Tonight the top team in the Big East took the court and their name is Hunt. deploying Three guard , small forward and a power forward Hunt out ran out shot and held on to the ball in routing Rocky Mount 86-58.
Coach Mike Gainey going with the three big men lineup were no match for the outside shooters for Hunt. Keenon Tabron blistered the Gryphons for 29 points. Hunt full court pressure forced 22 turnovers most coming from the big men handling the ball at midcourt due to the fact the Gryphons are still looking for a point guard who will take charge so the big men can get in the low post. Just about every guard on the team got one minute to show he could bring the ball up court and none accepted the role.
Sure looks to me that Gainey will have to go back to any two big men probably Battle and King and bring Bryant off the bench. The shooting combo of Alston and Caudle and someone to be the point guard has to be employed just for the ability to cover the outside shooters. I believe tonight was as bad of performance as I have ever seen from A Gryphon during the Mike Gainey era.
Hunt proved tonight that their victory over 2-A powerhouse Kinston was no fluke. Donte Battle scored 17 of His 19 in the second half and Isaiah Alston with five threes for 15. Hunt is now tied with Southern Nash a 66-56 winners over Northern Nash.
At the opposite end of the spectrum the Lady Gryphons have veteran guards and young inside people and tonight the tall Hunt Lady Warriors jump off to a 7-0 lead. Hunt is the tallest team in the league but the constant full court pressure turned the tide but this one went to the wire. Carmen Richardson broke a 51-51 tie with under a minute to play and the Lady Gryphons come home winners 55-51 over Hunt. Hunt has the size to match Northern Nash but they cannot match the athletic ability of Northern.
Hunt out rebounded Rocky Mount 44-34 with Alexis Williams hauling down 19 boards. The quickness of the Gryphons forced 20 turnovers. Carmen Richardson lead RM with 21 points. T T Thomas followed with 12 but Thomas lead the defensive push. The inside players of Keyanna Spivey, Tarmara Harper, Ashley Hatfield and Tiara Hinton though small against Hunt big inside have shown to understand how to get position on defense and this girls team has proven to be a big surprise this season. The Lady Gryphons are tied a top the Big East with Northern who beat Southern 54-28.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Missing A Friend And Legend
Some days are better than others and Thursday turn out to be one of the others when I learned of the death of Daryl Allen long time high school football coach of Ahoskie High School and later when Murfreesboro and Ahoskie High became one. He is the eighth all time winningest high school coach in North Carolina winning 305 while losing only 118 in his 36 year coaching career.
Allen came to Ahoskie my senior year in high school of 1970 and spent one year as an assistant to his college friend Al Vaughn who retired with two state titles at the end of the 1971 school year. The football season of 1971 Allen became head coach and that was my first year in the radio booth as the color man for Ahoskie Football.
After following Jack Young 1947-1963 with three state titles and Vaughn's two the community opinion was Daryl Allen was to soft spoken to possibly continue the tradition of Ahoskie football. Four times he took the Cougars and when it became HC to four state title games. Allen coached when it took five wins to win a title and his 72 percent winning also includes a 74 per cent playoff record.
In 1977 when I took over the play by play duties Allen allowed me access to watch game film on Sunday nights when all the coaches watched game film. I wanted to be prepared what to expect from Ahoskie's opponent as well as what we were going to do and Daryl Allen taught me the game of football listening him dissect game film.
I walked in his office one spring and he tells me he is going to run the Radar defense this upcoming season. He tells me that his nose guard on defense will only be 160 pounds and from a three point stance the opposing lines will push him around. He says the radar all 11 defensive players stand up allowing for their speed. That year the defense gave up 36 points during the regular season. Year by year he adapted to what his players could play not what style he knew, he knew them all and what type player it would take to play it.
I heard him only cuss twice at a practice during the 17 years I was on the practice field and in both instances he stop practice to apologize for his language. He taught me there was more ways to teach football than yelling . Over the years since moving to Rocky Mount my visits with him have been few and far between.
I feel privileged to have been able to be a part of a football program with Daryl Allen having been involved. He surly helped me become a better broadcaster teaching me football. Allen's funeral will be Saturday at 2pm at Ahoskie First Baptist. Daryl Allen was 76 years old.
Allen came to Ahoskie my senior year in high school of 1970 and spent one year as an assistant to his college friend Al Vaughn who retired with two state titles at the end of the 1971 school year. The football season of 1971 Allen became head coach and that was my first year in the radio booth as the color man for Ahoskie Football.
