapore 89/76/t 85/76/sh Sydney 80/74/pc 85/73/pc Taipei 73/54/pc 62/53/c Tokyo 62/47/r 53/36/pc Canada Calgary 40/20/sn 27/3/sf Edmonton 34/10/sn 17/-7/c Montreal 40/34/c 40/14/sf Toronto 45/36/c 40/25/pc Vancouver 45/42/c 48/39/r Winnipeg 6/-2/c 8/-15/sn Europe Amsterdam 49/43/pc 52/45/pc Athens 63/48/s 68/44/s Berlin 45/37/pc 50/46/c Copenhagen 44/39/c 49/42/c Dublin 55/49/pc 57/45/c Frankfurt 55/40/c 57/38/pc Geneva 57/33/c 58/37/pc Istanbul 60/49/pc 55/44/sh London 56/44/c 58/44/c Madrid 68/37/pc 67/42/pc Moscow 22/20/sn 26/12/c Paris 55/37/c 58/36/pc Prague 48/36/r 52/44/c Rome 61/47/c 62/46/c Stockholm 36/23/c 36/27/sf Vienna 57/39/r 57/46/c Warsaw 42/32/pc 44/40/sf Zurich 54/33/sh 56/32/pc Latin America Bogota 67/47/r 67/48/c Buenos Aires 77/67/s 81/70/s Caracas 87/72/s 86/70/s Havana 88/65/s 86/63/s Kingston 86/74/pc 86/74/pc Lima 79/71/pc 80/71/c Rio de Janeiro 88/78/t 88/79/pc San Juan 82/72/sh 83/71/c San Salvador 91/66/s 90/67/s Santiago 92/59/s 94/59/s Sao Paulo 68/65/r 80/66/r St. Thomas 83/73/pc 83/72/pc Mexico Acapulco 88/71/s 88/73/s Cancun 84/71/pc 84/71/s Guadalajara 84/49/s 85/50/c Guanajuato 81/47/s 82/49/s Mazatlan 78/59/s 80/60/s Merida 91/70/pc 92/68/s Mexico City 81/47/s 84/49/s Puerto Vallarta 84/64/s 86/62/s Tampico 77/63/c 79/67/s Veracruz 76/66/pc 82/67/s Middle East Baghdad 67/40/s 71/43/s Beirut 65/50/s 66/52/s Dubai 74/66/s 73/62/pc Jerusalem 63/42/s 62/43/s Kabul 56/35/pc 54/30/s Mecca 92/68/pc 91/68/pc Riyadh 69/46/pc 72/50/pc Tehran 55/37/s 57/42/s Tel Aviv 67/48/s 66/50/s Today Mon. Today Mon. Abilene 68/54/pc 81/57/pc Amarillo 68/46/pc 69/42/pc Austin 75/55/pc 81/62/pc Beaumont 71/59/pc 75/63/pc Brownsville 78/67/s 82/68/pc Bryan/College St. 73/61/pc 78/64/pc Corpus Christi 79/64/pc 81/65/c Dallas/Ft. Worth 69/58/pc 80/60/pc El Paso 57/48/r 63/48/c Galveston 70/63/pc 73/65/c Kingsville 78/64/pc 84/65/c Laredo 81/64/pc 85/64/pc Longview 67/57/pc 80/66/pc Lubbock 70/50/c 74/47/pc McAllen 80/67/s 89/68/pc Midland/Odessa 65/49/c 76/52/pc San Angelo 68/49/pc 82/49/pc San Antonio 73/59/pc 78/59/pc Texarkana 68/61/pc 80/66/pc Victoria 75/63/pc 78/66/pc Waco 67/57/pc 83/59/pc Albany, NY 46/35/c 49/28/c Albuquerque 50/35/pc 55/33/pc Anchorage 29/20/pc 21/17/s Atlanta 63/45/s 70/59/c Baltimore 58/44/pc 58/41/pc Billings 39/33/sf 35/27/sn Birmingham 62/49/s 72/62/c Boise 47/36/c 53/40/c Boston 48/41/pc 56/36/c Buffalo 49/40/c 44/31/sn Charleston, SC 70/51/c 74/56/pc Charlotte 60/45/s 69/56/pc Chicago 51/32/pc 44/32/c Cincinnati 57/43/s 55/42/pc George Bush Intercontinental Airport through 3 p.m. Sat. High 54 Low 33 Normal high 68 Normal low 48 Record high 87 in 1986 Record low 19 in 1936 24 hours through 3 p.m. Sat. 0.00 Month to date 1.39 Normal month to date 1.86 Year to date 7.97 Normal year to date 5.62 Top wind speed 16 mph High barometer 30.51 in. Low barometer 30.39 in. High dewpoint 32° Low dewpoint 26° Average dewpoint 29° High humidity 84% Low humidity 35% TODAY: Partial sunshine; a nice end to the weekend. High 70 to 75. Winds south 6-12 mph. TONIGHT: Partly cloudy and mild. Low 57 to 62. Winds south-southwest 6-12 mph. Heavy None Medium Low 2 4 5 4 2 0 Sunset tonight 6:13 p.m. Sunrise Monday 6:57 a.m. Moonrise today 6:49 a.m. Moonset today 5:45 p.m. New moon First quarter Full moon Last quarter Feb 20 Feb 27 Mar 7 Mar 14 Today Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. 10 9 9 8 10 10
HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM ZEST • SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 • SECTION G Top: Courtesy photo Above: Brett Coomer/Staff photographer Top: Singer-songwriter Eric Taylor. Above: Susan Lindfors Taylor and Rock Romano listen to some of Eric Taylor’s early work. The ‘Early’ days of Eric Taylor Three years after his death, the storied Houston songwriter can be heard again on live recordings from the ’70s Susan Lindfors Taylor scattered her husband’s ashes at a specific site meaningful to him within Palo Duro Canyon State Park. She kept other well-worn touchstones closer to their home in Bastrop. Eric Taylor’s stainless-steel National finger picks have lost their luster from repeatedly striking steel strings to create a guitar tone all his own. The pages of his lyric notebooks are tea-stain brown, with spiral spines that twist like the branches of a live oak. The wear and tear contrasts with the black imprinted on the pages — “H’s” inked with elegant curves and “S’s” with a switchblade sharpness. These items were the tools for Taylor, one of the greatest songwriters to have called Houston home. The ongoing process of grieving also involves sharing something of Taylor’s with the world. “Early Eric Taylor” captures performances by the singer-songwriter in Houston in 1975 and 1978. It’s revelatory documentation of an artist whose body of work is considered a gold standard by other masters in his field. Guy Clark, who died in 2016, four years before Taylor, told the Chronicle that his student was “exacting with words in the way any master tradesman is with what he does.” Nanci Griffith, who died By Andrew Dansby STAFF WR ITER Taylor continues on G8
G2 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM Features editor: Melissa Aguilar, [email protected] over the years highlighted 72 Black Texans, such as Julia C. Hester, a community activist in Fifth Ward, and Bob “Watermelon Man” Chatham, who was born enslaved and became a successful businessman in Hempstead selling watermelons. Educators, Prather said, were trailblazers because they often served as leaders in church and other areas of the community. Lee’s brother, the late Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee, was also a part of his stories. He was the first Black person to serve as a commissioner; he died in 2016 of a heart attack. In many Black families with both rural and urban ties, there was often someone like Lee, who looked out for people. Cut the yards of elderly ladies whose husbands had passed on and who offered sage advice. “The lesson from Bob is that Lee. “He was very interested in our community and the people who helped developed it.” Prather and Lee would drive across Texas to small towns, where the railroad tracks often served as the racial divide. They were looking for Black people who didn’t make it into Texas history books, not that there were many who did. They often discovered them in graveyards, the only place where dates of birth and death were easy to find. They learned to look for large grave markers, which usually commemorated someone prominent in the community whose life story needed to be told. “Neither of us had any training in journalism, but Bob was so good at it. We would drive up and down the main street in the Black community to find people and stories. He told stories like the way it was,” she said. Together, they created the Texas Trailblazer project that The friendship between Bob Lee, a community leader and social-justice warrior, and Michael Berryhill, a journalist and a Texas Southern University professor, was unlikely, given their disparate backgrounds. Lee, a Black man from Fifth Ward, was so rooted in the soil of the community that neighbors called him the area’s unofficial “mayor.” Berryhill, who is white, grew up on the East side of Houston, attended Milby High School and didn’t know many Black people. Still, the men seemed fated to be friends, and they bonded over words and storytelling. Berryhill became Lee’s first editor on his essays about Houston’s Black history and his East Texas family for the Houston Chronicle’s Texas Magazine. Lee was his first Black friend, he said, and the first person to hold his daughter when she was born. After Lee died of cancer in 2017 at age 74, Berryhill gathered up many of Lee’s stories and essays and compiled them into a book, “Da Mayor of Fifth Ward: Stories of the Big Thicket and Houston,” published by Texas A&M University Press. It is the first book in the Prairie View A&M University Series. “Bob was my friend. He was more than a writer I knew, and I didn’t want to see his stories forgotten,” Berryhill said. Lee’s essays are recollections and tales of Houston life and his East Texas roots in Jasper, a small town known for the horrific murder of James Byrd Jr., who in 1998 was beaten, chained to a truck and dragged for miles by three white men. Lee spent summers there with his Aunt Crickett and Uncle Dewitt, who taught him about farm life, with its sounds of nature, the aroma of his aunt’s cooking and his relatives singing. He also learned that former enslaved Black people settled deep into the area’s forest, called the Big Thicket, and made a life for themselves. It was a basic life, but they had each other. These stories of his family are personal and rich with flavor. And each tale is part of Texas’ history. That’s how Lee would have wanted it. “I always wanted people to know that we made a contribution to Texas,” said Patricia Prather, a historian who cofounded the Texas Trailblazer Preservation Association with we’re surrounded by people who are role models, especially in families, and people who help shape our lives,” Prather said. To say that Lee had a way with words, would be too simple for the man who meant so much to many. “Bob loved people and would talk with white racists, and they would become lifelong friends,” Berryhill said. “He made me aware of the problems of the culture of the city. He wasn’t talking about race all of the time. He was talking about people, and he wanted to help everybody. He made me a better person.” Lee’s storytelling continues to linger like a good book, giving us crumbs of what life was like so many years ago. It reminds us, too, that good friends help keep the stories alive. [email protected] Karen Warren/Staff photographer A collection of essays by the late Bob Lee, known by many as the unofficial “mayor” of Fifth Ward, have been published in “Da Mayor of Fifth Ward: Stories of the Big Thicket and Houston.” ‘DA MAYOR OF FIFTH WARD: STORIES OF THE BIG THICKET AND HOUSTON’ By Bob Lee Texas A&M University Press 132 pages, $19 ‘Da Mayor of FifthWard’ Bob Lee lives on in new book of essays JOY SEWING STAFF COLUMN IST
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 G3 appears to just be a historical aberration. Both “boudin” and “boudain” were used in Louisiana in the early 1900s. The latter spelling became the norm in Southeast Texas, probably because large producers, like DJ’s Boudain, standardized on that spelling. In a tongue-incheek explanation, DJ’s website claims they spell it that way because “DJ’s boudin was awesome, so we added the ‘a’ to the spelling.” And yet, there is a noticeable transformation in technique and ingredients in Texas boudin. The most notable being the texture — boudin here usually features intact grains of white rice and larger chunks of pork, mainly from the shoulder cut. There is a lack of flavor from cuts like the liver and the heart, for which Louisiana boudin is known. In Houston, boudin is a prominent barbecue joint menu item. The coarser texture of the rice and meat soaks up the post oak flavor from the smoking process, while the casing gets snappier by the higher, drier cooking temperature. At Henderson & Kane General Store in Houston’s Sixth Ward, sausage maker Aaron Lazo Sr. produces a classic Texasstyle, relatively coursetextured boudin that’s smoked for several hours and served in both spicy and mild versions. It’s a great example of boudin made west of the Sabine River. [email protected] twitter.com/jcreidtx When it comes to the best regional American cuisines, the border between Texas and Louisiana is hard to beat. Though it doesn’t get the highprofile media coverage of say the Lowcountry of South Carolina, the area straddling the Sabine River in Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana is a worthy combination of cultures and natural resources that are embodied in the culinary traditions of the area. Cajun and Creole traditions from the east collide with Hispanic and European traditions of Southeast and Central Texas, blending with the rich seafood of the Gulf Coast and the hog farms and cattle ranches of the region. The dish that is often associated with the region is gumbo, in all its many forms and flavors. However, I would argue that the canonical dish of the region is boudin, the French-inspired sausage traditionally made with pork and rice. Sampling boudin from the furthest reaches of Cajun country all the way to the western fringes of Houston tells a tale of a regional dish that has transformed over time and geography. In Louisiana, the triangle encompassing Opelousas, Eunice and Pine Prairie contains some of the region’s best boudin. Evaluation is based on the balance of rice, pork, spices and aromatic ingredients. Tastes differ. Some boudin connoisseurs prefer more pork to rice; others want a more aromatic flavor from green onions and parsley. Texturally, boudin of this area features rice and meat that is “pulverized,” that is, finely ground, resulting in a smoother texture. Though the ingredients are cooked before being stuffed into a pork casing, the resulting sausage is steamed. This often results in a chewier casing, which some boudin fans dutifully chew through, while others squeeze out the filling and throw the casing away. Boudin in Cajun country is mainly distributed through convenience stores. At places like TBoys Boudin in Mamou, you place your order at the counter and a long ring of boudin is pulled from a steamer and then snipped with kitchen shears into bite-size pieces. Throw in some crackers and hot sauce and that’s lunch. Things start to transform once you head west over the Sabine. Much is made of the different spelling in these parts — “boudain” is the name you will see in Beaumont and Port Arthur. Though some attribute the difference to a unique recipe or ingredients, in fact, it DINING Photos by J.C. Reid Henderson & Kane serves both spicy and mild boudin. HENDERSON & KANE 715 Henderson 281-974-3557; hkgeneralstore.com Open daily Texas, Louisiana both stake claim to best boudin Sausage maker Aaron Lazo Sr. makes a course-textured boudin at Henderson & Kane that’s smoked for several hours. J.C. Reid BBQ STATE OF M IND
