State Playoff Starts This Week

This is second chance week as high school basketball begins conference tournaments.  The Big Dogs know they are in but the middle teams have to sweat  another week before they know for sure that they are in. Boys Rocky Mount, Nash Central and Southern Nash are in but the #4 seed is up for grabs.

Hunt and Fike who just played Friday night will be matched up again Monday night and the winner has the #4 seed unless Northern Nash the #6 seed comes up and pulls a shocker and wins the tournament on their home floor.  The loser of the Hunt-Fike game could go if they finish fifth but no fifth seed is guaranteed to get in only the best of the rest fill ins get in.  If one of the bottom rung teams wins the Tournament the only team guaranteed a seeding in the Sectionals is Rocky Mount.  They are #1 regardless of this week  Nash Central Could fall to third and Southern to 4th depending if a lower tier team would win the Tournament.

Hunt-Fike playing Monday could bring forth a nice Monday crowd because the loser just might not get into the Sectional so not only will they be playing their Duke-Carolina  game twice in 72 hours.  Southern gets the home team Northern in the other so the match ups Monday is a good lineup.

There is an old saying that if you don't dream it, it can't happen.  Wouldn't it be special that if Rocky Mount Boys could win the title again and either Northern or Rocky Mount take the girls title.  I do think that Rocky Mount boys are capable.  Not only do you have to be really good but a fortunate bounce has to happen along the way to help out.  I don't see either girls team quite at State Championship level but I could visualize both making the Regional if this Pod deal doesn't have them playing each other in the Sectional.

I worry that Rocky Mount would still have extreme trouble against a tall front line with guards that could handle the Gryphon press.  Northern I think is a tad too slow with over all team speed.  Their fastest and best player Alexus Hill  is hobbled with that knee injury that happen in the Rocky Mount game three weeks ago and she is limited by the knee brace.  All it would take for either team to make it to the finals is someone that you don't expect step forward and play out of their mind for four or five games and that could push either team deeper in the playoffs.

Looking toward Friday night there is a good chance Rocky Mount and Northern Girls could meet for a fourth time in the finals.  If the seeding go as expected that would match Nash Central against Rocky Mount in the boys final.  Man, this week with the possible match ups on Monday and as the week develops what might transpire  later.  This could be one of the best attended tournaments in a long while.

Banner Time For Rocky Mount

There is nothing that could be better in life to graduate from school and years later return and look up on the wall and see you name as State Champion.  Today that list has grown of names on the wall at Rocky Mount High school as senior Paul Lilley has won the one mile at the State Indoor Track championships in Chapel Hill. His winning time was four minutes and thirty three seconds a full two seconds ahead of second.

Lilley is one of those athletes that is good at any thing he does.  He played soccer for the Gryphons in the fall and when opportunity and timing was right ran Cross Country in his spare time.  After a hard day of soccer practice is is hard to go run the necessary mileage to train for XC.  Yet during the Regional in XC he finished in the top ten as a part part performer.  This winter with no other sport  but running dedicating to one sport has made him a champion.

The day was not over for Lilley as he ran in the 1,000 meter race not long after his championship and finished fifth.  I am sure that if I had of just won a State Championship my feet would not yet touch the ground and fifth is a great effort after all the emotion of a championship. 

Sunday night WHIG TV is starting their new version of the show that use to be the Stretchlon Sports Show.  It will be called the all NEW Sports Show. We will try to cover games closer to the week that they are performed and there will be more live shows each month.  Sunday Night Wes Bradshaw will be live with Todd  Gurley the Tarboro Viking football player and then next Friday night our cameras will be at Northern Nash to record the Big East Basketball Tournament Championship.  I am sure in the future we will have Paul Lilley as a guest.  The newest Gryphon State Champion.