Weather Does It Again

This game tonight at Nash Central is already a make up game because of the ice last Friday pushed us to a Wednesday game following a conference game on Tuesday.  Guess what? due to possible tornado warning this afternoon  and tonight the games with Nash Central has been postponed until Thursday night.  All four games JV's and varsity will start as usual on Thursday.

J'Kyra Brown is being tested today to see how extensive her knee injury is from last night during the Hunt game.  She went down at the 4:01 mark in the second quarter and had scored five points  and at that point Rocky Mount lead 18-15.  That five point total is the lowest of her career at Rocky Mount High.  Every Gryphon fan holds their breath waiting on the news.

I am very disapointed with the amount of people in attendance at the Hunt game last night.  The gym was just over half full and considering this could have almost given Hunt the conference championship the place should have been over flowing.  I can assure you if Southern Nash was playing Rocky  Mount at either SN or RM the place would have been over flowing. 

I realize that Hunt is  a football school but people should realize they have a team capable of winning the State Championship just like Rocky Mount has and the crowd should have been standing room only last night.  There were as many Gryphon fans there as Warrior fans but the as big as that game was last night they should have had to lock the doors but didn't need to.

Thursday night I am scheduled to be at Rocky Mount Prep to cover the boys game for TV.  So this bring on a major conflict for me being in two places at the same time.

The Northern Nash - Hunt  game has been moved to Thursday just like other Nash County schools have.

Was there any surprise that Virginia took down the Pack last night?  Wolfpack fans can almost predict the outcome based on where the game is played and who they had beat the game before.  Losing Lo Brown didn't help their cause.  If Brown is out Saturday when they play Miami they could also be out of the running for first in the ACC and it isn't even February.

Tie At Top---Girls Disaster Time

If you are a Gryphon fan tonight is full of mixed emotions.  The Bad news  first,  4.01 left to play in the first half J'Kyra Brown driving down court tried to cut and she went down on her surgically repaired knee.  She had to be carried off the court.  The Gryphons lead 18-15 at the time. Hunt wins 50-48.

 Now the good news, In probably one of the best high school basketball games played since the Big East was made into a 3-A conference  Rocky Mount and Hunt played with two teams  with aspirations  at the state title played as if this was the title game and in the end M J Gainey hit a 12 foot  running baseline jumper with 1 second left on the clock to give Rocky Mount a 53-51 win.  Now the bad news, this was the worse officiated game ever.

Both teams play full court pressure defense and if you thought you were going to drive to the basket and take a lay up forget it.  I don't think one shot made it all the way to the basketball as shots were rejected and players tumbled to the floor going to the hole but very few whistles.  If you left your shoulder pads home  you are in the emergency room now cause you got beat up.

Hunt biggest lead was six and Rocky Mount once lead by four otherwise it was nip and tuck all the way.  Dwantae Sutton hit a three with 2:02 to play to give Hunt a three point lead at 51-48 but that would prove to be their last point of the game. Hunt out rebounded Rocky Mount 27-26.  Rocky Mount only had 10 turnovers while Hunt had 19 but every Gryphon TO came at just the wrong time.  Donte Battle lead the Gryphons with 20. MJ Gainey 16.  Hunt had three players in double figures Dwantae Sutton with 14, Keenan Tabron 11 and Justin Jefferson 10.

Immanuel King scooped up 8 rebounds  for the Gryphons while Daniel Westbrook had 7 for the Warriors.  Both teams play Wednesday and are both 5-1 in conference.  Hunt plays Northern Nash at Hunt .  Northern beat Sourthern Nash tonight on a shot at the buzzer 44-42 while Rocky Mount travels to Nash Central.

One of the things I have told you about Rocky Mount girls all year has been there was not enough help for J'Kyra Brown.  With Brown out of the game Carmen Richardson took the scoring load getting a career high 30 points but not one other player made an outside shot.  Rocky Mount relied on their defense to keep them in the game and it almost won the game for them but simply the Lady Gryphons without J'Kyra are not a very good offensive team.

All Lady Gryphon fans will hold their breath waiting to hear about J'Kyra's injury.  I would doubt she will play at all for the remaining two games this week  depending on the report of her injury.

Northern Nash Girls clobbered Southern Nash 71-19 and have a two game lead with four games to play heading down the stretch.

Rocky Mount is at Nash central Wednesday.

Motor Mouth Gave Me An Idea

Use to you could cut the TV down and listen to you favorite team on radio and watch the game on TV.  Most of the time the radio will tell you the shot has been made before you ever see it on TV because the distance the signal travels  to the satellite and back.  Instead of listening on the radio and watching on TV I had to endure Dick Vitale the entire night Saturday during the State- Carolina game.  He always has  what ever team was on their all time team but Saturday he threw a new wrinkle out there the all North Carolina college team.

