One And Done

As I have watched the NCAA tournament my thoughts were how that the NBA one and done rule has ruined the NCAA tournament.  Then all of a sudden Carolina tries to give their game away then all of a sudden my thoughts go to Duke and Carolina going out in the first round together but the Heels recover.

Last year T J Warren started for State but for the most part he was an after thought when the options were debated of who are we going to give the ball to when we need a bucket.  Now Jbari Parker supposedly just maybe the number one pick in the next NBA. Suppose he was to come back to Duke and improve as much as Warren has this year.  I don't see Parker starting for any body in the NBA next year.  If the one and done stays in the NBA somebody like Stephen F Austin will win the tournament in the next five or six years.

As I watch the games I have to ask.  Why does every drive to the basket every shot have to be blocked? This world we live in where I have to prove how tough I am.  I bet nine out ten drives to the baskets have lead to foul shots.

If I am ahead by say six or seven points with a minute to play why am I going to let the team behind  roll the ball across the mid court before they pick it up?The game ends a whole lot faster when I apply just token full court pressure and make them dribble full court.

If I am winning and I have a decent lead late in a game why do I foul the team behind every time they come down the court.  Give them free points without the clock running?

Why is it every time there was a time out  in the game I was watching and I flip to another game to see some scores that game is in a commercial too?

How close are some of the games.  As badly as NC State played down the stretch they  would have still won the game except there was a defensive rebound early in the second have in which they knocked their own rebound into the St Louis basket.  every point counts.

You know I pay very little attention to NC Central sports generally.  Last night I pull as hard for the Eagles as I have ever pulled them all other times combined.  Good effort in their first ever appearance the the Tournament.

There must be something in the sunshine that has energized the Rocky Mount Gryphons.  Friday at Tarboro they win  16-1.  Will Edwards gets the win for the Gryphons.  They head into the conference play next week 3-4.

Sun Shines Gryphons Bloom

Temperatures soaring into the 60's the Rocky  Mount Gryphons  got Pitching, timely hitting especially from left fielder Ben Yates batting ninth in the lineup had two straight hits driving in four runs as the Gryphons beat Corinth Holders a team that beat the Gryphon opening day 7-2 but today the Gryphons win 5-1.

Cody Smith who all of a sudden is a dominate pitcher at home as in his last ten innings pitched at Gryphon Stadium has allowed only one run pitched four innings allowed two hits, walked six batters, but sent seven batters back to the dugout strike out victims.  He gave way in the fifth to Sam Lilley who puts zeros on the board for the Pirates as he allowed only one hit, hit a batter and struck out three.

Two other Gryphons added two hits to their batting average as Logan Smith and Rashawn Harris leaving the Gryphons 7-8-9 hitters going 6-9 in the game.  Forest Bell, Micah Varnell, Sam Lilley and Will Edwards collected base hits.

The Gryphons travel tomorrow to Tarboro and then starting Tuesday conference play starts with road games at Nash Central Tuesday and Hunt on Friday.  Today's win is the Gryphon second on the season against four losses.  Every team has this issue with the weather as the Gryphons will start conference play with only seven games under their belts as they have loss five games due to weather and now that conference is cranking up I doubt those five will be made up.  No coach wants to play two conference games in a week and find space for a non conference affair.  It depletes your pitching.

Most of the times games are lost and not won and I have just witnessed the Wolfpack miss 17 second half free  throws and the are out of the NCAA.  There is no clear cut dominate team in the tournament.  Most years there are really only 8-12 teams that truly win it.  This year since so many teams are about equal there is a chance that maybe 25 teams can win this thing

Battle Lands On All District Team

The North Carolina High Schools coaches  Association named their all districts teams and Dante Battle of  Rocky Mount has made the first team in this district.  Battle who's four year varsity career includes the MVP award in the 2012 state championship game averaged 16 points and eleven rebound per game.  Joining Battle on the first team is Hunt's guard Quan Kent lead Hunt in scoring and almost helped the Warriors win the 3-A basketball title last Saturday.

Four Big East players made the second team.  Aaron Spivey of Nash Central who scored at an 18.4 clip.  Justin Jefferson of Hunt scoring at 14.5.  Trevan Virgil of Fike who lead the Golden Demons at 16.5 points per game.  Rocky Mount's Immanual King is the final Big East member  who averaged 13 points per ball game.

Three Big East members are on the third team.  Isaiah Alston of Rocky Mount, Myquan Gooding  of Fike and Marquise Wright of Southern Nash.

