This And That

The USA women will meet Japan for the World Cup title Sunday night.  The U.S. Women have played great defense in this World Cup and Japan will play due to England hitting one in the net for Japan.

Antonio Gates the soon to be Hall Of Fame tight end for San Diego Chargers who had earlier announce that 2015 would be his last will sit out the first four games for using PEDs.  This is a blood stain mark on his hopes for the HOF after he retires.

Trea Turner the former NC State shortstop once he finally got traded June  15th played ten games for the Nationals in AA hit 359 and he has been sent to AAA Syracuse.  His first 18 at bats yielded no hits but his first hit at Syracuse left the yard.  He has a real good shot at Syracuse as the shortstop there so far this spring the shortstop there now only was hitting 214.

Today is the third day of free agents signings in the NBA.  One thing has become apparent that Kobe Bryant in LA and Carmelo Anthony in New York are not players that other NBA players want to have as teammates.  They are perceived as ball hogs and their big money contracts don't allow either LA or New York  to have a great amount of money for other big named players.  Even when they do have the money those players don't want Amy  part of the Lakers or Knicks.

Watched the WRAL TV one hour interview with Coach K last night.  It is easy to see why K has the ability to recruit the top players in the country.  Jeff Gravely with Channel 5 did an excellent job handling the question.  Gravely ask a question at 68 years old how Coach K was able to be so fit.  His answer was he rode a bike,An indoor bike,  he explained he couldn't ride a bike on the streets because the other rival schools it might lead to too good and opportunity to take him out.  His other line was on his 14 acre estate  in Durham he had discover a fountain of youth the he and his dog  Blue swam in every day.

Stats released by Major League Baseball who during the minor league season so far this year they have used a time clock where the batter had to keep one foot in batters box and the pitchers had to throw the next pitch in 20 seconds.  Last year minor league games took two hours and fifty six minutes.  So far this year games are down to two hours forty one minutes.    The clock is working.

One explanation about players from Rocky Mount in pro sports.  I went to the official site of MLB, AFL/NFL and NBA.  Where they were born not where they lived. I missed Mike Tyson all together which On a recent visit back home to see his parents I saw him.

Did You Know?

As if from the file "where are they now" we will look today at people from Rocky Mount that made it to the big dance of professional baseball, football and basketball.  I bet you will be surprised at some who made it but there is of course those we all know.  Ten players born in Rocky Mount have made it.  Five have been players in the AFL/NFL, four NBA and surprisingly only one from baseball.

First the only one in baseball:  Chuck Hinton .......Played 11 years in MLB baseball making the American League All Star team in 1964.  Career 262 hitter with 113 home runs.  Live in DC after baseball.

NBA:  Anthony Avent.... Played High school basketball  in New Jersey and at Seton Hall college. Seven years in NBA averaging 5.56 points per game.

Charles Pittmam:......Northern Nash High  played at Maryland and four years in the NBA averaged 4.7 points in career.

Phil Ford ........Rocky Mount, Carolina, and NBA rookie of the year in 1979.  Played eight years averaged 6.81 points per game.

Charles "Buck"Williams...... Rocky Mount, Maryland.  18 year NBA career.  All time leading scorer in Brooklyn Nets history.  Scored over 16,000 points and 13,000 rebounds.  NBA Rookie of the year 1982. Three time NBA All Star.

Football: J J Arrington..... Northern Nash, California Berkley,  four year career.  Played in 58 games
returned two kick offs back for touchdowns.  Rushed for 658 yards during career.

Wesley Barbour..... Played high school ball in Durham.  Went to Wake Forest number one draft pick of New York Giants in 1945.

Alva Stallings.....  Better known today in Rocky Mount as Don.  Rocky Mount, Carolina and the Washington Redskins.  Defensive end played nine games in 1960

Bill Mathis...... born Rocky Mount, Clemson. Play nine season New York Titans/Jets.  Member of 1969 Jets who won Super Bowl.  Rushed for 3589 yards in career.

Jim Clack....... Rocky Mount, Wake Forest.  Played on two Super Bowl championship teams while in Pittsburgh.  Finish 11 year career in New York playing for the Giants.

Wells Fargo Cup Tells The Problem

The NCHSAA released the final standings of the 2014/2015 Wells Fargo Cup state wide in each of the four division in North Carolina.   Each conference has a Fargo Cup champion and the points per conference plus the playoff points gives the overall champion per bracket.  Most private schools, charters and prep schools are small and just looking at the final standings tells a tale of the fight on going between some Wake County conferences and Cardinal Gibbons.

The final top ten in 1-A as the best overall athletic teams are number one Kernersville Bishop MCGuinness.  They are a private Roman Catholic school with 550 students founded in 1959.  Second is Community School of Davidson.  It is a public charter  school located in Davidson .  Third is Raleigh Charter a public charter school founded in 1999 with more than 550 students.  Fourth is Lincoln Charter of Denver .  It is a tuition free charter school. Sixth is Mooresville Pine Lake Prep.  Started in 2007 is a charter school with students from k-12.  Total enrollment is 1300 students.  Seventh is Winston Salem Prep.  It is a public charter school in Winston Salem with 320 high school students.

