Bad Weekend

The second straight game the North Carolina Wesleyan men played without a starting guard in the lineup and for the second straight game the Battling Bishops struggle down the stretch and lose their second straight conference game 77-71 to Covenant.

Senior Jesse Simpson was in street clothes but the first half the Bishop played eight players and seven of the eight scored at least four points and the Bishops lead 46-37.  Leading 54-46 the Bishop gave up 14 straight points  to yield the lead at 60 -54 and from that point on it was a struggle to catch up.

Brandon  Brown led the Bishops with 15, DJ Weaver 13 and John Edwards 12 were the leading scorers for the Bishops. TJ  Cox led the Scots with 23 followed by Bailey Spraggs with 11.  If you want to give the main for the loss the Bishops were just 13-26 at the free throw line.

Just to give you and idea why network TV only gives announcers one game a week to prepare.  Look at what I was faced with  doing the PA with one of Covenants players.  His name is Patjo Twagirayezu.

The Lady Bishops rebound from their Friday night loss to win over Covenant 63-58.  Kenyatta Harris led the Bishops  with  16 points and 8 rebounds.  The difference in this game was the Lady Bishops caused  29 turnovers while losing only  14.

The category of late news, I saw this in the Nashville Graphic this week.  Southern Nash baseball coach Todd a Brewer is a high school football referee during football season and while toting the chain at Rocky Mount both JV and Varsity Todd had two games at Rocky Mount.  Todd was headlinesman in the 2AA state championship game played at Carter Finley Stadium in Raleigh.  Congrats to Todd.

Finally the pronunciation  to the Convenant players name.  Here is the way I wrote it down to be able to get it.  PatJoe   Pa-yeara- yea- su.  I had to say it 12 times and I think  I got it  right every time.  The only people who knew if I didn't were the folks from Covenant but I doubt whether I got it right either.

Basketball Every Where

The Big East resumed basketball after exams earlier this week and it seems every game that North Carolina Wesleyan  plays is against a team undefeated or with one loss.

Tonight the Battling Bishops put their 2-0 record in USAS conference play and Maryville is in town from Tennessee boasting an 11-3 and 2-1 league play.  The Bishops 9-5 over all started the night with senior starter Jesse Simpson in street clothes and the first five minutes the Scots ran out to a 13 point lead.  The next ten minutes the Bishops out scored the Scots by 20 to take a 7 point lead. The push by the Battling Bishops consisted of an aggressive full court  defense.  By the half the Scots had pushed back in front by 2 at 39-37.

The second half started just like the first as the Scots were pushing the lead to ten when a mystery technical foul was called on the Bishops after a drive to the basket.  A second foul was called on coach John Thompson for taking his coat off and in a matter of seconds the Scots lead ballooned to 19.

The Bishops pecked at the lead but by games end the final score stood at 86-80 as the Bishops could get no closer than 83-80. D J Weaver led the Bishops with 18, followed by Brandon Brown with 16. Off the bench John Edwards added 16 points.  The Bishops forced 20 turnovers but could not catch up.  Maryville had four double digit scorers in Jay Bowyer 17, Joshua Brooks 16, Tyler Spicer 15 and  Spencer Shoffner 11.

The girls action saw some tall trees in the Maryville basketball team and the Lady Bishops struggle with the outside game because there was not much on the inside as the Ladies lose to to the Scots 78-54.  The Battling Bishops are on the court starting at 2pm Saturday hosting  Covenant College.  The boys play at 4pm.

The Hunt Warriors have started of 2-0 in conference play knocking off Rocky Mount 68-56.  Rocky Mount drops to 0-2 in conference play and now have lost their first 12 on the season.  The Lady Gryphons  got to 1-1  after whipping Hunt 65-38.  Hunt drops to 0-2.

Nash Central sweeps Fike.  The girls game saw the Lady Bulldogs winning 51-46.  The Bulldogs go to 2-0 while Fike drops to 1-1. The boys of Nash Central push their record  to 2-0 whipping the Fike boys 66-59.  Fike drops to 0-2

Northern Nash girls  man handled the Lady Birds 58-10.  Not much of a surprise in that score.  The Lady Knights go to 2-0  while the Lady Birds are 0 for the last two seasons.  The Knights of  Northern Nash rebounded after their lost  to Hunt  with a 72-62 win over Southern Nash.  Both teams are 1-1.

