Heels Advance

One of the keys to any team success is when players learn what their roles are. Carolina has turned into the big three and it seems everyone else is happy with that and the Tar Heels are playing as good as anybody still alive for the Championship.

North Carolina 81-Marquette 57. Once again the Big East the push and shove league can't beat any body with quickness. Carolina big two inside could match Marquette's push and shove guys but Marquette like all Big East teams are not capable of running with anybody and the Heels send #10 team from the Big East home.

I think Carolina plays the second game Sunday on CBS so that will probably be around the 4pm game.

I don't care who played Arizona last night in the second half Zona was going to beat the Celtics. Duke caught the Wildcats playing their best basketball half of the season. You know probably more that half of the N C State fans have wanted Sean Miller of Arizona as the next coach of the Wolfpack. I'm afraid that last night's win over Duke that the Arizona higher ups will give Miller a million dollars a year more to keep him.

As I have watched the Lady Gryphon softball team play this season I just had a feeling that they were going to break the long losing streak this week playing Tarboro twice. That feeling I had must have been my arthritis. Last night the Lady Vikings won 12-2 and tonight 13-2. The Lady Gryphons didn't play that badly tonight just enough to lose.

Baseball is home Saturday at 1.00pm if the weather cooperates as they play Bunn.

Are The Stars Lined Up Right?

Just as I am writing this the Lady Gryphon softball team is preparing to play at Tarboro trying to snap their consecutive losing streak at two plus years and counting. Found out today that the best player the ladies have Clyteshia Garner sprained her ankle last night and will not play for the Gryphons.

Saturday the Gryphon baseball team will finish up the portion of their schedule of non conference games at least until Easter break. Bunn will be at Gryphon Stadium at 1.00pm.

The Sweet 16 is about to crank up and I am sitting in a good position in all of my brackets or at least in a good position in the ones I can still win. Tonight I already have one miss as I don't have Butler or Wisconsin. Since I picked Pitt in the Final four that means I can't win this game on Saturday either but I can win every other game to the end if every thing falls just right.

I want to finish tonight reminding you that do you realize that Next Friday April the First that Wes Bradshaw will be getting married. He is already off to a terrible start as Tracy had the audacity to get married on a Gryphon Baseball night. I guess that goes to show who will be in charge in that household.

It took ten years after Wes graduated high school to get a real job. PA announcing and a every now and then Radio or TV gig doesn't qualify to get many jobs on work applications. I can assure everyone that I will attend his funeral(I mean) wedding to make sure that this is not a April Fools joke.

Maturing Gryphons

Just a few weeks ago Kent Cox took his young Gryphon baseball team to Dudley to play Southern Wayne. The Gryphons play more like little leaguers than varsity players an in the end SW beat Rocky Mount 8-7.

Today sophomore Pitcher Jeremy Johnson took a no hitter into the 6th inning before allowing his first hit of the game and the Saints scratched across their only run of the game. The Gryphons got an RBi single from Matt Berry and a sac fly rbi from freshman Andy Morris in the bottom of the sixth and then turned the seventh over to Benton Moss who struck out the side in the seventh as the Gryphons win their sixth game in a row 2-1 over Southern Wayne.

Moss gets the save so he remains one win short of the all time tying record of 28 wins held by Jim Leggett. Rocky Mount has one more non-conference game Saturday against Bunn. Kent Cox has a major dilemma on his hands next week. Conference plays starts and Rocky Mount gets all three of the so called top teams.

Tuesday the Gryphons are home hosting Nash Central, then Thursday they host Hunt and turn around Friday and play Fike at home. This crazy schedule comes about do to the Easter break this year. Nash County schools are off the week of April 16th and Wilson County has their Easter break the week of the 23rd. After the Easter break the final week of the season will once again play three conference games the first full week of May.

It will not take long to find out how much pitching any team has this year.

Thursday night the Lady Gryphon softball team travels to Tarboro to meet the Lady Vikings. They will return home Friday to take on Tarboro at Mutt Wilson Field. I have been telling you all along this season that this softball team is much better than last season. Even though they have yet to win a game I feel it coming either Thursday or Friday if not both days.

We are taping the game Friday for the Stretchlon Sports Show but I hope they break the streak Thursday and are working on a winning streak by Friday.

Sunday night on the SSS Kenny Dickerson will be featured speaker talking with us about his up coming SEAM Trip and a fund raiser that is going to be held Monday night at the Pizza Inn.

ACC Post Season

The ACC is 7-1 in the NCAA Tournament after three rounds. There has been so much talk this year about how bad the ACC has been. There is no doubt with Wake and State and Georgia Tech that bottom three were not very good. However, the top four are showing to be just as good as any other conference in the land.