FICTION 1. Lessons in Chemistry By Bonnie Garmus. A scientist and single mother living in California in the 1960s becomes a star on a TV cooking show. 2. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow By Gabrielle Zevin. Two friends find their partnership challenged in the world of videogame design. 3. The House in the Pines By Ana Reyes. Seven years after witnessing her best friend drop dead, Maya returns to her Berkshires hometown to piece together what happened. 4. Demon Copperhead By Barbara Kingsolver. A reimagining of Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield” set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. 5. Maame By Jessica George. Maddie, the daughter of an overbearing mother recently returned from Ghana and a father suffering from Parkinson’s, begins to build a life for herself in London. 6. The Boys From Biloxi By John Grisham. Two childhood friends follow in their fathers’ footsteps, which puts NONFICTION 1. Spare By Prince Harry. The Duke of Sussex details his struggles with the royal family, loss of his mother, service in the British army and marriage to Meghan Markle. 2. Love, Pamela By Pamela Anderson. The actress and activist details her childhood, rise to fame and the ways she is reclaiming the narrative of her life. 3. I’m Glad My Mom Died By Jennette McCurdy. The actress and filmmaker describes her eating disorders and difficult relationship with her mother. 4. Never Give An Inch By Mike Pompeo. The former secretary of state gives his account of his time serving under President Donald Trump, with a focus on an America First approach. 5. The Light We Carry By Michelle Obama. The former first lady shares personal stories and the tools she uses to deal with difficult situations. 6. The Nazi Conspiracy By Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch. The story of a Nazi plot to kill President Roosevelt, Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill. 7. Cobalt Red By Siddharth Kara. An investigation into the cobalt mining practices in Congo and the moral implications for users of many electronic devices. 8. Straight Shooter By Stephen A. Smith. The ESPN analyst recounts the highs and lows of his life and career. 9. The 1619 Project Edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman and Jake Silverstein. Viewing America’s entanglement with slavery and its legacy, in essays adapted and expanded from the New York Times Magazine. 10. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing By Matthew Perry. The actor, known for playing Chandler Bing on “Friends,” shares stories from his childhood and his struggles with sobriety. New York Times BESTSELLERS them on opposite sides of the law. 7. The House of Wolves By James Patterson and Mike Lupica. After her father is murdered, Jenny Wolf becomes the head of a powerful family in California. 8. Exiles By Jane Harper. Questions surrounding the case of a missing woman, which have weighed on Aaron Falk for the past year, emerge at a gathering in the southern Australian wine country. 9. Fairy Tale By Stephen King. A high school kid inherits a shed that is a portal to another world where good and evil are at war. 10. Mad Honey By Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. After returning to her hometown, Olivia McAfee’s son is accused of killing his crush. G4 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM BOOKS When Priscilla Gilman and her younger sister Claire were growing up as the only daughters of Lynn Nesbit, a high-powered literary agent, and Richard Gilman, an exacting drama critic and Yale University professor, their bedtime stories were often read by publishing world superstars: Uncle Bern (Bernard Malamud), Aunt Ann (Ann Beattie) and Aunt Toni (Toni Morrison). They introduced their stuffed animals to Jerzy Kosinski. At cocktail parties at the family’s rambling New York City apartment in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, they passed the deviled eggs to Anatole Broyard, a charismatic critic and editor at the New York Times Book Review. Nesbit was the driven breadwinner, not one for engaging in make-believe or rolling around on the floor with her children. Richard Gilman, who died in 2006, was a champion of avantgarde theater, known to the world as a fearsome critic — John Leonard, of the Times, once described his writing as “confrontation criticism.” But at home, he was benevolent and forgiving, at least to his daughters. As Priscilla Gilman, his eldest daughter, has written in her new book, “The Critic’s Daughter: A Memoir,” he was the kindly priest who presided over the cathedral of their childhood. With his professor’s hours, he was the more present, playful and engaged parent, taking the girls out for pizza and to the library so their mother could work through the weekends. He delighted in reading aloud to them, never broke the third wall in the imaginative games at which he excelled, and often spoke in the gruff voice of his favorite alter ego, Grover the Muppet. Gilman was 10 when her parents separated. Her father was left undone and adrift, sleeping on friend’s couches, bedeviled by depression and darker urges that caused him shame. The book, out Feb. 7, is Priscilla Gilman’s attempt to make sense of his fall from grace. With it, she has joined the ranks of literary daughters who embarked on the same mission. That includes Bliss Broyard, daughter of Anatole, who investigated her father’s not-so-secret secret — that he was a Black man passing as white in the monolithically white publishing world — in “One Drop: My Father’s Hidden Life — a Story of Race and Family Secrets,” out in 2007. “Reading My Father,” out in 2011 by Alexandra Styron, William Styron’s youngest child, was another bracing rendition of life with a mighty, troubled man. “It’s a universal story,” said Gilman, now 52, who was on a recent Sunday at home in the bright, bookfilled apartment she shares with her two sons in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood. She was warm and solicitous, a petite figure in a pale blue Icelandic sweater and bluejeans. Her ex, her sons’ father, lives in the same building. “I always loved my father deeply, but the book was about finding a deeper sense of love, where you see the person for who they really are, rather than your projection of them or their most positive face.” After her parents split, Gilman, the family cheerleader and her father’s favorite, made herself a list of “Things Not to Do When With Daddy: Don’t Cry. Don’t Complain. Don’t Be Difficult. Don’t Tell Him Anything but Good News. Don’t Mention Mommy. Don’t Expect Him to Be the Daddy of Old.” With his adjunct professor’s salary, her father was unable to afford an apartment for some time. When he did, sleepovers with Dad were scenes of penury: treats were Fritos divvied up, 10 for each daughter, and one Coke, split between them, all served on plastic dishware from the family’s former weekend house. “On the bright side,” said Gilman, grinning, “we got Fritos!” (The snack was verboten in her mother’s household.) He fought with his more successful ex over their assets, enraging Nesbit and shocking some of her friends, who made no attempt to hide their contempt for Gilman from his children. In the aftermath of the separation, Gilman learned her father had had many affairs. He struggled with sexual urges of bondage and abasement, which he described in a letter he imprudently left lying around. A few years later, he wrote of his sexual alienation and a youthful, brief conversion to Catholicism — Gilman was a Jewish atheist — in “Faith, Sex, Mystery: A Memoir,” out in 1987. His daughters were teenagers at the time. They read the reviews but avoided the book. Both parents were overly forthcoming with their eldest. “I was never in love with your father,” Nesbit told her. “Sometimes I think I’d kill myself if it weren’t for you girls,” her father said. “There was no discourse about how to talk to children about divorce in those days,” Gilman said, still the peacemaker. “We all make mistakes as parents.” But oh, the fallout. After her own divorce and her father’s death, Gilman writes, she fell in love with a rogue’s gallery of tortured men “who teetered on the edge of insolvency or insanity, and desperately wanted me to nurture, bolster, save them.” She found them “glamorously, sickeningly familiar.” When one man tried to kill himself in front of her after she expressed doubts about the relationship, she writes, “It felt both utterly terrifying and weirdly normal.” Primed by her upbringing to be hypervigilant to a partner’s mood swings, she practiced her best buoying techniques. Gilman has a doctorate in literature from Yale, where she was once a professor on the tenure track. She also taught at Vassar College. But Gilman left academia when her eldest son, Benjamin, turned 7. Dazzlingly precocious — he was spouting Robert Frost at 2 — Benj, as his parents called him, was also averse to snuggling. He struggled with motor issues and social interactions. His diagnosis was hyperlexia, a kind of autism, among other conditions. Her marriage, to a brilliant classmate who happened to be named Richard, would not survive. For four years after their split, she and her ex “nested” in their apartment. Gilman lived with her mother on her “off” days, working as an agent at Janklow & Nesbit, her mother’s company. To parent her unusual firstborn, she learned to narrate his experiences for him, giving him emotional cue cards she called the Sentences: “Today at school, Benjamin played at the water table. I love Benjamin very much. Benjamin is my son. Daddy is a wonderful man. We all love Daddy! Now it is time to print the sentences.” Gilman’s astute and loving account of Benjamin’s upbringing, “The AntiRomantic Child,” came out in 2011. The book is as much a memoir as it is an instruction manual in how to be a parent. It also teed up its author to write about her father. “It was a love letter to my son,” Gilman said, “but it was also a book I hoped would help people appreciate and admire the people in their lives who are a little bit different or unusual.” Of her own experience writing about her complicated father, Bliss Broyard said, “You see their actual size in the world, versus their size at home and their idealized public self. There’s a sadness to it, a melancholic aspect, but it opens the door for a lot of empathy and connection.” Memoir casts a wide net, snaring many an author’s nearest and dearest. Gilman did not ask her mother for permission to investigate their family story, but she declared her mission. At first, Nesbit wondered, as Gilman recalled, “‘Is anybody going to care about your father? He was famous once but it was a long time ago.’ When I explained how it was a universal story, she got it.” And Nesbit gamely answered her daughter’s questions. Her most pressing was, “Why did you marry him?” Donald Barthelme, the minimalist novelist and short-story writer who died in 1989, had been Nesbit’s first great love, and one of her first clients. (He called her “the mother of postmodernism.”) She married Richard Gilman when that relationship fell apart. Her daughter wanted Nesbit’s answer in writing, and when she received it, by email, it was like a benediction: Nesbit wrote that she knew Gilman would be an excellent father, and that he was a kind and ethical man. It was the answer her daughter had waited 40 years to hear. She recalled sobbing at her desk. Later, Nesbit said that she would skip the memoir, but supported her daughter. “Priscilla is a writer and she needs to do what she needs to do,” she said. “We have a strong relationship and she obviously had a very complicated and intense one with her father.” That’s just fine with Gilman. “My mother won’t read the book,” she said, “but she trusts me to tell the truth.” MEMOIR A daughter tries to make sense of her father’s fall from grace ‘The Critic’s Daughter’ exposes a troubled life and a ruined marriage By Penelope Green NEW YORK T IME S Lila Barth/New York Times Author Priscilla Gilman’s parents are Lynn Nesbit, a high-powered literary agent, and Richard Gilman, an exacting drama critic and Yale professor.
