Carolina-Duke Week Take One

Tonight in Chapel Hill Duke and Carolina got together to play basketball. It was for the lead in the ACC basketball race. Playing in front of the home folks Carolina pulled away for a 75-60 victory in Women's basketball

Wednesday night the Guys play in Durham. Neither team at this point is playing as they are the odds on favorite to win the national championship but there is still a month to go before the end of the regular season. The winner Wednesday just might get started on the roll.

Carolina has so many injuries their bench is depleted. Duke has shown since conference play has started the way to beat them is go inside. Duke is 14-0 at home this year which I think that is some of their problem. Not enough road games.

I think Carolina will win in a close game. If Duke makes their three pointers all night that might sway the game to their side.

Florida State to me has just as good of talent as any team in the ACC. They could be a team when the NCAA tournament starts to lose in the first game or make it all the way to the final four.

The other big four game of the week Wake visits the Wolfpack and I just don't see State handling Jeff Teague. If Teague shows up to play the rest of his teammates will follow him. When he hasn't shown up no one else has either. I think the Deacs win by double digits.

Tuesday night is the last home game of the regular season for the Gryphons of Rocky Mount High School. The lady's will get at least one playoff game at home if not more while the boys should have to travel through out the playoffs.

The girls Are still trying to go undefeated in conference play while the boys want to finish above 500 in conference. The only way either team can accomplish their goals is to win both games this week.

The boys have a tougher road in order to do that as they play Fike and Nash Central this week. Both are ahead of the Gryphons in the standings. The girls how ever have beaten both Fike and Central the first time through the conference rotation.

Finally, as a Wolfpack fan I have learned over the last couple of years not to get my hopes up until there is ten seconds to play and a ten point lead. Yesterday's 18 point give-a-way is another example of being on the edge of my seat but there was no cheering as I waited for the bottom to fall out.

In the end a simple foul shot cost the Wolfpack the game in regulation. My only beef with the coach is when you don't have any body who can handle the ball why do you try to run the clock out by holding on to the ball. That played right in to Va Tech's hands!

Quarterbacks and Point Guards

The two positions that are the most important in basketball and football is the quarterback and point guard.

They are the same position in their respective sport.

North Carolina State had Philip Rivers at quarterback for 51 straight games from 2000-03. Since his departure there has been a revolving door from week to week who have played quarterback.

This season in basketball, State can't find a point guard that they are willing to stick with more than a couple of games at a time.

The quarterback and point guard are the coach on the field or court. They make decisions based on what is happening as the play transpires. It is their decision to change the play as it is happening. Get the ball to the person who can make something happen this play.

This past football season, B.W. Holt was able to make the Rocky Mount High football team better by placing Collins Cuthrell at quarterback and moving Hiawatha Bunn to corner back.

Bunn was a much better runner than Cuthrell. Cuthrell is a much better passer than Bunn. The running game we had we needed to be able to open thing up with the pass which Collins could do.

Moving Bunn to corner back was the last piece of the puzzle that made the Gryphon defense as great as it was this past year.

Duke basketball's weak point is its inside game. Yesterday, without an inside game, the Blue Devils almost loss another game. But, what does Duke have? Point guards! The general on the court helps disguise the weak spots because it gets the ball to their strengths.

Earlier this week during his news conference talking about this year's recruits, State football coach Tom O'Brien expressed a surprising displeasure in Russell Wilson ability to run with the ball. He said that during his three injuries he sustained this year they all came when running with the ball not running the play as designed. He pointed out that State lost all the games he was either injured in or fail to play the next week.

O'Brien wants his quarterback to stay healthy. It is hard for any player or team to get better when they are either not on the field playing or having a different player in the game at most important times.

Look at this year's ACC basketball teams. Each one that is getting good guard play has won more than they have lost. Those that haven't had it continue to search.

Those of us who sit in front of the TV or in the stands fail to realize how coaches put their livelihoods in the hands of youngsters. The coaches who have a general on the field live a more stress-free than those that can't. A stress-free life for a coach is winning. You win with a quarterback and point guard who relieves a coach's stress.

Lady Gryphons clinch a Tie

Whenever Southwest Edgecombe plays Rocky Mount you can expect a full house and tonight was another.

Sandra Langley had her girls ready to avenge an earlier lost to the Lady Gryphons in Pinetops but a hard fought high scoring game ended with Pam Gainey's team winning 63-60.

