The Great Debate

Does Rocky Mount need a multi purpose arena that seats at least Five thousand people? Do we need it in downtown?  Those of you that want any kind of arena to make money guess what none do at
least not many.  Regardless of the cost Rocky Mount needs more than a 1200 seat Dunn Center. A question that interest me as who came up the figure  five  thousand. Listen for a city who charges you  extra on your light bill for power we don't even get why not build a ten thousand seat building.

First of all yes we do need a entertainment complex where our citizens can go and have plenty of parking well lit for security and easy to get to.  Well that eliminates any location down town.  Just for entertainment purposes the 19,000 seat PNC arena has 8,000 parking spaces.  If you have ever been in the PNC that equates to about one parking space for 2.5 people in one car. A 5,000 seat building would need 2,000 parking spaces.  If you have been any where in down Rocky Mount the space just needed for the parking lot  you would have to tear half the buildings down to find the space.

I can see it now  the answer for down town is build a parking deck.  Have you ever been stuck in that parking deck at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill after a football game.  You get home early Sunday morning after a Saturday afternoon game. What kind of four lane streets is this building going to be near to help get the traffic in and out.  Just think how long it takes to get 400 cars out of any high school parking lot and this new building could have five times more cars.

The largest building east of I-95 in our area is Minges in Greenville about 8,000 seats.  If we are going to spend money why not build something that would be the biggest in the area. If say 10,000 seat  you could have some big name concerts.   Broadway type productions just might come. What I visualize is a stage in one end similar to the small arena in Fayetteville called the Crown Arena.

I know that our city official who love to spend our money are dead set on a building in downtown to revitalize it.  But if you can't get to.  Then when you do go can't park within a mile of the place which then puts your personal safety in jeopardy nobody is going to go.  Then downtown remains dead and we have another 32 million added to our light bill.

So please city officials who have their hands in our pockets willing to spend our money.  If you build it they will not come unless it has access off highway 64.  Sports complex area fits that bill.  Just thinking top of my head say the property across from Nash Community College.  I know there has to be someone on the city council that has property somewhere off 64 that we could buy from them to build this building.  Seems they always find a way to help each other make money for themselves and we pay for it.

Basketball Schedule Change

The Rocky Mount Gryphon basketball team has not played a home game since December 13th when they beat Rose 71-54. Their next scheduled home game was suppose to have been next Tuesday against Fike in the third conference game of the season.  Received a text from Mike Gainey this week stating the two games with Fike are flip flopping.  Next Tuesday's game will now be at Fike and the game  for Febuary 6th will now be at Rocky Mount.

So when will the Gryphons play their  next home game?  It will  not be this Friday as they are scheduled for a trip to Hunt 9-3 1-0 while Rocky Mount is 7-4 1-0.  Also Friday Southern Nash 4-9 1-0 will visit Northern Nash 6-8 0-1.  Fike 13-1 0-1 travels to Nash Central 4-10 0-1.

We already know the Gryphons will not play at home next Tuesday cause they are at Fike.  How about the following Friday January 24th. Sorry Charlie but they travel to Southern then.  By the way following this Friday night's game they travel to Northern Durham to play Saturday in the Martin Luther King Memorial Tournament where they will play Riverside. So ok are the Gryphons ever going to play another another home game?

Yes Tuesday January 28th a Tuesday of all days Northern Nash will pay a visit to the Rocky Mount gym.  But, if the Gryphons have already played at Nash Central, Hunt,Fike, and Southern Nash what does that mean.  Starting with the Northern game Rocky Mount will play five straight conference home games and will not hit the road until the regular season's  last night.  The Gryphons will host the Big East conference tournament.

As you may have seen over the weekend a high school player from the Raleigh broke the backboard on a slam dunk and until a new back board arrives his school is one short.  He is a sensation on You Tube and local TV has made him out a hero.   If you watch the replay you will notice he hung on the rim ever how short a time until the backboard came down.  I don't care how a superman everyone can makes the player the actual cause of the shattered glass was a defect in the glass and if you have ever noticed backboard breaking never occurred until the retractable rims were created. Every dunk when the rim comes down ever so slightly comes out of it's position in the backboard and pops back in place once the player lets go of the rim.   Sorry but I don't see where the hero worship comes from in this deal.

Who Is Really Most Valuable

I don't think there is any doubt that when the NFL mvp award is announced that Peyton Manning will win the award  hands down.  The records he has broken this year and the record his team has who else could it be.

We will for the remainder of this week have to listen to all of the talking heads tell us how good both Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are.  If they are far in a way the best of the lot in the NFL just who is the most valuable to his team. I am going to present evidence that is not even close between the two.