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 G5 There are a number of reasons congregants opt for ashes “to go” on Ash Wednesday, says the Rev. Ryan Hawthorne of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in the Museum District. Students and professors walk to class at Rice University, just across Main Street from the church. To the north stands the Houston Museum of Natural Science, to the west stretches Hermann Park and the Houston Zoo. And to the south, Texas Medical Center is abuzz with doctors, medical staff, patients and visitors. Hawthorne often hears sirens as ambulances rush down Main and Life Flight buzzes overhead. Busy schedules basically make ashes to go a necessity in the area, she says. Palmer’s traditional Ash Wednesday services, offered at 7 a.m., noon and 7 p.m., simply will not fit into everyone’s day, whether work, a medical treatment, classes or child care stands in the way. And that’s why the church sets up shop on the sidewalks from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the holy day, which falls on Feb. 22 this year. Church clergy and lay volunteers offer ashes to passersby — and those who prefer to drive through. Last year, the church added “Uber ashes,” a delivery to about two dozen residents of a nearby assisted living facility. Cruising in for ashes Hawthorne has witnessed a bus driver stop, and then several passengers ask for ashes. She has seen people roll down windows and ask if they can receive ashes before the light changes to green. She even watched as a volunteer climbed up to reach the forehead of a semitrailer driver seated in his cab. There is also a lot of foot traffic, Hawthorne says. “Many people will make it a point to walk from St. Luke’s, Methodist or Memorial Hermann for ashes, and then go back to work,” she says. Ashes to go also appeals to those who might feel uncomfortable inside a church, for whatever reasons, the priest says. “The rituals the church offers are still meaningful to them, but being inside the church isn’t an option,” she says. “This is a way for them to still engage.” Sometimes there is conversation. “And some just want ashes and then want to go,” Hawthorne says. Regardless, all are welcome. “It’s a way of offering prayer and being in community with people who are just passing by,” she says. Several other congregations around town are also finding a way to accommodate busy schedules with their Ash Wednesday services. At House of Prayer Lutheran Church, Pastor Eric Youngdahl has seen police officers, postal vehicles and dump trucks cruise in for ashes. Sometimes, one person drives through and returns later with the entire family. Last year, 434 people drove through, while about 50 attended worship services later that night inside the church. “We get far more people in the parking lot than in the building,” Youngdahl says. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust Ash Wednesday is a holy day in many Christian denominations; it derives its name from the ritual of placing ashes on the foreheads of participants. Usually, the words spoken are some variation of “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” or “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Hawthorne explains that the ashes used are from the previous year’s Palm Sunday fronds. At Palmer, there is an extra layer of symbolism — as palms are part of the congregation’s name, the priest says. The church’s namesake is Edward Albert Palmer, who heroically lost his life while saving his sister, Daphne Palmer Neville. She later became the founding donor of the congregation. “Palmer” was also the word for a Christian pilgrim in the Middle Ages. These travelers would bring back palm leaves folded into a cross as a souvenir from the Holy Land. “We like to think about ourselves as pilgrims on a journey of Christianity, and that as such, we should always be a witness for Jesus Christ,” Hawthorne says. “We’re always encountering God.” Ash Wednesday is part of that process, a time to remember mortality and be thankful for our time on Earth, she says. “In the Episcopal Church, our funeral liturgy names death as not an end,” she says. “It’s a change in the status of life. You’re going from a physical life to a spiritual life.” The Rev. Donyale Fraylon, executive pastor at Clear Lake UMC, says that Ash Wednesday is a somber time. “It puts us in touch with our death and how being cognizant of death informs the way we are living,” she says. “It’s really what the Lenten season is about, and making space for God.” Lent is a time of fasting, repentance and spiritual discipline in preparation for Easter, the pastor says. “The whole message of Easter is that death is not the final word,” Fraylon says. “We believe in Jesus’ resurrection. As He was raised, our belief is, so shall we.” That hope exists in the contemplation of mortality and repentance of Ash Wednesday and Lent. “We are not alone on this journey,” Fraylon said. “God is with us.” A little prayer time — in the parking lot The House of Prayer Lutheran Church has offered ashes to go since since 2014. “We didn’t invent it, but we jumped on the bandwagon,” Youngdahl said. “Now other churches are popping up doing it, too, and I think that’s great.” The more the merrier when it comes to making spirituality accessible, he says. “This does tap people back into their faith life,” he says. For instance, Youngdahl recalls a man driving through the line who told him, “This is exactly what I needed, a little prayer time.” “It’s just neat to see that, to know that we do make a difference in people’s lives, whether we see it or not,” Youngdahl said. “It’s all about asking how we can shine some light on people and let them know they are cared for and loved.” When the House of Prayer began offering ashes, there were concerns that the program might fail. “But it didn’t,” he says. “It really fit a need in this community, and we’ve been doing it ever since.” Youngdahl says that the imposition of ashes can start a conversation about faith — or serve mainly as a personal reminder of mortality and God. A number of people come to the ashes-to-go service each year, the pastor says. “For them, this is a church,” Youngdahl says. “We’re providing a way for people to have church that’s a little different.” “If you are driving by, perfect,” he says. “Swing in. It won’t take long, and hopefully, it will be a meaningful part of your day.” Lindsay Peyton is a freelance writer. Photos by Michael Wyke/Contributor Rev. Ryan Hawthorne of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church burns palm fronds in preparation for the ashes-to-go service. COMMUNITY ASH WEDNESDAY ASHES TO GO • Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church sets up shop on the sidewalks from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 22. • Ashes to go will be available at Clear Lake United Methodist Church, 16335 El Camino Real, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. In addition, the congregation delivers ashes to homebound members and those at assisted living facilities. • House of Prayer Lutheran Church, 14045 Space Center Blvd. in Clear Lake, will offer ashes to go from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and again from 4 to 6 p.m. • Travelers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport will be able to “run through” for ashes on their way to the next flight — thanks to parishioners from St. James Catholic Church in Spring. The service will be provided from 9 to 11 a.m. and again from 1 to 3 p.m. on Ash Wednesday. • Ashes will also be delivered to residents of Brookdale Assisted Living in Champion Forest, 14050 Cutten, and distributed by 94-year-old Monsignor Gene Francis. Hawthorne says 434 people drove through the church parking lot last year to take advantage of the ashes-to-go program. By Lindsay Peyton CORRE SPONDENT BELIEF Ashes-to-go programs at area churches fit busy lifestyles
G6 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM When Tuyet Nguyen participates in Zoom calls for work, someone always compliments the bold abstract wallpaper that decorates her home office. At breakfast and dinner, she and her husband, Daniel, share meals at a Saarinen Tulip dining table with very modern wood chairs in the breakfast nook. This new look speaks to the couple, who bought an existing home in the Clear Lake neighborhood of Bay Oaks and decided to revamp their style when they moved from a traditional home they’d lived in for more than 20 years. In the pandemic, they simply felt that it was time for an upgrade to a bigger house — four bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms in 3,300 square feet — with a nice patio and pool in the backyard, but it was also an opportunity to shift their style to be more modern, a style that Daniel is drawn to after seeing so much of it in overseas travel related to his job as a contracts manager for a NASA contractor. Their son is a freshman in college and their schnauzer, Coco, spends a fair amount of time chasing their Rumba vacuum cleaner around the house, but Tuyet and Daniel Nguyen have fully adapted to their new home. In their old home, in a neighborhood across the street from Bay Oaks, the Nguyens had collected antiques and traditional Ethan Allen furniture that they used for many years. The style was darker, so the Nguyens were ready for a fresh start. Daniel thought they could simply repaint the inside of the home, but Tuyet told him that if they were really going to start over, they were going all in. They didn’t know any interior designers and didn’t have friends who’d used one, so they looked on homeadvisor.com, answered some questions and were connected to designers Vy Truong and Han Dang, both of whom were born in Vietnam and met as design students at the University of Houston. Truong had worked for a firm that did hospitality-related design work and Dang’s prior job focused on school design. When they launched their own firm — Very Handsome Studio — they shifted to residential Photos by JP Meche Media Painting the room white, removing heavy draperies and removing built-in upper cabinets helped lighten up Daniel and Tuyet Nguyen’s living room. AT HOME A Saarinen Tulip table with modern chairs and a modern light fixture were just what the Nguyens wanted in their breakfast room. By Diane Cowen STAFF WR ITER DESIGN Couple opts for contemporary style in Clear Lake home with pool Design continues on G7
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 G7 work. The Nguyens were both born in Vietnam, came to the U.S. as children in the late 1970s and later graduated from UH, so they bonded with the young women whose life journeys seemed so similar, even if they’re from different generations. “When we first met Han and Vy, I had just gotten home from work downtown, and the first thing I told them was, ‘Whatever my wife wants, give it to her because a happy wife means a happy life,’ ” Daniel said, certain that the truism would make the path easier. “We bought the home, and it’s a beautiful and well-maintained home, but it’s older and dark from a color standpoint. I thought, ‘Repaint it and we’re done, bring in furniture and we’re done.’ Obviously, that was not the plan at all.” Tuyet enjoys watching home design and remodeling shows on TV, and while they inspired her to want more, they also informed her that she really couldn’t do it herself. “I’m not good at putting things together. I figured this would be our last home, so why not? Let’s get someone to come in and help us,” she said. “We couldn’t do that in our other home because we were too busy working, starting our family and careers. We spent 20 some years in our old house, so let’s take it up a notch in this one and we’ll have have another 20 to 30 years to enjoy it. Truong and Dang brought ideas for making their home transitional, but with some very modern touches and even a few surprises. An early discussion was about wall paint, with the designers urging the Nguyens to paint most of the interiors white — Sherwin Williams “Tocque White,” a versatile warm white — for a neutral background. Initially, Daniel needed to be convinced. “White? Who owns a white car? If you buy a white car, you just gave up at the dealership. To me, white just doesn’t do anything,” Daniel said, hoping for a laugh. “In our old home, every room had a color, and I thought that made sense. Truth be told, when we looked at different shades of white, I said, ‘No one will pay attention to this.’ Now I know there’s a white for the wall and a white for the trim and another white for the ceiling.” Daniel also learned something that his wife already knew: that wallpaper has changed a lot in recent years. They get big style points for wallpaper choices, using a botanical pattern with trees and cranes on a dark navy blue background in the dining room, a room that doesn’t get used very often but will make an impression when they do have family over. The home office is used by Tuyet, who asked for something interesting. Truong and Dang found a bold abstract pattern that could overwhelm a room, but they opted to keep a chair rail and paint the lower portion of the wall a bold ochre color, which appears as accents in the wallpaper. The primary bedroom has an accent wall with a wallpaper mural that looks like a swirling watercolor painting. The powder bathroom’s update brought in another wallpaper pattern, this one a landscape scene with an Asian flair. The Nguyens brought the dining room furniture from their prior home, though they reupholstered the chairs and brought in a new rug and light fixture. But much of the home’s furniture is new. The only other furnishings they brought with them were a bed for the guest bedroom, a night stand, grandfather clock and a couple of end tables for the living room. Decisions about blending old with new focus on style and what they’re trying to accomplish in a new house, Truong and Dang said. “For us, the main way to assess how to shift or carry over existing furniture is a real honest conversation with clients. When somebody loves something versus likes something, they talk about it in a completely different way,” Truong said. In the living room, removing heavy draperies but keeping white plantation shutters and painting a pair of dark, built-in cabinets white lightened up a room that gets a lot of use. While on vacation in Maui, the Nguyens bought a pair of abstract paintings that will be hung over the cabinets, taking up space where there used to be wall cabinets. An upstairs game room got a little more color, with the lower portion of walls painted Sherwin Williams “Dovetail,” a taupe color, and the new sofa in the room is emerald green. When family visits, nieces and nephews hang out here to have their own TV and some space from the adults who are downstairs. A big change for the Nguyens in this house is the backyard, already finished with a patio, pool and landscaping. Their prior home had nothing in the backyard and they hardly ever used it. For the new house, they bought patio furniture that includes a settee and a pair of chairs, plus a round table and umbrella for al fresco dining. “Our old home had a large backyard, but it wasn’t livable in any form or fashion,” Daniel said. “This one is a whole lot more enjoyable. My wife never stepped outside to water or plant anything before, but she’s constantly doing that now with multiple flower baskets. On weekends, if it’s cool enough, I’ll just go outside with Coco on my lap and take a nap on the loveseat. We really use that space.” diane.cowen @houstonchronicle.com DESIGN From page G6 Photos by JP Meche Media Skirted chairs sit in the home’s entry. When needed, they can double as extra dining room chairs. The Nguyens brought their existing dining room furniture to their new home, setting it off with a beautiful accent wall. A wallpaper mural with a swirly watercolor scene decorates the primary bedroom. The couple’s new home came with a fully landscaped backyard, complete with patio and pool. For the backyard covered patio, the Nguyens got furniture with blue print patterns.
