Opening Night In The Big East

Opening night in any conference can be full of surprises and tonight in the Big East Hunt throws the shocker of the night beating Northern Nash by a score of 64-52.  Hunt has played one of the toughest non conference schedules any where and the Big East team who made it all the way to Chapel Hill last season gave notice they will be a factor despite their losing record.

Fike boys traveled to Southern Nash looking to act like Hunt and get started with a winning night to start conference play despite their losing record but the Firebirds had different ideas and tonight it is the Firebirds who find themselves  with a 1-0 after a 63-53 victory over the Golden Demons.

Football has played a part so far that The Rocky Mount Gryphons have yet to win a basketball game this season.  Nash Central made sure that that the misery being suffered thus far continued.   The Gryphons managed to win the first quarter but tonight the last three quarters the Bulldogs laid a defeat like no other as they beat Rocky Mount by the biggest victory margin over the Gryphons 34 points.   Nash Central 81 Rocky Mount 47.

Just three weeks ago in the Nash County Christmas Tournament at Southern Nash the Rocky Mount Lady Gryphons won the tournament plastering the Lady Bulldogs of Nash Central 53-31.  Tonight on the road at Nash Central the Lady Bulldogs were not quite as friendly as before.  The Lady Bulldogs jump out to a large lead and with stood a fourth quarter Lady Gryphon comeback but the Lady Bulldogs prevail 43-38.

The Lady  Knights of Northern Nash held Hunt to just two points in the first quarter while jumping out to a nine point lead.  Finally the Lady Warriors got some offense going and by the end of the third quarter had cut the lead to five at 34-29. The Lady Knights made sure  a loss wouldn't happen tonight as the Lady Knights put 19 points on the board in the fourth quarter to win at 53-44.

The final results for Brian Goodwin's winter baseball in Venezuela are in and for the first time since his shoulder injury Brian is on the come back trail.  The Washington Nationals sent 13 players to play winter ball all over the world and Goodwin had the best season of them all.

Playing in South America Goodwin hit 316 batting a total of 133 times.  He hit three homers, one triple and eight doubles.  The most improvement shown was he struck out on 28 times which is just less one strike out per five at bats.  So far during his minor league career he has averaged one in three which has been a hold back with his batting average.

Best Two Weeks Of NFL Season

These next two weeks coming up to me are the best two weeks of the NFL season when you have double headers both Saturday and Sunday.  The next two weeks all games are the only games going on.  The NFL would like to expand it's schedule in order to pull in more money.  My answer is extend the season but instead of adding games to each team's schedule eliminate so many 1pm games and make as many as possible games national or at least 1/2 of the country.

Give each team two or three weeks off during the season and extend the season to say 20 weeks but by reducing the number of games per Sunday each game will have a bigger market of people watching so advertising monies would increase but each team still only plays 16 games.

Regardless of the future of TV games there are four this weekend and it is possible that the Super Bowl winner could come from one of the winners of this weekend's game.  If the Super Bowl Champion is playing this weekend who will advance to next week.  First game Saturday features the hottest team in the NFL.

Kansas City @ Houston:  Winners of ten straight KC is by far the hottest team as the playoff start.  The biggest trend of the NFL is the team with the best record seldom wins it all.  If KC has any say they will advance over Houston 30-17.  This game kicks off the four games this weekend at 4:20 Saturday afternoon.  It can be seen on ABC/ESPN.

The nightcap Saturday night sends Pittsburgh to Cincinnati at 8 PM  to be seen on CBS.  Both teams are beat up.  Can Big Ben Pass Pittsburgh over Cincy if  Running back DeAngelo Williams can't go.   Can Cincinnati score enough if  Andy Dalton still out with thumb.  Steelers advance 17-10

Sunday starts at 1:05 on NBC with the NFC battle of Seattle @  Minnesota.  Who is the hottest of these two teams both are playing their best the last six weeks.  Seems to me that the Seahawks defense is playing the best they have played all year but they have not been that good of a road team.Can The Vikings  dominate the run because I doubt they can win this one passing the ball.  Hawks 27-17.

So far I have picked three visiting teams to win but the final game of he weekend I picking the Skins. Who would have thunk it just six weeks ago they would not finish last in their division.  Green Bay at Washington 4:40 pm Fox TV.  The last ten weeks the Green Bay offense has just not be there. If Washington could play Super Bowl at Fec Ex they would win it all. Skins 27 Packers 24

Wesleyan Honors Gryphon Football Wins On Buzzer Beater

Tonight was a special night at Everett Gym.  The preseason pick as the number team in the USA South Athletic Conference was in the house Averett University.  So far this season the Cougars have lived up to their billing going 9-2.  Not only was the top pick in the house but the team picked to finish second laid waiting in the Battling  Bishops.