The  school that is second in Wells Fargo points in 2-A is Lake Norman Charter.  It is a public charter school in Huntersville which has grades 5-12 with 1600 students.  The larger the schools less and less are private, Prep and charter.  First in the cup standings in 3-A is Cardinal Gibbons.  It has an enrollment of 1420 students  and is a private Catholic school.  The number three school in the 4-A Fargo Cup is Charlotte Catholic.  They have only 1400 students.

Six of the top seven schools in 1-A are either prep, charter or Private schools. The number two in 2-A, number one in 3-A and number 3 in 4-A.  It is easy to see where the 4-A conferences in Raleigh are nervous  about schools who have no boundaries and are growing where the public school sector are limited to districts and only grow when the population in that district  grow.  The charter and prep schools have the same athletic advantages the parochial schools have.  All you are hearing
 About now is the fight with Cardinal Gibbons but with more charter schools opening everyday the public school sector will not support those schools staying members of the NCHSAA much longer either.

Rumors Due

So far this end of the high school year we have seen one coaching change.  B W Holt's resignation as football at RMA and Terrell Hudgins being named at his replacement.  Since the Holt announcement  the rumor mill has been working overtime with this coach going here and this one switching to this school.  If any of the rumors are true July one will be the day we find out  whether it was gossip or where there was smoke there is fire.

The three players from Nash County playing Legion  ball in Wilson has been reduced to two. Derrick Carter pitcher from Northern Nash who was 1-0 for Post 13 who going in to last night's game  was 14-1 and winners of Eleven straight games which is the all time Post 13 record.   The Legion playoffs start next Tuesday and even without Carter Post 13 seems primed for a deep playoff run.  RMA's MJ Jones on the mound is 1-0 and Rocky Mount's  Blake Helms leads all Post 13 pitchers at 4-0.

Collins Cuthrell now 14 games into his professional career is  is still hitting at a rate of 370.  He has 20 hits in 54 at bats.  He has one homer.   After hitting 25 in college this spring it would really help if Collins could put a few more over the fence.  Batting average only will not get him picked up by major league team.

Benton Moss pitching in New York for Hudson Valley in the New York Penn Rookie League has now been to the mound twice.  He has pitched 3.1 innings and struck out 4 batters.  He has yet to give up a  hit or run in in his two appearances .

Hobbs Johnson in AA baseball pitching in Biloxi MS for the Milwaukee Brewers is now 5-4 on the Season having started. 14 games and pitched 67 innings.  His ERA is 3.36 with 55 strikeouts and he has allowed 55 hits.

Brian Goodwin is batting 234 at Harrisburg PA in AA ball for the Washington Nationals.  Brian is showing signs of getting his bat going.  So far he has hit two dingers, three triples, and ten doubles.  He has 22 RBI.

It Takes Three To Win A Championship

LeBron James put together just maybe the best six games ever played in the NBA finals.  When all is said and done he lost another NBA finals.  Don't see how anybody can blame him or even suggest he is a loser for being 2-4 in the finals.  Just how does any one know when a player has carried his team as far as one player can?

If Cleveland can go six games in the NBA finals with only one star player what could they have done if the two starters they lost to injury had of been healthy?  Seems as if LeBron making his move to Miami found the answer to how to win championships in the modern NBA.  It takes three  to win a title.  Cleveland since their trades around Christmas had one of the best records since then.

Golden State fell into a gold mine in this year's playoffs. Not many teams win 60 games in a season so Golden State earned their chance to get the seeding they got to start the playoffs.  The one constant for them all year was that they were healthy.  Seems everyone they played had somebody on the injured list and that's their good fortune.  It also lends credence to the theory it is better to be lucky and good.

It also shows a trend in the NBA that right at this moment long range shooting and defense win games over big men.  It begs the question is the NBA a better game without big men dominating?  I think it is only a trend because the college game is not producing an abundance of great shooters.  They have plenty shooting but I tell you a secret it only counts when you make it.

Steph Curry put Davidson College on the map and he is an exception to the rule.  He was a long range bomber in college and his skills have gotten better every year in the NBA.  Will Golden State be as lucky next year with their own injuries?  Can they stay healthy all year or be healthy when playoffs get rolling?  Will they make the big shots when they needed to make them next year?

The Odds say no that somebody else will win it next year.  If you look at the past winners just like last year, San Antone  when the playoffs this year started they were everyone's pick again this year.  Even with three players who can make a difference there is no guarantee that any team will win.

NBA Draft A Gamble For Most

The NBA has a two round draft where 60 players names are called out.  If you are one of the first 30 names you are guaranteed at least a three year million a year contract.  The top picks get much more. Thursday night Montrezl Harrell missed the big big money by two names.

Houston called his name as the 32nd pick.  A trip to Houston on Friday to be introduced to the Houston media what Harrell gets for all this is a 13,000 dollar contract to play in the summer league. When preseason practices starts if he plays well he will be invited to training camp to try to make the Rockets.

