First One Ever

 Tonight Rocky Mount High School played their first basketball games ever in the new gym and just like last year they won the last games at the old one and they are perfect in the new gym as Rocky Mount High sweeps Hertford County.

The Lady Gryphons go to 3-0 on the season as J'Kyra Brown  scores 33 to lead the Lady Gryphons to a 71-44 win.  Carman Richardson scored 18 while Kelsey Daniels  was the only other double digit scorer for the Ladies with 10.

Rocky Mount boys also go to 3-0 on the season as they beat the Hertford County boys by a 71-55 score.  Donte Battle lead the way for the Gryphons with 16 and M J Gainey who seems to have made an excellent recovery from his season ending knee surgery last season had 13 points.

I say season ending remembering the tearful layup made by M J at the end of the State Championship game in Chapel hill last year when dad Mike Gainey put M J in the game in the final minute as he put every player in the game to enjoy the spoils of victory in the State Championship win and to be able to score as the buzzer sounded couldn't have been a better ending .

Tonight New Bern representing the East in the 4-A state champions game in Chapel Hill scored with 26 seconds to play in the game to beat Porter Ridge  39-38.  The Bears finish the season at 15-0

The Tarboro Viking football team goes for their fourth straight 2-A football championship Saturday morning in Winston Salem.  East Lincoln stands in the Viking way. You can watch the game on the internet at News14.com.  That's the Time Warner cable state wide news channel.    Once the home page pops up I am sure it will be easy to click on the game.

Tarboro Viking fans I am sure will try to get to a TV set after the state championship game.  Todd Gurley  former Viking and the Georgia Bulldogs play for the Southeastern Conference Championship and if they beat Alabama in Atlanta should get a shot to play for the National Championship in January.

I don't know what the final score was but I heard during the night that Northern Nash girls were beating SouthWest Edgecombe by nearly 40 points in the third quarter and the Lady Cougars at that point had scored only four points.  They had a similar fate last week when they played Nash Central.  Theses are some tough times for the Lady Cougars and Sandra Langley.  I don't care how good of a coach that you are when you don't have the players it simply not easy to coach.  This years senior class at Northern had a tough freshman year and Pam Gainey at Rocky Mount has had a season this century that she won only single digit games for the season.

The Matchup

Tarboro High School goes for their 4th straight 2-A state football title Saturday in Winston Salem where they will meet East Lincoln High School.  It will be the third meeting in four years of the Eastern Plains conference(Tarboro) and the Southern Piedmont.  The Vikings met Lincolnton last year and Mountain Hertitage in 2009 who also represented the Southern Piedmont. 

East Lincoln is located in Lincoln County population 78,000.  East Lincoln High is in the unincorporated town of Denver population 13,000 which is located 25 miles west of downtown Charlotte.  Tarboro population of 12,800 of course is located in Edgecombe County populations 58, 000.

Tarboro's five visits in a row to the state championships this is the second time they will face off against another team that comes into the game undefeated.  The 2010 game against Carver they were 14-0 and East Lincoln will be 15-0 at game time.  East Lincoln  beat Lincolnton in conference play this season 13-8 and of course Lincolnton and  Tarboro had a classic 39-36 game last season for the state title.  Lincolnton finished the season this year 7-6.

 Here is one of those meaningless stats that is a fact.  East Lincoln played on their schedule this season three of the four teams that Tarboro has faced in the last five championship games.  Newton-Conover, Mountain Hertitage and Lincolnton.  The only team missing off of East Lincoln schedule is Carver.

This games looks to be a game where it should be and offensive show. East Lincoln has score 629 points in fifteen games and is averaging 41.3 points per game.  In their fourteen games Tarboro 42.3.  The defense just might be where this game is won and that will be which team stops the other once in a while.  East Lincoln is giving up 16.4 points per game while the Vikings 15.7.

If stats can give us any indication at all this one could be a high scoring nail biter just like last year if not even more scoring if that is possible.  I am of the opinion that of the five teams  in a row that Tarboro has sent to the state title games that this team is the best of the bunch.  That does not however guarantee  victory.    I have to say this any team that has won 23 in a row since their last lost and have won in the past five years 23 of 24 playoffs game it will be hard to bet against.  I'll take the Vikings 42-34 over east Lincoln. 

GO VIKES

Power House ACC Basketball?

Don't look now but ACC basketball could be just as bad as football if the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and the first couple of weeks are any proof about the future.  The ACC loses four out of six to the Big Ten last night and Duke host Ohio State a team that drubbed them in the challenge last year.  However the game is in Cameron this go round.

I honestly don't see Carolina being much more than a 20-12 type team.  I don't like what I see in their guards and missing this year is that man standing back at the goal ready to swat every shot going to the basket.  State on the other hand has played their first five and a half games like teams were suppose to lay down when they stepped on the court.  Finally the second half last night they played like I would like to see every game.  Also remember my goal for this team was to have single digit losses when the season was over so I didn't think this team was quite ready to make it to the final four.

This morning the ACC asked Louisville to join the conference and they accepted.  The ACC will have 14 full time member still when Maryland pulls out.  Heard this on the David Glenn show today that Louisville will be the first ACC member ever that is not ranked in the top 100 of academic institutions in America.

Last night Northern Nash opened it's basketball season playing at D H Conley.  The boys lost by only five and after having won only one game all  last year when they hardly ever stayed in any game as close as five points this is a really good start for them on the road and almost winning.  The girls you know are preseason Big East girls favorite and they beat Conley some where around forty points.

The Tarboro Vikings are heading to their fifth straight State Championship game Saturday in Winston Salem and the rumor mill is hot and heavy about Jeff Craddock leaving Tarboro at the end of this year. Some are saying what does he have to prove with Tarboro going 1-A next year.  I have even seen he was going to be on the Ohio State staff next year.   Let's let him win his fourth championship Saturday and then we will decide where we want him to go.

Finally The Big East /Halfway

Today the Pirates of ECU got their wish and moved up in the football world leaving Conference USA for the Big East in football only.  If you remember in my article last week about TV sets rule then you could ask the question why did the Big East take Tulane in all sports?  The answer the city of New Orleans despite having lost 100,000 that left town because of Hurricane Katrina they still have 377,000 in New Orleans and 3/4 of a million in metro New Orleans.  All other sports the Pirates will stay in C-USA.

The way the world of college football is heading and if there are only four super conferences and those conferences wind up being football only then ECU just might be ahead of the game being in what ever Big East football becomes in the future.  Sure does look like before most of our life times are over State, Carolina and Duke might be in a Super football conference and the ACC will be all other sports.  I hope that is not where we are heading but it sure does look like it.

Bubba Cunningham  Athletic Director at North Carolina announced today that North Carolina is not considering moving to any conference other than staying in the ACC.   Today the office of the ACC sued the University of Maryland claiming that they will have to pay the full $50 million to get out of the ACC.  I don't see that the conference has any choice but to do this.  If they let Maryland go for say 20 million whats going to stop Florida State or Clemson getting out at a cheaper rate too. 

What is the state of ACC football this year?  David Cutcliffe was named ACC coach of the year and his team lost their last four games in a row to end the season.  We do how ever understand that Duke winning six games in football is like the Carolina Panthers playing in the Super Bowl.  Great job by coach Cut.

Speaking of the Panthers they won on Monday Night Football last night.  Speaking some more about a former Panther,  Campbell University name Mike Minter their new football coach today.  Minter the former Panther safety has been the special teams coach at Liberty this past season.  Just where Campbell is they probably got a good coach with name recognition who hasn't  proven himself yet to even be considered by N C State but he just might be a great pick for the Fighting Camels.