Emotions were high as Averett first year coach David Doino just last year had spent seven years as John Thompson's assistant as well as Cornelius Snow IV and David Gurganus former Bishop players are his assistants.

This game started with neither team getting more than a two point lead but at around the five minute mark of the half Averett made a couple of threes and got out to a nine point lead.  They lead 44-37 at the half.  During halftime NCW President Dr Dewey Clark presented the Rocky Mount Gryphon Football team a plaque congratulating them  for winning the 3A state Championship.

Right out of the hopper to start the second half the Bishops cut the lead to one before Averett got on a run and built and 11 point lead.  Right around the 14 minute mark with the Battling Bishops on the come back trail tied the score and for almost for the rest of the game neither team could get any advantage over the other.

Eleven seconds remained and the Bishops own a two point lead with one free throw left but missed and Averett quickly scored to tie the game and a last second rush to the basket left the game tied at the end of regulation 72-72.

Over time saw Averett jump out to a 76-72 lead but Bishops Brandon Brown made three straight three points and the the Bishops found themselves leading by one at 83-82 but missed a jumper and Averett got a jumper to lead by one.  The Bishops responded to make it 85-84 but a layup gave Averett the lead with under ten seconds in overtime.  The Bishops missed a shot  and got the ball out of bounds with 1.9 seconds to go.  The inbound pass went into the left corner where guard Marcus Williams let go a three pointer.  It was almost blocked by a charging defender but as the score board lights went off William's three fell neatly through the net for an 88-86 over time win.  The Bishops are now 8-4 and 1-0 in conference play.

Saturday at 2pm there will be a double header with the Wesleyan Ladies playing at 2pm and the men at 4pm.

College Football The New Game

N. C. State joined Carolina getting blistered on defense giving up 51 points to a team that was bigger stronger and faster.  That is a bad combination we you line up against a team  that is better than you.  State's last gasp was the fumbled punt by Mississippi State ruled interference on State, which was the worse call of the night.  Still State could not get to their quarterback while their defense had no problem getting to ours.

This new style  offense of passing to wide receivers and another receiver blocking has to be officiated better when the blocker is across the line of scrimmage before the ball it caught.  Even Rocky Mount faced almost every game  this style passing attack during the playoffs.  When the defense does a good job it is hard  to hold any play to five yards.

Clemson has eased any pain suffered by the ACC by getting the ACC their second team in three years  in the National Championship game.  Once Clemson clinched the ACC championship game they went on cruise control on defense but against Oklahoma they showed everyone they will be a load for Alabama

It is obvious that both State and Carolina in order to get to elite status in the ACC they have to get athletes on defense that can cover those receiver on the sideline  and then  run and stay with wide receivers when they run slants or deep patterns.  I don't care what level it is I hate seeing a defender running about a step behind a receiver and has no idea where the ball is.

So Clemson carries the ACC banner.  They represent the conference that the team I love plays in and I know for many of you your team is in the ACC.  We all need to pull for Clemson because any ACC win is good for all of it's conference members.

Girls A Different Story

The boys only have two teams that have winning records but on the girls side only two have losing records.  The four winning teams are very good and the two with losing records are very bad.  Like the boys Big East basketball  starts Friday.

Northern Nash 10-2 at Hunt 1-9This is the kind of game you not exactly sure if Hunt record at 1-9 is as bad as their record.  The Lady  Knights cannot afford any kind of let down and need to win the games that they should win because there will be three others causing each other plenty of problems as the year goes by.

The Lady Knights are struggling on offense scoring 47.6 and are led by Kayla Tucker leading the scorers at 11.7.  Hunt scores at only 41.7 and you know Grover Battle will bring defense to Wilson.  The Warriors are led by Kayla Tucker at 11.7 points while Hunt relies on Kayla Kent at 12.4

Fike girls are 8-2  and they travel to Southern Nash  0-10.  Fike cannot afford a slip up in this one.  They have to take control from the outset and start conference play 1-0.  Fike scores at a 60 point pace while a Southern scores only 18 per contest.  Fike needs to have this game won by halftime.  Fike is led by Dajah Horne who scores 14.9 and if she get her average and SoutheMrn gets their this will be no contest.  Jessy Lucas leads the Lady Birds scoring 4.8.

The game of the night in girls basketball will be at Nash Central where Rocky Mount  7-2 visits the the Lady Bulldogs 9-2.  These two squared off in the Nash County Christmas tournament with the Gryphons winning three weeks ago but this is at The Dog Pound.

The Lady Gryphons play defense first and are at 47 points per game. The Lady  Dogs put up 52 a game but this is the game that one of the top four teams will have to lose and probably be one game behind the other top three after the first game.  Keyanna Spivey scores at a pace of 17.3 while The Lady Dogs led by Robbi Allen chipping in 16.1.