After following Jack Young 1947-1963 with three state titles and Vaughn's two the community opinion was Daryl Allen was to soft spoken to possibly continue the tradition of Ahoskie football. Four times he took the Cougars and when it became HC to four state title games. Allen coached when it took five wins to win a title and his 72 percent winning also includes a 74 per cent playoff record.
In 1977 when I took over the play by play duties Allen allowed me access to watch game film on Sunday nights when all the coaches watched game film. I wanted to be prepared what to expect from Ahoskie's opponent as well as what we were going to do and Daryl Allen taught me the game of football listening him dissect game film.
I walked in his office one spring and he tells me he is going to run the Radar defense this upcoming season. He tells me that his nose guard on defense will only be 160 pounds and from a three point stance the opposing lines will push him around. He says the radar all 11 defensive players stand up allowing for their speed. That year the defense gave up 36 points during the regular season. Year by year he adapted to what his players could play not what style he knew, he knew them all and what type player it would take to play it.
I heard him only cuss twice at a practice during the 17 years I was on the practice field and in both instances he stop practice to apologize for his language. He taught me there was more ways to teach football than yelling . Over the years since moving to Rocky Mount my visits with him have been few and far between.
I feel privileged to have been able to be a part of a football program with Daryl Allen having been involved. He surly helped me become a better broadcaster teaching me football. Allen's funeral will be Saturday at 2pm at Ahoskie First Baptist. Daryl Allen was 76 years old.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
The Great Debate
Does Rocky Mount need a multi purpose arena that seats at least Five thousand people? Do we need it in downtown? Those of you that want any kind of arena to make money guess what none do at
least not many. Regardless of the cost Rocky Mount needs more than a 1200 seat Dunn Center. A question that interest me as who came up the figure five thousand. Listen for a city who charges you extra on your light bill for power we don't even get why not build a ten thousand seat building.
First of all yes we do need a entertainment complex where our citizens can go and have plenty of parking well lit for security and easy to get to. Well that eliminates any location down town. Just for entertainment purposes the 19,000 seat PNC arena has 8,000 parking spaces. If you have ever been in the PNC that equates to about one parking space for 2.5 people in one car. A 5,000 seat building would need 2,000 parking spaces. If you have been any where in down Rocky Mount the space just needed for the parking lot you would have to tear half the buildings down to find the space.
I can see it now the answer for down town is build a parking deck. Have you ever been stuck in that parking deck at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill after a football game. You get home early Sunday morning after a Saturday afternoon game. What kind of four lane streets is this building going to be near to help get the traffic in and out. Just think how long it takes to get 400 cars out of any high school parking lot and this new building could have five times more cars.
The largest building east of I-95 in our area is Minges in Greenville about 8,000 seats. If we are going to spend money why not build something that would be the biggest in the area. If say 10,000 seat you could have some big name concerts. Broadway type productions just might come. What I visualize is a stage in one end similar to the small arena in Fayetteville called the Crown Arena.
I know that our city official who love to spend our money are dead set on a building in downtown to revitalize it. But if you can't get to. Then when you do go can't park within a mile of the place which then puts your personal safety in jeopardy nobody is going to go. Then downtown remains dead and we have another 32 million added to our light bill.
So please city officials who have their hands in our pockets willing to spend our money. If you build it they will not come unless it has access off highway 64. Sports complex area fits that bill. Just thinking top of my head say the property across from Nash Community College. I know there has to be someone on the city council that has property somewhere off 64 that we could buy from them to build this building. Seems they always find a way to help each other make money for themselves and we pay for it.
least not many. Regardless of the cost Rocky Mount needs more than a 1200 seat Dunn Center. A question that interest me as who came up the figure five thousand. Listen for a city who charges you extra on your light bill for power we don't even get why not build a ten thousand seat building.
First of all yes we do need a entertainment complex where our citizens can go and have plenty of parking well lit for security and easy to get to. Well that eliminates any location down town. Just for entertainment purposes the 19,000 seat PNC arena has 8,000 parking spaces. If you have ever been in the PNC that equates to about one parking space for 2.5 people in one car. A 5,000 seat building would need 2,000 parking spaces. If you have been any where in down Rocky Mount the space just needed for the parking lot you would have to tear half the buildings down to find the space.
I can see it now the answer for down town is build a parking deck. Have you ever been stuck in that parking deck at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill after a football game. You get home early Sunday morning after a Saturday afternoon game. What kind of four lane streets is this building going to be near to help get the traffic in and out. Just think how long it takes to get 400 cars out of any high school parking lot and this new building could have five times more cars.