What adds fuel to the fire that the ACC is still the best is that the middle teams in the ACC are 4-2 in the NIT. Virginia Tech has given credence to the NCAA Selection Committee losing in the second round of the NIT so the NCAA doesn’t look all that bad leaving them out.

Last night both Duke and North Carolina women advanced in the NCAA tournament. If I were in a women’s bracket I surely would have Connecticut, Tennessee, Baylor and Stanford as my final four. In order for the women’s tournament to ever get into an emotional pitch to the nation like the men’s tournament do, they have got to get to the point where sub regional and regional are played on neutral courts. If Duke was not playing at home last night they never would have beaten Marist on a neutral court in say Philadelphia. The way it is now those final four picks I have made above are hard to beat on their home floor. You know the way it works. Play the games where the people will pay to see it.

Bruce Pearl was fired yesterday as head basketball coach at Tennessee mens team. There are certain coaches that leave a bloody trail every step of their coaching career where they can’t play by the rules. I must say the Athletic Director at Tennessee has done the right thing getting rid of a cheater. The question now is will the AD survive without the Alumni getting him fired. I would hope any fan base would rather play by the rules and then win over letting a little cheating go because we are now winning.

I watch the Knicks-Celtics 4th quarter last night on NBA TV. The Knicks over the last 10 years have not been a very good franchise in the NBA after they let Isaiah Thomas run them into the ground. Donnie Walsh a Carolina grad is trying to bring them back to past NBA glory. He has brought in Carmelo Anthony who is a scorer and likes to play on one end of the court. Since Anthony has been with the Knicks they are 7-9. The Denver Nuggets the team Anthony left are 10-4. You be the judge of who won that trade.

Anthony just does not make anyone else on the court a better player. Denver has improved with his departure. This past weekend Anthony pulled a Scottie Pippen and sat by himself during a time out instead of listening to what those in the game were doing. If I owned an NBA team and just before trade deadline I had a chance to get him or a no name, I would take the no name player.

I saw in the paper over the weekend that Betsy Braswell a senior at Northern Nash has committed to play softball at Wingate College next year. We hope to have Betsy and the Knights softball team on the Stretchlon Sports show in a softball game as the spring goes on.

This Friday night we will be doing the Rocky Mount-Tarboro Softball game for TV. RM and Tarboro play Thursday at Tarboro and return Friday to Rocky Mount. This is probably the Lady Gryphons best chance this season to break their three year losing streak. I hope they can end the streak Thursday but if not we will be there Friday as they try again.

It Helps Knowing The Rules

Last night I watch the segment on the between the games show right after Arizona beat Texas and I think it was on TNT but the way the games have been going on it is hard to keep up with which network I was watching.

The experts spent the entire time talking about the five second call which was called on Texas as they were trying to inbound the ball and win the game. Arizona’s defense did a great job and forced the in bounder to call time out. The 100 replays in which TNT ran it is clear the referee only counted to four and the Texas player turned to the ref and asked for time. The rule book says a player can not be granted a time out once the ref has counted to four.

If you are going to commentate on the games I think it would be very helpful to know the rules. Kenny Smith was the one who made the most pointed objection to the ref clearly counting to four and that Texas was robbed. The one person in that group who should have known the rule was Louisville coach Rick Pitino but he too was upset with the call. If the coach does not know the rules how can you teach your players how to play the game properly?

Knowing the rules is a good idea when ever fans open their big mouth to argue calls. The last couple of seasons there has been a Hunt fan probably a parent who hollers three seconds all night long. I have heard him screaming three seconds even before the ball is across mid court. The three second count does not start until the ball crosses mid court and any time the player in the lane receives the ball a new three second count starts. Once the ball is shot and players are rebounding the ball a new three seconds is given on each tip or rebound of a ball.

Probably the most misunderstood call in basketball is the back court call. There are many times in each game where the ball might appear to be across mid court but is passed back again across the mid court line. The rule states that the ball and both feet of the player with the ball must touch the floor in order for a back court to be called. The both feet part of the rule get most fans when they start screaming back court.

I even found out in the Big East tournament this year of a rule that as an announcer I get on players about all the time. Traveling while trying to inbound the ball, I was taught when I played during the ancient days of the 60’s that if you were the in bounder that your pivot foot could not move.