Hunt and Nash Central have said no to the league in every team being 1-1 in the league like everyone did last year.  They are tied at 2-0 Northern Nash and Southern Nash are in the middle at 1-1 and Rocky Mount and Fike bring up the rear at 0-2.

The girls side of the ledger has the Lady Knights at 2-0 along with Nash  Central.  Fike and Rocky Mount  are in the middle at 1-1 while Southen Nash and Hunt trail the field.

The Divisional Round

If last week and this week are the two best weeks in every NFL season which of the two weeks is the best of the best and my pick is this week.  Most of the time this week's games are more competitive than any other playoff week including the Super Bowl.  I got 3 of the four game right last week missing out on the Skins.

The weekend's action starts Saturday with Kansas City traveling to New England for the 4:40pm kickoff.  New England has lost four of their last six games and it has had nothing to do with coasting because they play in one of the worse divisions.  They are hurting something that most of the time at this time of year they are healthy.  Belacheat most of the time has a nack of fitting a new player into a hole and making  it work to New England's advantage but it hasn't worked this year.

Kansas City is the hottest team in football and Brady just like every other quarterback has a hard time throwing from his back or on the run throwing.  KC will pressure Brady all day with their beat up line.  This doesn't happen often but I see KC beating the Pats in any weather conditions.  A home playoff loss for New England  KC 27 England 20

The night cap Saturday has the NFC front and center with the 8pm game Green Bay at Arizona.  These two played just a couple a weeks ago and it was all Cardinals.  How many times have you seen a team crushed one week and have a down to the wire game the next time.  I don't see this happening here.

It helps that the Redskins were not a top of the division defense.  The Cardinals are.  The Cards will press the best quarterback in the NFL like they did last game.  I see the Cardinals making their first step to make it to the Super Bowl.  Not a blow out like the last meeting but they will be in control.  27-17.

Our home state Carolina Panthers  will host the Seattle Seahawks in the 1pm game on Sunday.  If the Panthers lose Sunday all the skeptics will say the Panthers didn't beat anybody all year.  I think Seattle is a bad matchup for the Panthers. But on the other hand Carolina is a bad matchup for Seattle.  Every time these two play it goes down to the wire.  It will go down to the wire again.

Seattle defense is beginning to play at the Super Bowl caliber that they have played the last couple of years.  The Hawks offense is not playing nearly as good at the last two.  Carolina's defense will hold Seattle to a few points.  The last four or five games Cam has gone back to some bad habits like throwing of his back foot which tends to make throws high.  High throws produce interceptions which are never good but especially in the playoffs. Cam can not have and int from poor mechanics.  Seattle has not shown to be a great road team and they should be home for the summer except for a kicker. Hawks falls to  Carolina 17-13.

The best weekend of NFL football ends Sunday afternoon with a 4:40 kick in Denver.  Pittsburgh and Denver.  Will Big Ben play Probably but how good will he be?  How good will the Denver offense be with a quarterback that they are afraid to let him throw anymore.  Can Denver run enough to win?  I'll take the 6th road team to win in these playoffs Pitt 13 Denver 10.

Gryphons Lead Football All Conference Team

After sweeping the three major awards in conference voting for coach of the year Jason Battle, Offensive player of the Year Nick Bynum and Defensive player of the year  Sherrod Green it should not come as any surprise that Rocky Mount leads the way with players making the All Conference team.  Ten Gryphons join both of the players of the year on the All Conference team. You don't go through league play undefeated and then sweep through the state 3A playoffs unless you have players who can play.

Three Gryphon lineman high light the offense as  the Gryphons rushed as a team for 4402 yards on the season  which works out to 275 per game.  Then you add another 1692 passing the ball for 106 yards per game.  The 2015 football season Rocky Mount covered ground every Friday night at 380.87 yards per game.  The runners could not get the yardage they got and our quarterbacks could not pass for the yardage gained unless some of the big guys up from were not protecting them. 

Three Gryphon lineman made All Conference. Senior lineman Ja'quez Johnson 6'2" 293 pounds.  He wore # 50 for those of you that don't pay much attention to the line as the backs run through the holes they make.  Senior #60 Niles Pride 6'1"275 and #72 Junior Thomas Battle 6' 275 were the three making all conference.

