Gryphons Sweep Knights On Mabry's Night

If you have ever watched basketball games on any TV in the United States over the past thirty some years then you know of Phil Ford. Tonight Phil Ford moved over to the passenger's seat as Tashawn Mabry became the all time leading scorer in Gryphon basketball history when a three pointer swished the nets in the third quarter.

Mabry lead an all around attack for Rocky Mount as Mabry had 31. He was followed by Detrail Jenkins with 15 and Tecoby Hines with ten. All twelve Gryphons who played scored as Rocky Mount crushes Northern 95-58.

Rocky Mount won the rebounding battle 40-25 but where the Gryphons were impressive was they committed only seven turnovers in the game. The three guard lineup with Tevin Taylor, Darius McKnight and Kenyatta Bulluck has produced good ball handling , outside shooting and excellent pressure on the ball. Either of the three can be the point guard and either can be the shooting guard. a tough match up for any team trying to play Rocky Mount.

The opening game saw the Lady Gryphons pressure Northern all over the court. Northern out rebounded the Gryphons by one at 22-21 but where Rocky Mount dominated is they forced 41 Northern Turnovers while committing 24 themsevles but those seventeen more turnovers produced a nineteen point victory.

Alexis Farmer lead the way scoring 19 points and Danita Whitaker added ten rebounds which was all most half of the Gryphon rebounding total

The first cycle through the conference both Gryphon teams are 5-0. The boys won their fourteenth with only one loss while the girls posted victory #13 with two losses on the season.

The Gryphons are home again Friday night against Nash Central

The NFL Big Void

Ever since the NFL went to having two weeks between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl it has been hard for the NFL to do anything the Sunday before to hold viewer interest.

This year for the first time the NFL is bringing the Pro Bowl to the same city as the Super Bowl. This of course means that if you are playing in the Super Bowl you are out of the Pro Bowl.

The players perspective has been that if they played in the Super Bowl they didn't care about jumping on a jet the Sunday night after the Super Bowl and flying to Hawaii. The winners of the Super Bowl were on such a high from winning and the losers an all time low feeling.

The Pro Bowl is the only all Star game played at the end of the season and for some it has been a month since they have played. Due to injury factor and since it has always been when the season was over the NFL are hoping to revive the players enthusiasm to play in the Pro bowl.

Last night the Women of Carolina and State met on the hardwood in Raleigh with the trees of Carolina holding off the Wolfpack women. My only question is how good in Connecticut to have beaten UNC by forty in Chapel Hill?

Tonight Northern Nash makes a visit to Rocky Mount in Big East conference basketball. History may be in the offering if Tashawn Mabrey scores 23 points he will break Phil Fords's all time Rocky Mount scoring record. I would suspect you need to be in your seat early for this one.

The Saint's Arn't Aint's Anymore

The past two seasons the NFL football world has lived with Brett Favre, will he play or not. The Minnesota Vikings sold their soul to get him for just the one moment yesterday in which all the Vikings needed was a field goal and a trip to the Super Bowl.

You can say all you want about whether coaches win or lose games but the play calling after the Vikings got within fifty yards was terrible. Two running plays as if they were satisfied to try to win the game on a fifty yarder. Then a five yard penalty because they had too many men in the huddle.

Needing at least ten yards to make a field goal attempt reasonable, Brett Favre broke a pee wee rule to never throw back across the field into the defense. The gunslinger came out of him when Minnesota needed him the most. Two questionable runs and then a coach's decision putting the wrong personnel in the game didn't help.

This all adds up to the New Orleans Saints going to the Super Bowl to meet New Orleans native Peyton Manning and the Indy Colts. There have been ten NFL playoff games to date this year, the team with the most turnovers lost each one. TV with all of the two hour analyst show before and after every game, football is very simple, the team that makes the least mistakes wins 98% of the time.

Between now and next August we will have to listen to all the sports show rants over whether Favre comes back or not. Even if he announced today he is giving up, can we believe him?

I made a comeback of sorts with my picks as I went 2-0 yesterday. Early Las Vegas odds have the Colts three and a half point favorites. I think the Colts will win and cover the spread but I still have two weeks to change my mind.