N C State has called  for the Board Of Trustees to meet at 4:30 Wednesday afternoon to discuss a football matter.  Lord have mercy has Debbie Yow got a coach already?

Five Star Over Three Star

Just a couple of weeks ago while eating dinner at one of my favorite places ran into a parent who was telling me about her five star student.  I was amazed to here that her son who had made a 98 on a recent test had asked to retake it to get a higher score.  He did by the way make a 100 the next time. When I was in school as a three star student if I got 85 or better I knew I was getting about all I could get.

Debbie Yow dismissed Tom O'Brien as the head football coach of N C State on Sunday and reading between the lines she feels that State can get it's share of five star athletes who call North Carolina their home instead of watching them go out of State.  Tom O'Brien liked to recruit three stars athletes and try to mold them into fours and fives.

A five star athlete most of the time can run a forty yard dash in say 4.3 seconds. When he is having a bad day he may drop down to a 4.45.  A three star athlete just might run a 4.5 on his very best day and then on those days his  body can't get 100% he runs a 4.7.  On his worse day a five star still is better than a three star at his best.  That equates just like that five star student  bad day makes a 98 while a great day for me was above 85.

That just might explain  why N C State could beat a Florida State once in a while and turn right around and lose to Virginia the next.  The threshold of the average players is not as high as those that are great.  This might also explain why the ACC got drubbed this weekend by the SEC in every football game they played against each other.

Boston College is looking a new coach and Wake Forest has a news conference at 6pm so something is up there.  All of this talk about conference realignment and who can pay for this coach and that State is looking for a football coach early but will they have the same problem finding a coach like they did in basketball when all the big names went else where. 

What we have found out is graduating all of your senior class doesn't mean as much as 1,000 less season ticket holders.  Going to a bowl game is not what Joe Average University is looking for these days.  Where ever State goes to a Bowl game they will probably need to sell 25,000 tickets to break even and if only 12,000 go then the bowl game is a bust.  BCS games baby is where the money is and until Carolina and State can get there  8-4 and 7-5 is no longer a good football season.

A Lustrum To Remember

Next Saturday the Tarboro Vikings head to Winston Salem where they will attempt to win their fourth straight 2-A State Championship.  There is no way if you are a Tarboro Viking fan that you could ever expect that there to ever be a five year period as great as the past five. 

But do you remember that five years ago Jeff Craddock was on the hot seat.  The previous four years Tarboro had a record of just 24-22.  They had not in the previous fours scored 300 points in any one season.  In one short Lustrum Jeff Craddock has gone from hot seat to the Pent House as he is now the greatest coach in Tarboro High School history.

The Vikings will attempt Saturday to win their fourth straight State Title.  They will be shooting for their 23rd straight win.  Since the beginning of the 2008 football season Tarboro has won 72 football games and lost only five. They have not lost a home football game since September 21st 2007 when they lost to SouthWest Edgecombe 28-14. Their home winning streak has reach 44 straight games, the last two in 2007 and all 42 during this five year run to greatness.  The Vikings are 27-3 on the road during this stretch.  So far 3-1 on neutral fields where the state championships are played.  Saturday will be their 25th playoff game in five years and right now they are 23-1 just in playoff games.  25 games that is an extra two and half years of extra games added to the schedule.

They lost two years in a row to SouthWest once the Cougars returned to 2-A.  2008 the Cougars won a non-conference game and the next season Tarboro returned back to SWE and lost again in a conference game..  Two of their five losses have come from their top rival SWE.  Kinston put 54 on the Vikings in 2011 so during this five year run the Vikings are 28-2 in conference games.  Nash Central gave the Vikes their fourth loss in 2011.  The fifth loss was the State Championship game to Newton-Conover  in 2008.

Out of no where the Tarboro T has exploded during this five year run and the worse of the five they still scored 496 points  in 2009.  That's more than 200 more points than any year from 2004-2007. Should the Vikings score nine points Saturday they will hit the 600 mark for the second time in five years.

There is no doubt that Tarboro is a football town.  Over the years as other football towns have lost their identity  with County schools Tarboro is still Tarboro High.  The purple and gold reins in the city.  There are many in Tarboro and Edgecombe county out of work  but there is one thing they can say.  They sure do know how to play football in Tarboro.

Gryphons Dominant Knightdale Tournament

Last season the Lady gryphons made it all the way to the East Regional Final and the boys were the state champs.  Both have begun the 2012-13 high school basketball season taking the titles at the Knightdale 2012 Tipoff Tournament.

The Lady Gryphons won Friday night over 4-A Raleigh Enloe and tonight took on the home standing Knightdale team and for three quarters this game was up for grabs.  The Lady Gryphons finally took charge in the fourth quarter to win the championship 48-40.

Having won the most outstanding performer in the 3-A State Championship game Junior Donte Battle returns to lead the Gryphon boys who last night took down East Chapel Hill behind 34 points from Battle.  Tonight against the home team Knightdale the Gryphons shot off to a 10-0 lead but before either team got 20 Knightdale had taken the lead.
 
  Rocky Mount dominated the boards winning that battle 40 to 21.  Jaquel Bryant lead the rebounding getting 13 while Battle pulled down 11.    Rocky Mount also won the turnover game making 24 while the Gryphon defense could only cause 17.  Miss handling of the basketball kept this one within reach for a while until the Gryphons put it away early in the fourth quarter.  The biggest lead of the game came on a Knightdale turnover in which Brodrick Caudle was heading in for a snowbird layup but instead laid the ball off the top part of the backboard and Donte Battle flushed home a slam dunk to give the Gryphons a 16 point lead with four minutes to go. 

Donte Battle lead the Gryphon scoring with 23, Mason Hines 15, M J Gainey 14 and Jaquel Bryant had 11 giving the Gryphons four double digit scorers.     Final Gryphons 82- Knightdale 68

North Carolina finishes their 2012 football season beating Maryland to give Larry Fedora an eight win season in his first year in Chapel Hill.  N C State finished it's regular season with a 27-10 win over BC.  The Pack 7-5 waits now on where it will go bowling.  Heard this on the pregame show when asked about his 16 seniors playing their last game Tom O'Brien lamented that all 16 will graduate.  Two already are in graduate school 12 will graduate in December and the last two in May.  Despite how fans feel about wins and losses it would be hard to fire a coach who is graduating his team.  This senior class was Tom O'Brien's first fully recruited class at N C State.

TOO Much Vikings

The Tarboro Vikings haven't lost a home playoff game for five years now and today was not going to be the first.  Last year it seemed every game went to the wire including the State Championship.  Not this year and not tonight as South Columbus ran into a Tarboro Viking team with a goal to make it four in a row State Titles.  Tarboro did win their fifth straight East Regional 2-A title which will be their last as next year they drop down to 1-A.  The Vikings ease on to Winston Salem after they demolish South Columbus 46-0.   The Vikings play at 11am next Saturday December first in Winston against East Lincoln who tonight is up big in the fourth 31-7  in the West regional over Madison.

The news is terrible for the Big East in Greensboro.  Hunt has been no match at all for North Guilford trailing 30-0 at the half and things were not any better in the second. At this writing it is 44-0 in the fourth quarter. This is the third straight year N Guilford has taken Hunt out of the playoffs.