B J Sanders junior who rushed for 1287 yards which is 7.8 yard per carry and scored 14 touchdowns with a couple coming from kickoff returns and punt returns.  He had  1599 all purpose yards on the season including the opening kick off touchdown in the state championship game.

Tyrell Forbes Senior:  You know you are loaded with running backs when your so call third leading rusher also makes all conference.  Forbes carried the ball 120 time grinding out 832 yards which computes to 6.9 yards every time he touched the football. He scored eight times on the season.

The final offensive player making all conference is quarterback Forest Bell.  Bell passed for 1670 yards or for 104 yards per game.  This season Bell threw only five interceptions while attempting 149 passes.  Every completion got the Gryphons 18.6 yards and he complete 6 out of every 10 attempts.  The Gryphons were mostly a running team but when the Gryphons needed to open up the defense they score 8 touchdowns through  the air off the arm of Bell.  He ran 41 times on the season for only 80 yards.  His longest run on the season was maybe the most important play all season in the State Championsdhip game.  The third and 19 and Forest got 20 in the fourth quarter against South Point.

Moving over to defense four Gryphons make the All Conference team.  The youngest player to make All Conference is Detrell Revis.  The defensive back made 79 tackles assisted on another 27 for 106 for the season.   He picked off 7 passes and ran them back toward our goal line for 207 yards
 including one he took home for a touchdown.  He also had a fumble recovery that he scored off of.

Senior Jac'quel Walker had 31 tackles  and assisted on another 7.  He had four tackle for losses.  He recovered two fumbles during the season.

Alex Henderson Senior accumulated 153 tackles on the season which 94 were solo and assisted on another 59 for a total of 153 which led the team.  He had 8 tackles for losses and four quarterback sacks.

The final all conference player is Junior Artavious Richardson  He recorded 72 solo tackles and assisted on another 35 for 107 tackles on the season.  16 of those tackles resulted in losses and another 6.5 quarterback sacks.

Gryphons Sweep Football Awards

Jason Battle the State Champion Gryphon football coach has been named the Big East Coach of the year.  Battle in his fourth year as coach of the Gryphons wins his first Coach of the year Award. His four year record as the Gryphon football coach is 38-14.

If you go undefeated in conference and then win the State Title then you can expect to win other awards.  Nick Bynum didn't even start as Gryphon fullback the first game but it was obvious that Sherrod Green who did start was more important as a linebacker on defense and Green has been named Big East defensive Player of the year.  Bynum proved to be a reliable replacement has won the offensive Big East Player of the Year.

Bynum rushed for 1631 which was just under 102 yards per game.  During the years Bynum had 238 carries and got 6.9 yards per carry.  He scored 8 touchdown during the season.

Green had a total of 154 tackles during the season which moving him from fullback to defense gave him right at 10 tackles per game.  He had 106 solo tackles and assisted on 48 others.  11 of those tackles were for losses.

Saw on the Washington Redskins website that the Skins this week gave former Tarboro and Duke tackle Takoby Cofield a contract called Reserve/Contract.  This past season Cofield did not make the 53 man  roster which 45 are eligible to play every Sunday.  He was on the practice squad which those players eight they   run the plays of this week's opponent or defense so the 53 man team can watch what that team will do come Sunday.

At anytime during the regular season any team can pluck any player from any team's practice squad.  If they do they have to be put on the 53 man squad and instead of making $5000 dollars a week they make the NFL minimum of a half million per year or pro rated by the number of games left in a season when that player joins his new team.

Once the season is over any player that is on the practice squad can try to sign with any team that might sign them.  What the Reserve/contract does is keeps that player attached and in this case Takoby Cofield a member of the Washington Redskins when training camp starts and Cofield will have an opportunity to make the 53 man roster.  You would think by signing Cofield the Skins think he will be part of the team next year or they would not have given him this deal.

Checked out Shaun Draughn and did not realize that Draughn was injured in the next to last game of the season with the San Fransico 49's and was placed on injured reserve for the last game.  Injured reserve allows a team to put another player on the 53 man squad that last game to replace the injured player who is not able to play.

Draughn is a five year player and is considered a third down player and his career has already seen stops at eight different teams.