The largest building east of I-95 in our area is Minges in Greenville about 8,000 seats. If we are going to spend money why not build something that would be the biggest in the area. If say 10,000 seat you could have some big name concerts. Broadway type productions just might come. What I visualize is a stage in one end similar to the small arena in Fayetteville called the Crown Arena.
I know that our city official who love to spend our money are dead set on a building in downtown to revitalize it. But if you can't get to. Then when you do go can't park within a mile of the place which then puts your personal safety in jeopardy nobody is going to go. Then downtown remains dead and we have another 32 million added to our light bill.
So please city officials who have their hands in our pockets willing to spend our money. If you build it they will not come unless it has access off highway 64. Sports complex area fits that bill. Just thinking top of my head say the property across from Nash Community College. I know there has to be someone on the city council that has property somewhere off 64 that we could buy from them to build this building. Seems they always find a way to help each other make money for themselves and we pay for it.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Basketball Schedule Change
The Rocky Mount Gryphon basketball team has not played a home game since December 13th when they beat Rose 71-54. Their next scheduled home game was suppose to have been next Tuesday against Fike in the third conference game of the season. Received a text from Mike Gainey this week stating the two games with Fike are flip flopping. Next Tuesday's game will now be at Fike and the game for Febuary 6th will now be at Rocky Mount.
So when will the Gryphons play their next home game? It will not be this Friday as they are scheduled for a trip to Hunt 9-3 1-0 while Rocky Mount is 7-4 1-0. Also Friday Southern Nash 4-9 1-0 will visit Northern Nash 6-8 0-1. Fike 13-1 0-1 travels to Nash Central 4-10 0-1.
We already know the Gryphons will not play at home next Tuesday cause they are at Fike. How about the following Friday January 24th. Sorry Charlie but they travel to Southern then. By the way following this Friday night's game they travel to Northern Durham to play Saturday in the Martin Luther King Memorial Tournament where they will play Riverside. So ok are the Gryphons ever going to play another another home game?
Yes Tuesday January 28th a Tuesday of all days Northern Nash will pay a visit to the Rocky Mount gym. But, if the Gryphons have already played at Nash Central, Hunt,Fike, and Southern Nash what does that mean. Starting with the Northern game Rocky Mount will play five straight conference home games and will not hit the road until the regular season's last night. The Gryphons will host the Big East conference tournament.
As you may have seen over the weekend a high school player from the Raleigh broke the backboard on a slam dunk and until a new back board arrives his school is one short. He is a sensation on You Tube and local TV has made him out a hero. If you watch the replay you will notice he hung on the rim ever how short a time until the backboard came down. I don't care how a superman everyone can makes the player the actual cause of the shattered glass was a defect in the glass and if you have ever noticed backboard breaking never occurred until the retractable rims were created. Every dunk when the rim comes down ever so slightly comes out of it's position in the backboard and pops back in place once the player lets go of the rim. Sorry but I don't see where the hero worship comes from in this deal.
So when will the Gryphons play their next home game? It will not be this Friday as they are scheduled for a trip to Hunt 9-3 1-0 while Rocky Mount is 7-4 1-0. Also Friday Southern Nash 4-9 1-0 will visit Northern Nash 6-8 0-1. Fike 13-1 0-1 travels to Nash Central 4-10 0-1.
We already know the Gryphons will not play at home next Tuesday cause they are at Fike. How about the following Friday January 24th. Sorry Charlie but they travel to Southern then. By the way following this Friday night's game they travel to Northern Durham to play Saturday in the Martin Luther King Memorial Tournament where they will play Riverside. So ok are the Gryphons ever going to play another another home game?
Yes Tuesday January 28th a Tuesday of all days Northern Nash will pay a visit to the Rocky Mount gym. But, if the Gryphons have already played at Nash Central, Hunt,Fike, and Southern Nash what does that mean. Starting with the Northern game Rocky Mount will play five straight conference home games and will not hit the road until the regular season's last night. The Gryphons will host the Big East conference tournament.
As you may have seen over the weekend a high school player from the Raleigh broke the backboard on a slam dunk and until a new back board arrives his school is one short. He is a sensation on You Tube and local TV has made him out a hero. If you watch the replay you will notice he hung on the rim ever how short a time until the backboard came down. I don't care how a superman everyone can makes the player the actual cause of the shattered glass was a defect in the glass and if you have ever noticed backboard breaking never occurred until the retractable rims were created. Every dunk when the rim comes down ever so slightly comes out of it's position in the backboard and pops back in place once the player lets go of the rim. Sorry but I don't see where the hero worship comes from in this deal.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Who Is Really Most Valuable
I don't think there is any doubt that when the NFL mvp award is announced that Peyton Manning will win the award hands down. The records he has broken this year and the record his team has who else could it be.
