Gryphons Rebound

Both Rocky Mount varsity basketball teams rebounded from losses on Wednesday night with victories over Rose High.  The boys win their first game of the week after their first two losses of the season beating the Rose boys 71-54.  The Lady Gryphons had little trouble knocking off the Lady Rampants 57-38.

The boys dominated the boards grabbing 35 misses while holding Rose to 18.  The turnover battle was even at 16 so the dominant inside Gryphon game was rejuvenated with the return of Emmanuel King. Donte Battle lead the rebounding with 12 while King had 9.

Isaiah Alston lead the Gryphon scoring dropping five threes in the second half to lead the Gryphon scoring with 21.  Donte Battle contributed 14 and Emmanuel King added 12.  Next action for the Gryphons will be the second game of the Nash County Christmas Tournament when they take on Nash Central Wednesday night.

Before the Lady Gryphons opened the season there were many questions as to who was going to step up and replace the departed J'Kyra Brown who now plays for ECU.  So far early in the year both Carmen Richardson and T T Thomas have lead the scoring from either the Lady Gryphon defense or outside scoring. Tonight belonged to the inside game.

Tamarra Harper lead the way down low in the blocks with drop step moves leading to 20 points and five rebounds.  The other low post was the property of Keyanna  Spivey who scored 13 points and pulled down  eight rebounds.  The Lady Gryphons were able to avenge their opening night loss at Rose  by 19.

They return to action Tuesday at five pm in the opening game of the Christmas Tournament when they take on the undefeated  Nash Central Lady Bulldogs.

Not Time To Worry

You see this in the NFL every week. A team wins a big game one week and loses the next. Fans ride up and down on the elavator or joy and despair all the time. It doesn't have to be just the NFL as it occurs at every level. Rocky Mount boys basketball team has brought into this season high expectations with all the returning big men that surely this team would go undefeated and win another state championship since this is an even year coming up 2014 and the Gryphons have won the last two titles 2010 and 2012 on even years. The two down to the wire losses this week ends any thinking of an undefeated season for those that thought that was possible. What has shown through is how fragile any team is when all the pieces don't fit. Both losses have occured with Emmanual King on the sidelines. He and Donte Battle have started and Jaquell Bryant has come off the bench. This week Jaquell has started and has left no big big man to be used as back up. Jaquell is a defensive specialist but when he is thrown into a starting role more scoring is needed from him and then when it is time for either he or Battle to come out of the game for rest there is no defensive specialist in the game in his normal role. We all as fans forget how lucky any team is to go all the way through any season and wind up winning a state championship. Have we all forgotten 2010's team had to beat Northeast Guilford in over time 83-82 to get to Chapel Hill or that we only beat West Craven by three in the semi finals. Not only do you have to be good but lucky helps more than we are willing to admit. In both 2010 and 12 in mid January the Gryphons were still trying to put all the pieces into place before they went on winning streaks that took them to State titles. Mike Gainey has built a basketball juggernaut in Rocky Mount but not at any time in the past five years have they threatened going undefeated. Back in 2008 they were 19-7 and lost in the sectional finals in overtime 77-74 to Northern Vance. 2009 they were 17-11 lost in the second round. 2010 the state championship team had lost three times by mid January. 2011 20-11 lost in the regional semi's to West Craven. 2012 lost three times during regular season before taking the state crown and finishing 25-3. 2013's team lost only twice up to the regional finals lost but the team with the best record didn't make it to the state finals. Don't get wrapped up about losses this early in the year. You know they haven't lost one yet to a bad team. It is not like as we watch them play you are saying holy moly they are bad this year. This years Gryphon team needs time to play together and find their roles. They get another chance tonight as they host Greenville Rose who will have any football players on the team this time that were in the football playoffs when we played them earlier.

Another Plateau

Today marks  blog number 2000 posted by yours truly.  The first appeared on August 1st in 2008 which is 1939 days ago which means over those five plus years I have done 69 extra post to average more than once a day.  During that time 178,000 times you have ventured to look this way.  During that five plus that averages out to 90 of you per day.  As long as I am able to provide items that interest you where during the month of November more than 150 have hit this site on average per day.  Thank you for your support.

2,000 sounds like a great number and when you add the almost 1,200 times I've been behind the mic either on radio or TV providing some type of coverage on live sporting events but I am no where in the league of Chuck Kaiton the play by play voice of the Carolina Hurricanes.  Late in November Kaiton did his 3000 hockey game on the radio covering either the Hartford Whalers or the Carolina Hurricanes since his first game was in 1979.