Streaks On The Line

There are good streaks and then there are bad ones and Big East basketball has two going that are not the kind of streaks any one wants.  Heading to Northern Nash tonight the Lady Birds of Southern Nash have lost 38 games in a row.  When you score only 18 points per games chances are slim that the losing streak will end this year.

Rocky Mount boys will be heading to Hunt riding a 12 game losing streak.  A program which this century has been the model basketball program in the area this streak is a hard pill to swallow.  Some of the problem has been not having a full complement of players but last week with everyone they weren't competitive in two games. Everyone's life a little rain must fall and the Gryphons are getting theirs now.

Southern Nash Lady Birds 0-1-0-12 @ Northern Nash 1-0-10-2:  Northern defense should control this game.  A Lady Knights victory would put them in a two way tie for the conference lead.

Nash Central 1-0- 12-2 @ Fike 1-0- 13-2:  This would be a big win for the Lady Dogs to pull off at Fike.  This should be a dog fight. No pun intended.

Rocky Mount 7-4- 0-1 @ Hunt 0-1- 1-10:  Rocky Mount plays great defense and they are better on offense when the defense is clicking.  A road win would help keep the Lady Gryphons in top four but a loss and an 0-2 conference start would be hard to dig out from.

Boys:

Southern Nash 1-0 - 8-4 @ Northern Nash 0-1- 10-3:  Should be the game of the night in the boys action.  There is a possibility that after two games there could be a six way tie again  this year because all the teams with one loss play the teams with one win, not likely but possible.

Nash Central 1-0 7-7 @ Fike 0-1 5-10:  It is imperative that every team hold serve and win at home and steal one or two on the road.  If you give away home games you will sink towards the bottom.

Rocky Mount 0-1- 0-11 @ Hunt 1-0 5-8:  Here we go Hunt has a road win and they don't need to give it back against a struggling Gryphon Team.  Rocky Mount just needs a win.

The awards keep coming.  Last night during the Rocky Mount City Council meeting the Council presented the Rocky Mount Gryphon football team and award for winning the state championship back in December.  The council has been busy in regards to awards to Rocky Mount High.  In the past seven years Rocky Mount has won a football title two basketball and a baseball state title recognized by the city council.  Rocky Mount is the only public school in North Carolina that has won all three major sports since 2008.

College Football Title, Pacman And The Lottery

Tonight is the final night of the college football season.  The ACC who at the start of the season was picked 5th by the experts as the worse football conference of the power five for the second time in three seasons has a team playing for the national championship.

Is this not the same conference that won the football title in 2014 with Florida State after the 2013 season.  Is this not the same conference that won the basketball title last year. Was this not the same conference that won the baseball title in 2015? Don't see how the ACC can be seen as last in any thing.

The experts are picking Alabama.  I think the key to this game will be can Clemson stop Alabama because I think Clemson will score at least 30?  I don't think Bama has played a player with Watson's ability since Cam Newton.  Clemson 30-27.

Under the head line of Now I Have Seen a Everything.  Can any team give away a game any better than the Cincinnati Bengals did Saturday night?  First could the Bengals after the interception just celebrate running back to the sideline instead of running down the tunnel to leave the stadium?  Anybody can fumble at anytime so every team has to live with turnovers.

The penalty for head hunting was and act of stupidity but the real clincher was Pac Man Jones.  Isn't this the same player who was suspended for the 2007 and part of the 2008 season for conduct off the field. In a world when the worse player in the league makes a half million a year you would think before any business gives any amount money they could expect conduct that would give the illusion that that person would act in a way not to embarrass the organization or the league.

His  rant on Instagram should be enough to let him sit the entire 2016 season.  It is funny what being able to run fast, throw, catch or score touchdowns that companies allow any person with limited thinking ability is allowed to work for them. The signs were there when Pac Man was in college.  The signs were there about Johnny Manziel but the ability to put fannies in seats caused an organization to worry about money over long term stability of the team.

There are many in this country who do not believe in the lottery.  I play when ever the amount gets over 200 million which I think would just about pay off bills if  I won.  They are predicting the amount will be near 1.3 billion by Wednesday.  If last Friday and Saturday there were 450 million in sales why would you not assume it will be closer to 1.5 billion by Wednesday.

If I was to win it all Wednesday I find it hard to fathom how much one million is. After taxes 1.5 billion would be about 800 million take home.  Starting Thursday my job will be  to count it to make sure it is all there