Real Basketball Starts Friday

Big East conference basketball starts Friday and to this point half of the boys teams have lost more than they have won. Southern Nash who at 4-9 will host the only undefeated team in the Big East Fike  who stands 12-0 but 11 of those wins have been  to 1-A and 2-A schools.  They did beat Hunt in a Holiday Tournament last week by two so to this point Fike remains untested.  They sure are putting up numbers in Wilson with the football team going 10-1 in the regular season and now 12-0 in basketball.

Northern Nash 6-7 travels to Hunt 6-3.  Northern May have lost Paul Cherry with a knee injury last week and the Knights are holding their breath waiting on the results of an upcoming MRI. Hunt's three losses have come to some good teams.

Rocky Mount 6-4 travels to Nash Central 4-8 Friday.  These two have already played each other in the Nash County Chrismas Tournament with the Gryphons winning by 12.

There is only one girls team with a losing record Southern Nash 5-6 as they will host Fike 7-5 on Friday.   Northern Nash 9-1 will open at Hunt 5-3.  This week senior Alexus Hill went over 1000 points for the Lady Knights and she received  a plaque honoring her before their game Friday against
Southern Vance.  Rocky Mount 6-4 travels to Nash Central 8-3.  One of those losses on the Bulldogs occurred in the Christmas Tournament but this one is on the Bulldogs home floor.

This Saturday Northern Nash will be hosting a baseball clinic that starts at 9:30 and will go until 3:30.  The cost is $40 which includes lunch.  There will be 12 instructors and the guest speaker will be Jerry Sands a Smithfield Selma High school graduate who last year played AAA baseball in Indianapolis in the Pittsburgh Pirate Organization.  Just the day before Christmas he was picked up by the Tampa Bay Rays.

Sands 26 years old is a 276 hitter career hitter in the minors and has played all three outfield positions plus first base. Sands played his college base at Catawba College and was drafted by the LA Dodgers and has played in the Red Sox,Pirates and now Tampa. Should be a fun day.

NFL Takes Center Stage

The next two weekends the NFL will have double headers both Saturday and Sunday.  Every game will have national coverage  and you can expect frozen Tundra in some areas.  Who's going to win let's take a look at what could happen.

Kansas City at Indianapolis:  There was a point in the season that KC's defense was by far the best in the NFL but injuries started to mount and all five losses have happen since the injury bug.  They played just two weeks ago in KC and it was all Colts.   I am still not sold on Indy but I do think they win this one. Colts 23 Chiefs 17.

San Diego at Cincinnati:  If you didn't catch the hint from yesterday I think the winner of this game makes it to the Super Bowl.  They played five weeks ago in SD and the Chargers have three turnovers inside the Bengals 30 yard line and Cincy won 17-10.   No telling what kind of weather there might be. Yes I'm picking SD, the Chargers defense has has all 11 starters the last four weeks and they were all wins.  Philip Rivers is 8-2 all time with the temp under 40 degrees. And one of those losses was in New England when he played with no knee ligaments.  Should Cincy win I still think the winner of this game plays in a Super Bowl.  Chargers  26 Bengals 21.

New Orleans at Philadelphia:  This New Orleans team has not been very good on the road.  Here again no telling what kind of weather they will face.  Remember New Orleans plays inside and I quite frankly am disappointed with the way NO finished the season.  I would not be shocked if Philly makes it to the Super Bowl.  Eagles 27 Saints 17.

San Francisco at the Frozen Tundra:  Will not have to worry about field being frozen before game starts as Green Bay learned from the 1967  heating of the field with tarp on.  I just don't think Green Bay's defense is healthy enough but I don't see the 9ers offense is one that scares me to death.  This may be the lowest scoring game of weekend.  San Fran 20 Packers 17 .

If this comes to past that will send San Diego to Denver and Colts to the Pats next weekend.  Philly will come to Carolina Andy SF would go to the rainy Northwest to Seattle.

Just Who Is NFL Super Bowl Favorite

The NFL has this quirky schedule deal where all of last years division winners play each other the next year.  Last place teams play last place teams and when it is all over the top six from the NFC and AFC start the run for the Super Bowl.  Just how did this years playoff teams do only against the other playoff teams.  The results are going to surprise you.

San Diego was 5-2 against  the other 11 playoff teams.  Seems they played to the level of their competition but have wins over Denver, KC twice,Indy, Philly.

Cincinnati only played four games against playoff teams but they won all four beating San Diego, Indy, New England and Green Bay.

Denver was 4-3 beating San Diego, KC twice and the Eagles.

Seattle  goes 3-2 beating Carolina and San Fran the first two weeks then took down New Orleans

Carolina is 3-2 against the other play off teams beating New Orleans, New England and San Fran.