G8 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM a year after Taylor, once called him “the William Faulkner of songwriting in our current time.” Taylor’s songs were perfect constructions; he wouldn’t send them into the world otherwise. But they were also somewhat scarce, particularly when his discography is overlapped with those of his mentors, peers and followers. He left behind only a clutch of recordings to his name, and a few of those titles are out of print. “Early Eric Taylor” offers something new for those drawn to his music: his voice and guitar with minimal ornamentation. “With his guitar work, the arrangements were so complete,” says Lyle Lovett, a longtime friend and admirer of Taylor’s work. “He was an example to me of how a solo performance could completely express what a song had to express. Eric solo is Eric at his finest. Eric solo is Eric at his most direct, in terms of communicating songs.” After Taylor died in March 2020, percussionist James Gilmer — a friend and Taylor collaborator known for his long tenure in Lovett’s Large Band — dove into some recordings he’d made in the 1970s, when he placed a reel-to-reel recorder and a Tapco mixer on a table near Taylor’s feet. “It was sort of my way of dealing with Eric’s death,” he says. He reached out to Lindfors Taylor, as well as Taylor’s children from previous marriages. “I knew some of these were songs they’d never heard,” he says. “Or if they had heard them, they sure didn’t have a recording of them or anything they could hold in their hand. I thought they’d like to hear them.” The artist as a young man Gilmer and Lindfors Taylor worked with engineer Rock Romano for more than a year on “Early Eric Taylor.” They winnowed more than 60 songs down to 19 — 10 of which had never been published and released on a Taylor recording. Several songs — “Game of Hearts,” “East Texas Moon,” “Charlie Ray McWhite” among them — appeared on “Shameless Love,” his 1981 debut album. Many make their first published appearance on this release. Though Lovett points out that even those songs Taylor never recorded for release were familiar to those who had see him perform around Houston. The process was labored but offers a portrait of the artist as a young man. Taylor at the time of the recordings had established himself as a integral part of a brilliant songwriter scene in Houston, a city he never meant to call home. The Georgia native was on his way to California from North Carolina in the early 1970s when he ran out of money. He took a dishwashing job at the Family Hand, where he heard Lightnin’ Hopkins and Townes Van Zandt. His journey, at least for a while, had ended. Taylor credited his environment for his music. He told the Chronicle, “Houston had four or five different focal points where musicians took the craft of writing extremely seriously. “You’d talk with each other and work with each other. When we got together it was all about music.” He didn’t refute the suggestion that he became an intimidating presence on that scene. Club owner and musician Rex Bell recounted having his nose broken by Taylor. A drinking habit explained at least part of the lag between his first and second albums, which he released in 1981 and 1995. “The people at Anderson Fair saw me at my worst and at my best,” Taylor said. “It was just the times. People really went around showing the worst of themselves and the best of themselves. Nobody seemed to give a (expletive) one way or another who saw it. ‘This is me.’ And there was a lot of me.” “Early Eric Taylor” offers more of him. Lindfors Taylor, Gilmer and Romano include a few introductions for songs dappled with a sense of humor that felt more scarce on his studio recordings. One tune on the set turns into a singalong. “I think it just captures some of the greatest moments of Eric at his most brilliant and at his wittiest,” Romano says. “He was always a funny guy. He always had a sideways take on everything.” Adds Lindfors Taylor, “He’d get irritated with interviews because they’d ask, ‘Why so dark?’ And he’d say, ‘Are you reading the same papers I am?’ But at the same time, there was so much humor, too.” Listening back “It was hard for me to listen to initially,” Lindfors Taylor says of Gilmer’s tapes. “But after a while, I liked to hear them. And I became so grateful that we were still able to hear them. That they exist.” “Early Eric Taylor” feels like it fills a void of sorts. Taylor’s discography is a bit of a mess: In addition to the 14-year lag between his first two albums, he jumped from record label to record label, cutting his songs when and where he could find the money to do so. His voice on “Early Eric Taylor” rests closer to the one heard on “Shameless Love,” before it settled into a distinctive growl. Romano jokes about the times he worked with Taylor in a recording studio. “I’d build this skyscraper of mics to get the sound right. Turns out I should’ve just done what James did. Put one mic right in front of him.” Gilmer’s approach included the capture of some surface noise. If the percussion in Townes Van Zandt’s storied “Live at the Old Quarter” album was provided by empty bottles clanking in a trash can, with “Early Eric Taylor,” the added percussionist is the cash register operated by Joy Lewallen, an Anderson Fair volunteer for more than half a century. “At times it sounds like a living room,” Lindfors Taylor says. “Except for the cash register.” All three marvel at how good Taylor’s guitar playing sounds. “It’s hard for me to believe that was him in his 20s,” Lindfors Taylor says. She didn’t meet Taylor until 1987, when he was already renowned for his playing. “You’d see him onstage and know it’s one person and one guitar,” she says. “But he’d sound like two.” She says he’d tried to attend a guitar workshop at a North Carolina folk festival as a teen, but it was full, so he attended a banjo class, which might have influenced his percussive use of the thumb. Romano says Taylor’s DADGAD alternate tuning lent his guitar playing a distinctive sound. “He never stopped having that touch,” Romano says. “You always know it’s him. And he could pick forever.” Lovett adds, “His guitar parts were like an orchestra.” ‘Leave it alone’ Though Taylor was exacting with his lyrics, he saw them more as organic entities subject to change: insects molting rather than trapped in amber. Some of the songs on “Early Eric Taylor” would undergo changes over the years, meaning even those he’d record in later years show up here in a novel form. “He was always private, not wanting me to look or hear anything until he said, ‘Check this out,’” Lindfors Taylor says. “Then at that point, he might go out and play it, and sometimes, he’d never play it again.” Gilmer recalls once learning “All the Way to Heaven” from Taylor’s 2001 album “Scuffletown.” Driving from Houston to a gig in Kerrville, he played the song over and over before a gig where he’d be backing Taylor. “I wanted to play it perfectly,” he says. “And Eric said, ‘Naw, we’re not doing that.’ “And he was so prolific he could write a great song and still throw it away.” Gilmer bugged Taylor for years about recording and releasing “DC Song,” which opens “Early Eric Taylor.” “He’d say, ‘No, leave it alone.’” “Mr. Mooney” — one of the songs appearing for the first time — offers a nice glimpse into Taylor’s craft. “Maybe it’s true ol’ Mooney knew more than he would tell,” it begins, “’bout three boys found near the edge of town 30 years ago in April.” He understood character, pacing, metaphor. With only three or four minutes to tell his stories, he could bring those elements together to a knife’s point. “It was literature,” Romano says. “He was a writer, and he was real proud of that. He would work on the words until he liked them. I always thought his songs were such an interesting intersection of poetry and prose. It was just literature.” andrew.dansby @houstonchronicle.com TAYLOR From page G1 Photos by Brett Coomer/Staff photographer Susan Lindfors Taylor, from left, Rock Romano and James Gilmer discuss the late Eric Taylor and his music. Photo courtesy Susan Lindfors Taylor Eric Taylor is shown in an undated photo that is featured in the CD cover of “Early Eric Taylor.” Lindfors Taylor displays one of Taylor’s songbooks. “Early Eric Taylor” features a compilation of some of the singer’s live performances from early in his career.