Yesterday I told you the score of the RM boys victory over SouthWest Edgecombe Saturday night. I have since found out the Lady Gryphons beat SWE 39-28. Two victories over the weekend now run the boys record to 13-1 and the girls to 12-2.

Up next Tuesday night a visit to Rocky Mount of Northern Nash. the Northern game will complete the first cycle through the conference and the second time around starts Friday.

NFL's Final Four

Indianapolis host the New York Jets today in a game of the upstarts taking on the Establishment. Isn't it ironic that the team that took out their starters and gave up on a perfect season now must beat the team they allowed to make the playoffs.

I still find it hard to see the Jets winning. Colts 24 Jets 13

I don't know why but the last couple of years of all this shedding tears to retire only to sell himself to the highest bidder makes me want to pull for the Saints over Brett Favre. Saints 38 Vikings 31.

If you are a NASCAR fan then the news this week that they are going to allow the drivers to hit each other to attract more viewers back to watching is humorous. I think NASCAR has lost the real reasons why attendance to races and tv ratings are down.

Those of you that don't know the TV ratings were down on NASCAR last year but the real losers were the vendors at races. The sell of caps and jackets was off 50% last year.

Having gone to many races in my life and I feel that I would fall into the Joe average NASCAR fan. Today in order to go to a race you can no longer get just one night in a motel but during race week it, is common to have to purchase Friday,Saturday and Sunday nights. The ticket itself has tripled. I can no longer go four to five times a year to races.

NASCAR has pushed the the average fan away for the all mighty dollars and allowing the drivers to wreck each other is ignoring the real problem. Since I don't go to races any more I very seldom watch a whole race on TV.

Like I suspected NC State was drubbed by Maryland Saturday, Duke and Wake were basketball winners.

I have been involved with a youth weekend at our church this weekend and have not been able to keep up with high school basketball as normal. I hear the Gryphons beat SouthWest Edgecombe by 29 75-46 but I did not find out about the girls. Tuesday night is Northern Nash.

There has to be a way to insure that Northern, Rocky Mount and Nash Central always play each other on Friday nights. I realize that might mean someone has to be creative with schedule making but I believe a schedule could be devised for that to happen.

Only SouthWest Will Know For Sure.

Friday night Southwest Edgecombe took to the court hosting Kinston High School and UNC Bound Reggie Bullock. All most as if Kinston was toying with the Cougars, Kinston only played Bullock and the first team about half the time up to the end of the third quarter and the SWE Cougars only trailed by eight. The fourth quarter was all Reggie and Company as Kinston disposes of SWE 85-47. Bullock put on a show for the packed house in scoring 35.

SWE has a full weekend of basketball as last night hosted Kinston in a conference game, tonight they host the Gryphons. By 9.00pm Saturday night SWE may very well be able to tell you which team is better? 2-A Kinston or 3-A Rocky Mount.

Both Rocky Mount boys and girls brought a bag full of points with them in their visit to Southern Nash last night. The girls scored 80 points in romping Southern Nash 80-44. This left the boys in a position that they didn't want to be out scored by the girls so the Gryphons put more than 100 on the score board beating Southern Nash 109-75. WOW!

ECU has a new football coach in town and it is former Pirate Ruffin McNeil. McNeil is bringing with him to ECU the offensive coordinator at Texas Tech Lincoln Riley. Texas Tech during the Mike Leach era were known for offense not defense. Bringing Riley on board the Pirate ship may really be a big coup for McNeil.

One of the biggest problems average teams have in following up great performances is having a dud the next time out. A couple of weeks ago N C State beat Florida State and followed that up by being twenty behind at the half of their next game to Clemson. Let's see how they fare today in College Park against Maryland.

Carolina players as well as fans are in shock over how this years team is being dominated. I don't think any Carolina Supporter had dreams of winning back to back NCAA titles with what this team had coming back this year but I don't think any body saw that this team may not even make the NCAA tournament.