Tonight both Rocky Mount High boys and girls basketball teams won their opening round match in the Knightdale Basketball Tournament and both will play for the championships late Saturday afternoon. The boys beat E Chapel Hill while the girls took down Enloe.

Losing for the first time last week the Wolfpack of N C State hit the hardwood tonight  in Raleigh against  UNC-Asheville.  Pack once again plays in a daze but escapes 82-80.  Duke had a much tougher team to play in the Bahamas in VCU but the Devils survive and play in the Championship game Saturday 67-56 over VCU.

Got another basketball score for you ECU 65 Marshall 59 in double overtime.  Wait a minute that's a football score my bad.  If only their basketball team could score 65.

Earlier this week Nash Central started their high school basketball season beating SouthWest Edgecombe  in both girls and boys games.

I don't know whether you have notice this or not and even whether you care, after only winning seven games all of last season the Charlotte Bobcats are 6-5 so far this season.  They are one win short of their total of seven all of last year and they still have 70 games to get that.  They got a chance to get it unless they falter the last five months of the regular season.

Turkey Day And Football Practice

There is nothing better than a high school football game on the Friday night after Thanksgiving.  Tarboro and Hunt still enjoy the thrill and excitement of the anticipation of what just might be yet to come.  To have made it this far is reward enough but for these two teams even more accolades could come next week.

Tarboro is at home playing South Columbus a team that held the Vikings to their lowest point totals (13) in quite a while.  The main question for S Columbus can they hold down the Vikings to even anything close to that this year.  I think the answer to that question is no but I do think Tarboro could hold them to close to the 10 SC got last year. Tarboro wins their fifth straight Eastern 2-A regional 35-14 over South Columbus..Winston Salem here we come again.

There is no doubt that in the last five years in eastern 3-A football there has not been a more consistent team that the Hunt Warriors.  If you look at their regular season records and then at their playoffs there is only one team that keeps stepping on Hunts toes.  That's the NightHawks of North Guilford.  Why is it that teams can dominate every one but there is always somebody out there who is better.  Mohammad Ali had trouble with Joe Frazier.  Rocky Mount couldn't beat Western Alamance and Big East boys soccer can beat everybody but Jacksonville who by the way won the state title.

Hunt will try again to beat the Night Hawks and once again I hate to say it they will come up short.  I don't know what it is about that I-85 corridor that our area has so much trouble with but guess where N. Guilford lives.  N Guilford 32 Hunt 20.  Hunt  and Randy Raper deserve better but I don't see them getting the job done.

138 points scored by one player in a game.  I think this would be a great accomplishment if the score of the game had of been close but winning by 75 179-104 what in the world is this coach thinking.  The young man took 108 shots.  He had to shoot as soon as the ball was in  bounded or about every twenty seconds.  I wonder did the other team ever think about slowing down themselves since they got 104 points.  But I guess  when you are only down by 50 with three minutes to play they had to feel they still had a chance.

If you want to see a good Thanksgiving story go on line to WRAL.COM and look at the story of the National Guard unit just returning from Afghanistan.  The story features two small girls an their mother waiting for their daddy who arrived home yesterday.   The officer Ty Mullen wife is Leigh Mullen who was the volleyball coach at Campbell but recently resigned to be a stay at home mom and follow her husband who recently received a promotion.  It does something to your heart when you know something about the people who serve our country both at home and abroad.  Our Marine Jarrod will be with us this Thanksgiving but last year he was in Afghanistan.  Those that serve in war have a job to do while everyone else stays home to worry and keep life going.

 Have a Happy Thansgiving.  Don't eat too many collards and turkey.

College Football It's All About TV Sets

I don't know too many people unhappy with the departure of Maryland from the ACC.  I hear a lot of people crying because of the TV market Baltimore/Washington no longer has an ACC school.  Guess what folks Rutgers didn't get into the Big Ten because they are one of the premier athletic programs in the country but they are close to  New York City.  Rutgers going to the Big Ten is a bigger hit for the ACC than losing Maryland.

Heard this on the David Glenn show one day this week that the ACC is the third most viewed football conference on Saturdays following the SEC and the Big Ten.  More people watch ACC football every Saturday over the Big 12, Pac 12.

If TV sets mean everything then who will the ACC go after to fill the void of Maryland and who could possibly filled Rutgers shoes even though they never got walked in.  Louisville, U Conn, Vanderbilt, Navy, ECU  and what about UNC Charlotte.

Top candidate now would be Louisville with a city of 141,000 but here is always what TV sets look at.  The Metro area of Louisville is 1.3 million. You must remember now the quality of athletics has absolute no reason for any school joining any league only TV sets.  Second on the list U Conn, part of the Hartford,New Haven TV market the 28th biggest in the country.

When I throw this one out there don't swear until you listen to reason.  Navy an academic institution location in the Baltimore /Washington market replacing Maryland.   I know ECU fans are already sending off tweets trying to get ECU back in the ACC talk but forget it,  Greenville-New Bern -Washington only 192,000 TVs.  Yes ECU  fans   UNC Charlotte has got a truly much better chance of joining the ACC than ECU will in the next thirty years.  Charlotte a city of 751,000 and here we go with a metro area of 2.4 million.  Now I ask all of you ECU fans if you were opening a gas station where would you built one in Charlotte who has two interstate highways and 2.4 million gas tanks or Greenville with 192,000 gas tanks.

There is one more team on the wish list and that would be Vanderbilt.  They fit the ACC mode of mostly Private Colleges with a city of 605,000 and a metro 1.5 million.    Why would Vandy want to leave the SEC where they already get  a bigger TV pay check than what the ACC can offer. If we forget all the TV set mumbo jumbo the next issue is football stadiums, basketball arena's and airports.  Where does ECU fit there?  Don't feel so bad ECU  Appalachian State now that they are considering D-1 football  are seeing the pain that you are going through because they have less TV's than you.

Tarboro Has Taken On All Comers

During this historical run in which the Tarboro Vikings have won three straight 2-A football titles and finished second once they have taken on any and every body.  Case in point, during the last five years the Vikings will be playing in their 24rd playoff game.  Those 24 games  they will have played 16 different schools.  South Columbus is one of those teams that the Vikes play for the second time having beaten them on the road last year.  The other schools that they have met twice during this run of excellence is Roanoke Rapids, Pasquatank, Northside of Jacksonville,East Duplin, East Bladen and this Friday night South Columbus joins the twice list in Tarboro 24th playoff game.

South Columbus will be the second playoff team in a row that they will play who beat the team that had beat them during the regular season.  Last week Northeastern had lost during the season to Edenton but they won  at Edenton in the playoffs.  Last week South Columbus beat East Bladen who had beaten them 28-6 during the regular season at E Bladen.

South Columbus comes in with another loss at the hands of Hoggard 38-0 but for a 2-A school there in no shame in losing to Hoggard.  They have scored an average of 27 points a game and have surrendered just short of 15 per contest.  For the second year in a row South Columbus and Tarboro play for the East Region title except this season the game is in Tarboro.

If you are the Hunt Warriors fan then you need a 7-11 Big Gulp.  For the third year in a row the Warriors face North Guilford in the East 3-AA finals the first two at Hunt and Hunt could not get the job done in either.  This time they meet the Night Hawks again but this time in Greensboro.

The Hawks will be sitting in wait for the Warriors  as they have average  39 points per contest.  Here's the impressive number.  In their 13 games to date they have given up two scores only  twice and in both of those game 14 is all they gave up then.  Their defense is averaging 6 points per game.  The Warriors have got to find  a way to score points in this one.