The Lady Knights of Northern Nash finished fifth in the final poll of the basketball season.

High schools across North Carolina lost another day of sports activities Wednesday.  Rocky Mount has a scheduled home game today but unless some hot sun an a steady breeze blows it will be a miracle if they play today. The field is simply too saturated at the moment and needs some heat to evaporate.  The Gryphons play at Tarboro Friday just let's hope so.

Today is the first day of the real NCAA tournament and I hope you have your bracket filled out and that you win some money.  Hope you finish second right behind me.  I have a couple of brackets and I think Florida will be a hard team to beat.  I filled out so many brackets that I have one that has Villanova and another with Michigan State.

N C State didn't find out until 6:21 Sunday night that they were even in the Big Dance.  Flew out Monday morning to Dayton Ohio .  Immediately after their victory Tuesday climbed on a plane
 and headed to Orlando Florida where  they landed at 5:30 in the morning.  They  play tonight on TNT in their second game at just after 7pm before any of the other three triangle teams even hit the court for the first time. University of St Louis is their next game and we will see how it goes from here.  In my brackets I have the Wolfpack winning tonight.

Weather At It Again

Since about the middle of January I don't think we have had a week that the weather hasn't help postpone, delay or in some cases cancel games all together.  Hunt and Southern Nash didn't play but once in basketball during the regular season.  Even a big gate game like Nash Central at Northern Nash was lost the last week of basketball season because they ran out of days before the conference tournament started.

Gates receipts are the life blood of high school athletic and crowds have been down in basketball because of the weather and even now cold weather and rain has caused all the teams of the Big East base base to lose several games already during the non-conference.  Just ten more days before conference starts and these non conference games is when you give everyone a shot to see if they can get playing time  because you want by the first conference game have a lineup established.

So far Northern Nash at 4-2 has the best overall record.  Fike stands 4-3 and both NN And Fike are the only two teams with winning records. Hunt is 2-4, Nash Central 1-3, Rocky Mount 1-4 and Southern Nash 1-5.

Have some very sad news to pass along as long time athletic trainer at Nash Central Mike Caffey has died. I think Mike came to the Bulldogs the very first year of the school and he retired last year.  You know the press box at the football stadium and at the baseball field is a rather heafty long walk up hill both ways and Mike many times gave me a ride on his golf cart.  His funeral will be Thursday night at 7pm at Northside Community Church.

Great start for the ACC in all the  playoffs.  Pack cruises against Xavier and gets ACC off to a 1-0 start in the NCAA tournament winning 74-59.  Florida State and Clemson win in the NIT.  Davidson led most of their NIT game at Missouri but lost a close one.  ECU trying to repeat in the tournament they won last year lost to Wright ST 74-59 so they will not repeat.

TV Guide For NCAA Basketball

The NCAA tournament starts just a little early this year as for the first time a Triangle team will have a team in the first four games as NC State plays Tuesday in Dayton as they meet Cincinnati based Xavier at 9:10 pm and the network carrying the game is Tru-TV the home of Lizard Lick Towing.

Should the Pack win Tuesday night they will hop a plane and fly right over Raleigh heading to Orlando Thursday night as they play the number five seed University of St Louis.  If the Pack is there TV time is  7:20pm and you will have to switch networks as this game will be on TNT.  It is obvious if the Pack loses Tuesday not many people will care much about that game other than which winner from that games helps you advance in your brackets.

Friday at Noon time the Duke Blue Devils begin play at PNC in Raleigh as they take on Mercer.  Virginia the other ACC team in Raleigh doesn't play until late Friday night in PNC.  I would suspect splitting the two ACC will insure a full house Friday afternoon and the Virginia crowd will fill the house Friday night.

North Carolina starts their action Friday night playing Providence  in San Antonio Texas game time is 7:20 and the Tar Heels will be on TNT.  The Tar Heels are the sixth seed and Providence is 11th so the Tar Heels will be favored in this one.

The final Triangle team to hit the Hard Court is the Eagles of North Carolina Central. They will play Iowa St. and if you can make it to midnight Friday and if you stayed up to the last game Thursday night their starting time is scheduled for 9:50 and that is of course if all three of the other games in that regional don't go overtime or take extra time to run it to later than that.

If the weather improves today the Gryphons are scheduled to play Corinth Holders at 4pm.  These two played for the Gryphons their opening game and Holders won 7-2.  Former Gryphon  Adam Weaver is the coach there but the weather has to improve  fast.