His five were David Thompson, Phil Ford, Tim Duncan, Christian Laettner and Michael Jordan.  That is a really fine top five but I do disagree with one.  David Thompson is probably the best small forward ever to play college basketball so I have no problem with him making the all North Carolina college team.  Phil Ford help college basketball change the rules and bring on a time clock to college basketball just for the way he ran Dean Smith's four corners.  Carolina lost only one game in four years once they went into the four corners  and it happened to be the last game Phil ever played for Carolina against Marquette in the National Championship game in 1978.

Tim Duncan made Wake Forest a national power the four years in played in Winston Salem and if their coach would have tried to run up and down the floor instead of hoping to be close  in the end they may have won a couple of National Championships but didn't.  Christian Laettner is by far the greatest NCAA playoff player in the history of the NCAA.  Played in 24 NCAA games won two national titles and made the shot of all time in NCAA play.

Vitale's last pick is Michael Jordan.  Yes Michael was an All American at Carolina and he made the shot in 1982's National Championship game but let's be for real.  Michael Jordan became Michael Jordan in Pro basketball.  I know he was the #4 pick in the 84 draft but Michael's college career gets glorified by what he has done since he left Chapel Hill.  I don't know if Michael makes the All Time Carolina team.

Let just look who got left off the All North Carolina college Team.  Jeff Mullins, Art Heyman, Steve Vasendak, Grant Hill and even Mike Gminski from Duke.  From Wake Forest what about Len Chappell.  For the Wolfpack Ronnie Shavlik, Tommy Burleson, Chris Corchiani or Rodney Monroe.  Look at this list of Carolina players Lenny Rosenbluth, Larry Miller, Charlie Scott, Al Wood, Tyler Hansbourgh or even Sam Perkins.

That's  just players from the ACC what about Earl The Pearl Monroe  or M L Carr, Stephan Curry from Davidson and let me throw another  Davidson name Terry Holland.  People forget Davidson lost twice in the 60's to Carolina otherwise they would have gone to the final four.  Charlie Scott made a 25 foot jump shot one of those years at the buzzer sounded to beat Davidson.

You know motor mouth likes to throw names out and if he is going to make a list of the best players to ever play in the state called Tobacco Road he had better remember who has played here.There is so many good one this is all the space I had space  to name.  Remember this list is all college  players who played college ball in North Carolina.  Didn't have room for James Worthy, JJ Reddick  and so many more.  Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time but there are a barrel  full of players that were better than him in college from this state.

Long Time Coming

Fans who wore red on Saturday had a full day to yell for the Wolfpack as ESPN Game Day was in town and a couple of thousand fans waited most of the night as if Walmart had 50 inch TV's on sale for 99 Dollars.  They were line up at day light to be one of the first to get a seat behind the podium where the ESPN reporters would start talking at 10am.

Some with out  shirts in the 25 degree weather while others with clever signs bemoaning  how terrible it must be to root for Carolina or for that matter even attend the University down the road.  One sign read  that Carolina's courses were so easy even a Caveman could pass at Carolina.   Even one brought in a sign saying that the Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o  girl friend was like attending classes in Chapel Hill, fake.

It is all part of the  rivalry of Tobacco Road Basketball.  What right did State fans have talking about their neighbors and they hadn't even beaten the Tar Heel in six years?  This was just the Carolina game.  Two weeks ago State fans were just as fired up with Duke in the house.  They haven't beaten them much lately either.

What makes a rivalry is the desire to win just one, the next one.  It doesn't matter that Roy has beaten State 19 out of the last 20 times.  Let's win the next one and all of that is forgotten.  The other end of the spectrum is the team that wins all the time.  They forget what it is like to lose to a rival.  You can bet when State heads to both Duke and Carolina later in the season both will be ready to start new streaks because the most important game is the next game.

What we all forget sometimes is the next game for Carolina is Boston College and for State Virginia.  N C State is on the verge of being a quality basketball program this year but the next game after beating Carolina or Duke they are like 1-14 in the next game. It's time to step up.  Carolina is now 13-7 and if they don't watch it just might not make the NCAA Tournament this year. Duke had a nice win over Maryland Saturday but you can just see that they are not a powerhouse with out Kelly.

I hope you didn't go to the fridge or bathroom during one of the early commercials during the telecast.  Roy Williams and Mark Gottfried did a commercial acting like runners getting ready for a road race.  Both were stretching and getting ready but when the race started neither lasted more than 100 yards before they dropped out  complaining of injury.  It was hilarious.  I was so wrapped up in watching the two of them that I don't even remember what the commercial was advertising.

Even in heated rivalries there is a common thread between us all.   We love each other except on game day  Today I love my Carolina friends but I sure do feel a lot better inside than normal.

Duke Got Duked

Miami laid a whomping on Duke the other night and for most of us it is always the other way around.  Duke normally makes you look sick while they run up and down and make every thing they shoot at the basket.  If you a regular to this blog I told you way back in the first of December that I didn't see Duke being able to sustain their play in November and early December because quite frankly I didn't see this team as being a great team.  They are a team full of really good players with a coach who knows where he needs to put a player to get the best for Duke out of that player.  The injury to Kelly  has taken away Duke's ability to have every player in the right spot at the right time.