The combined records of the four teams playing this weekend and two being either from our area or they are representing us from our conference the overall records of the four is 50-2.  Doesn't sound to me like anybody   lucked out to get to this point.  They all earned it..

Say Good-Bye To Maryland

The Board Of Regents at the University of Maryland announced today that they will leave the ACC and join the Big Ten.  Maryland who has eliminated six varsity sports recently is strapped for cash  and the head of the Regents flatly said the Big Ten is offering money to get Maryland back on their feet.  Fannies in the seat is the biggest issue and the last three football seasons Maryland has only had home attendance in any home game of two thirds of the stadium full.

Maryland becomes the second member of the original eight members  that defected from the Southern Conference in 1953 as South Carolina left in 1971.  So for the first time in the John Swofford era as Commissioner of the ACC someone has out foxed him in the wheeling and dealings of conference expansion.  It comes from another Carolina school mate in Jim Delaney.

So all of a sudden with Notre Dame looking possibly at the BCS championship game and a big payday who is going to fill the shoes to get the ACC back to 14 or even 16 teams? Louisville, Connecticut, Vanderbilt are the top candidate.  Here is next problem, can the ACC survive or will they find themselves becoming the Big East.

Rumors on blogs are stating that Carolina and Duke will wind up in the the Big Ten and State and Clemson going to Big 12 and Florida State to Southeastern.  What has happened to College sports?  The ACC has been betting that Notre Dame will need them to join full time in football and with a full time Notre Dame the ACC would add the Chicago TV market.  You can kiss a full fledged football member if the Irish win at Southern Cal Saturday and Matt Barkley the Trojan QB is out of the game with an injury.

John Swofford who up to this point in all of these dominoes falling in college sports he has been Fast Eddie Felson or the Paul Newman character in the movie The Hustler.  Maryland leaving this week and if the Fighting Irish win in football this weekend then this week will be the week Swofford meets up with Minnesota Fats.

If all the rumors are true and if ESPN continues to be the money packing machine that they seem to be then we may be headed for four super conferences in football then what we know today as the ACC could still be a basketball league along with all the minor sports while football with be a monster all it's own.  What is this world coming to?

How Many Titles Can The Vikings Win?

The Tarboro Vikings will be making their fifth straight Eastern Regional this Friday night when they host South Columbus.  Should they win they will play in their fifth straight  State Championship title game.  Having won three in a row and the way this teams defense has come around in the last month they very well may on their way to their fourth straight title.

We all know that streaks are made to be broken and should the Vikings win their fourth title in a row how many more can they win.  Must I remind you that the Vikes will be dropping down in classification next year and start playing in 1-A .  Their annual game with county rival North Edgecombe historically is won by Tarboro and hardly ever has the score been close.  We just might  now be approaching the middle of this streak of state championships.  Need I remind everyone however the Tarboro Viking need to concentrate on South Columbus this week or the streak could end.

ESPN is reporting that Monday Maryland will announce that they are joining the Big Ten.  If there is one team that I could care less about being in the ACC it is Maryland.  However if Rutgers joins the Big Ten too then the Big Ten has latched on to the DC/Maryland TV market and New York City.


Should both Florida State and Maryland pull out of the ACC who would replace them.  I bet Vanderbilt will be on the wish list.  If the ACC looks towards the Northeast to replace Maryland  and Rutgers goes to the Big Ten then U Conn is the biggest tomato still available and they would surely fit the ACC basketball criteria.

It was too late for me Friday night but Carolina played maybe their best basketball game of the year in beating Long Beach State as they head over to Hawaii.  State plays in the championship game in Puerto Rico this afternoon.

Thank goodness that Carolina played football on Thursday night and won.  Least one of the Big Four won.  this weekend.  Duke losing to Georgia Tech least we won't be stuck with a Duke-Florida State ACC Championship game.  It is either Miami or Georgia Tech who will play Florida State now. 

The last two weeks in a row the top teams in the BCS have lost and Notre Dame stands to move at the top of the list.  If the ACC wants the Fighting Irish to come on over and join the ACC full time they had better hope that Southern Cal beats the Irish this weekend and drops them out of the National Championship game.  Should the Irish get into the game they will have a big pay day and the thought of joining the ACC will wilt away for another ten years. 

Should the Irish lose next weekend and then not make  the BCS Championship game then  the higher ups in South Bend will receive a lot of pressure because they don't have that ACC Championship game to give them extra points.  Just think a Florida State- Notre Dame ACC championship game this year would feature two top ten teams and the winner would rise in the BCS and without being in a conference championship game Notre Dame can only hope everybody loses in conference championship games while they sit idle.

The Changing World Of College Football

The last two weeks I have witnessed Carolina give up 68 and today the Wolfpack 62.  I don't know how Carolina fans felt last week but I gave a sigh of relief when the game was over because I thought Clemson was going to score 100.

Despite giving up 68 Carolina loses by 18 and today the Pack by 14.  In fact with ten minutes to go in the game Clemson fans still had thoughts they could lose the game.  I am not quite sure whether Big Four football is that bad or college football is  no longer four yards and a cloud of dust.

I find this new college game very exciting to watch but there will have to be rule changes made  to save the game.  Clemson score 62 points and had two passes intercepted.  State had a pass picked off in the Enzone and a blocked field goal.  Between them today they ran nearly 190 plays.  Very seldom in the NFL both teams run 120 between them.  That equates out to over half another game played today and it did not go over time.

I know most of you will think since I like State I say this but Mike Glennon should be the top quarterback taken in next years NFL draft.  He is a better passer than Philip Rivers, more mobile and when on the run can throw it 60 yards on the money.  If he had receivers who could catch there is no telling what his passing numbers could have been this year.  It is very easy to see why Tom O'brien didn't want Mike Glennon to leave last year and told Russell Wilson to take a hike.

How can college football be saved?  My answer would be to eliminate the stopping the clock after a first downs  except inside of two minutes in the half and at the end of the game.  Stopping the clock is the reason there were 190 plays today.  Since college football has a 25 second clock they are going to run more plays every game just because of that but with no stopping the clock after first downs today  they would have only gotten maybe 150 plays in.  If you look back when today's game was at 150 plays the score was still 55-38.

If the National Championship game comes down to Oregon and Kansas State you just might see for the first time in history that the loser scores 40.   Boy won't that be an exciting game.  Funny thing about exciting games is a 17-10 game can be just as exciting at least in a 17-10 game it looks like 11 going against 11 while a game like today looked 11 against 8. 

 

Too Much Speed

Back in 1986 while I was doing Play by Play at Ahoskie High we played Lexington for the State Title at Lexington.  Ahoskie had a real fast team but when your fastest man is the fifth or sixth fastest when the game starts you  find it is hard to win. Lexington won 35-7 that night.

 The Tarboro Vikings came out running the Tarboro Tee and Northeastern looked as though they had never seen it in their life as Viking runners were running through the line untouched and proved to be no match for the Vikings.  Tarboro had over 400 yards rushing by the end of the third quarter.  Northeastern just didn't have any speed to stay with theVikings especially not knowing where the football was.  The Viking will Host South Columbus who was down 14-8 at the half at East Bladen but scored twice in the third quarter to secure their spot in the 2-A finals in Tarboro next Friday night.

