Gryphons Returning To Glaxo

Mike Gainey and the Rocky Mount basketball team were very disappointed when they did not get an invitation to return back to the Glaxo Tournament at Christmas as they had last year.

Tashawn Mabry back for his senior season still uncommitted to college and the additions to this years Gryphon team there are whispers that the Gryphons could be very good this year. Today coach Mike Gainey announced that the Glaxo tournament has called and the Gryphons are in and as a reward will take on C J Leslie and Word of God for the second year in a row in the opening round. Word of God is minus John Wall who tonight playing in his first college game for Kentucky had 19 points including the game winner at the buzzer.

Big East Sweep: Tonight Southern Nash has traveled to Dunn and after trailing 7-6 at the half shutout Triton in the second half and beat Triton 20-7. This gives the Big East a sweep in the first round of the 3-AA playoffs.

This victory will insure the Big East will have a team play the Friday after Thanksgiving as they will be matched up against Hunt in the second round. Their conference game this year was won by Hunt 28-20. Rocky Mount Friday plays Triton's conference companion when they travel to meet South Johnston. While Southern Nash and Rocky Mount were members of the New-6 the conference had at least one member make it to the Thankgiving Friday game every year. On a couple of occasions two teams made it to Thanksgiving Friday.

Winning all three first rounds games tells me that the top of the conference is just as good as the past.

I surely do think that Rocky Mount has a real chance in their game this week.

Old News sorry I haven't said anything about this before now but Lindsey Thomas was named the player of the year in Big East tennis. Coach Barrry Nettercutt was also named co-coach of the year. Teammate Kate Gray was also named to the all conference tennis team. Addie Keeter and Caroline Nelson were second team and Margaret Arroyo was Honorable mentions.

Terry Sanford spent today in court trying to get eligible after the NCHSAA said they were out of the 4-A playoffs for an ineligible player. Come to find out that the judge in the case is a graduate of Fayetteville High School which was renamed for former Governor and U S Senator Terry Sanford.

Sounds of a conflict of interest to me

Details released in court today is related to a grade being changed and no one knows how it happened. A Sanford player mysteriously had a failing grade in English go from a 54 to a 78 over the summer. The NCHSAA also provided as part of their eligibility efforts that the player in question had missed 15 days during the spring when the NCHSAA requires that no player can miss more than 13.5 per semester.

Verdict should come at 10.00am Tuesday as to whether Terry Sanford is in or Pine Forest. I wonder if Pine Forest could actually sue the judge since there seems a conflict of interest.

This is actually my Tuesday blog. Making the Glaxo Tournament and Southern Nash winning was to much good info to wait til tomorrow.

Round Two Matchup

The number one seeded Trojans of South Johnston Versus the number eight seeded Gryphons of Rocky Mount.

One of the things that everyone forgets during the seeding process for high school football, is that the teams are seeded based on a priority system with each conference getting priority over the others on a rotating basis from year to year. This year it is South Johnston's conferences turn to be the top prioritized conference. That means their number one seed is the top seed in the tournament.

The Trojans are now 11-1 on the year while the Gryphons are 7-4.

South Johnston's offense is averaging 32.5 point per game. The Gryphons are at only 22 point sper game.

The Trojan defense has giving up only 10.5 points while the Gryphons are allowing 18.0 per game.

If you go by paper this is a mismatch in favor of the Trojans.

Let's dig into the paperwork and see what we might find.

The Trojans have only played through twelve games only two teams with winning records, while the Gryphons a little tougher with five. The Trojans have played C B Aycock who they beat 28-21 and Triton who the Trojans beat 21-14. Rocky Mount on the other have played Hertford County who drilled the Gryphons 41-21. SouthWest Edgecombe beat us 28-14. Hunt was a winner over the Gryphons 28-14. They pulled off wins over Southern Nash and South Central who are 8-3 and now 8-4.

The over all record of all the Trojan opponents is 42-93 while the Gryphons opposition has a winning record at 66-64.

South Johnston has scored 57 points against Southern Lee, 52 against Eastern Wayne, 84 against North Lenoir and 42 against Southern Wayne. That is a total of 235 point against four teams with a combined 5-39 record.

The Gryphons in their game against Hertford county gave up 41, 28 to Southwest Edgecombe and 28 to Hunt. That's 97 points against three teams with a combined record of 30-3.

Drew Pasteur's Fantastic 50 is only making South Johnston a one point favorite in this game.

If any team wins on any Friday night they first have to believe they can win. Even though South Johnston is a number one seed the Gryphons will load the buses up on Friday afternoon knowing they have a chance to win this game.

The winner will meet the Douglas Byrd who upset Westover on Friday nightor West Brunswick. Byrd is a number twelve seed who beat a number five seed. However the game was shifted from Westover to Byrd because of playing conditions at Westover. West Brunswick is the host of this game is the number four seed.

If Byrd wins and the Gryphons upset South Johnston the game would be played in Rocky Mount. If West Brunswick wins the SJ/RM winner travels to Shallotte.

Boy wouldn't it be something to play on Thanksgiving Friday. The Gryphons have a great chance in this one.

Directions to South Johnston High: Take I-95 south until exit 87. Turn right off exit. Go about half mile until stoplight at 301, turn left school is six miles on right.