Friday Nash Central traveled to Ahoskie and took on Hertford County and after the game Nash Central collected the same amount of hits in the game as they had on the bus going to the game none. Hertford County won the game 11-1 with a no hitter.

I do want to tell you some bad news and good news about Rocky Mount Legion season that is not that  far from starting. Learned last week that Hank Jones has decided that he has more important thing to do this summer as his oldest daughter will be on a travel league team  and like all dads will be heading to the games following her and it will conflict greatly with Legion.  Hate to see you go Hank but I think you have made the right choice.  Have fun watching your girls grow up.

Time To Go Dancing

All precincts are reporting in and four teams from the Triangle are heading to the Big Dance which starts Tuesday when the last team to slip in is the Wolfpack of NC State will play in one of the two play in games Tuesday night against Xavier a Cincinnati base school playing them in Dayton will almost be a home game for Xavier.  But who cares if you are the last team in then you have to expect the road to Dallas will be extremely hard to do.

North Carolina State is hosting rounds two and three this weekend and I would suspect between Duke and Virginia seats will be hard to find.  Duke will play Mercer in Raleigh while the ACC champs Virginia earned a number one seed having  won both the regular season and tournament are 18-2 in the ACC this season.

North Carolina will begin the road to the Texas Final four playing game one in San Antonio and they will play the Frairs of Providence.  The final triangle team playing this week is North Carolina Central who will be making their first ever appearance in the Big Dance.  They do however get a toughie as they draw Iowa State who is a number three seed.

Syracuse who has been in free fall the last month still lands a number three seed and plays in Buffalo so like Duke playing in Raleigh Buffalo will be a home weekend for the Cuse.  The Final ACC team in is Pittsburgh.  They are seeded ninth and will begin against Colorado.

Everyone has said that this was a down year for the ACC but they get six teams in.  Virginia is the team I think could go the furthest but I have not picked my bracket yet and who everyone plays in say round three who knows because there is no team that you can say this is the one. I have not heard as much flack over State getting in as I expected.

I know Wichita State  gets a number one see but 22 of their wins were against teams RPI of 100 or more.  They won only three games against the top 50 and the Wolfpack won three.  I don't understand why a team you play in December what they do the rest of the season should go on you RPI.  The only time the team you play should be judged is where they are when you play them.  Let's say a team is 11-0 ranked number  ten an a player gets hurt five games after you play them and they don't win another game but that is counted as part of the RPI.

Now that all the candidates for office have filed and paid their registration let the games begin.  Let's go Triangle.

Freedom Massive Come Back To Take Title

Midway of the third quarter it looked as if the Big East was going to win another basketball title and Hunt their first ever state basketball title but it was not to be.  Freedom hits a jumper with 3.8 seconds to play to come by from 13 down to win the crown.

The first half was back and forth but Hunt came out from the half leading 30-29 made their move in the third quarter extending their lead to 47-34 .  From that point on the come back was on an a state title was heading to Morganton.

Chapel Hill girls won the 3-A title winning 69-56 over Hickory.

Coach K and Duke will play for the ACC title against Virginia Sunday afternoon.  There have been years when the winner was the only team making the NCAA tournament.  Sunday both the Devils and Cavs just might be playing for a number one seed.  Both will  probably be no worse than a two so not being a number one is not life threathing.  How bout those new kids on the block.  Pitt, Syracuse and Notre Dame were a combined 1-3 this week in the tournament.

How bout those Eagles of NC Central.  They win the MEAC and will be in the big dance for the first time ever. You know there always seems to be games that the tournament committee always try to set up.  I wonder if they might set up Duke and Central in the 2nd round in Raleigh

Those of us in this area have had a choice this week in watching the ACC tournament. ESPN with Dick Vitale or the ACC network with some of the games being done by the G-Man Mike Giminski.  Spending 14 years or so in the NBA  G-Man to me is the best color man in college basketball these days.  Even though he is a Dukie you would never know it in the games he covers including the State
Duke game today.

Today Benton Moss pitched into the 8th inning for Carolina but got a no decision.  It was 2-2 when he left.  Saturday night in Tallahassee NC State baseball and Florida State met and Carlos Rodon went up against Jameis Winston.  Tonight how ever Rodon was the DH for the Pack and Winston struck out 7 of 9 Pack batters pitching in relief including Rodon who had three hits in the game.

Sunday night at six every one will see the brackets for the first time and the chance at the perfect bracket and the billion dollar prize .  I will settle for a local level bracket buster.