The mark of a real good team regardless of what sport you play when the other team does something good  that you respond positively.  Tonight Cleveland scored early but for the undefeated Hunt Warriors no problem as they respond by score 21 straight points.  But like a good team Cleveland responded back and boy like I expected this one went right down to the last play as Hunt holds off Cleveland 33-28.  Cleveland's last play of the game was at the Hunt 10 yard line but the pass in the inzone was incomplete.  Hunt travels to NE Guilford next Friday night in the Eastern Final in 3-A.

Sure does look as if the N C State Wolfpack just might be for real this year.  For the second night in a row the Pack wins easily in a tournament in Puerto Rico.  U Mass never  really pressured the Pack especially in the second half and the Pack goes to 3-0.  They play for the tournament championship Sunday night at 6.30pm.  T J Warren who is just maybe the #3 player of the three Pack super freshmen just might be the best player on the entire roster.

Nice win last night for North Carolina .  After giving up 68 they hold UVA to 13 and in doing so Virginia can not win enough games to get bowl eligible so the ACC cannot have enough teams  to play in all the bowl games the ACC has contracts to be in.

N C State has extended Debbie Yow's contract by two years as Athletic of the Wolfpack.  There is no doubt Yow has brought on a demand from every coach that you win plus players do well in the class room.  She is pretty good at finding money under rocks too.

The Lady Gryphon basketball team will make their second straight appearance in the Holiday Tournament in Raleigh.  Tonight tournament officials have released the times of the games and the Lady Gryphons will play in the girls feature game on December 26th at 6.30 against Dudley High of Greensboro

It's Official

There is an old saying "Where there is smoke there is fire", rumors have been circulating for a couple of weeks now that Mickey Crouch had resigned as football coach at Northern Nash.  Today an advertisement for a head football coach is on the employment page at the Nash Rocky Mount web page. 

Don't know who will apply but in my opinion Chris Lee the former JV coach at Rocky Mount who is now at Louisburg would be high on my list if he applies.  As JV coach at Rocky Mount during the B W Holt era Lee lead the JV's to something like a 45-3 record and probably would have been the head coach at Rocky Mount had he not taken the Louisburg job in January before Holt left in June.

It's also official that J'Kyra Brown is a Pirate.  Yesterday was the day for athletes to have a signing day with their college of their choice and Brown  Rocky Mount's senior basketball player who has said all along she wanted to go to ECU and she will.

Oh by the way, Jacksonville who knocked Southern Nash out of the soccer playoffs beat Cardinal Gibbons 6-2 and will play for the state title Saturday.  Over the past five years or so Rocky Mount, Hunt and Southern Nash can all tell you about how good the soccer program is for the Jacksonville Cardinals.  They have all lost to them in the playoffs and in some cases more than once.

Hope you had a chance to see Tom Suitor and his "Extra Effort  Award.  Tarboro's Tyquan Lewis was the feature this week and Tom has been spending a lot of time in the area lately.  A couple of weeks ago he was at Hunt doing a feature on Josh Joyner.

There are only two teams left from the area as the third round of the football playoffs are upon us.  Hunt and Tarboro both get home games Friday night and they both will have their hands full.

Hunt will take on Cleveland  which I think is in their third year of existence and this is a dandy team.  Hunt for the second season in a row heads to the third round unbeaten.  Home field advantage will be key in both of these games.  Hunt  wins by a eye lash 28-24 over Cleveland and Tarboro will need more than forty to take down Northeastern 48-42.

Wanna-Be's

Before I can go much further tonight I must explain what a wanna-be is.  A wanna-be is someone that yearns for more than what they have.  They wish they were better than they are.

In the football world both Carolina and State are wanna-be's.  They both wish they could win 10 games every year and when they don't  they wish they had and then wonder why they didn't.  A wanna-be  most of the time is just above average but think they are better than that.  Carolina and State fit that description. About every five years they have really good teams but most of the time they are 8-4 but they slip to 5-7 once in a while.  They wanna be like Alabama play for National Championships.  They upset Florida State one week and lose to Virginia the next.

The basketball world N C State has fallen into that wanna-be category.  They wanna be just like Carolina and Duke.  Yes 50 years ago State was there but they have fallen back and yet everyone still thinks they are what they were 50 years ago. Ever since the Valvano fall from grace State has truly been a wanna-be.

One of the biggest problem being a wanna-be is when you think you have a chance to be good you over valve how good you really are and when you don't become as good as you thought you should be  the whole year is a failure.  State football and to some degree Carolina fit that mould this year.

Then there is basketball.  State who prays every night that basketball will return to it's glorious past finds a smooth talking coach who has street cred and every good basketball player  that use to go to Carolina and Duke seem to be going to State now.  Here we go again Pack fans are talking National Championship.

There is no doubt that I am giddy to the prospects of this years basketball team and their first game gives us no reason to be nervous but let's settle down here now.  Here is my expectations this year.  I sure would like to finish this year with single digit losses.  I am tire of having records 16-12, 19-12 24-12.  I am ready for a 27-8 season.  If the Pack is to step that far this year then next year I might be one of those who thinks the Final Four or bust.

Remember the Pack is still a wanna-be.  Yes we were impressive in our opening game against Miami of Ohio.  For me the season starts Thursday at 5pm when the Pack begins play in Puerto Rico against Penn St.  The next  step from being a wanna-be to becoming who we think we are is winning the games you are suppose to win.  If you win all those games single digit loss season will take care of itself.

College Basketball Before Thanksgiving.

Sure would like to see college basketball wait at least until after Thanksgiving to crank up but the all mighty ESPN continues to throw money on the table to get games like tonight.  Duke Plays Kentucky in the Georgia Dome.  What on earth are they doing playing there?  ESPN has found somebody that will finance tonight game and it will be call something and ESPN will carry it.

The Big Three ACC schools from the Triangle are all highly rated in the early season and after a week Carolina has played twice and looked ok but not great.  State had the biggest blowout but who can tell from one game.  Duke looked better in their opener than I thought they would but who knows where any of them are heading in just the first week.

It looks to me that Carolina has Duke's problem from last year , greedy guards.  They want to do all the scoring and the best players are not getting the ball enough.  Duke in the first game looked more like they enjoyed playing with each other which at times last year that didn't seem to happen.  State looked as if the preseason rankings might be right but they hit the court at 5pm Wednesday in San Juan against Penn St.  We will need to see how State plays after the first bump in the road.

Looked on the NCHSAA website tonight checking on football jobs opened and SouthWest Edgecombe officially started looking for their new coach to replace Raymond Cobb.  Whole lot of rumors floating about Northern Nash but the Nash/Rocky Mount and NCHSAA websites have nothing so at this point only rumors.

The Steelers just maybe lost a big whack in their season last night when Bem Rothlesburger went down with a shoulder injury.  Might be back next week or out a month who knows.  They play Baltimore Sunday.

Do you realize that Duke here on November 13th is still alive to with the Coastal Division of the ACC and if they beat Georgia Tech this week who put 68 on Carolina and beat Miami next week they just might meet Florida State in the ACC Championship game.  If it happens I'll take FSU by 40.

Vikings Just Might Have Their Hands Full

Everyone in Tarboro was looking forward to a repeat game with the J A Holmes Aces or better known to everyone as the Edenton Aces.  Gomer would say it like this "Surprise Surprise"  Northeastern will be the team that Tarboro faces as they just might have a hand full.

Northeastern will come to Tarboro 11-2 having finished second to Edenton who they lost to during the regular season 28-21 but exacted revenge Friday beating Holmes 40-8.  So far this year the Eagles have scored 633 point  in their 13 games for a 48.6 scoring average.  Twice this year they have put at least sixty on the boards and twice over 70.  Sure looks like offensively they can match Tarboro point for point. Remember that playoff game in Edenton last year it took some Todd Gurley heroics in the fourth quarter to pull that one out in the last thirty seconds.