If you have Ever listened to a Hurricanes game right off the bat you will notice that Kaiton does the high paced action of the NHL solo.  There are not many that can do it and do it as great as Kaiton does.  Found out today that I will be adding two more broadcasts to my list next week solo as I will cover the Nash County Holiday Tournament at Northern for the All New Sports Show.  I hope when I grow up I can make the calls as well as Chuck Kaiton.

Last night Rocky Mount  high made the trip to South Central and lost for the second night in a row 69-67.   Once again the Gryphons played without Emmanuel King and it shows the fact that every team needs to have every member in order to play with high effiency. The Lady gryphons lost a close one 46-41 at south Central. Both Gryphon teams are 3-2.

Tuesday night  South Central had beaten Northern  boys while the Northern Nash girls won by 20.

Daggered

The first two home games for this years Gryphons boys basketball team has been hold your breath right down to the wire affairs and tonight's game went over time and in the end Ryan Weaver the HC quarterback threw up a three pointer with only milli seconds on the clock and Weaver 's shot hit nothing but net and Hertford County a week after losing by 16 at home to Rocky mount stuns the Gryphons 77-75.

Rocky Mount maintained a  four to six point game throughout the first three quarters but could never shake the Bears who drilled threes throughout the night.  Rocky Mount who trailed by four late somehow or other managed to survive a shot  at the end of regulation just to get to overtime. Twice in overtime RM thought they had a five second call while one official signaled turnover another signaled time out HC and then with a shot rolling off the rim with 2.1 seconds left all the Gryphons needed was the rebound but it rolled out of bounds giving H C that chance for that last second dagger.

Donte Battle had 22 points and 16 rebounds.  Isiah Alston scored 22 and Broderick Caudle 21. Daquan Ruffin 26 points and Weaver lead HC with 22 but at this point Rocky Mount's defensive guard play leaves much to be desired.  Both South Central and HC guards shot open threes all night and at this point  much improvement has to be made there.  Not much time to practice as RM. travels to South Central Wednesday .

You know when the lead hits fifty and they don't stop the clock any more then the girls game never had a chance to be  much of a game.  The Lady Gryphons  lead by 21 at the end of the first and 41 at the half as they clobbered. Hertford County 76-19.

You know it isn't close when your top two scorers for Rocky Mount scored more than the entire HC team did.  TT Thomas lead the Gryphons with 21 and Carmen Richardson 19.  Once the clock started  running without stopping HC had 38 turnovers but I quit keeping stats at that point.

Read The Fine Print

I don't know whether you are into pro football so much as that you have voted for any player for the Pro Bowl team. Yes I have several times been on line and voted for Philip Rivers and Russell Wilson as quarter backs on the Pro Bowl team. Whether you can say that the Pro Bowl should be flag football or not the NFL is trying to spice up life this year by all players that are voted on the team will be selected in a fantasy draft type and the top two vote getter both offense and defense from AFC and the Top two vote getters on the offense and defense in the NFC will then hold a draft and select what team everyone will play on. If you are voting for your guy and hoping he is a NFC or AFC player then hold your breath. You could see Panther players on opposite teams. The NHL has done this for a couple of years and it add excitement putting players on the same team with each other that normally would not be team mates. It also makes it like back yard ball when the two captains pick players and you hope you are not the last one picked. Duke's reward for winning ten football games this year is a trip to Atlanta to play Texas A&M in the Chic-Fil-A Bowl. Coach Cut has done for Duke football what coach K did in the early 80's. Basketball was down in the dumps watching Carolina and State win National Championships in basketball but hung on and let the coach have time to develope his program. The only thing stopping Duke football from a 20 year run under coach Cut is his age. Carolina returns to Charlotte to play in the Belk Bowl. Carolina is 0-3 in games in Charlotte even though they will be at home basically. I would say the reason for that would be that the Belk Bowl is not on the level of other top notch Bowl games so more of a let down than reward for a 6-6 season. Looks like ECU got the best of the Bowl deal heading to Florida to St Petersburg to play in the Beef O'Brady Bowl against Ohio. When I say they got the best deal sunny Florida is what I mean. It should not seem as if the world ended Sunday night when the Saints beat the Panthers. The score was about what I expected. Two weeks the Saints come to Charlotte and if the Panthers are still healthy they will win. Cam is playing much better ball this year for the Panthers but still this surge has been because of the defense more so over the offense. Newton continues to throw high when ever he throws and high passes are easier to intercept. The one thing he has improve on greatly is his deciding when to run. Finally today I know many of you watched Sunday's game in Philly with eight inches of snow on the ground. This past weekend a bus load from Rocky Mount made a weekend trek to New York City and were scheduled to return home at 3pm Sunday but due to the weather left at Noon and rode by the stadium in Philly during the afternoon. It took 8 hours for the bus to get to the Maryland State line on I-95 but from there the roads were clear and the trip took 13 total hours. Glad that was them and not me.