We will for the remainder of this week have to listen to all of the talking heads tell us how good both Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are. If they are far in a way the best of the lot in the NFL just who is the most valuable to his team. I am going to present evidence that is not even close between the two.
In 2011 when Peyton Manning sat out the entire season the Indianapolis Colts went from the division winner to the worse team in the NFL and receiving the number one draft pick. Peyton Manning was so valuable to the Colts that without him they were awful.
Tom Brady played less than a half in the first game in the 2008 season. His replacement Matt Cassell led the Patroits to a 10-5 record the last games of the season. He had a 88 quarterback rating and by the next season that one year earned him a big time contract with Kansas City. To say the least Cassell quarterback rating has only been 80 since and Cassell has at best been average NFL quarterback.
I say that Tom Brady has been a by product of the Bill Bellichek system and any quarterback that Bellichek chooses can run the system. So I think that Brady has had the fortune of being at the right place at the right time. If it wasn't for an injury Tom Brady May have been a lifetime backup. I am not saying Brady is not one of the top quarterbacks today he is just not the most valuable as perceived by the media.
Today we are heading to Fayetteville to Methodist College where former Gryphon Tabias Hilliard is turning into a solid basketball player. While a member of the 2012 Gryphon state championship Tabias was a point guard that distributed to others but after a nice freshman year Hilliard is averaging 9.8 points per game and leading the team in assist with 3.8 per game. We talked about Tom Brady being at the right place at the right time and Tobias Hilliard has a home in Fayetteville.
We will for the remainder of this week have to listen to all of the talking heads tell us how good both Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are. If they are far in a way the best of the lot in the NFL just who is the most valuable to his team. I am going to present evidence that is not even close between the two.
In 2011 when Peyton Manning sat out the entire season the Indianapolis Colts went from the division winner to the worse team in the NFL and receiving the number one draft pick. Peyton Manning was so valuable to the Colts that without him they were awful.
Tom Brady played less than a half in the first game in the 2008 season. His replacement Matt Cassell led the Patroits to a 10-5 record the last games of the season. He had a 88 quarterback rating and by the next season that one year earned him a big time contract with Kansas City. To say the least Cassell quarterback rating has only been 80 since and Cassell has at best been average NFL quarterback.
I say that Tom Brady has been a by product of the Bill Bellichek system and any quarterback that Bellichek chooses can run the system. So I think that Brady has had the fortune of being at the right place at the right time. If it wasn't for an injury Tom Brady May have been a lifetime backup. I am not saying Brady is not one of the top quarterbacks today he is just not the most valuable as perceived by the media.
Today we are heading to Fayetteville to Methodist College where former Gryphon Tabias Hilliard is turning into a solid basketball player. While a member of the 2012 Gryphon state championship Tabias was a point guard that distributed to others but after a nice freshman year Hilliard is averaging 9.8 points per game and leading the team in assist with 3.8 per game. We talked about Tom Brady being at the right place at the right time and Tobias Hilliard has a home in Fayetteville.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Peyton Or Tom One Is In Super Bowl.
I like the wild Card week better than divisional weekend because it seems the games are better and closer. A couple had interesting finishes this weekend but for the most part all four games this weekend weren't that close.
Seattle had complete control of New Orleans in fact only being down 16-0 at the half could have been worse for the Saints. The Hawks were trying to run the clock out the entire second half and to me bury who ever you play until the 4th quarter. Then start trying to end the game
I think Indy had too much emotion used up in coming back like they did against KC. Then the next issue is playing on the road. Those of you who believe in the pass happy NFL all four teams that won this weekend all won the the war of the ground game. Funny isn't that during the year the the passing touchdown record is broken nobody won by just flinging it. Tom Brady didn't even throw a touchdown.
Of all the games this weekend the SF/Carolina game went exactly how I thought. Cam and company simply aren't good enough against a very good defense. Carolina has as good of defense as anybody
And holding the 9er 's to 23 was great on their part. Panther fans have every reason to think the future is bright. You would expect Cam to continue to improve and hope the defense is just as good next year.
The Bronco -Charger game was simply a game where San Diego needed to stop Denver on third down they couldn't. They held Peyton to 24 but didn't score enough themselves. The weather did have and effect in this game 27 of the 41 points were scored when the team were going left to right on tour TV dial with the wind. This game was won because Peyton score a touchdown in each quarter going in the wind and San Diego scored none.