The Vikings on the other hand have average 42 points a game but they have given up about  16 per contest.  Between them they have played no one that we can look at to compare scores.  Tarboro played Nash Central and won while Hertford County played Nash Central and won and Northeastern beat HC.  That is about as close as you will get to like foes.

Hunt will also be at home Friday hosting Cleveland.  This will not be easy for the Warriors either as Cleveland dominated D H Conley last week while Hunt beat Cardinal Gibbons who's starting QB didn't play with an injury.

High school basketball is just around the corner  as the defending State 3-A champs open up in that Knightdale Tournament that they were in last year the Friday after Thanksgiving.  The Gryphons won that giving everyone notice about their potential last year.  The Lady Gryphons will also play there but if you remember their first game was against  Millbrook who was a loaded 4-A school and they were only able to finish in third place.

I guess everyone has seen about the quarterback for Davidson Country Day that passed for 817 yards in the Private school championship game Friday night.  Davidson beat Harrell's Academy 108-80.  Yes Carolina football somebody did play worse than you this past weekend.  I would have hated to be on the kickoff team for either team having to sprint down a make a tackle on a kickoff.  I would have been worn out just from that.

Football Playoffs Need Revamping

Next year will be the next revised conferences under the every four year NCHSAA  restructuring plan.  It is a good plan because the world we live in today schools  grow almost over night and if there is not some attempt  to keep like schools with the same size together you could find a school with 1,500 students playing in the same league as someone who has dropped below a 1,000 in about three years.

Looking at every playoff held this fall, Volleyball, soccer and tennis all played with only first or second place teams making the playoffs and every now and then a third place team to fill out the bracket.   If it works so well in these sports why then will that same format not work in football?

Rocky Mount's tennis team lost two games all season and yet they traveled to a #1 seed in the first round.  Football's first two rounds Tarboro has had to re win their own conference in which they went undefeated in and after two playoff games still are.  Was that really necessary???.  I don't even want to talk about Southern Nash the #2 in the Big East starting out at #1 in the Big East Hunt.

The all mighty dollar has consumed the NCHSAA just like it has consumed college sports and the NFL and don't try to get me started on the NHL. I would truly like the high school football schedule start as it did this year on the third Friday night in August and play 10 straight weeks.  Then four rounds of playoffs would have football over by the fourth week in November and leave December to basketball.

I understand that college football is not over until the fourth Saturday in November but not every team in North Carolina plays a home game the last week.  What's  wrong with playing a State Championship at ECU or Panther Stadium.  Every college football team in the country knows who, where and when they play for the next five years.

I could see  the 1-A  played in Grenville one year while the 2-A played at Appalachian State.  There are plenty of stadiums in North Carolina worthy to host state Championships. A remodeled Wallace Wade with the history of having a Rose Bowl  Having played there is not bad either.

I do want to see a better quality of playoffs and 2nd place teams having to play the 1st place team from your own conference is not quality playoffs.  No conference foe should have to play another until the third round or later.  Just remember this past basketball season two of the best girls teams met in the third round when Northern Nash met Rocky Mount for the sectional finals.  Both teams had to earn to get that far.  Can you imagine if that had been a first game in the sectional.

Jax Does It Again

Jacksonville has knocked a Big East team out of the soccer playoffs again this year as the Cardinals came to Southern Nash and dominate the Firebirds 6-1.  Southern was the last standing Nash County team still alive in any of the fall sports and now with only football left all Nash County teams can look toward winter sports.

Speaking of winter sports Rocky Mount hosted a basketball jamboree today with West Craven, Hunt, Hertford County, Bertie and Southern Wayne.  It started this morning at 9am and went well past dark 30.

Up next for the Hunt Warriors is Cleveland who last night manhandled D H Conley.  The game will be played at Hunt.

Tarboro thought they would get Edenton again this year in the third round but surprise surprise Northeastern walloped the Aces last night  and they will make the trek to Tarboro next Friday.

There is an old saying about going to a hockey match and a fight broke out.  Today if you went to Chapel Hill to see a football game a basketball game broke out.  Georgia Tech made too many three pointers for Carolina as they win a football game 68-50.  Larry Fedora wants to get as many offensive opportunities as possible.  There is only one problem with that idea, the faster they go on offense the quicker the defense gets back on the field. 

N C State showed up from the first snap today against Wake Forest and becomes Bowl eligible.  I am hearing the Music City Bowl in Nashville might be the after Christmas trip for the Pack this year.

Virginia made last weeks win over State stick as they beat Miami in another slow down basketball game 41-40.  Duke is still alive for the ACC Championship game with Miami's loss.

There just might be a BCS Championship game without a Southeastern Conference team as Alabama goes down at home to Texas A&M  29-24.  Bama at one time trailed 20 to nothing.  Just goes to prove you had better be ready to play when you get off the bus.

Vikings Flex Muscle

You kind of got the feeling that Kinston knew that they needed to try every trick in the book in order to stay with the Tarboro Vikings and they tried it tonight.  Two onside kicks a fake punt and nothing seemed to work so the end result is Tarboro 48 and Kinston 14.

This marks the second straight week that the Tarboro Vikings have had to play a conference foe and for the second straight week no problem.  This is the 17th straight high school playoff victory for Tarboro.  The Vikings good news is the only good news from Edgecombe County.

North Edgecombe never could get going and could never stop the 8th seeded Princeton team as Princton rolls on to the third round of the high school playoffs with their second playoff win and only fourth of the season.  Princeton dominated the Warriors 43-14.

Things were not much better for the Cougars of SouthWest Edgecombe as Bunn jumped out to a 14-0 first quarter lead and the Cougars could never catch up as Bunn moves on with a 31-14 win over SWE.  With the loss comes to the end of a coaching career of one of the all time legend coaches in the Twin Counties as 2 time state champion coach Raymond Cobb has decided to hang up his whistle after tonight.

After the POD debacle where two of the top teams in the Big East met in round one it was up to Hunt to carry the Big East banner and they did what they had to do in beating Cardinal Gibbons 25-20 at Gibbons.  Trailing 14-13 Hunt scored twice in the third quarter  and held CG in the fourth.  Up next for Hunt Cleveland who took D H Conley to the woodshed.

Saturday the new Rocky Mount High School will be full of basketballs at RM holds a boys basketball jamboree.  The Gryphons will be on the court at 9am-noon and at 5pm but action will go on all day at RMHS.


Tonight N C State, Carolina and Duke all win their college basketball openers.  State won 97-59.  Carolina 75-59 and Duke was a 74-55 winner.  Wake won it's opener so all of the Big Four of the ACC win opening night.

Football's Second Round

The Tarboro Vikings have won 16 straight playoff games and any time you get to the point when you can add to a streak there is always the possibility that the streak will end.  Case in point the Vikings will be at home against the only team this season that really late in the game still had a chance to beat the Vikings.  Those other Vikings from Kinston will try to score  28 points like the first time they played Tarboro but will try to hold Tarboro to less than the 34 they got last time.  I doubt Kinston can do either score 28 this time around or hold Tarboro to less than 34.  The first time they met this year was in Kinston but Friday night it is in Tarboro.  I need to research the last time Tarboro lost a home game to a 2-A team.  Tarboro 34 Kinston 20.  A B Whitley's back surgery from what I hear went well and  should be able to listen to the game on the radio  Friday night.