South Central Game Moved

If you have been trying to find out the score of the Rocky Mount South Central basketball game from Friday night you will not find it.  The Gryphons arrived on time only to find that the gym floor had moisture on it and was unplayable.  That game has been move to this Wednesday night. I hear that since there were plenty of Gryphon fans who made to trip only to turn around and go home admission to Wednesday nights game will be free

This really puts this week as a big week for the Gryphons as they play home Tuesday against Hertford County travel to Winterville Wednesday and host Rose on Friday. We just might know a lot about the 2013/2014 Gryphons after this week. The Gryphons escaped with a victory in Rocky Mount when they out lasted the hot shooting Falcons of South Central two weeks ago and playing on the Falcons home floor Wednesday night will probably be the test of the year before conference play starts in January.

I guess all of the so called experts in picking point spreads were right after all as Florida State after taking a pretty good punch from Duke in the first quarter manhandled the Blue Devils from that point on winning 45-7. Florida State will return to the BCS championship game for the first time since 2000. The SEC was in a real panic all week with the outlook that the SEC after winning seven straight BCS championships was going to get left out of the big game but thanks to Michigan State victory over Ohio State Auburn is in. The Auburn Missouri game looked like Rocky Mount Academy playing in an eight man football game with all the running around going on. I like offense but please show me you can stop somebody every now and then.


I'll take Florida State in the BCS championship game against Auburn. Can you imagine the pressure Auburn will be under probably not favored in that game but the weight of seven straight SEC national championships victories and Auburn might be the team to stop the streak. That's kind of like the 1974 UCLA team in basketball lead by Bill Walton losing and stopping UCLA seven straight national championships in a row. Did you get the feeling with all the news media coverage of the sex scandal with Jameis Winston and the allegations being dropped that Winston knowing that the world was watching and ready to vote for him in the Heisman trophy voting he tried to be too perfect in the first quarter and missed several wide open receivers. Just think what the score would have been if he had of been sharp in the first quarter.

NFL Scheduling

I don't care which NFL team you pull for it is very hard for those teams on the west coast traveling due to the fact that only nine NFL teams reside west of the Mississippi River. Case in point today the New York Giants play in San Diego. Regardless of each one of these teams records (5-7)this is one of the big games in the NFL this weekend because it marks the second time ELI Manning has played in San Diego since he rejected playing for them in 2004 draft which has become famous after the Giants drafted Philip Rivers and 15 minutes after Rivers was drafted a trade was made switching quarterbacks. Rivers knew in 2004 that there was something amist after hearing his named called by the Giants since he had never spoken with the Giants at any time during the time preceeding the draft. If you look at stats only San Diego made out like a bandit getting Rivers which at this point in his career is the 6th best passer rated quarterback in the history of the NFL. I would like to pass along a happy birthday wish to Philip as he turns 32 years old today. Just maybe Archie Manning knew something when he didn't want his son in San Diego. Manning despite only average stats has helped the Giants win two Super Bowls in that time. It will be interesting to see the crowd reaction today when these two teams collide. Manning and Rivers have met playing against each other once four years ago when San Diego traveled to New York and Rivers threw a TD pass to Vincent Jackson in the right corner of the end zone with 29 seconds to play to beat the Giants 24-21. Manning and the Giants played in San Diego in 2005 with Drew Brees as the Charger QB and Rivers riding the bench, the Chargers won that one too 45-23. Now back to this travel deal. Today marks only the third trip to the west coast for the Giants in the last four years while San Diego has made four trips to the east coast this year alone Philadelphia,Washington.Jacksonville and Miami. Of their seven road games so far only one to Oakland has been in their same Pacific Time Zone. If I were an NFL coach I would never change my clocks for games. Most NFL teams practice every morning at 8am so for San Diego that would be at 11am EST. Most games on the east coast start at 1pm so if SD never changed their watches they play at 10am PST so they would be finishing up practice then any way. I think people over think too many things in this world and I would never change my watch flip flopping one coast to the other. You are there only for a day anyway so what's wrong with telling your team kick off is 10am.