The Cavalier basketball team finds itself in an odd place.

Ranked No. 6 in the state by TABC, Lake Travis (20-3) is the clear favorite in Region IV, having just won a tournament hosted by No. 12 Kerrville Tivy (16-5) and returning more letter winners than No. 9 Killeen (16-7) and No. 10 LBJ (13-6). All signs point to a team poised to make a strong district run, if not a deep playoff run.

But things aren’t quite clicking the exact way head coach Jan Jernberg would like, and it’s made the last two weeks interesting.

With district play starting tomorrow night in Lampasas, the Cavs haven’t played the level of competition they expected they would, and that means the preparation hasn’t been up to snuff compared to recent seasons.

“The problem is the last three games, we’ve played teams that were missing one of their key players. We have not played the kind of competition I thought we were going to play,” Jernberg said. “I thought Smithville was going to be a solid 3A, and they weren’t. I thought Elgin for sure would be better than they were, and they weren’t.”

The Cavaliers cruised to easy wins over both, beating Elgin 65-40 and Smithville 82-49.
The Cavaliers cruised to easy wins over both, beating Elgin 65-40 and Smithville 82-49.

Now, Jernberg looks at a district slate that isn’t really overwhelming him.

“I don’t think Hendrickson or Killeen is as strong as they were last year, I think Marble Falls is the up-and-comer and I think Lampasas is the bottom feeder,” he said. “We have to take care of business, and it’s nice that we’ve been able to play so many guys. Do I wonder about some things? Yes. But we should be pretty salty against the district.”

For the second year in a row – and just the second time in program history – the Cavs will open up district play with 20 wins. Just like last year, Lake Travis appears to have the edge on everyone in the region. It may even be better by comparison.

“I guess my thing is that we’re just a very different team than we were last year,” Jernberg said. “Potentially, we could be better because everyone in our top six or seven plays extremely hard. I think we can be even better at wearing down other teams.”

As for the state of the Cavaliers, high state rankings and high expectations are still something that takes some getting used to for the players.

“I think they recognize the fact that they’re pretty good, but we don’t talk about being the team to beat,” Jernberg said. “We’ve got to beat the teams as they come and that has to be the attitude. We have to step up when the other teams show up.”

That starts with an attitude, and the Cavs will employ it tomorrow night.

“We can’t take anyone for granted,” Jernberg said. “We have to stomp on Lampasas in their own gym. Otherwise we’re not setting the bar in the right place.”