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 G9 ACROSS 1 King, queen, etc. 9 Overly impulsive 13 Something in a cocoon 17 Itmay produce both a cringe and a laugh 19 Acclaimed rock ‘n’ roll biopic of 2022 21 Emerald or aquamarine 22 “That cult’s initiation ceremony is brutal!” [1983] 24 Creator of the games Xybots and Klax 25 Bit ofmemory, for short 26 It’s quite the stretch 27 Not stay outside, informally 29 Spurred into action 32 Bronzed New York basketball player from Bangkok [1997] 34 Junk 35 Prominent features of Sphynx cats 38 Treaty that was dissolved in 2020 39 Neighbor of a return key 42 Places 44 ____ Stavro Blofeld, enemy of 007 48 Therein lies the rubbed 49 Why the Devil was forced to pay “The Greatest” [1969] 52 Parks at a pier 54 Anise-flavored liqueur 56 Passes (out) 57 Not play by oneself, perhaps 59 “Remarkable!” 60 Bucatini, ziti and rigatoni, e.g. 62 High point of a trip to Europe? 63 Total breeze 64 Do somemaking up 65 Cry after remembering tomeet at noon [1984] 68 Somewhat off 69 English football powerhouse, to fans 70 Time out in pre-K? 71 Change for the better 72 Belly, cutesily 73 “You didn’t fool me!” 75 One way to cross a lake 77 One in the oil business? 80 Actress Davis 81 “You there, hoarding the Quattro razor! Scram!” [2002] 85 Losing line in ticktack-toe 86 Wryly comical 88 Word with pie, pot or port 89 Subject of SETI space scans 91 Partner of Clark in American history 93 Stefani who sang the 1996 hit “Don’t Speak” 94 Six-foot runners? 95 How one cannibal felt after devouring the other [2000] 101 Like “threads,” for clothing 104 Latest releases, of sorts 105 Neighbor of an Emirati 108 Anxiety condition, for short 109 I.T. bigwig 110 Some optical illusions created with one’s fingers [1999] 116 Rival of a ‘Vette 117 “Socrate” composer 118 Auditing a class, maybe 119 Part of H.K. 120 Miffed,with “off” 121 Compliment to Daisy during a game of fetch DOWN 1 Summer hrs. in Dallas 2 “Nice joke!” 3 Previously, poetically 4 Bit of apparel that covers the face 5 Turn into confetti 6 Big change in price or power 7 Classic record label 8 Lug around 9 [Yuck!] 10 Greeting that means, literally, “love” 11 Crime-show spinoff, to fans 12 Skedaddle,with “it” 13 ____ Hall, home of the N.C.A.A.’s Pirates 14 Many a Zoroastrian 15 Line at a karaoke bar 16 “Hogan’s Heroes” colonel 18 Ambassador, in brief 20 Pile of papers 21 Cosmic comeuppance 23 Big drinkers 28 Pay (up) 29 Freak 30 What you get upon reading aloud the answers to the seven italicized clues 31 “Works forme!” 33 Historic builders of rope bridges 34 Recipe qty. 36 Syst. of unspoken words 37 Diamond shapes 40 Make an appearance 41 Many a watch display, for short 42 1983 No. 1 hit for David Bowie 43 Work of appreciation 45 Dozes after a dose, say 46 Category for which every 30-Down in this puzzle was recognized, aptly 47 Its loss can cause baldness 50 Ganja 51 Didn’t go anywhere 53 Filling-station brand 55 “Not good, amigo” 58 Missions, in brief 60 “____ OK!” 61 One whomakes calls 62 Writer Rand 64 Like the death of 19-Across, some claim 65 Grammy-winning DiFranco 66 Out of control 67 Cowboy’s cry of excitement 69 Aerial threat during the Cold War 72 Classic Disney film that opens at Flynn’s arcade 74 On display, as a painting 75 Tapped 76 Feel bad 77 Travel through time? 78 Easily persuaded sort 79 Things pandas have 20 of 82 Chew the fat 83 Jubilant cheer 84 Options for “bee’s knees” cocktails 87 Alternative to Levi’s 90 End of a flight, in two senses 92 Serves,with “on” 93 Nickname for Mom’smom 95 Grind 96 Brought about 97 “Well, shucks!” 98 Contacting on Twitter, for short 99 Compadre 100 Journalist in a field 102 Ball game? 103 Like the smell of burnt rubber 106 Rapper behind the “King’s Disease” trilogy 107 “Copy,” to a cat 111 Great Basin people 112 D.D.E.’sW.W.II battleground 113 Sci-fi film staple, for short 114 White-wine aperitif 115 Show with a “What’s UpWith That?” segment, for short KeNKeN Every box will contain a number 1 to 6. Do not repeat a number in any row or column. The numbers in each heavily outlined set of squares must combine to produce the target number found in the top left corner of that set using the mathematical operation indicated. Challenging KenKen® is a registered trademark of Nextoy, LLC. ©2023 KenKen Puzzle LLC. All rights reserved. Dist. by UFS, Inc. www.kenken.com ©2023 King Features KAKuRO Complete the grid so that each series of horizontal cells adds up to the number to the left of it, and each series of vertical cells adds up to the number above it. Use only the numbers 1 to 9. A number cannot be used more than once in a series. SuDOKu Fill the empty squares so that each row, column and 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 to 9. DiffiCulty level ***** 11/20/22 ©2023 New York Times REMAKES 2/19 By Jeremy Newton SuNDAy CROSSWORD: /Edited By Will Shortz 2008: An ailing Fidel Castro resigned the Cuban presidency after nearly a half-century in power; his brother Raul was later named to succeed him. 1473: astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland. 1807: former Vice President Aaron Burr, accused of treason, was arrested in the Mississippi Territory, in present-day Alabama. (Burr was acquitted at trial.) Singer Lou Christie is 80. Rock musician Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell) is 75. Actor Leslie David Baker is 65. Singer Seal is 60. Actor Jessica Tuck is 60. Actor Benicio Del Toro is 56. Rock musician Daniel Adair is 48. Christian rock musician Seth Morrison (Skillet) is 35. Actor Victoria Justice is 30. Actor David Mazouz (TV: “Gotham”) is 22. Actor Millie Bobby Brown is 19. LOOKING BACK BIRThDAyS All times Central. Start times can vary based on cable/satellite provider. Confirm times on your on-screen guide. NASCAR Cup Series: Daytona 500 FOX, 1:30 p.m. Live The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season begins at famed Daytona International Speedway for the 65th Daytona 500. Top contenders include Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain and 2022 Cup Series champion Joey Logano. Austin Cindric took the checkered flag at last year’s race. Mixed Baggage UPtv, 6 p.m. Original Film When Evie Jones (Leanne Lapp) accidentally grabs the wrong carry-on bag on her flight, her quest to find its rightful owner leads to a series of misunderstandings, missed connections and, maybe, the love of her life. Biography: WWE Legends A&E, 7 p.m. Season Premiere Under the award-winning Biography banner, each two-hour episode of this series continues to tell the intimate, personal stories behind the success of some of WWE’s most memorable Legends and events. Through rare archival footage and in-depth interviews, each episode explores a different Legend and their immense impact in the WWE universe and on pop culture. The season premiere will explore the infamous group nWo, with other Legends featured this season including Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Chyna, Dusty Rhodes, Kane and Iron Sheik. American Idol ABC, 7 p.m. Season Premiere Season 21 (its sixth season on ABC) of this hit music competition show begins tonight, with new episodes airing Sundays. NBA All-Star Game TNT, 7:30 p.m. Live Expect an outrageous amount of scoring and not a whole lot of defense as the NBA’s best play in the 72nd All-Star Game at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City. Magnum P.I. NBC, Beginning at 8 p.m. Season Premiere/New Network This modern take on the classic series originally led by Tom Selleck, and now starring Jay Hernandez as private investigator/former Navy SEAL Thomas Magnum, aired its first four seasons on CBS and now moves to NBC for Season 5, which begins tonight with back-to-back episodes (NBC has also ordered a sixth season). “Magnum P.I. comes to us with a passionate fan base already in place that we intend to nourish,” promises Susan Rovner, chair of entertainment content for NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. All Creatures Great and Small PBS, 8 p.m. Season Finale In “Merry Bloody Christmas,” it’s Christmastime in Darrowby, and as everyone tries to make the most of things while the world is at war, a young guest brings some wonder, mischief and cheer to Skeldale house. The Company You Keep ABC, 9 p.m. New Series Based on the successful Korean series My Fellow Citizens, this new spy drama follows charismatic con man Charlie (Milo Ventimiglia) and undercover CIA agent Emma (Catherine Haena Kim) on a collision course of professional and romantic natures. Emma has been working to catch the vengeful criminal who is keeping Charlie from leaving a life of crime behind him, and the closer she gets, the higher the stakes for everyone become. America in Black BET, BET Her & VH1, 9 p.m. New Series BET and CBS News are behind this hourlong newsmagazine show that will premiere new episodes monthly beginning tonight. America in Black will feature original reporting by acclaimed journalists, including Gayle King, James Brown, Marc Lamont Hill, Wesley Lowery, Michelle Miller and Ed Gordon, who returns to BET after an 18-year hiatus. Each episode will go beyond the headlines to illuminate and elevate the leading issues, stories and people impacting Black America. Last Week Tonight With John Oliver HBO, 10 p.m. Season Premiere The sharp series, winner of 26 Emmys, kicks off its 10th round. SUNDAY February 19, 2023 ABC ‘The Company You Keep’ What to watch Val Lewton Icon-a-thon MOVIES!, Beginning at 11 a.m. Cozy up under a blanket for a creepy Sunday afternoon quadruple feature of relatively quiet and exquisitely eerie films from producer Val Lewton, the legendary master of understated horror: Cat People CATCH A CLASSIC RKO PICTURES (1942), starring Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway and Jane Randolph and terrifically helmed by director Jacques Tourneur, another expert in the art of subtle chills; The Leopard Man (1943), led by Dennis O’Keefe, Margo and Jean Brooks and also directed by Tourneur; 1943’s The Seventh Victim (pictured), with Kim Hunter, Conway and Brooks; and Isle of the Dead (1945), headlined by Boris Karloff and Ellen Drew.