The victory clinches a tie for first place for the Lady Gryphons who now are 8-0 in conference play. All Rocky Mount needs to do it win one of two games next week, either at home Tuesday against Fike or Friday at Nash Central to clinch the first round bye in the conference tournament.

I see nothing wrong winning both games next week and finishing the conference schedule undefeated.

Between the games Boys coach Michael Gainey was given a basketball celebrating his 200th career win Tuesday at Southern Nash.

Tonight coach Gainey started on the road to 300 as the Gryphons used a strong fourth quarter by Tashawn Mabry to power past Southwest boys 73-60.

Mabry finished the game with 31 but scored almost half of his points for the evening in the fourth quarter. Philip Wilkins had a double double as he garnered 13 points and 12 rebounds.

The Gryphons are now 3-0 the second time through the conference swing and with tonights win get even at 4-4 in conference play. It has been a while since the Gryphons have won more than they have lost but tonights victory puts them at 11-10 on the season.

The lady's victory puts them at 16-4 on the season.

Tonight is the last regular season meeting between Southwest and Rocky Mount in conference play as the Cougars will drop back to the 2-A ranks next year.

As highly competitive and as large as the crowds have been I am sure Southwest will be on both the football and basketball teams schedule next year and into future years.

ACC Basketball Looks like Football

Most teams in the ACC basketball race are at the eight-game mark in the conference season. That would be equal to the football season when no one wanted to take charge. Let's look at where this thing seems to be going.

Carolina, 6-2 - You may have already forgotten they started 0-2. They seem to be the best in the league but I don't hear to any Tar Heel fans jumping for joy right now.

Duke, 6-2 - Last night they fell to 3-3 on the season on the road. That's not a good sign since I don't see any NCAA games scheduled for Cameron Indoor Stadium come March.

Clemson, 5-2 - This is probably the best Clemson team since Eldon Campbell and the Tigers were robbed by Connecticut in 1991.

Boston College, 6-3 - When the Tournament starts guard play is important. BC might make Sweet 16.

Wake Forest, 4-3 - Lack of outside shooting is telling on the Deacs. They must get back to playing good defense.

Virginia Tech, 4-3 - If they make NCAA tournament the Hokies are another team that can cause trouble.

Florida State, 4-3 - They have really good athletes but always seem to let lesser teams beat them.

Miami, 4-5 - The Hurricanes are another team that seem to be better than their record.

Maryland, 3-5 - Not that long ago were National Champions. Looks like this year is a throw away season with all the Gary Williams firing talk.

N C State, 2-5 - Point guard, point guard, are you listening John Wall?

Virginia, 1-6 - I think by year's end they will finish last.

Georgia Tech, 1-7 - Well somebody has to be last.

After only getting four NCAA bids last year the ACC could get as many as eight but I think six is about right. It would not surprise me to see four in sweet 16.

Pat Summitt has won No. 1,000 as a women's basketball coach. The scary part is Pat Summitt is only 56 years old. She could win another 500 if she sticks around that long.

Signing Day

If you believe all the hype, then the Big Four schools, plus ECU, had a banner day yesterday on National Signing Day.

In my younger days when I had to know the BIOS of every player, I believed all that guff about who the best players in the country were.

Yesterday, ESPNU had nine hours of coverage of signing day across the country. The so-called headline players, the ones who will get all the press during the next four years, aren't the real stars of signing day. It's the fringe player who fills in at tackle after another player is hurt that no body cares about on signing day.

The team that can come up with those type players are the real winners on signing day. No one will know who the winners are for two to three years.

Notre Dame, under Charlie Weis, up until yesterday had been a Top 10 every year in recruiting. On the field, they have barely been Top 50.

The reality is a recruiting class is only 25 percent of any team. If like Wake Forest, you like to red shirt your freshman class ,then only 20 percent as those players will be with you five years.

Coaches go after holes they need to fill over sometimes signing the best overall player. But recruiting is still the perception that we are on the way up not treading water or heading backwards.
The 24-hour news service and 24-hour-a-day sports has produced a hype into our world that everything is much better than it is, or in the case of the news, worse than it is.

Sorry, but I don't need to see on network TV a child kidnapping live all day in Des Moines. Ia. The networks need to fill the day with something.

Unfortunately, ESPN has not been able to get teams to play games live at 7:30 in the morning so they can have show them. Heavens knows they have probably tried.