What we have is San Francisco travels to Seattle while New England heads west to Denver . The Super Bowl has great ratings regardless of what teams are in it but what is for sure that either Manning or Brady will be in the Super Bowl. Neither may be every ones darlings except for the media. they will now have three weeks to tell us how great one of them is. This week they will talk about both but the two Super Bowl weeks lord help us all from the media.
Seattle had complete control of New Orleans in fact only being down 16-0 at the half could have been worse for the Saints. The Hawks were trying to run the clock out the entire second half and to me bury who ever you play until the 4th quarter. Then start trying to end the game
I think Indy had too much emotion used up in coming back like they did against KC. Then the next issue is playing on the road. Those of you who believe in the pass happy NFL all four teams that won this weekend all won the the war of the ground game. Funny isn't that during the year the the passing touchdown record is broken nobody won by just flinging it. Tom Brady didn't even throw a touchdown.
Of all the games this weekend the SF/Carolina game went exactly how I thought. Cam and company simply aren't good enough against a very good defense. Carolina has as good of defense as anybody
And holding the 9er 's to 23 was great on their part. Panther fans have every reason to think the future is bright. You would expect Cam to continue to improve and hope the defense is just as good next year.
The Bronco -Charger game was simply a game where San Diego needed to stop Denver on third down they couldn't. They held Peyton to 24 but didn't score enough themselves. The weather did have and effect in this game 27 of the 41 points were scored when the team were going left to right on tour TV dial with the wind. This game was won because Peyton score a touchdown in each quarter going in the wind and San Diego scored none.
What we have is San Francisco travels to Seattle while New England heads west to Denver . The Super Bowl has great ratings regardless of what teams are in it but what is for sure that either Manning or Brady will be in the Super Bowl. Neither may be every ones darlings except for the media. they will now have three weeks to tell us how great one of them is. This week they will talk about both but the two Super Bowl weeks lord help us all from the media.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Can't Get Any Worse
The three Tocacco Roads teams can't get any closer to the bottom of the ACC than they are this morning. Carolina is last at 0-3 and Duke and State are 1-2. They all have one thing in common. They don't have a quarterback. All three are blind as to what to do in half court offense.
Carolina to me has the hardest road to hoe because I don't think they are very good. If you look at Roy Williams what I see in him reading between the lines I don't think he thinks the team he has
right now which is not the team he thought he would have is not very good either.
The lone year Duke had Austin Rivers they had a hard time building a team around a player who knew that was going to be one and done. They never played team ball the way Coach K wants team defense. It looks to me they have the same problem this year as they have a player who has no idea there are four other players on the court wearing the same color uniform as he does.
State has a guard in Cat Barber who is a run up and down guard that has no idea when they are in a half court offense how to get the ball inside the 3 point line. Lewis who thought he was going to be the starter isn't playing well at all when he is in there. If I was State knowing his team plays better running I would press all the time just to get my team moving.
The good news is the season is still early but if all three continue to play the way they are playing now nobody will go 500 in conference play. I don't think it has ever happened that all three looked this bad all at the same time.
Today we will look at TaShaun Mabry the former Gryphon who is playing at Tarleton State in Texas. Tarleton is undefeated at 13-0. Mabry is the first player off the bench and the 3rd leading scorer on the team at 10.8 points per game. He has been red hot shooting 45 per cent of his threes.
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Carolina to me has the hardest road to hoe because I don't think they are very good. If you look at Roy Williams what I see in him reading between the lines I don't think he thinks the team he has
right now which is not the team he thought he would have is not very good either.
The lone year Duke had Austin Rivers they had a hard time building a team around a player who knew that was going to be one and done. They never played team ball the way Coach K wants team defense. It looks to me they have the same problem this year as they have a player who has no idea there are four other players on the court wearing the same color uniform as he does.
State has a guard in Cat Barber who is a run up and down guard that has no idea when they are in a half court offense how to get the ball inside the 3 point line. Lewis who thought he was going to be the starter isn't playing well at all when he is in there. If I was State knowing his team plays better running I would press all the time just to get my team moving.
The good news is the season is still early but if all three continue to play the way they are playing now nobody will go 500 in conference play. I don't think it has ever happened that all three looked this bad all at the same time.
Today we will look at TaShaun Mabry the former Gryphon who is playing at Tarleton State in Texas. Tarleton is undefeated at 13-0. Mabry is the first player off the bench and the 3rd leading scorer on the team at 10.8 points per game. He has been red hot shooting 45 per cent of his threes.
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