G10 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM Dear Abby: A few years ago, my husband, unhappy in his job, decided he wanted to be a real estate agent. He quit his job to do full-time real estate, and really struggled. The company he joined offered little training, and he had no office skills. The dramatic drop in our income almost bankrupted us. He asked me to also get a license to help (I have a great office job). I didn’t want to at first because I knew I would end up doing almost all the work, but I did it anyway. Shortly after I got licensed, he was offered a position at his previous company. It was a blessing, and he took it. I have been selling real estate in addition to my job and having a lot of success. I believe it’s due to my 20 years of office management experience and social media skills. Although I’m an introvert, I’m a hard worker, and my business is growing. People seek me out. Abby, my husband is jealous. When I sell a home, he pouts, acts depressed or picks arguments around that time. He hates going to business dinners or training with our company, and if I go without him, he barely speaks to me the next day. Sometimes he gets excited and talks about how he needs to sell some houses.When he does, I encourage him and talk about how great he is at working with people, but ultimately he does nothing to make it happen. I really enjoy real estate. I love getting out and showing houses and networking with other agents, and the extra income has really helped. I don’t know what to do. Paying the Price of Success Dear Paying: Your husband may be jealous because you have outdone him in his (day) dream job. Or, he may be punishing you out of fear that you are becoming so successful you might want your independence. Keep going and do NOT allow his behavior to diminish you. None of what you have described is healthy for the future of your marriage. I’m hoping a licensed marriage and family therapist may be able to help you to navigate through this rough patch. Please don’t put it off.Without counseling, the status quo isn’t likely to change. Dear Abby:I have a friend who doesn’t drive and constantly asks me to take her places. As a good friend, I do it.When I take her to an event, we agree on a time that we will leave, but she invariably stays behind to chat with other people 30 or 45 minutes past the time that we agreed on. In addition, she never offers anything for fuel. I think she’s inconsiderate, and I’m thinking about telling her she will need to find her own rides. Am I wrong for this? Over It in New Jersey Dear Over It: No, you are not wrong, but the next time it happens, try this: Tell your good friend you will be leaving the event at a specific time and if she wants to stick around and chat, she should find another ride home. That way you won’t be inconvenienced. Dear Miss Manners:I am a middle school-age boy. My mother is a great person, except for one thing: She is always convinced she is right. If something annoys her, she will explode and go into a rant about how she is the victim and is being horribly mistreated. Anything different or contradictory from her views is simply sour grapes. I cannot think of a polite way to address this, since she will more than likely launch into a tirade, and also since I’m her son. What would be a polite, respectful thing to say to my mother? Gentle Reader: “I am so sorry that that happened to you. How should we plot our revenge?” If she is indeed a great person, she will find the humor in this and realize she has, perhaps, overstated her mistreatment. If not, Miss Manners suggests that you stick to only the first sentence. Dear Miss Manners:I live in a city in which a wide variety of languages are spoken, though I, to my shame and regret, seem genetically predisposed to monolingualism. Because of our town’s linguistic diversity, I frequently interact with salespeople, restaurant servers, medical professionals and folks in other publicfacing occupations for whom English is not their native tongue. Often, I find it very, very difficult to understand what I’m being told because of the speaker’s accent. I always preface my requests that they repeat themselves with apologies for not knowing their language. How can I better handle these awkward exchanges to minimize everyone’s discomfort? Gentle Reader:While Miss Manners encourages worldliness, she also assures you that you do not have to be embarrassed for not knowing every language spoken in your town. But you also do not wish to discourage anyone else’s attempts at mastering yours. How about this for a solution? Apologize — not for your lack of linguistic mastery, but for your lack of comprehension. Yes, you will both know what is really happening, but it will come across as much more gracious than awkward — or self-flagellating. Dear Miss Manners:I have two sisters who died too soon — one from cancer and one in a car accident. My remaining sister has said numerous times that she plans to throw herself a huge party when she outlives the young ages they got to. She is highly competitive, but this is ridiculous. If she brings it up again, is it all right to say something like, “I hope you can find someone to celebrate that with”? She doesn’t listen to me, and I absolutely would not attend such a tacky event, but I would like a way to give her a clue that we don’t compete with the unfortunate dead. Gentle Reader: “I am happy to celebrate your birthday, but not if it’s in connection with the untimely death of our sisters. If that’s your intention, please do not include me. I would rather celebrate you — and mourn them — separately and privately.” DEAR ABBY miss mAnnERs puzzlE AnswERs cRosswoRD KAKuRo KEnKEn suDoKu ***** JumBlE DEAR ABBY JuDith mARtin miSS mAnnERS Today’s Birthday (Feb. 19). Although you are highly independent, you are also a great team player. You’re energetic and ambitious. You are talented and have high expectations for yourself. this is the first year of a new cycle for you, which means open new doors and explore new directions. Define your goals. take action. moon Alert: Avoid major decisions and shopping from 8:45 p.m. to midnight ESt today (5:45 p.m. to 9 p.m. PSt). After that, the moon moves from Aquarius into Pisces. Aries (march 21-April 19) HHH Your personal year is ending (before your birthday arrives). the next four weeks are the perfect time to make goals for your “new year” ahead. Goals help you stay focused, and they make future decision-making easier. tonight: Solitude. Taurus (April 20-may 20) HHH Lucky you! You will be more popular in the next four weeks, especially with creative, talented people. Accept invitations and make overtures to contact friends and members of groups. Enjoy! tonight: See friends. Gemini (may 21-June 20) HHHH For the next four weeks, the Sun is at the top of your chart, which happens only once a year. this symbolizes that you’re in the spotlight, and this light is flattering. You look good to bosses and ViPs. tonight: You’re noticed. cancer (June 21-July 22) HHH Grab every opportunity to travel in the next four weeks. if you cannot physically travel, then be a tourist in your own town. travel through film and books. tonight: Explore! leo (July 23-Aug. 22) HHH Finances, especially related to shared property, jointly held possessions, wills and inheritances, will be your focus in the next four weeks. tonight: Check your finances. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) HHH Once a year, the Sun sits opposite your sign for four weeks. Your focus on friends, spouses and partners is stronger, but also more objective. this objectivity will allow you to see how you act in the relationship. tonight: Cooperate. libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) HHHH You want to work hard and work smart in the next four weeks. these same high standards will extend to your health, which is why you might get on a new health kick. tonight: Work. scorpio (Oct. 23-nov. 21) HHH Vacations, playful outings, movies, the theater and sports events, as well as fun activities with kids, are tops on your menu for the next four weeks. Romance will flourish! Kick up your heels and let your hair down. Enjoy! tonight: Play! sagittarius (nov. 22-Dec. 21) HHH home, family and your domestic world will be your primary focus in the next four weeks. Some of you might be involved with a parent more than usual. All of you will be happy to cocoon at home in a cozy way. tonight: Cocoon. capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) HHH the pace of your days will accelerate in the next four weeks, no question. Suddenly, you’ve got places to go, things to do and people to see. Short trips, errands and appointments will keep you hopping. it’s an excellent window to learn or study. tonight: Conversations. Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) HHHH Your concern with your wealth, finances, possessions and assets will be strong in the next four weeks. in fact, this is an excellent time for you to take stock and figure out what you owe and what you own. tonight: Check your money. pisces (Feb. 19-march 20) HHH the Sun will be in your sign for the next four weeks, which is your chance to recharge your batteries for the rest of the year. this happens only once a year, so take advantage of it! People and favorable opportunities will come your way. tonight: You win! King Features Syndicate the stars show the kind of day you’ll have: HHHHH Dynamic HHHH Positive HHH Average HH So-so H Difficult Visit Miss Manners at missmanners.com, where you can send her your questions. Andrews McMeel Syndication DearAbby.com Dear Abby P.O. Box 69440 Los Angeles, CA 90069 Andrews McMeel Syndication Spouse is resentful of wife’s success in business Mother cannot admit that she is not a victim RoYAl sTARs By Georgia nicols, for Sunday, February 19, 2023
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 G11 If “Schitt’s Creek” were a real place, Eugene Levy would never vacation there. The Canadian comedian and actor, who won Emmys as a lead actor and executive producer for the hit show, is very particular — even persnickety — about his choice of holiday destinations. The trepid traveler, 76, admittedly carries around emotional baggage filled with neuroses and aversions. His list of dislikes includes humidity, extreme cold, reindeer meat, volcanoes, snakes, insects, hanging bridges and happy people. In spite of his curmudgeonly attitude, or possibly because of it, Levy has taken on a new role as host of his own travel show. “The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy,” which will premiere on Apple TV+ on Feb. 24, opens with a bewildered and bespectacled Levy standing awkwardly in a foreign setting. He grips a suitcase better suited for selling perfume samples door-to-door than roaming the globe. Over eight episodes, he ventures into such challenging environments as a Costa Rican rainforest and the frigid Lapland region of Finland, where he grits his teeth while sampling the local activities, culture and cuisine. In each show, he slowly unclenches his jaw and breaks into the genuine smile of a convert. Last month, we interviewed Levy by Zoom while he was making the rounds at the Television Critics Association event in Los Angeles. He explained why he decided to enter the discomfort zone, the lessons he learned from the show and the contents of his vintage luggage. This Q&A has been edited for clarity and length. Q: Before we officially start, I wanted to tell you that I was born in Hamilton as well. A: Get away! Oh my God! That is fantastic. Listen we could talk about Hamilton, but I don’t want to take up your time. Q: How would you describe your travel style or your vacation go-to? A: My ideal vacation would have been going to a resort or a beach where you could truly relax and have nothing to do but chill by a pool with a piña colada and then talk about where you want to go for dinner. I love Italy because I love the food and you don’t have to do much to see the history. The sightseeing part of things didn’t really excite me. I’d go here and I’d look at this bridge, I’d look at this museum. It was something to do, but I didn’t really truly enjoy it. Q: Why did you decide to challenge yourself with a travel show? A: Originally, it was a show that focused on hotels. I got a call from (executive producer David Brindley) saying they wanted to talk to me about hosting a travel show about hotels. And I said, “Jeez, why me?” I have a very low sense of curiosity and no sense of adventure. Q: Maybe they thought you were interested in hotels because your character, Johnny Rose, ran one in “Schitt’s Creek?” A: Maybe. I never asked them. If you’re hosting a travel show, you have to be interested in what you’re talking about, and you have to be a chatty person who is interested in people. These are all things that I was really not. The conversations triggered another angle for the show. They called me back and pitched that to me, saying what if it’s about somebody who doesn’t like to travel. I said, “OK, yeah, why don’t we give that a shot?” Q: Did you have to prepare physically or mentally for the role? A: No physical preparation. But mental preparation — I spent my career as a comedic character actor where I do everything in character. The closer the character came to who I was, the less comfortable I was. So I always opted for bigger, broader characters. “Schitt’s Creek” was about as close as I’ve come to playing myself on camera, but even that was a character. This travel show, it’s not a character (laughs). I’m playing me. I’ve never been totally comfortable being me in front of a camera. That was a