The Quizbowl Resource Center

Question above.

best teams:
until bellaire/klein/other schools decide to compete in naqt/pace nationals...it will be tough to judge where they stand overall.

clearly st. john's, bellaire, klein are at the top in the houston area (in that order). don't know much about memorial or cistercian this year (they were darn good when i still played).

the st. john's team is top 5 in the nation (all local tournament losses were without andrew, i believe). also, the strong result by the b team at naqt is a good sign for the future.

i think that the bellaire/klein teams would probably have been in contention for the playoffs at naqt; there seems to be enough talent at these schools to sustain nationally competitive programs, if they competed against the top schools.

best players:
stalking around the net found me good information about raj from klein and nitin from katy taylor (whom i remember), nick from bellaire (whom i do not remember), as well as andrew from sjs.

Until more teams in Texas make a commitment to playing real questions full time and disregarding Questions unlimited, Patrick's Press, and Avery Enterprises, St. Johns will remain dominant.

Though Bellaire beat SJ and are nominal state champions, SJ was not at full strength. It seems that SJ doesn't care about these losses; they put their best foot forward when it matters. For me it is distressing that even with the NAQT National in their back yards, many of the Houston Area teams chose not to go.

As for the individual players, Andrew is clearly the best individual; WASHU has a good player if he chooses to play in college. Boze from Alvin is sorta like a poor man's Jason Loy. In my opinion neither Raj, Nitin, nor Nick has distinguished themselves as outstanding players, though they are good players.

For the future, the SJ B team definitely has potential. The best young player is probably the rising junior from Plano East, whose name I forget.

Chris

For me, nothing matters more as far as winning goes, than winning the GA State Championship.

jrbarry wrote:For me, nothing matters more as far as winning goes, than winning the GA State Championship.

The Georgia state championship is contested on NAQT questions. As the Texas championship is on QU questions it is far less legitimate, and Texas teams should look to high quality in-state invitationals or the placement of Texas teams at nationals for a true ranking.

If there were a better Texas team than St. John's this year, I would like to have seen them. A review of SJ's record on the year-end wrap thread is impressive. Not only could you make a strong case for them to be rated the best Texas team, but an equally strong case could be made that they were one of the top few teams in the nation. I would rate them somewhere between 2nd and 4th. They finished 3rd at NAQT HSNCT, and tied for 3rd at PACE NSC. They were the only non-TJ to beat us ( Maggie Walker Governor's A) at either NAQT or PACE. Although our record against them was 3-1 this year, all the games were very close. It could easily have been 2-2 or 1-3.

For the future, the SJ B team definitely has potential.

Ted Curry said that all the members of SJ B graduated this year. He should have a talented, but young team next year. I found his comments in the Forbidden Zone.

The best young player is probably the rising junior from Plano East, whose name I forget.

I think you mean Jeff Nanney.