Gryphons Dominant Knightdale Tournament

Last season the Lady gryphons made it all the way to the East Regional Final and the boys were the state champs.  Both have begun the 2012-13 high school basketball season taking the titles at the Knightdale 2012 Tipoff Tournament.

The Lady Gryphons won Friday night over 4-A Raleigh Enloe and tonight took on the home standing Knightdale team and for three quarters this game was up for grabs.  The Lady Gryphons finally took charge in the fourth quarter to win the championship 48-40.

Having won the most outstanding performer in the 3-A State Championship game Junior Donte Battle returns to lead the Gryphon boys who last night took down East Chapel Hill behind 34 points from Battle.  Tonight against the home team Knightdale the Gryphons shot off to a 10-0 lead but before either team got 20 Knightdale had taken the lead.
 
  Rocky Mount dominated the boards winning that battle 40 to 21.  Jaquel Bryant lead the rebounding getting 13 while Battle pulled down 11.    Rocky Mount also won the turnover game making 24 while the Gryphon defense could only cause 17.  Miss handling of the basketball kept this one within reach for a while until the Gryphons put it away early in the fourth quarter.  The biggest lead of the game came on a Knightdale turnover in which Brodrick Caudle was heading in for a snowbird layup but instead laid the ball off the top part of the backboard and Donte Battle flushed home a slam dunk to give the Gryphons a 16 point lead with four minutes to go. 

Donte Battle lead the Gryphon scoring with 23, Mason Hines 15, M J Gainey 14 and Jaquel Bryant had 11 giving the Gryphons four double digit scorers.     Final Gryphons 82- Knightdale 68

North Carolina finishes their 2012 football season beating Maryland to give Larry Fedora an eight win season in his first year in Chapel Hill.  N C State finished it's regular season with a 27-10 win over BC.  The Pack 7-5 waits now on where it will go bowling.  Heard this on the pregame show when asked about his 16 seniors playing their last game Tom O'Brien lamented that all 16 will graduate.  Two already are in graduate school 12 will graduate in December and the last two in May.  Despite how fans feel about wins and losses it would be hard to fire a coach who is graduating his team.  This senior class was Tom O'Brien's first fully recruited class at N C State.

TOO Much Vikings

The Tarboro Vikings haven't lost a home playoff game for five years now and today was not going to be the first.  Last year it seemed every game went to the wire including the State Championship.  Not this year and not tonight as South Columbus ran into a Tarboro Viking team with a goal to make it four in a row State Titles.  Tarboro did win their fifth straight East Regional 2-A title which will be their last as next year they drop down to 1-A.  The Vikings ease on to Winston Salem after they demolish South Columbus 46-0.   The Vikings play at 11am next Saturday December first in Winston against East Lincoln who tonight is up big in the fourth 31-7  in the West regional over Madison.

The news is terrible for the Big East in Greensboro.  Hunt has been no match at all for North Guilford trailing 30-0 at the half and things were not any better in the second. At this writing it is 44-0 in the fourth quarter. This is the third straight year N Guilford has taken Hunt out of the playoffs.

Tonight both Rocky Mount High boys and girls basketball teams won their opening round match in the Knightdale Basketball Tournament and both will play for the championships late Saturday afternoon. The boys beat E Chapel Hill while the girls took down Enloe.

Losing for the first time last week the Wolfpack of N C State hit the hardwood tonight  in Raleigh against  UNC-Asheville.  Pack once again plays in a daze but escapes 82-80.  Duke had a much tougher team to play in the Bahamas in VCU but the Devils survive and play in the Championship game Saturday 67-56 over VCU.

Got another basketball score for you ECU 65 Marshall 59 in double overtime.  Wait a minute that's a football score my bad.  If only their basketball team could score 65.

Earlier this week Nash Central started their high school basketball season beating SouthWest Edgecombe  in both girls and boys games.

I don't know whether you have notice this or not and even whether you care, after only winning seven games all of last season the Charlotte Bobcats are 6-5 so far this season.  They are one win short of their total of seven all of last year and they still have 70 games to get that.  They got a chance to get it unless they falter the last five months of the regular season.

Turkey Day And Football Practice

There is nothing better than a high school football game on the Friday night after Thanksgiving.  Tarboro and Hunt still enjoy the thrill and excitement of the anticipation of what just might be yet to come.  To have made it this far is reward enough but for these two teams even more accolades could come next week.

Tarboro is at home playing South Columbus a team that held the Vikings to their lowest point totals (13) in quite a while.  The main question for S Columbus can they hold down the Vikings to even anything close to that this year.  I think the answer to that question is no but I do think Tarboro could hold them to close to the 10 SC got last year. Tarboro wins their fifth straight Eastern 2-A regional 35-14 over South Columbus..Winston Salem here we come again.

There is no doubt that in the last five years in eastern 3-A football there has not been a more consistent team that the Hunt Warriors.  If you look at their regular season records and then at their playoffs there is only one team that keeps stepping on Hunts toes.  That's the NightHawks of North Guilford.  Why is it that teams can dominate every one but there is always somebody out there who is better.  Mohammad Ali had trouble with Joe Frazier.  Rocky Mount couldn't beat Western Alamance and Big East boys soccer can beat everybody but Jacksonville who by the way won the state title.