Indianapolis took down Denver, KC and San Fran while losing twice going 2-2.

Even New England played only four playoff teams and they were only 2-2.

Looking at the other end Green Bay is glad to have Aaron Rogers back but during the season only played three other play off teams and lost all three.

Kansas City started out winning their first nine games and by the years end lost five of six played against other playoff teams.

Philadelphia the team with the offense of the NFL future was only 1-3 against the NFL's best.

San Francisco was just 1-4  while New Orleans was 2-3.

What does all this mean?  What it tells us is Peyton Manning's career year with all those touchdowns didn't happen against the other playoff teams.  Tom Brady is only average against other teams still playing.  There has been a trend lately in the NFL playoffs that the teams with a bye wind up winning the Super Bowl.  If that trend continues everyone may need to pay attention to the winner of the San Diego at Cincinnati game because they are the best among the twelve left against each other.

I Was Pulling Hard

I don't know which team you pull for but I find it hard to believe unless you were a Texas A&M fan that you weren't pulling for Duke Tuesday night in Atlanta.  An underdog from the odds maker in Vegas right on down to the one sided coverage on ESPN.   Did anyone besides me notice that leading out of every timeout ESPN showed a picture of Johnny Manziel.  I got to the point I thought he was the only player on the field for A&M.

Having seen Duke football way back during the days of the lonesome end right through the dry spell of the past 40 years David Cutcliffe has transformed a program at Duke that all Blue Devil fans can be proud.  Even as good as this year has been they still are not yet ready for the prime time.  You could see speed is lacking on both sides of the ball.

What you get from the Devils is all out give me everything  you got on this play mentality.  They tried every trick in the book and in the first half every trick worked.  Just think in the second half all the third down plays they made.  What they didn't have was enough speed on defense to stay with A&M.

I think Manziel is a very exciting player and for college and he had better come back to college next year.  If he turns pro he will be a flash in the pan.  He will have his moments and everyone  will rave at how good he is and then spend time on the injured list.  To me he is a Tebo or Vince Young.

You know the pick six that won the game for A&M had nothing to do with Manziel.  Then there were two missed interference calls that helped lead to the second pick.  Duke needed that touchdown just before the half instead of the field goal on the last play.  Despite defeat Duke put on a show with the effort they gave because I thought they would lose by 30.  It was a heck of a game.

This was a dream season for the Devils but you know they didn't play any great team during the season.  They beat Virginia Tech but as the rest of the year unfolded Tech was awful on offense.  They didn't play FSU during regular season and missed out playing Clemson. Everything this year fell the Devils way.  There is no doubt it was fun watching them play but next year no longer will everyone they play think in the summer Duke will be a win.  They will now get respect from others when their schedule has Duke this week.  They have never had that before in this generation and Duke will have to adjust that they no longer will be looked at as an underdog.

2013 Year In Review

2013 started off when word was received that Tarboro's Kelvin Bryant has been elected to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. The late 1970's Bryant lead the Vikings on the football field.  The early 80's he gave  many Tar Heel fans pleasure in Kenan and his greatest pro days were with the Redskins in Washington.  Still today an avid Viking supporter.

Late January brought news that Chuck Hinton  the former major leaguer died.  His playing days best were also in Washington for the Senators.

February saw the Northern Nash girls win 21 straight games to start the season and lost for the first time the last game of the regular season to Rocky Mount.  By the end of the playoffs Northern would meet twice more with Rocky Mount the last being in the sectional semi finals.

March brought Rocky Mount boys to the eastern finals in basketball where they had been three of last four years, lost to Webb 68-64.

Rocky Mount Prep having their greatest year  ever made it to the state finals in 1A in Historic Reynolds Coliseum where they will finish second losing 52-41.

J'Kyra Brown Rocky Mount's senior was named the North Carolina High School 3-A basketball player of the year.

Louisville won the NCAA National Championship in college basketball and one of their top reserves was Montrezl Harrell from North Edgecombe.

May saw Rocky Mount junior Jaquell Bryant become state champion in track and Field as he won the state high jump championship.

Rocky Mount Academy made it all the way to the state 2-A Independant baseball finals losing 2 games to none.

June saw North Carolina and NC State make it to the College World Series with two Rocky Mount Gryphons players playing giant roles in getting North Carolina there Benton Moss and Hobbs Johnson. NC State is coached by former Northern Nash player Elliot Avent and Carolina lead by Mike Fox who coached many years by NC Wesleyan.

Mid week of the college World Series saw Hobbs Johnson pitch the game of his life going eight and one third innings of shutout ball to knock out NC State from the World Series.  Within two weeks signs a pro contract with the Milwaukee Brewers.