Any time a  team plays Cardinal Gibbons you know you are going up against a school that has every thing that every other school would like to have.  Hunt's second round playoff game if you plan on going you had better get there early because N C State basketball opens it basketball  season across the street Friday night at PNC Arena.  That area around Edwards Mill Road will be bumper to bumper around 7pm.

As this season has unfolded I honestly think that for the first time during Randy Rapers coaching career at Hunt they just may have his best team ever and would lead you to think this team can win the State Title.  These two met in the playoffs last year with Hunt winning and I believe this year's Warrior team is better than last year I'll take Hunt 28-20 over CG.

Bunn will be hosting SouthWest Edgecombe  and I don't know why but I think the Cougars are going to win.  This just might be the best game of the night for any our our local teams or conference teams still left in the playoffs.   I think SWE's schedule has prepared them to get at least to round three.  Cougars 35 Bunn 32

Talk about falling in your lap but North Edgecombe could not sit down at a table  and plan a playoff any better than what has been presented to them.  3-8 Princton comes to Leggett and the Warriors had better be appreciative of the gifts handed them  North Edgecombe 34 Princton 18

Tax Payers Say No

There is always  a professionals  sports team looking  to ask the city in which they are in to help pay for stadiums or for repairs.  Yesterday the City Of Wilmington voted down a request to built a minor league stadium on the Cape Fear River by a 70% to 30% vote.

Professional teams  like to use as hostage the threat to leave a city if the local govenments don't finance their  building.  There are rumors floating about that Jerry Richardon would like to do about $30 million dollars worth of improvements to B Of A Stadium in Charlotte.  Remember LA is looking possibly two team to go there and you just might hear rumblings in Charlotte.

Last year Carolina and Michigan played the so called first game of the college basketball season on the Air Craft Carrier Carl Vinson.  This year's game is to be played on the Museum AirCraft carrier Midway which is stationed in San Diego harbour.  The forecast is for rain Friday  night in San Diego and the game has been moved to Sunday.  Syracuse had to change their travel plans in order to shift the game.  The game is suppose to be played inside an arena  in San Diego if rain did occur but not enough tickets were sold in San Diego to see San Diego State and Syracuse play.  I suspect this will be the last year of this event.

Last month Carolina held their fall baseball  series and former Gryphon Hobbs Johnson kept right on pitching like he finished the season last year.  He went seven innings allowed two runs .  Sure does look like when Carolina plays this year  the Friday pitcher will be Kent Emanuel, Saturday Benton Moss and Sunday Hobbs Johnson.  Not many high schools can say they have two starting weekend pitchers on many college rosters.

Finally under WHERE is he now?  I went on the Modest Junior College basketball web page and found TaShawn Mabry is on the roster again this year.  Mabry who sat out last year after blowing out his achilles after the 11th game in 2010 is back in California.

BIG AND BAD

We like to think around here that the ACC is the biggest and baddest when it comes to basketball.  There is some truth in that statement when the ACC has won five national titles this century.  Likewise the SEC says the are the best in football and winning like 19 National Championships in a row or what ever it is just might make them the best in football.

There is a hole in the SEC dyke this year however as the biggest and baddest can't explain why new comer Texas A&M is 4-2 in the league and I heard a prediction on the radio today that said A&M would beat Alabama this Saturday.  A&M is second behind Alabama in the West division.  If the SEC was so big  and bad how come A&M is not 0-6.  Even in the East division Missouri  the other Big 12 defector is fifth out of seven.  They are a lot closer to where the Big and Bad conference new comer should be if the SEC is all that big and bad.

I haven't talked about Tarboro's Todd Gurley lately and since I'm talking about big and bad this would be a good time to bring Gurley up.  So far this year for the 8-1 Georgia Bulldogs Gurley has carried 138 times for 857 yards which works out to a very neat 6.2 yards per carry.  Early in the season he was sharing the carries with the other super freshman from North Carolina Keith Marshall but Gurley has taken more snaps lately while Marshall has had 82 totes.  Gurley is becoming the man for the Bulldogs and he has also scored 10 times this season.

Sunday night while working with buddy Wes Bradshaw on WHIG-TV he brought up Brian Goodwin's yearly totals playing in his first full year in the minors between A ans AA ball.  He hit 280 slammed 14 home runs and drove in 52.  In fall ball this year he hit another three home runs and hit 268.  If he keeps this up he might see the inside of the baseball stadium in Washington D C by the end of the year next season.

Just got word that Tarboro defensive coordinator A B Whitley will undergo back surgery on Wednesday.  This have been a tough fall for A B.  He had to have an old high school injury fixed earlier this fall and while recuperating from that has hurt his back.   He has tried his best to be on the sidelines with the Vikings until the season was over but obviously that won't happen for him after tomorrow..  We will be praying for him

I hope each and every one of you did you civic duty today on at least like me during the early voting period and voted for the candidates that you think can run our town, county , state and federal government the best.  You lose the right to fuss  about how it is going if you didn't!

The Only One Left

The Firebirds of Southern Nash are the only Nash County school still playing in any playoff still going on.  The soccer team has advanced to the third round of the soccer playoffs and Wednesday is the next day for a game  with the Firbirds the top seeded team and if they win Wednesday they would host the fourth round Saturday.

 Standing in their way is Cleveland the #1 seed from the Eastern Carolina and they have a 19-6 record.  The Firebirds not to shabby themselves at 17-4-1.  Should the Firebirds advance to Saturday  them could meet conference foe Hunt who is playing Jacksonville  at Jacksonville Wednesday.  In the past few years Jax has proven to be a worthy foe for anybody in the Big East .  They knocked both Rocky Mount and Hunt out last year in back to back games.

Round two of the football playoffs will go on without a Nash County team as Hunt the only Big East team left travels to Cardinal Gibbons.  This is a rematch game from last year and I suspect  it will be another tight game.  CG gave up 52 points last Friday and still won. I  Don't believe Hunt will let them get 57 like they did last Friday.

Talk about a crazy world but the 1-A playoffs in this area's POD has the #4 seeded North Edgecombe Warriors as the highest seeded team left and by that happening they will get home games for at least the next two weeks if they win Friday against Princeton who upset the #1 seed.  Even after winning Friday Princeton is only 3-8.  The other game of interest for North Edgecombe has #6 Rosewood playing #7 Jones County.

Old Raymond Cobb wants another week of being the old Football Coach as SouthWest Edgecombe survives and travels to Bunn.  This will be a game of Athletes in Bunn going up against power in SWE.  They may only be 6-5 but when you have losses to Hunt, Tarboro, Southern Nash and Rocky Mount  who had a combined 36-4 regular season record Bunn should not scare SWE.  If nothing else their non conference games prepared them for the playoffs.

Tarboro will try to win another conference game as they host Kinston the one team this season in their conference that gave them their toughest test all year.  I think the score was 34-27.  You know Tarboro question all season was their defense and that has come around in the last three weeks giving up 0-0-13.  We can count on at least 34 or more from the Vikings of Tarboro, in order to beat  them the Vikings of Kinston will have to score 35.  Nobody has done that to the Tarboro Vikings this year.

Last night helped out Wes Bradshaw on the All NEW Sports Show.  With my obligations to volleyball this fall at Campbell University there hasn't been many opportunities to be at or do a football game on the radio this year.