Hunt will try again to beat the Night Hawks and once again I hate to say it they will come up short.  I don't know what it is about that I-85 corridor that our area has so much trouble with but guess where N. Guilford lives.  N Guilford 32 Hunt 20.  Hunt  and Randy Raper deserve better but I don't see them getting the job done.

138 points scored by one player in a game.  I think this would be a great accomplishment if the score of the game had of been close but winning by 75 179-104 what in the world is this coach thinking.  The young man took 108 shots.  He had to shoot as soon as the ball was in  bounded or about every twenty seconds.  I wonder did the other team ever think about slowing down themselves since they got 104 points.  But I guess  when you are only down by 50 with three minutes to play they had to feel they still had a chance.

If you want to see a good Thanksgiving story go on line to WRAL.COM and look at the story of the National Guard unit just returning from Afghanistan.  The story features two small girls an their mother waiting for their daddy who arrived home yesterday.   The officer Ty Mullen wife is Leigh Mullen who was the volleyball coach at Campbell but recently resigned to be a stay at home mom and follow her husband who recently received a promotion.  It does something to your heart when you know something about the people who serve our country both at home and abroad.  Our Marine Jarrod will be with us this Thanksgiving but last year he was in Afghanistan.  Those that serve in war have a job to do while everyone else stays home to worry and keep life going.

 Have a Happy Thansgiving.  Don't eat too many collards and turkey.

College Football It's All About TV Sets

I don't know too many people unhappy with the departure of Maryland from the ACC.  I hear a lot of people crying because of the TV market Baltimore/Washington no longer has an ACC school.  Guess what folks Rutgers didn't get into the Big Ten because they are one of the premier athletic programs in the country but they are close to  New York City.  Rutgers going to the Big Ten is a bigger hit for the ACC than losing Maryland.

Heard this on the David Glenn show one day this week that the ACC is the third most viewed football conference on Saturdays following the SEC and the Big Ten.  More people watch ACC football every Saturday over the Big 12, Pac 12.

If TV sets mean everything then who will the ACC go after to fill the void of Maryland and who could possibly filled Rutgers shoes even though they never got walked in.  Louisville, U Conn, Vanderbilt, Navy, ECU  and what about UNC Charlotte.

Top candidate now would be Louisville with a city of 141,000 but here is always what TV sets look at.  The Metro area of Louisville is 1.3 million. You must remember now the quality of athletics has absolute no reason for any school joining any league only TV sets.  Second on the list U Conn, part of the Hartford,New Haven TV market the 28th biggest in the country.

When I throw this one out there don't swear until you listen to reason.  Navy an academic institution location in the Baltimore /Washington market replacing Maryland.   I know ECU fans are already sending off tweets trying to get ECU back in the ACC talk but forget it,  Greenville-New Bern -Washington only 192,000 TVs.  Yes ECU  fans   UNC Charlotte has got a truly much better chance of joining the ACC than ECU will in the next thirty years.  Charlotte a city of 751,000 and here we go with a metro area of 2.4 million.  Now I ask all of you ECU fans if you were opening a gas station where would you built one in Charlotte who has two interstate highways and 2.4 million gas tanks or Greenville with 192,000 gas tanks.

There is one more team on the wish list and that would be Vanderbilt.  They fit the ACC mode of mostly Private Colleges with a city of 605,000 and a metro 1.5 million.    Why would Vandy want to leave the SEC where they already get  a bigger TV pay check than what the ACC can offer. If we forget all the TV set mumbo jumbo the next issue is football stadiums, basketball arena's and airports.  Where does ECU fit there?  Don't feel so bad ECU  Appalachian State now that they are considering D-1 football  are seeing the pain that you are going through because they have less TV's than you.

Tarboro Has Taken On All Comers

During this historical run in which the Tarboro Vikings have won three straight 2-A football titles and finished second once they have taken on any and every body.  Case in point, during the last five years the Vikings will be playing in their 24rd playoff game.  Those 24 games  they will have played 16 different schools.  South Columbus is one of those teams that the Vikes play for the second time having beaten them on the road last year.  The other schools that they have met twice during this run of excellence is Roanoke Rapids, Pasquatank, Northside of Jacksonville,East Duplin, East Bladen and this Friday night South Columbus joins the twice list in Tarboro 24th playoff game.

South Columbus will be the second playoff team in a row that they will play who beat the team that had beat them during the regular season.  Last week Northeastern had lost during the season to Edenton but they won  at Edenton in the playoffs.  Last week South Columbus beat East Bladen who had beaten them 28-6 during the regular season at E Bladen.

South Columbus comes in with another loss at the hands of Hoggard 38-0 but for a 2-A school there in no shame in losing to Hoggard.  They have scored an average of 27 points a game and have surrendered just short of 15 per contest.  For the second year in a row South Columbus and Tarboro play for the East Region title except this season the game is in Tarboro.