Teams find themselves in the middle of games like that and quite frankly I didn't think Duke played that badly just Miami play the game of their lives.  Just ask Nash Central who was on the short end of a game like that against Rocky Mount just a couple of weeks ago.  The Bulldogs played ok just they looked feeble against a team that was rolling 100% on offense.  The very next week Rocky Mount had a second half that Hunt could do nothing wrong.  Sometimes it is just the other teams night.  If Miami can play that way the rest of the year they will win the national championship.

Tonight Carolina at State meet in Raleigh and ESPN's game day is in town and I guess this means State will be ready to play in this one.  Carolina is improving but they are missing one thing this year that I don't see getting any better as the season goes forth.  The Heels don't have a man in the middle that plays great interior defense.  I suspect this one will be close but I think the Pack beats Roy Williams for only the second time since he has been in charge of the Tar Heels.

The weather not only has the streets and roads slippery but it has made for a upcoming week of high school basketball that should be as interesting at the conference tournaments that are three weeks away.  Tuesday finds Rocky Mount at Hunt and if the Gryphons are to win the regular season or even get a share of it they have to win Tuesday or be down two games with four to play.  Win or lose they head right to Nash Central Wednesday to make up Friday's iced out game.  They return home Friday for Fike.

Hunt Has Rocky Mount Tuesday, Northern at Home Wednesday and a trip to Southern on Friday.  Northern's three games this week are home to Southern Tuesday, At Hunt Wednesday and home with Nash Central Friday.  The Bulldogs have Fike, Rocky Mount and Northern.  The hot team this week can jump from near the bottom to near the top if they can win all three this week

Pizza Knight is Monday at the Pizza Inn: The Northern Nash baseball team is having a fund raiser Monday at the Pizza Inn  in Rocky Mount.  Portion of sales and all of the tips will go to the Northern Nash baseball team.  The event is from 5-8pm Monday night.  When you walk in make sure you tell them that you are there for the Northern Baseball fund raiser as a section  will be put aside for those helping out in the fund raiser.  The baseball team will be assisting the waiters and waitresses so help out Northern baseball and go watch the likes of David Williams and company serve you.

Bad Weather No Sports

Due to the fact that Nash County Schools are getting out two hours early because of the impending bad weather today, tonight's Rocky Mount at Nash Central game has been moved to Wednesday night January 30th.  JV and varsity games will go on at a normal time Wednesday.

Northern Nash at Hunt and the Fike- Southern Nash games are also postponed.  I do not know at this time the rescheduled date.

 Today marks the two weeks to go in the regular season and now having three conference games next week really makes next weeks games even more important than before for playoff positioning.  But every one will have to do it to make up tonight's missed games.

Prospects For Post Season

Teams are making the turn on the back stretch of the season and yes there is a possible champion from the area if all the stars line up right.  Let's look at what we know about each and there chances of hanging a banner up in March.

Girls: Nash Central-  They have some really nice parts and Timyra Staton can be very good at times. However I doubt they have enough parts  for a sectional final run as they did last year.

 Rocky Mount-  They have the best player from this area  and the best player this century from here.  Rocky Mount plays excellent defense and if they can catch a bracket when the guards are questionable could make a nice run in Playoffs.  When they run into a team that can control J'Kyra Brown and limit her  Rocky Mount will be out.  No Regional this year.

Northern Nash-  No doubt the deepest team around with quality players for two units.  Grover Battle can sub one team for another.  If we have a State Championship final team this year it will be Northern Nash.  Any thing less that the Regional will be a major disapointment for this team.  South Central though not as deep at Northern can matchup with at least one unit.  Central's ball handle can stand the pressure that Northern will apply.  If it comes down to Northern or South Central any where in the Regional that will be a cat fight.

Boys:  Nash Central-  Nate Pittman is a very good basketball player and  the Bulldogs are a good team. When I was in school if you had a player six foot you could beat almost anybody.  The Bulldogs  probably average Six  feet two per player but in this day and time that is small.  They are quick as lightening but not tall enough.  Right matchups they could get to a Sectional final.

Hunt-  They go about eight players but they have a good combination of tall and speed.  They not only could make the Regional but beyond.  I don't care what team you are and how good you are they need every advantage and home court is major in high school basketball.  I think Hunt will make a Sectional final and would not be surprised if they play for a State title.

Rocky Mount-  They have every thing needed to return to the title game.  Tall, long and fast.  Their biggest achilles is ball handling in their rock and roll offense.  Most of their ball handling is self inflicted instead of good defense.  If that is under control by playoff time they can beat anybody. They need their outside shots to fall.  When that happens the middle is wide open for Donte Battle to dominant. Once again who and where they play in the playoffs will be big.

It seems every year here lately the Big East is sending teams at least to the Regional and I will be shocked if there is not at least one girls team in Fayetteville and maybe two boys teams.  We might only get one if they are matched up in the same POD.