Yesterday, WITN-TV7 featured three Gryphon signees. Bravo to them. They didn't make them out to be the next coming of Wake Forest football, but three local kids who have an idea what they will be doing for the next four or five years.

For a family, signing day is a joyous time. A culmination of a dream come true. In our world today, do you know how much a football scholarship means to a family?

I wish instead of telling me how great LSU is going to be next year with all the recruits they have. Networks would show how important signing day really is.

Our economy is such that a higher education is further from main stream America because most families can't afford to pay a house payment much less a college education.

The real winners on signing day is Mom and Pop. Everyone of them regardless of how good their kids are in football, yesterday they were the No. 1 signing in the country.

Congratulation to all of them!

Pushing Forward

The lady Gryphon basketball team continues its undefeated way in conferecnce play last night downing Souuthern Nash 53-36. This make the Lady Gryphons 7-0 in conference play and 15-4 overall.

Rocky Mount had three scorers who hit double figures in Lakia Bynum, Dyonna Battle and Arkenesia Melton. They try to continue their undefeated play in conference Friday night as they host SouthWest Edgecombe and what will essentially be the championship game.

If the Lady's beat SWE that would be SWE second loss and would give the Lady Gryphons a two game lead with two games to play.

The boys got the job done and now have a two game win streak which is the first such streak of the 2009. Tashawn Mabry scored 25 and Philip Wilkins added 10 points and nine rebounds. Ten players scored for RM as they beat Southern Nash 65-43.

The win get RM back to 500 on the season at 10-10. Now at 3-4 in conference play the boys are right in the playoff picture.

Today is signing day for football players. The first four signed this morning with Whit Barnes who is recovering nicely from his shoulder surgery in January, signed with Wake Forest. Nick Harrison signed with UNC-Pembroke who last year went 9-1. Kieth Strickland will call Elizabeth City State University home for the next four years. Nick Hahula signed a letter of intent to play for North Carolina Central.

Congratulations to those four but hang on there will be more over the next few weeks. That's part of winning football as the reward is playing football at the next level.

It is now official after this weeks Board of Education meeting. Northern Nash has a new football coach. Michael "Mickey" Crouch is the new whistle blower in "Death Valley". They say that imitation is a form of flattery. The Knights have gone after a B W Holt look alike. A veteran coach who has won every where he has been.

I hope he has as much success for them as B W has had for Rocky Mount.

Four-time Conference Champ

This past Saturday the individual NEW 6 wrestling championships were held at Southern Nash High School.

Francisco Alfaro won the 130-pound weight class for the Gryphons. In winning this, the Rocky Mount senior became the first Gryphon wrestler to ever win an individual championship four straight years.

The boys basketball team, fresh off their 10-point win over Northern on Friday night, hits the road Tuesday as it will meet Southern Nash with the opportunity to even its record. The Gryphons (9-10) are still hopeful for a good seeding in the basketball playoffs and Tuesday's game is a must game the Gryphons that they can't afford to lose.

The girls (14-4), on the other hand, still can go undefeated in conference play (6-0) and are looking at least one home game to start the playoffs if they can finish in first.

Tuesday's game at Southern will be part of the Coaches vs. Cancer series and a dollar per ticket will be donated just as ticket sales Friday night were against Northern.

Super Bowl reflections:

Regardless of which team you pulled for in the Super Bowl, both quarterbacks played well.

To me, Ben Roethlisberger elevated himself to that Brett Farve plateau being the winning quarterback for the second time in his career.

The Steelers are a really good fit for Big Ben. I think if he had to throw 40 times a game he wouldn't be so good. But, the Steeler defense keeps them in the game where one score is about all that's needed to come back in a game.

Big Ben has shown to be quite capable in his five years. This offseason he needs to stay away from motorcycles.

Kurt Warner is 50-50 for the Hall of Fame. He could probably use three more good years. His problem is he is not mobile at all and if he plays on a team without much blocking he will find the bench again where he has been buried the last three or four years.

The Dallas Cowboys get all the exposure, but the Pittsburgh Steelers just keep on winning. It hasn't always been that way, however. When the NFL merged with the AFL teams, the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns and the Steelers left the NFC to join the AFC to balance the leagues out.

Pittsburgh, which had been a laughing stock over the years in the NFL, started winning and have had very few losing seasons since the merger.

Now its leads in Super Bowl victories with six.