Somebody right now with the four best records will slip to fourth and their non conference record will keep them close to a 500 record for the season.  The team that finishes fourth will have a road trip in the first round of the playoffs and what started out as a great start to a season will hit the road in the first round  and send  them to somebody that is really good.  Who will it be?  The answer is six weeks away.

High School Basketball Kicks Back In This Week

The Big East race cranks up on Friday night and up until now it doesn't look like the top to bottom of the league is very good.  Northern Nash seems to be the cream of the crop and Southern Nash are the only two teams teams with winning records.

Northern Nash 10-2 travels to Hunt 4-6.  Hunt has a game Tuesday at Kinston before their Friday night game with the Knights.  Hunt scores 49.7 points per game while Northern Nash strikes at 68.6.  That is a big difference in Hunts ability to score compared to Northern.  The key in this game will be can Hunt slow down the Northern offense?  The Knights are led by Darius Spradley who scores just under 18 at 17.9.

Fike 5-8 at Southern Nash 7-4: interesting that Fike averages 53 per game while Southern 50.  The answer is of course that the Firebirds play better defense.  If you recall last season the Firebirds beat Fike in an upset opening night and the question is will the roles reverse this year.  Marquise Wright leads the Firebird attack at 19.3

Bunn host Nash Central tonight and Rocky Mount Host Rose on Thursday before they open the conference season on Friday.  The Gryphons have the football players turned basketball players ready for both games this week.

Rocky Mount 0-9 at Nash  Central 4-7.  Despite their record Nash Central is the second leading scoring  team in the league 63.4 which lends to they aren't good on defense.  Up until this point Rocky Mount has struggled to score 45.7.  Josh Mullins leads the Bulldogs at 23.7 while Rocky Mount does not have a double digit scorer.  Kyle Barnhill scores at 8.8 points.

The only way to tell about the quality of a teams opponents is to watch what those teams do when they begin their conference schedule.  We hope that the losing records of the four will show they have played a tough schedule.  Should it prove out that Northern Nash and Southern Nash has really played an outstanding schedule then they should prove to be the cream of the crop.

Local Athletes In College Basketball

We have at least 17 local athletes playing college basketball on some level.  Let's see how they are doing.

Donte Samuels:  Rocky Mount Prep and Coker College Jr.  Playing 28 minutes per game and averaging 18.7 points.

Carmen Richardson : Rocky Mount and Queens College.  Averaging 32.9 minutes per game and is scoring 14.7 points per contest.

Deshawn Freeman Rocky Mount Prep and Rutgers University. Has played in 7 of 14 games averaging 28.9 minutes 5.3 rebounds and has tossed in 13.1 points per game.

Tobias Hillard Rocky Mount and Methodest  senior.  11.5 points per game and 3.5 assists per contest.  Will play at NC Wesleyan in February.

Immanuel King Rocky Mount and Wallace State AL Soph.  23 minutes per game and 11.3 points

Alexus Hill Northern Nash and Gardner Webb Soph.  Played in all 13 games getting 30 minutes playing time per game and scoring at an 11.1 clip.  She will play as close to Rocky Mount as they will play all year Monday night at Campbell.

Ni'ya Styles. Nash Central and Mt Olive University Soph.  Started 9 of 11 games getting 26 minutes of playing time and scoring 10.8 points.

Tykeyra Thomas  Rocky Mount and Catawba Community College.  10.4 points and 4.8 rebounds.  Played in four of seven games.

Jake Barrett Rocky Mount Prep and Coker College Soph.  Floor time is 22 minutes per contest and 8.3 points.

Alexus Cooper Rocky Mount and Eastern Kentucky Jr.  Has started six of twelve games playing 22 minutes and scoring 6.5 points per game.

Kelsey Daniels Rocky Mount and Newport News Apprentice.  Has played in five of seven games scoring 6.8 points.

Isaiah Alston Rocky Mount and NC Wesleyan College.  Played in all 12 Battling Bishops game with 12 minutes floor time per game and scoring 6.5 points.

Quenesha Lynch Northern Nash and Johnson C Smith jr.  Started five of eleven games scoring at 5.7 points.

Alexia Hines Northern Nash and Methodest Fr. Started two of eight games and popping 5.6 points.

J'Kyra Brown Rocky Mount and UVA Soph.  playing time is 14.7 minutes and averaging 5.5 points.

Kiana Thomas Northern Nash and Howard University fr.  Playing time is 32 minutes an outing.  Scoring 4.7 and 4.8 rebounds.

Mike Gainey Newport News Apprentice Soph.  Played in two games averaging 11 minutes and 4.5 points.  Still recovering  from 2nd knee surgery.

At this point this is all the local players that I know  about.  If you know of any that I need to add please comment and I will add to list.

One other piece of business John Thompson head basketball coach at NC Wesleyan won his 300th game while being the coach at NCW.  The Battling Bishops beat Guilford just before Christmas for the 300th.