Laying On My Heart

I want to go away from sports today to just get something off my chest.  Every now and then we have a major disaster that occurs sometimes they are man made like 9-11 but most are heavenly events.  Our most recent heavenly event  has devastated the most populated place in America the Metro area of New York.

We live in a small world due to the fact that electronics have made every thing in this world is  arms length from us.  We can talk   to anyone in the world  in a matter of seconds.  We even have capability now to see them as we talk to them so we feel that the world isn't all that big any more.  Yet this world is huge.

Back during the floods from Hurricane Floyd we saw first hand how difficult it was to get help.  The flooding didn't allow transportation movement like we normally see.  The lights were out for days and a bag of ice was precious when one could be found.  We all feel the pain that those who have lost every thing  from this recent storm.

Like in 1999 people from all over the country are rushing to the Metro area to help.  While working at the food pantry set up in the Mall in 99 a man on his motor cycle road from Chicago just to help where he could.  When we are faced with our backs to the wall this country steps forward and lends a helping hand when ever.

I know we had the same problem in 99 people get frustrated  and show anger when it doesn't seem the help is fast enough.  I don't understand why people would throw eggs at power company people from a far off state that have come to help because they are not getting the power turned on fast enough.

We are a me society and when the power goes off somebody had better get it back on now so I can continue to be absorbed in me.  What everyone forgets and we forgot it too in 1999 that the damage is tremendous.  Our little world isn't as small when everything has to be replace.  Some cases there are no homes to go home to.  Entire cities power structure has to be rebuilt.  It is not going to happen  over night and in some cases not next month.

We have become blind to the message sent to us from this storm.  We the people of me have no control what so ever when GOD speaks.  He has spoken in a clear voice.  I am in control and I am sending you a message.  It is time for America to get down on their knees and thank the Lord for what he has given to us and what he can take away.   We the people of me have no idea when he will speak again.

This Computer World

Sorry that I missed Saturday but when your computer can't find how to come on there is moments in life that you would just love to throw a computer in the river.  I know with all the people in the Northeast that are still without power this is minor item in the realm of life.

Northern Nash Cross Country team finished 15th in the team portion of the State Cross Country Championships held yesterday in Kernersville.  Southern Nash's Neopolian Patel was the top local runner finishing 48th and Gryphon Mason Holt was 61st. 

It helps runners out west to train year round in the hills  over those of us who live east of I-95 where the biggest hill in running through a ditch.  Eastern Runners normally run about thirty seconds slower when ever the championships are west of I-85 because of the rolling hills.

Fike girls finished 15th and Nash Central's Michaela Williams finished 38th to take the top honor for our local runners.

Heart break for the Nash Central girls tennis team who loses to Charlotte Catholic 5-3 in the state championship.  Here we go again with those professional amateurs winning another state title.  So far this fall all team titles have been won by either Cardinal Gibbons or Charlotte Catholic.  Why doesn't the state make private schools play at the 4-a level to give public schools who play with kids from their living district have a chance to win a title?

Southern Nash has advanced to the third round of the of the soccer playoffs with a 3-2 win on Saturday.

Despite how frustrated I was trying to get my computer on last night I was using the flipper on the tv and came across MLB Network who last night had a live baseball game from the Arizona Fall League and it was the All Star game featuring all the rising baseball players who played this fall.  The first batter for the East team was Rocky Mount High former gryphon Brian Goodwin and he proceeded to send one over the fence for a home run.

After a strike out Brian's third at bat he sent the center fielder to the wall in center field as he hit one about 400 feet only to have it caught.  The 7th Brian doubled off the wall driving in a run and he later scored.  Not a bad all star game 2-5 a home run two rbi and two runs scored.

Gryphons Snooze And Lose

Whether it was there was no Gryphon player who had ever been in a playoff football game or what it might have been the Rocky Mount Gryphons played as if they were suppose to win and Jacksonville was suppose to let them .  There was only one problem with that theory is that Jacksonville did not cooperate and jumped on the Gryphons from the get go and never let up until they had a comfortable 27-0 lead.  The Late rising Gryphons came out of their sleep mode in the fourth quarter and made the score respectable in the end 27-14.

In any game that is basically a tossup as this game was you need to come out of the locker room roaring and tonight the Gryphons didn't.  The best perspective on this playoff loss is I don't think too many Gryphon fans expected to be in the playoffs three  months ago and despite a loss tonight Jason Battle has had a very good start on his coaching career.

Hunt once again was the best team in the second half and they are moving on to the second round after the Warriors dump Southern Nash 28-7.  Just like the first time when these two teams met the score was 14-7 and up for grabs but the final two scores come from Hunt.

One of the big wins of the night comes from SouthWest Edgecombe who wins on the Road 30-26 win over East Duplin.  The coaching career of Raymond Cobb is still alive for at least another week.

Tarboro let everyone know that the state title for any 2-A team will have to pass through Tarboro as the Vikings didn't stumble any at all having to play a team they just drubbed last week.  They drubbed them even worse tonight as Tarboro breaks the 50 point barrier and takes out Beddingfield again this time 53-13.

Nash Central girls tennis team plays for the team championship Saturday against Charlotte Catholic  Should the Bulldogs win they will have taken out the top two private shools in the state in three days having beaten Cardinal Gibbons Thursday.

The second round of the boys soccer playoffs will be in Bailey Saturday afternoon as West Brunswick will play Southern Nash at 4pm.

The State Cross Country state championships will be run Saturday in Kernersville.

Got to our motel room in Lillington tonight and cut on the tv and who do I see but Andrew Morales the former Rocky Mount Gryphon playing soccer for SMU on Fox Sports South

November Football

                                                               URGENT
 RMA JV's have won the State Championship beating St David's of Raleigh  44-16

The State football playoffs begin Friday night and for the first time this century the state champions will start the process of crowning champions in November with most being crowned on December first.  Three teams from Edgecombe, two from Nash and two from Wilson County get to play at least one more week and in two games they will meet up with each other.

Tarboro begins  their quest for their fourth straight state championship and the first round should be a cinch as they take on Beddingfield a team they just took to the woodshed last Friday 34-0.  This  game will go one or two ways.  Tarboro will either show up ready to demolish Beddingfield or be asleep from the get go.  Here is what I suspect.  Tarboro will show up get a working lead and coast.  35-0 Vikings.

Southern Nash will hope to have a full team for the first time in a couple weeks as they will need everyone on hand as Hunt host the Firebirds.  I think both of these teams will come out firing all of their weapons because they both know this game will be a take no prisoners game.  Hunt will be hard to beat at home and I think that will be the deciding factor in this one.  If you look at every close game that Hunt has been in they won the fourth quarter and I think they will in this one too.  Hunt 35 Southern Nash 27


Two conference foes match up once again when North Edgecombe and Weldon square off.  Have a feeling it will be low scoring and defensive.  The Warriors make it to the second round in this squeaker.  NE 16 Weldon 14.


They have had a week off to heal injuries and hit the road as SouthWest Edgecombe travels to East Duplin to open up the 2-AA playoffs.  This could be the last game in the legendary career of Raymond Cobb as I think SWE will scared EP to death but playing at home EP prevails  34-28 over the Cougars.

Rocky Mount returns to the playoffs after being absent for two years as they host Jacksonville from the Coastal Conference.  I believe the Gryphons will win but I will be shocked if this one isn't competitive right down to the end.    Rocky Mount advances 26-20 over the Cardinals.

Once again on Friday night I will be in Buies Creek as Campbell has their last home volleyball weekend of the year.  Just found out today that Morgan will again sing the National Anthem Friday evening.