If you are the Hunt Warriors fan then you need a 7-11 Big Gulp.  For the third year in a row the Warriors face North Guilford in the East 3-AA finals the first two at Hunt and Hunt could not get the job done in either.  This time they meet the Night Hawks again but this time in Greensboro.

The Hawks will be sitting in wait for the Warriors  as they have average  39 points per contest.  Here's the impressive number.  In their 13 games to date they have given up two scores only  twice and in both of those game 14 is all they gave up then.  Their defense is averaging 6 points per game.  The Warriors have got to find  a way to score points in this one.

The combined records of the four teams playing this weekend and two being either from our area or they are representing us from our conference the overall records of the four is 50-2.  Doesn't sound to me like anybody   lucked out to get to this point.  They all earned it..

Say Good-Bye To Maryland

The Board Of Regents at the University of Maryland announced today that they will leave the ACC and join the Big Ten.  Maryland who has eliminated six varsity sports recently is strapped for cash  and the head of the Regents flatly said the Big Ten is offering money to get Maryland back on their feet.  Fannies in the seat is the biggest issue and the last three football seasons Maryland has only had home attendance in any home game of two thirds of the stadium full.

Maryland becomes the second member of the original eight members  that defected from the Southern Conference in 1953 as South Carolina left in 1971.  So for the first time in the John Swofford era as Commissioner of the ACC someone has out foxed him in the wheeling and dealings of conference expansion.  It comes from another Carolina school mate in Jim Delaney.

So all of a sudden with Notre Dame looking possibly at the BCS championship game and a big payday who is going to fill the shoes to get the ACC back to 14 or even 16 teams? Louisville, Connecticut, Vanderbilt are the top candidate.  Here is next problem, can the ACC survive or will they find themselves becoming the Big East.

Rumors on blogs are stating that Carolina and Duke will wind up in the the Big Ten and State and Clemson going to Big 12 and Florida State to Southeastern.  What has happened to College sports?  The ACC has been betting that Notre Dame will need them to join full time in football and with a full time Notre Dame the ACC would add the Chicago TV market.  You can kiss a full fledged football member if the Irish win at Southern Cal Saturday and Matt Barkley the Trojan QB is out of the game with an injury.

John Swofford who up to this point in all of these dominoes falling in college sports he has been Fast Eddie Felson or the Paul Newman character in the movie The Hustler.  Maryland leaving this week and if the Fighting Irish win in football this weekend then this week will be the week Swofford meets up with Minnesota Fats.

If all the rumors are true and if ESPN continues to be the money packing machine that they seem to be then we may be headed for four super conferences in football then what we know today as the ACC could still be a basketball league along with all the minor sports while football with be a monster all it's own.  What is this world coming to?

How Many Titles Can The Vikings Win?

The Tarboro Vikings will be making their fifth straight Eastern Regional this Friday night when they host South Columbus.  Should they win they will play in their fifth straight  State Championship title game.  Having won three in a row and the way this teams defense has come around in the last month they very well may on their way to their fourth straight title.

We all know that streaks are made to be broken and should the Vikings win their fourth title in a row how many more can they win.  Must I remind you that the Vikes will be dropping down in classification next year and start playing in 1-A .  Their annual game with county rival North Edgecombe historically is won by Tarboro and hardly ever has the score been close.  We just might  now be approaching the middle of this streak of state championships.  Need I remind everyone however the Tarboro Viking need to concentrate on South Columbus this week or the streak could end.

ESPN is reporting that Monday Maryland will announce that they are joining the Big Ten.  If there is one team that I could care less about being in the ACC it is Maryland.  However if Rutgers joins the Big Ten too then the Big Ten has latched on to the DC/Maryland TV market and New York City.


Should both Florida State and Maryland pull out of the ACC who would replace them.  I bet Vanderbilt will be on the wish list.  If the ACC looks towards the Northeast to replace Maryland  and Rutgers goes to the Big Ten then U Conn is the biggest tomato still available and they would surely fit the ACC basketball criteria.

It was too late for me Friday night but Carolina played maybe their best basketball game of the year in beating Long Beach State as they head over to Hawaii.  State plays in the championship game in Puerto Rico this afternoon.

Thank goodness that Carolina played football on Thursday night and won.  Least one of the Big Four won.  this weekend.  Duke losing to Georgia Tech least we won't be stuck with a Duke-Florida State ACC Championship game.  It is either Miami or Georgia Tech who will play Florida State now. 

The last two weeks in a row the top teams in the BCS have lost and Notre Dame stands to move at the top of the list.  If the ACC wants the Fighting Irish to come on over and join the ACC full time they had better hope that Southern Cal beats the Irish this weekend and drops them out of the National Championship game.  Should the Irish get into the game they will have a big pay day and the thought of joining the ACC will wilt away for another ten years. 

Should the Irish lose next weekend and then not make  the BCS Championship game then  the higher ups in South Bend will receive a lot of pressure because they don't have that ACC Championship game to give them extra points.  Just think a Florida State- Notre Dame ACC championship game this year would feature two top ten teams and the winner would rise in the BCS and without being in a conference championship game Notre Dame can only hope everybody loses in conference championship games while they sit idle.