There use to be all kind of all star football games for college Seniors. The North/South,Blue/Gray but now there are only two. The rosters for the Senior bowl which is played yearly in Mobile Alabama were announced Friday and to my disappointment Terrell Hudgins did not make the roster. Former New Bern Running back Monterio Hardesty who played at Tennessee did. Hardesty was on the field in 2004 when Hudgins and the Gryphons beat New Bern for the last Big East 4-A championship.

Pirates Make Their Pick

ECU announced yesterday that Ruffin McNeil a former Pirate of the 70's is coming home to Captain the Pirate's football ship.

Like most coaches McNeil has coached everywhere during his rise in the ranks and certainly his last stop at Texas Tech, he has been in the news quite a bit lately. McNeil was named interim head coach of the Red Raiders after Tech dismissed Mike Leach as head coach back in December.

There was hope by ECU fans that they could attract a big name coach but in our world today of long term contracts and big buyouts existing that was impossible. You only have to look no further than Raleigh and all the trouble State had in replacing Herb Sendeck in Basketball just four years ago.

Speaking of Mike Leach, as many of you know my son Brooks works as a contractor to NOAA and he is finishing up on a trip that has put him in Key West Florida for the past three weeks. Brooks and I talk by cell phone every day unless he is off shore and out of cell range. Earlier this week he ask me to guess who he ran into down there? Mike Leach. Small world isn't it.

Today is the first day of a very important week for nine Twin county students including four from Rocky Mount High School. Today is another step in the announcement process in who from our area will advance to the next round for the Morehead-Cain Scholarship to UNC.

Three RMHS students are awaiting word, Andrew Bowers, Lein Soltan and Nancy Thai. They are joined by Ann Dunn Andracchio of Rocky Mount Academy, Emily Capps of Northern Nash and Forrest Kent Brown of Nash Central.

Next Wednesday is advance day on the Park Scholarship to N C State. Cameron Privott of RMHS along with Soltan,Thai, from RMHS are up for this scholarship too. They are joined by Capps of Northern Nash and Brown from Nash Central along with Emma Gwaltney of Southern Nash and Samantha Watson from Tarboro.

Good luck to all!

Tonight the Gryphons hope to continue as the front runner in Big East Basketball as they travel to Southern Nash.

***Editor's notes Sometimes I proof read three or four times before I hit publish and just about any time I look back i find misspellings etc. Thanks for the catch on Park scholarship. I had not caught that after several reviews.

Bobcats Best In NBA In 2010

Last night the Charlotte Bobcats beat the Miami Heat by 30. So far in this new decade and the month of January the Bobcats are 9-1. That's right 9-1, and have the best record in the NBA so far in January winning six games in a row.

The Bobcats have traded around until Larry Brown has found a group of players that are making a good team. Larry Brown who has to hold the record for coaching more teams than anybody in history of basketball is a really good coach when you can get him to stay in one spot long enough.

Carolina fans, if you were nervous about this team then last night might tell you the tale of the 09/10 team. Wake was quicker, stronger and just plain had better players than Carolina. N C State may have better guards than Carolina.

Speaking of State, I find it hard to enjoy a game when with two minutes to go and you are ahead by ten that you are worried about still losing. When the lead over Duke got to 14 with fifty seconds to play I started thinking that we might win this one.

Duke has not won a game on the road all year. The last time I looked the NCAA tournament after the opening weekend will be considered on the road for the Devils. That's not a good sign.

The State students stormed the court last night. I think it should be the right of every student to storm the court at least once in their college career. That is the first victory over Duke in Raleigh since 2004. Next opportunity will be next Tuesday night when Carolina is in the house. Could be the battle for last place in the ACC.

Could the ACC tournament championships in Greensboro this year not have a big Four team. If there is one it could be Wake.

Yesterday the hapless Carolina Hurricanes made Eric Staal captain of the team replacing Rod Brind'Mour. Don't be surprised to hear of Roddy's retirement in the next few days. If you want a team picture of this Hurricane team you had better wait a month. I suspect the roster is getting ready to change drastically real soon.
Trades and cash payments made to contending teams is right around the corner for the Hurricanes as they have pretty much ended any hope of the playoffs this year.