scary proposition. Q: What are you personally hoping to get out of this show, and what do you hope your viewers take away from it? A: This is not billed as a funny travel show. They could have gotten Larry David if they wanted a funny travel show. This is a straight travel show. I think the humor comes through me and my reluctance, initially, to engage in things I would never normally engage in. That gives it humorous overtones, and that, I think, carves it out from the other (travel) shows. I am hoping this show really appeals to people who love to travel. I hope it holds them. For people who don’t necessarily like to travel or were as uncomfortable about traveling as I was will find a kindred spirit. I’m giving them an experience very close to what they might actually be going through and what they actually might be thinking. Q: How did you pick the destinations and activities? A: In the beginning, they had a list of locations, and the locations I said no to were locations I would probably have said no to if somebody had said, “Hey, why don’t we go here?” And I would say, “Really? I don’t think so. What else ya got?” I helped eliminate certain locations because I thought they wouldn’t be as much fun, didn’t know what the food would be like (or) was really nervous about. The more we did the show, the more I crawled out of my comfort zone. If I’m not doing things I’m not comfortable doing, I don’t know what kind of show we have. But I think the thing is: Go for it. Q: Has this show changed how you perceive vacations? A: I think so. I’m engaging a lot with people. I really kind of enjoyed that. I don’t engage people in conversation readily in my life. I’m not that kind of person. I’m learning to love talking to people and listening to them and learning about the culture through these people. That was an eye-opener for me. The show has made me grow in a lot of different areas. I am more open to doing things that I may not have done in the past, but there are still things I might not necessarily want to do again, like night hiking in a rainforest. Adventuresome, sure. But I wasn’t really thrilled doing it, because you’re dealing with creepy-crawly things. But it’s been good for me generally as an experience and, hopefully, helping make me a better person, a more exciting person, a more adventurous person. Q: What’s in the suitcase? A: There’s nothing in the suitcase. It’s a prop. But I love that suitcase. It’s an old-fashioned suitcase that just seemed to be the perfect suitcase. They wanted me to have the suitcase to pick up at times. I didn’t question them. Q: Will there be a second season, and would you consider Canada as one of the destinations? A: I would love to find a location in Canada. My wife Deb said why don’t you do the whole season going across Canada? Again, another great idea. There are a lot of unbelievably exciting and beautiful locations in Canada. My God, Lake Louise in Alberta — one of the most beautiful spots in the world. So, hopefully, if we get a second season, that might be in the cards. Q: You’ll have to start in Hamilton, where it all began. A: (Laughs skeptically.) Maybe, maybe. Hamilton might not be in the second season. Apple TV+ Eugene Levy visits Venice in “The Reluctant Traveler,” premiering Feb. 24 on Apple TV+. TELEVISION Apple TV+ Levy meets Kees Eijrond while visiting Lisbon in “The Reluctant Traveler.” By Andrea Sachs WASH INGTON POST ESCAPES Eugene Levy doesn’t like to travel — so he’s hosting a travel show
G12 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM Mark Chavez thought that it would be so simple. Chavez, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based actor and comic, had seen plenty of romantic comedies. He understood the deep structure of the genre, the various story beats that pushed a couple from meet-cute to final clinch. “I went in feeling a bit overconfident,” Chavez said during a recent video call. “I was like, ‘This will be easy! Plug and play. Just look at every rom-com!’” The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is releasing “Let’s Make a RomCom,” a podcast featuring Chavez alongside his fellow comedians Ryan Beil and Maddy Kelly. Over eight episodes, the three record themselves as they script an original, feature-length romantic comedy, treating the genre with commitment and sincerity. Or as much sincerity as people who knowingly pitch ideas like “Spybrarian,” “1-900 SANTA” and “Love Bermuda Triangle” can muster. This is the show’s second season, following last year’s “Let’s Make a Sci-Fi,” which the CBC estimates has been downloaded more than 250,000 times. On that earlier podcast, the creators wrote a pilot for an earnest series called “Progeny,” set aboard a generational ship sent to colonize a new world. Devising that script meant acquiring a working knowledge of astrophysics. Writing a romantic comedy, the “Let’s Make” team learned, was harder — in large part because the genre felt exhausted. “Everything has happened,” Chavez said with a sigh. “Everything’s been done.” “Let’s Make a RomCom” arrives at fraught moment for romantic comedy. As a film species, it has its origins in the screwball comedies and comedies of manners of the 1930s, reaching its apogee in the 1980s and 1990s, courtesy of the zippy banter of Nora Ephron and the gleaming kitchens of filmmaker Nancy Meyers. But for decades, it has been fashionable to announce the death of the romantic comedy. It was sexual liberation that killed it. Or unfeeling studio executives. Or critics, some of whom have dinged it for its focus on white, straight, affluent characters and its reinforcing of traditional gender norms. Yet the genre is flourishing on streaming services. In the week before Valentine’s Day, three new films were released: “Somebody I Used to Know” on Amazon Prime Video; “Your Place or Mine” on Netflix; and “At Midnight” on Paramount+. Unlike the skin of the films’ leads, the reviews have been less-than-glowing. Is the genre fluffy? Sure. But only if you consider how and with whom people choose to spend their lives less substantive than your average car chase. “Obvious things are there for the picking because the genre has been so one-note,” Kelly said. But there are other notes to play. Maybe the rom-com doesn’t need rescuing via some grand romantic gesture in the rain or the run to the airport; maybe it just needs what most relationships need: time, care, compassion, a few jokes. PODCAST ‘Let’s Make a Rom-Com’ comes to genre’s rescue By Alexis Soloski NEW YORK T IME S Warner Bros. A new podcast is trying to bring back the rom-com, which hit its heyday with Nora Ephron’s “You’ve Got Mail,” starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
20 RODEO EVENTS | CONCERTS | FAMILY FUN | SC HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM SUNDAY, FEBR
023 GUIDE CHOLARSHIPS | FOOD | COMPETITORS RUARY 19, 2023 PRESENTED BY
H2 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023
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HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM WELC T he nation’s fourth-largest city transforms into a nearly three-week celebration of Western heritage Feb. 28 to March 19. That’s the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in a nutshell. But as anyone who has visited RodeoHouston knows (and more than 2.4 million passed through the NRG Park grounds last year), it’s so much more. There are the all-roads-lead-to-Houston trail rides. There’s the downtown parade that marries the sound of hoof beats and marching bands on Feb. 25. And the fairgrounds and exhibit spaces teem with all variety of attractions each day: barbecue, carnival rides and food, art, shopping, high-energy concerts, livestock shows and judging, horse shows, mutton bustin’ and kids activit rodeo competition load riding, roping, steer wr bull riding and saddle There are new thing this year’s rodeo. On op there will be a special g bobbleheads for the fir guests, as well as an op noon and a performan p.m. on the Stars Over Community Day on admission for all until HOWDY! L READY TO x x Josiah Philley, 11, center, rides a carnival ride at the 2022 Houston Livesto By Greg STAFF W
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 H3 COME ties, and the actual ded with bareback restling, barrel racing, bronc riding. gs to keep in mind for pening day Feb. 28, giveaway of Howdy rst 10,000 paying pening-day parade at ce by the Suffers at 2 r Texas Stage. March 8 offers free noon, with discounted ride/game tickets and select foods until 4 p.m. Also, for midway thrill-seekers, there are two new rides, the Raptor Coaster (high-speed roller coaster with a Jurassic theme) and Sea Ray (a pirate-themed swinging ship). The rodeo’s first drone show will light up the sky when 200 drones make formations over NRG Arena at 7:45 p.m. on March 4. Daily grounds admission is $20 for adults and children 13 and older; $10 for children 3 to 12; and children 2 and younger are free. Tickets provide access to all activities at NRG Park, NRG Center and NRG Arena; access to horse show and events; and admission to the carnival (tickets do not include rodeo and concerts in NRG Stadium). For more information on all things RodeoHouston, including tickets and schedules, see rodeohouston.com. LET’S GET O RODEO x x Jon Shapley/Staff photographer ock Show and Rodeo. Morago WR ITER
H4 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 T he Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo begins only after the smoke has cleared because it starts with fire — hundreds of fires. The 2023 World’s Championship Bar-B-Que Contest, the smoky kickoff to Rodeo Houston, will be held Feb. 23-25, pitting 250 teams in Texas’ ultimate barbecue competition. The cook-off, which will name champions in multiple barbecue categories, is one of the most treasured rodeo traditions. And its awards are among the most coveted in national and international barbecue competitions. Barbecue teams from throughout the country and eight international teams (Great Britain, Brazil, Mexico and Japan, and two each from Australia and Canada) have been honing their smoked meat chops all year in anticipation of one of barbecue world’s greatest prizes. While the actual competition is at the center, the cookoff gives barbecue fans a chance to see, smell and taste. While the actual competition tents on the cook-off campus are private (only invited guests are admitted into these smoking and party realms), rodeogoers can rub elbows with cook-off teams and top pitmasters just by hanging out. General admission affords access to live music, the carnival and admission to the Rockin’ BarB-Que Saloon & Chuckwagon, serving a complimentary sliced barbecue brisket sandwich plate. “It’s a whole experience that gets you excited for the actual rodeo,” said Ashley Smith, spokeswoman for the cook-off. “It’s fun to just be BARBECUE IG LOVE FOR THE x x By Greg Morago STAFF WR ITER WHAT YOU NEED TO KN Tickets: $20 fo and older), $10 to 12); children 2 are free. A groun pass good for d to the cook-off three-day cook- See rodeohoust more informatio Entertainment includes music Lite Garden Sta Rockin’ Bar-B-Q Micha Josiah Aguilera prepares veggies before cooking h World’s Championship Bar-B-Que Contest’s Junior COOK
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM around the smells, getting the lay of the land, getting the first run of the carnival, and soaking in the ambiance.” This year’s cook-off schedule is 5-11 p.m. Feb. 23; noon-11 p.m. Feb. 24; and 9 a.m.-11 p.m. Feb. 25. Competition results will be announced at 7 p.m. Feb. 25 at the Miller Lite Garden Stage. Cook-off teams will be competing for prizes in three main meat categories (brisket, ribs, and chicken), Dutch oven desserts and an “open” category that allows teams to create a gourmet dish that shows culinary skills beyond barbecue. Additionally, the Junior Cook-off Contest, for children and teens ages 8 to 14, returns as an added attraction on Feb. 24. All competition categories are judged in private by barbecue aficionados hand selected by the cook-off committee. The Junior, Open and Dutch oven categories will be judged Feb. 24 (Junior awards will be announced at 11 a.m. that day); the meats on Feb. 25 (for Open, Dutch oven and all meats will be announced at 7 p.m. that day). Last year, attendance for the three-day cook-off was 158,215. This year, as interest in barbecue continues to grip the country, attendance could go even higher. After all, where there’s smoke there’s fire. [email protected] GNITES E RODEO x x NOW or adults (13 for children (3 2 and under nds season aily admission to the -off is $50. ton.com for on and tickets. t: Admission at the Miller age and the Que Saloon. ael Wyke/Contributor his steak at the r Cook-off. K-OFF Marking the start of a long-held tradition, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo season kicks off with its annual parade and Western heritage celebration. The downtown Rodeo Parade will take place from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Feb. 25, featuring thousands of men and women on horseback, decorative floats, marching bands and enthusiastic spectators. This year, legendary bullfighter and barrel man Leon Coffee will lead the charge as the grand marshal. The parade begins at Bagby and Walker streets, travels down Travis to Bell and from Bell to Louisiana, before turning on Lamar; it ends at Lamar and Bagby. And don’t forget to dress the kids up for Go Texan Day Feb. 24. [email protected] Parade kicks off rodeo tradition By Ana Khan STAFF WR ITER Brett Coomer/Staff photographer The parade grand marshal is rodeo bullfighter Leon Coffee.