I am not talking about under the basket after a made basket but when the ref says you much hold you position. During the Big East tournament to me there was a clear traveling on an out of bounds play in which one of the coaches asked the refs at the next time out and the ref told the coach an I was close enough to hear him say this “there is a three foot box in which a player can move any where with in that box’. That night I went home and looked it up and sure enough he was right. Shut my mouth next time.

How about that ACC. Three teams in the Sweet 16 and all four teams that made the tournament have won at least one win. 7-1 record while the Big East who sent 11 are down to two. I understand that two Big East teams lost to each other Sunday but that’s seven losses in the first two games played to other teams..

Florida State was simple to fast for Notre Dame. If either Duke or Carolina lose next weekend it will be for Duke because of the missed three point shots and for Carolina there lack of pressure on the ball.

How bout Richmond Virginia. Two teams left University of Richmond and VCU. Both the last of the Cinderellas. I think Wolfpack fans should follow both of these teams closely. The next Wolfpack coach might just come from one of them.

Unusual Spring Sports Schedule.

Easter coming as late as it possibly can in April this year is causing chaos with all spring sports schedules this year. Nash county is taking one week and Wilson county taking another for Spring break and baseball will not play any conference games during that two week break in the middle of the season. That will cause some unusual scheduling.

Rocky Mount will play Northern Nash on a Thursday night and turn around and play Hunt on Friday the last night of the regular season. Tennis and girls soccer have already started conference play while baseball and softball have another week until conference begins.

Coach K won victory #900 today as Duke escapes by Michigan to head to the Sweet 16 next weekend in Anaheim California. If Duke can make it to the Final Four K could go for the all time wins record in the Semi Final game which right now looks like it would be against Ohio State. Duke did something today that they were very lucky to get by with. They held the ball trying to run the clock out instead of attacking the basket as they normally do and it almost cost them.

Carolina was up to their old ACC Tournament tricks falling behind double digits and then coming back to win and they head to the East Regional in the airport city of Newark New Jersey. Carolina is getting no pressure what so ever on the ball and is winning because they are out scoring teams. If they don't start tightening up on defense they will never make it through next weekend.

Looking at some more of our college players and their years, Rocky Mount's Gabe Brown is playing at Wake Tech, Nash Central Softball player Tiffany Macklin is starting as a freshman for N CA&T. Northern Nash's Daniel Moore is not having quite the senior season at N C Wesleyan as he has had in other years but he is still hitting 263.

My strategy in my brackets has not been bad at all. I have had a good tournament so far. Looking at who I have to beat to move up Kansas St and UNLV were my last two picks that very few other people had. Now that I missed on those two I don't have any picks that nobody else doesn't also have. Maybe next year.

Will Bass Sets Meet Records

Nash Central's Senior Will Bass is having a senior season to remember this year as today during the Elon Phoenix High School Classic set the meet record in the mile run at 4 minutes and twenty seconds. Bass already has won a Indoor season state championship will be the odds on favorite this spring to win another state title.

If setting one meet record wasn't enough Bass preceded to win the two mile in record time running it in a time nine minutes and twenty five seconds. You know we have special athletes in different sports and Will Bass just may be the greatest long distance high school runner ever from this area.

One thousand six hundred athletes took part in today's meet at Elon College and several local athletes either with their time or effort automatically quality for the regional later this spring. Bass certainly has qualified but he was joined by team mate Tevin Richardson who won the 800 meter event in a time of 1 minute and fifty seven seconds.

Rocky Mount's Paul Lilley ran a two minute and three seconds half mile which is a good enough effort to qualify for the regional. Lilley qualified for the regional in another event as he ran a four minute and thirty four second mile.

Rocky Mount's Donte Harrison has qualified for the regional with a high jump of six feet two inches. I think if I remember correctly back when I was in junior high school they had what they called the President's Council for physical fitness where they tested you in track and field events and I think I cleared three feet three inches in the high jump.

Two of Rocky Mount's relay teams qualified as the 4x800 ran an eight minute and thirty four seconds and the 4 x100 relays team finished second but their time is good enough.

We will continue our look at our local college ball players and their seasons as they unfold. Jim Leggett has never quite comeback from the surgery that he has had following Rocky Mount's State Championship in 2008. Leggett has pitched two innings going into this week for Pitt C C

T J Taylor is playing for Wake Tech. The former Bulldog of Nash Central was three for three in a game this year but Wake does not post team stats and I can't tell how his season is going.

Southern Nash's Brian Allen playing his senior season at NC Wesleyan is batting 259.

Up until just a second ago or so I was having a great day in the NCAA basketball action until former Michigan basketball player Chris Webber showed up disguised as a Pitt Panther and pulled the bone head play of this years tournament and my first final four team is out.