This is an opinion piece.

What a week it was in Birmingham for the AHSAA state basketball finals.

Forty-two games in six days at the incredible Legacy Arena, and I was blessed to see most – if not all – of each game.

There are plenty of memories from the 2024 tournament.

Here are five that I will take away from my time in Birmingham.

Trey Simpson’s triple-double

By the final quarter of Hillcrest-Evergreen’s 52-28 victory over Midfield, my fellow media members and I could only shake our heads at Trey Simpson’s day.

The 6-foot-7 junior continually swatted away shots, yanked down rebounds and scored easy baskets inside in leading Hillcrest to the state title.

“We had no answer for him,” Midfield coach Courtney Jones said following the game.

Simpson secured his triple-double by blocking a Midfield 3-point shot attempt in the final seconds of the third quarter. He finished the game with 24 points, 23 rebounds, 15 blocked shots and 3 steals in one of the most memorable single-game performances in tournament history.

Who’s the real 6A MVP?

When Buckhorn edged Mountain Brook to win a second straight Class 6A state title, the easy choice for MVP was Caleb Holt.

The super sophomore scored 37 points in his team’s semifinal win and added 16 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals against the Spartans despite being hampered by a lower body injury and fouling out in the final minute of regulation.

But the right choice for MVP was Fred Derrick. The guard took over in Holt’s absences in overtime, scoring the go-ahead basket and picking Mountain Brook’s Carson Romero clean on a potential winning layup as time expired.

To his credit, Holt knew this. When his name was announced as MVP, he immediately tried to pull Derrick up with him to get the trophy. To his credit, Brandon Dean – director of the Alabama High School Athletic Directors and Coaches Association – recognized the situation and asked Derrick to come up for the photo op as well.

Holt’s name will go down in the books as MVP of the 2024 Class 6A state tournament – the second straight time he’s won the honor – but I’m guessing Derrick went home with the MVP award and deservedly so.

It was a classy moment for all involved.

Ty and Tyler

Following the dramatic Class 6A title game, I was moved by the comments of Mountain Brook’s Ty and Tyler Davis in the postgame interview area.

Tyler Davis is the Spartans’ head coach.

Ty Davis is his son and the star of the team. He’s headed to Creighton to play college basketball.

After their final game together, Ty spoke eloquently about his father.

“This has been an amazing journey, I’ll never forget,” he said. “Being able to play with who I think is the best coach in the state. It’s been amazing.”

Tyler Davis said coaching his son has been a “blessing.”

“There’s been a lot of situations where it’s been hard,” he said. “I know he hurts right now, but these guys are amazing guys, and we don’t play without him. It’s been an absolute blessing. It stinks to lose, but these are lifelong memories.”

There were other examples in the state tournament of parents coaching their children, including Hewitt-Trussville’s Tonya Hunter and Jordan Hunter, Spring Garden’s Ricky Austin and Ace Austin and Trinity’s Blake Smith and daughters Lilly and Maddie Smith. There were others as well.

What a memory this will always be for those families whether they won a state championship or not. My father was never a coach, but the time I spent with him just throwing the baseball in the front yard is still incredibly meaningful to this day. I hope my son will say the same about his father one day.

The thrill of victory

It’s always fun to watch the reaction of teams after they win a state championship. I always try to film the final moments of the game and the trophy presentation to capture it the best I can.

The Hoover girls have won 10 state championships since 2001. The 2024 title makes four in a row for the Bucs. Still, by their reaction, I could tell this one was special to them.

For the Hazel Green girls, it’s become old hat as well. The Trojans won their seventh straight Class 6A state title. No boys or girls team has even won five in a row. It seems like the pressure is increasing with each addition state title for Tim Miller’s team, and the players seemed almost relieved when the final seconds ticked off on their title win over Huffman.

The celebrations I’ll most remember are two teams who had never won a state title – the Georgiana boys in 1A and the Jackson boys in 4A. They made history for their schools and the players, coaches and fans deservedly celebrated the accomplishment in grand fashion.

Congrats to all the champs, first time and otherwise.

The toughest moment

Undoubtedly the tournament’s toughest moment was seeing Covenant Christian’s Trace Walker go down in overtime of his team’s state title loss to Georgiana with a broken leg.

Without going into graphic detail, it was one of those injuries where you instantly want to look away. David Glovach from the Florence TimesDaily reported this week that Walker indeed suffered a broken tibia and fibula. He had surgery on Friday.

Immediately after the game, his teammates and coaches were obviously disappointed about the loss, but they were more concerned with Walker, who was playing in his first game since November due to other injuries.

“I hated it for Trace,” Covenant coach Bret Waldrep said. “He had injury struggles all year, but he wanted to play. That’s what he kept telling me when he was laying there. He said, ‘I wanted to go in.’”

“I can’t stop thinking about Trace,” fellow senior Andrew Brackin said.

To his credit, Walker told the TimesDaily he will focus on the bright side and not dwell on what might have been or on the pain of rehab.

Thank you, Trace, for teaching us all again how to handle adversity.

Prayers

Phillip Murphy, McGill-Toolen boys basketball coach: Undergoing another surgery March 20.

Steve Mask, Theodore football coach: Finishing radiation treatments for throat cancer.

Family of Carl Madison, longtime Florida and Alabama high school football coach. Madison died Sunday night at the age of 93. A native of Uriah and member of the Florida High School Athletic Hall of Fame, Madison was the head coach at Jackson Academy from 2002-2004. The team went 25-9 during that stretch and won a pair of AISA state championships.

Thought for the week

“Your talk talks. Your walk talks.

Your walk talks louder than your talk talks.”

Ben Thomas is the high school sportswriter at AL.com. He has been named one of the 50 legends of the Alabama Sports Writers Association. Follow him on twitter at @BenThomasPreps or email him at bthomas@al.com. He can be heard weekly on “Inside High School Sports” on SportsTalk 99.5 FM in Mobile or on the free IHeart Radio App at 2 p.m. Wednesdays.