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H6 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 GETTING x x NRG Astrodome NRG Stadium NRG Center NRG Park NRG Center Rodeo Express Bus Tent Holly Hall Naomi Show Pride Uber/Lyft/ Ride sharing (Yellow Lot 38) 22 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 9 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Carnival Livestock Shopping Agventure Horse show Sales pavilion The Junction The Junction 610 Fannin Kirby Site map The Hideout ChampionWine Garden 00 Restrooms Charging station Dining Guest services Shopping Tram stop Ticketed entrance Location marker KEY Wheelchair, scooter and stroller rental 610 Lot
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM AROUND x x B C D Almeda Westridge Munworth Main S. Main McNee Kirby NRG Parkway N. Stadium Dr. Belfort Lantern Point Holly Hall Naomi Old Spanish Trail (OST) W. Belfort La Concha N. Braeswood S. Braeswood Fannin Greenbriar Cambridge 610 A F E G Public parking A.NRG Stadium B. NRG Astrodome C.NRG Center D.NRG Arena E.OST 1 Lot F. Yellow lot G. 610 Lot Entrance/exit Pedestrian bridge MetroRail station Yellow lot: Opens daily at 6 a.m. • $25 610 lot: Opens daily at 9 a.m. • $25 OST 1 lot: Weekdays 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.; weekends 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. • $25 Ken Ellis / Staff graphic Source: RodeoHouston Park and Ride 1. OST 1 2103 S. Braeswood 2. 2400 Reed Road (Off Hwy. 288) 3. West Loop 4675 S. Braeswood 4. Monroe 8833½ Gulf Freeway 5. Maxey 515 Maxey Rd. 6. Fannin South 1604 W. Belfort 7. The Woodlands Express 701 Westridge Rd. 4 1 5 3 6 2 610 288 10 10 69 69 45 45 290 90 90A 7 Houston RodeoHouston
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM RODEOH 2023 CONCE L ongtime and returning favorites, including Brooks & Dunn and Kenny Chesney, highlight this year’s RodeoHouston lineup. The 2023 lineup features six performers taking their first spin on the rotating stage inside NRG Stadium, including Machine Gun Kelly and Walker Hayes. Seven, if you count Ashley McBryde, who opened last year for George Strait. She’s one of just two Fireworks light up NRG Stadium prior to a RodeoHouston concert. x x x By Joey Guerra STAFF WR ITER PRESENTED BY MU
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 H7 HOUSTON ERT LINEUP women on the lineup, alongside Christian pop singer Lauren Daigle. There are six noncountry acts, including New Kids on the Block and La Fiera de Ojinaga. The rest of the lineup is filled with stalwarts (Brad Paisley, Luke Bryan) and returning favorites (Kenny Chesney, Brooks & Dunn). Bun B’s collaborative showcase also returns for a second year. Ticket prices start at $25, plus a $4 convenience fee. Check rodeohouston.com/TicketInfo/Rodeo-Concert-Tickets for availability. Houston Chronicle staff file DAILY ROUNDUP Feb. 28: Parker McCollum March 1: Brooks & Dunn March 2: Lauren Daigle March 3: Bun B’s Southern Takeover (Black Heritage Day) March 4: Walker Hayes March 5: Zac Brown Band March 6: Jason Aldean March 7: New Kids on the Block March 8: Jon Pardi March 9: Ashley McBryde March 10: The Chainsmokers March 11: Turnpike Troubadours March 12: La Fiera de Ojinaga (Go Tejano Day) March 13: Cody Jinks March 14: Machine Gun Kelly March 15: Kenny Chesney March 16: Chris Stapleton March 17: Cody Johnson March 18: Brad Paisley March 19: Luke Bryan USIC
H8 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 MU Yi-Chin Lee/Staff photograp
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM USIC A mong the many RodeoHouston performers last year, none seemed to regard the rotating stage with as much awe as Conroe native Parker McCollum. He told those gathered that he saw Pat Green at the rodeo nearly two decades earlier. “Houston, my heart is beating out of my chest right now,” he said from the stage. “All I ever wanted since then was to sell out the Houston rodeo.” McCollum did just that, with more than 73,000 paid attendees. Who better, then, to kick off RodeoHouston’s 2023 series of concerts than a homegrown talent whose career has exploded over the past 10 years. A decade ago, McCollum was writing songs and fronting an Austin-based band, but he began to find traction in 2015 with the release of “The Limestone Kid,” which showed he’d studied the work of Texas’ songwriting greats, while also learning from red dirt bands how to build and pace a performance. McCollum has refined and expanded his sound with successful results: “Gold Chain Cowboy,” released in 2021, broke into the Billboard 200 and also reached No. 6 on the country charts. Last year’s single, “Handle on You,” was another hit and hints at more new music to come. Until then, he can bask in rodeo revelry with his heart beating out of his chest. her PARKER McCOLLUM x x x PARKER McCOLLUM Performing: Feb. 28 Past performances: 2022 Hometown: Conroe Did you know?: McCollum attended The Woodlands College Park High School. By Andrew Dansby STAFF WR ITER
MU HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM Houston Chronicle staff
USIC SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 H9 O ne can play a sort of chicken-egg game with the 1990s line-dance revival and Brooks & Dunn’s “Boot Scootin’ Boogie.” Would there have been a revival without that song? Would that song have existed without line dancing? We may never know. But the Texas/Louisiana singer-songwriter partnership certainly defined turbo-tonk as country music scooted toward the 21st century. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn put boots on the wood dance floors starting in 1991 with “Brand New Man.” That debut single landed at No. 1, and more than 50 hit singles followed on the country charts over the years. We’re talking so many hits that Brooks & Dunn have a “Greatest Hits Collection,” a “Super Hits,” a “Greatest Hits Collection II,” a “The Very Best of Brooks & Dunn” and “#1s … and Then Some.” Having conquered country music, the duo proceeded to place five songs on the pop Top 40 between 1998 and 2003. They’ve won enough awards to clog a major river. And Brooks & Dunn continue to turn out new music. The duo released “Reboot” in 2019. A clever title, but not entirely accurate: B&D found a style, perfected it and have served it with energy and consistency for more than three decades. Though the duo hasn’t played the rodeo in three years, its initial run on the rotating stage stretched uninterrupted from 1992 to 2010. file BROOKS & DUNN x x x BROOKS & DUNN Performing: March 1 Past performances: 1992-2010, 2019 Hometown: Nashville, Tenn. Did you know?: Brooks & Dunn’s 2009 single “Honky Tonk Stomp” featured guest vocals and guitar by Houston native and ZZ Top singer-guitarist Billy Gibbons. By Andrew Dansby STAFF WR ITER
H10 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 MU Chris Pizzello/Invision via Associated Pr
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM USIC L auren Daigle enjoys company with a handful of singers fortunate to have fared poorly on “American Idol.” She never made it to Hollywood, despite multiple tries on the singing competition, but she did manage to get within two spots of the tip top of the Billboard 200. Her breakout single, “You Say,” won a Grammy and sounds like the kind of song “Idol” contestants sing in hopes of advancing from one week to the next. Daigle managed to put the song and her debut album, “Look Up Child,” on both the Billboard pop charts and its Christian charts. Her breakthrough in 2018 felt out of the blue, but she’d been hiding in plain sight. Daigle had sung with gospel group North Point InsideOut and drawn enough interest to where her first album, “How Can It Be,” debuted at the top of the Christian charts in 2015. It didn’t catch notice outside contemporary Christian circles, but “Look Up Child” was a legitimate crossover success. The very things that likely turned off the “Idol” judges — a soulful tinge in her voice and a natural affinity for gospel that reveals her childhood in the South — made Daigle a bad fit for reality TV. But she found a path of her own that proved more rewarding. ess LAUREN DAIGLE x x x LAUREN DAIGLE Performing: March 2 Past performances: None Hometown: Lake Charles, La. Did you know?: Daigle had mononucleosis as a child and was homebound for two years, which is when she began to focus on music. By Andrew Dansby STAFF WR ITER
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM MU Yi-Chin Lee/Staff photograp
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 H11 USIC L ast year, Bun B — the Houston-based rapper and cofounder of the legendary Port Arthur duo UGK — presented his H-Town Takeover, which he described as “The Mount Rushmore of Houston music.” RodeoHouston has long put local talent on its giant stage, with performers including B.J. Thomas, Lyle Lovett and Clay Walker. Bun’s event featured a dozen local hip-hop artists, including a surprise appearance by Chamillionaire, and it pulled a formidable 73,257 paid attendees. Chronicle music critic Joey Guerra said, “It delivered on every possible level. It was an electric showcase of talent and an exhilarating moment of Houston pride — easily the best RodeoHouston show in recent memory.” How then to improve on such a showcase? Bun has a reputation for expansion. His successful Trill Burgers franchise is in the process of growing from pop-ups and food trucks to its first brick-and-mortar location this year. Similarly, his H-Town Takeover this year is growing into Bun B’s Southern Takeover for the rodeo’s Black Heritage Day. Performers last year included Z-Ro, Lil’ Keke, Lil’ Flip, Big Slim, Paul Wall and That Girl Lay Lay. Which other Southern hip-hop acts will take part in the new and expanded Takeover? Rodeo attendees will find out during an evening of music and hometown pride. her BUN B’S SOUTHERN TAKEOVER x x x BUN B’S SOUTHERN TAKEOVER Performing: March 3 Past performances: 2022 Hometown: Port Arthur Did you know?: Bun B’s Trill Burgers plans to open its first physical location in a beloved Houston dining spot: the Shepherd and Richmond space once occupied by James Coney Island. By Andrew Dansby STAFF WR ITER
H12 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 MU Robert Chav
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM USIC O ne listen to “AA” and a listener can pinpoint Walker Hayes as an Alabamian. The tell is not the titular recovery organization but rather two lines in the song in which the Mobile native rhymes football coach “Nick Saban” with “country station.” For what it’s worth, on “Drinking Songs” (detect a theme?) he pairs “Bocephus” and “Jesus.” Fitting, then, that Hayes titled his debut album “Reason to Rhyme.” In a Walker Hayes song, “complain,” “dang” and “thing” all rhyme. While Hayes had reason to rhyme going back to childhood, it took him a little while to get people to listen. He dropped in on Nashville in his 20s and found songwriting work but didn’t get around to releasing that first album until 2011, when he was almost 32. But Hayes had a vision, and six years later, he began realizing it with his album “Boom.” Hayes wasn’t the first to mix dance music production with tailgate country. But he is among those who have perfected it, with “Fancy Like.” Hayes’ ode to goodenough-for-us simple pleasures like Appleby’s on a date night and a Styrofoam cooler full of Natty (Light) was a monster hit in 2021, going No. 1 country and crossing over onto the pop charts, too, along with two other singles from his third album, “Country Stuff the Album.” vers WALKER HAYES x x x WALKER HAYES Performing: March 4 Past performances: None Hometown: Mobile, Ala. Did you know?: Before his career took off, Hayes worked the early morning shift in the produce section at Costco and wrote songs in the afternoon. By Andrew Dansby STAFF WR ITER
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM Houston Chronicle staff MU
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 H13 C onsistency is key when it comes to the RodeoHouston stage. And Zac Brown Band is arguably the best example. The band has played the rodeo eight times, and each was a master class in musicianship, polish and showmanship. It can be tough, sometimes literally, to find your footing on the rotating stage. But ZBB has found the right balance. Not too loud, not too soft. Just right. In fact, they have historically been one of the best-sounding bands inside the cavernous stadium. That’s no small feat. One of the biggest complaints during rodeo season is the sound quality. That makes ZBB’s pitch-perfect harmonies all the sweeter. ZBB released its seventh album, “The Comeback,” in 2021. That likely means new music is on the way soon. For now, we’re prepping ourselves for that “Chicken Fried” singalong and Brown’s gorgeous reading of ballad “Colder Weather.” file ZAC BROWN BAND x x x ZAC BROWN BAND Performing: March 5 Past performances: 2011-2015, 2017-2019 Hometown: Atlanta Did you know?: Brown owned a club/restaurant, called Zac’s Place, with his father. It was sold to a developer, and the band bought a bus and began touring full time. By Joey Guerra STAFF WR ITER USIC
H14 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2023 MU Houston Chronicle staff
HOUSTON CHRONICLE | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM USIC ason Aldean last played RodeoHouston in 2018. He has since released three albums and a flurry of radio hits, including a duet with Carrie Underwood. Aldean says he grew up listening to equal parts rock and country music. He has described his music as a blend of Guns N’ Roses, Hank Williams Jr. and George Strait. He’s also been known to attempt rapping. Aldean cycled through several failed record deals and once gave himself six months in Nashville before he would return home to Georgia. In that time, he signed with Broken Bow Records and became a country superstar. His first No. 1 single was 2005’s “Why.” He’s since earned more than two dozen chart-toppers. His 10th studio effort was the double album “Macon, Georgia.” He released “Macon” in 2021 and “Georgia” in 2022. He’s earned five Grammy nominations but no wins. He has, however, earned multiple Academy of Country Music awards for entertainer of the year. file JASON ALDEAN x x x JASON ALDEAN Performing: March 6 Past performances: 2010-2014, 2016, 2018 Hometown: Macon, Ga. Did you know?: Aldean was dropped by his longtime publicist after supporting his wife’s comments about gender-affirming care for trans children. By Joey Guerra STAFF WR ITER J