The city of Rocky Mount Parks and Recreation won another Tar Heel Little League baseball state title when the National league   11/12 year olds won the title in Williamston.

The Nash County Babe Ruth 13U team won the Eastern State title and lost only one game the entire playoff run which was a semi final lost in the Southeastern Regional.

Rocky Mount and Benvenue Country Club hosted the most important golf tournament since the ACC championship use to be played in Rocky Mount when they hosted sectional qualifying tournament for the U S Amateur Championship in late July.

They missed out in baseball but Rocky Mount Academy won the state title in eight man football in November.  The first state title for RMA in any sport.

Rocky Mount High's Michael Gainey won the NCAE male coach of the year.

What a year was 2013.  Can't wait to see what happens this year.

Rocky Mount Telegram's Players Of Year

There are seven varsity sports played in the fall and the Rocky Mount Telegram named eight players of the year and Northern Nash grabs three of the eight awards.  Nash Central and Tarboro get two awards and Southern Nash wins   the last award while Rocky Mount fails to win any.

Kendrick Richardson is the top defensive player for the Knights of Northen as he wins the Telegram's defensive football player of the year. Richardson had double digits sacks which is a great number for a team for the season but Richardson had those by himself.

Alexus Hill just might be the best athlete in the Big East boy or girl.  Hill is the top volleyball player after moving to the the middle of the front line at the net even though that is where the tallest players normally roam.  Just might see Hill later  when the Telegram does winter sports as she probably is the best basketball player.

One of the youngest winners this year is the cross country rep from Northern sophomore Stephen Whitehead.  The times that Whitehead has produced this year have him already given him some of the best times in the  state from any sophomore.  If he improves as much in the next two years as this year may very well be a state champion which for sure would make all area for the Telegram in the future.

Tarboro earns the all area offensive player in Radja Bobitt.  I am sure if you asked Bobbitt he would loved to have been healthy in the playoffs and gotten back to the state championship for the sixth straight time for the Vikings.  There is no doubt without Bobbitt Tarboro would not had a conference championship .

Katie King from the Tarboro Vikings wins for the third time in a row being the best female golfer.

Nash Central's winningest performer in tennis is Kaley Price. Even without older sister as a partner Price finishes off what might be the best ever career for any player in the area with total match wins.

If there is one player who is an outstanding long distance runner there is one name in the area is Nash Central's Michaela Williams.  Look out for Wiliams again in the spring with track and field. She is the best in the fall in cross country.

The final winner this year is the leading scorer in the Big East  in soccer is Moises Gonzalez from Southern Nash.  He is a three time winner of the Telegram's award.  Next step for him is probably a D-1 school.

Pins and Needles

If there is one thing the NFL wanted Sunday was down to the wire playoff berths on the line and the NFL could not ask any more than what was delivered.  Pittsburgh after starting 0-4 was as good as anybody the last 12 games of the season finishing 8-8.  They watched the scoreboard needing Miami and Baltimore to lose while they had to win and they got it.  All they need now is Kansas City resting 19 starters to beat San Diego in San Diego. San Diego teased Pitt by  falling down 14-0 and down 24-14 heading into the 4th quarter. They even let KC try  a field goal on the last play of the game which looked good for 36 of the 41 yards it traveled to win the game. Philip Rivers engineered a 10 minute over time drive to break Steeler's fans hearts.

Green Bay and Chicago went back and forth in the second half before the Packers pull out a 33-28 win  and a playoff spot.  Both Aaron Rogers and Jay Cutler put on a show.  San Fran dominated Arizona for most of the game but it took a field goal in overtime to win.

Even while recovering from back surgery Tony Romo's ghost was present in Dallas.  Playing a great game for Dallas Kyle Orton pulled a Romo when the game was on the line in throwing a int with less than two minutes to play and Dallas only needing a field goal to win.  Once again Jerry Jones  has more TV time than players on the field and losses for the fourth straight time in win and get in and lose and go home.

Down in Atlanta the Carolina defense scored just enough points to  give the Panthers a week off and try to get Steve Smith back by then.  Winning hides many flaws and Cam Newton has really not been great during the last 12 weeks but he has been great at just the right moments.

I wonder as much as the NFL wants ratings why the New England Buffalo game got national coverage while the compelling AFC late game was KC-SD.  As easy as it is to go from game to game the National game should have been switched.  To me the next two weeks when there is two national TV playoff games on Saturday and Sunday this I s the best part of the playoffs even better than the Super Bowl.

Saturday Kansas City plays the 4:30 game at Indianapolis. The prime time game Saturday night is New Orleans at Philadelphia.

The 1pm game Sunday sends San Diego to Cincinnati and the 4:30 game has San Fransico at Green Bay.  Let's get it on.