Since April 60 players declared for the draft.  If there are only 60 spots that declared got drafted right?  Sorry but no foreign player had to declare.  10 that declared never heard their name including Trevor Lacy from NC State.  Saturday Lacy signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Cavaliers  which will send him to that 13,000 dollar contract just like Montrezl Harrell in the summer league.  

Every  player  that is a second rounder or free agent basically will be interviewing for every team just in case for Harrell the Rockets say no thanks don't come to preseason camp or Lacy Cleveland says no we don't think you fit our system.  Other teams that have watched them play could call or basketball in a foreign country  is next.

So picked 32nd Harrell will start with  $13,000 for the summer with $40 meal money.  A far cry of Almost all NBA players.  There are 55 NBA players who make at least ten million a year led by Kobe Bryant who had to have extra pockets to haul around his 23.5 million for less than ten games played.  A total of 335 players make a million and the lowest paid player who sat on the bench for at least 80 per cent of the games made $379 thousand.

Having watched Montrezl play games at North Edgecombe I think the reason he didn't go in the top 30 was his height.  He is listed at 6 feet 8 inches.  If he is a power forward in the NBA he will need more weight to push some of those 275 pounds big men around.  If he going to make it as a swing forward he needs to improve his jump shot from at least 15-20 feet.  It is almost as if he is a tweener not big enough to be a power player and not a jump shooter enough to play outside.
There was only one players named called out during the draft and that was the number one pick.  Everyone says there is no doubt he will be a great pro.  Everybody else had a part of their game that they had to do better.  So there is not much difference in ability from number  2 player to 32.

The difference is the money.  If Montrezl wants some of it then his road is Much  harder to make  it.  He is not costing Houston any money so if they drop him they lose only  pocket change.  Between now and the opening of the NBA season he has to play better than he ever has in his life just to Make it to Houston's preseason camp.  If he survives the camp and signs a NBA contact he could sit  the bench all year and make 507 thousand a year.  

The Controversy Continues

Now that a couple of 4-A leagues have ban  their schools from playing the Private schools there is plenty of talk for an against schools like Cardinal Gibbons.  Let's see when and how all of this got to this point.

Way back in the 70's Cardinal Gibbons joined the NCHSAA but after about 20 years they went back to the private school league only to ask to rejoin the NCHSAA again in 2005.  The question to beg would be, why would any member  that plays only public schools want to let a private school in.  I think the answer way back in the 70's and again in 2005 is little bitty old Cardinal Gibbons will be easy pickings for every member of our conference to get a win and it would count as part of your eligible playoff record to qualify.

What has happened Cardinal Gibbons has grown into a huge private school that can beat any other school in North Carolina.  Back 30 years ago Ravenscroft was the juggernaut of private schools you didn't see them get invited to join anybody's conference.

 I have no problem what so ever as long as their pool of available athletes is no bigger than other teams they play.  What is the radius of Green Hope  where their pool of students come from.  Three miles?  It just happens that certain schools are in upper class neighbor hoods and most of their students come from there  How many students that go to Gibbons  live within a mile of the school?
Cardinal Gibbons says that no athlete outside of a 25 mile radius of Cardinal Gibbons is allowed to play sports.  Get out a map and look and see how far 25 miles is  as the crow flies and you will see any athlete as far west as Hillsbourgh, east to Knightdale, north almost half way to Hederson and south  to almost Lillington.  Don't you think they might find enough players from that area to beat up on everybody.  Northern Nash who gets students from Battleboro what is it at most seven miles from the school.

Let's put this thing into some perspective.  The four public schools in Nash County are pretty much all equal in size as it relates to number of students.  Southern Nash is bigger area wise in order to have the same number of students as the rest.  Let's say that we are going to allow Southern Nash to have athletes within that 25 mile radius of Stanhope and you will see that Southern Nash could pull in students from all most all of Nash, parts of Edgecombe, Wilson, Johnston and almost all of Wake County.  Do you think Northern Nash, Nash Central  and Rocky Mount would want to be in the same league with them?
Many years Pitt County had open enrollment go to the school of your choice.  North Pitt and D H Conley suffered. Once South Central was created Pitt County went back to the district system  But Rose supporters have ever since wanted to go back to open enrollment.  Just this week Rose was changed to a Magnet School in order they can have open enrollment while the others must observe their districts.

This thing right now is based on the three parochial schools but this is sooner or later going to include Charter and Prep schools who also have no athletic boundaries.  Here is another factor effecting public schools.  If you are a football school and we will Say Hunt High in Wilson.  I would bet if you looked at the money spent on all sports for every sport at Hunt over the last five years 50 percent comes from three and four football playoff games every year.  How would you like to have to face Cardinal Gibbons in the opening round and lose, there goes your athletic budget for this year.

Why has the NCHSAA gone with Eight football playoffs  champions for several years?  MONEY!  Why does it take as many as ten baseball playoff games to win the baseball title? MONEY!  What money has done has caused many teams to qualify for playoffs that are not deserving.  If they thought they could make money off it they would take the worse 16 teams in each division and play a loser advances bracket and play to see who is the worse team. Right now there is no money in that.  What the Cardinal Gibbons of the world are doing to the public schools strapped for athletic funds is taking away their money when in the public school eye Cardinal Gibbons is rolling in it.