In 2011 when Peyton Manning sat out the entire season the Indianapolis Colts went from the division winner to the worse team in the NFL and receiving the number one draft pick.  Peyton Manning was so valuable to the Colts that without  him they were awful.

Tom Brady played less than a half in the first game in the 2008 season.  His replacement Matt Cassell led the Patroits to a 10-5 record the last games of the season.  He had a 88 quarterback rating and by the next season that one year earned him a big time contract with Kansas City.  To say the least Cassell quarterback rating has only been 80 since and Cassell has at best been average NFL quarterback.

I say that Tom Brady has been a by product of the Bill Bellichek system and any quarterback that Bellichek chooses can run the system.  So I think that Brady has had the fortune of being at the right place at the right time. If it wasn't for an injury Tom Brady May have been a lifetime backup.  I am not saying Brady is not one of the top quarterbacks today he is just not the most valuable as perceived by the media.

Today we are heading to Fayetteville to Methodist  College where former Gryphon Tabias Hilliard  is turning into a solid basketball player.  While a member of the 2012 Gryphon state championship Tabias was a point guard that  distributed to others but after a nice freshman year  Hilliard is averaging 9.8 points per game and leading the team in assist with 3.8 per game.  We talked about Tom Brady being at the right place at the right time and Tobias Hilliard has a home in Fayetteville.

Peyton Or Tom One Is In Super Bowl.

I like the wild Card week better than divisional weekend because it seems the games are better and closer.  A couple had interesting finishes this weekend but for the most part all four games this weekend weren't that close.

Seattle had complete control of New Orleans in fact  only being down 16-0 at the half could have been worse for  the Saints.  The Hawks were trying to run the clock out the entire second half and to me  bury who ever you play until the 4th quarter. Then start trying to end the game

I think Indy had too much emotion used up in coming back like they did against KC.  Then the next issue is playing on the road.  Those of you who believe in the pass happy NFL all four teams that won this weekend all won the the war of the ground game.  Funny isn't that during the year the the passing touchdown record is broken nobody won by just flinging it.  Tom Brady didn't even throw a touchdown.

Of all the games this weekend the SF/Carolina game went exactly how I thought.  Cam and company simply aren't good enough against a very good defense.  Carolina has as good of defense as anybody
And holding the 9er 's to 23 was great on their part.  Panther fans have every reason to think the future is bright.  You would expect  Cam to continue  to improve and hope the defense is just as good next year.

The Bronco -Charger game was simply a game where  San Diego needed to stop Denver on third down they couldn't.   They held Peyton to 24 but didn't score enough themselves. The weather did have and effect in this game  27 of the 41 points were scored when the team were going left to right on tour TV dial with the wind. This game was won because Peyton score a touchdown in each quarter going in the wind and San Diego scored none.

What we have is San Francisco travels to Seattle while New England heads west to Denver .  The Super Bowl has great ratings regardless of what teams are in it but what is for sure that either Manning or Brady will be in the Super Bowl.  Neither may be every ones darlings except for the media.  they will now have three weeks to tell us how great one of them is.  This week they will talk about both but the two Super Bowl weeks lord help us all from the media.

Can't Get Any Worse

The three Tocacco Roads teams can't get any closer to the bottom of the ACC  than they are this morning.  Carolina is last at 0-3 and Duke and State are 1-2.  They all have one thing in common.  They don't have a quarterback.  All three are blind as to what to do in half court offense.

Carolina to me has the hardest road to hoe because I don't think they are very good.  If you look at Roy Williams what I see in him reading between the lines I don't think he thinks the team he has
right now which is not the team he thought he would have is not very good either.

The lone year Duke had Austin Rivers they had a hard time building a team around a player who knew that was going to be one and done.  They never played team ball the way Coach K wants team defense.  It looks to me they have the same problem this year as they have a player who has no idea there are four other players on the court wearing the same color uniform as he does.

State has a guard in Cat Barber who is a run up and down guard that has no idea when they are in a half court offense how to get the ball inside the 3 point line.  Lewis who thought he was going to be the starter isn't playing well at all when he is in there.  If I was State knowing his team plays better running I would press all the time just to get my team moving.

The good news is the season is still early but if all three continue to play the way they are playing now nobody will go 500 in conference play.  I don't think it has ever happened that all three looked this bad all at the same time.

Today we will look at TaShaun Mabry the former Gryphon  who is playing at Tarleton State in Texas.  Tarleton is undefeated  at 13-0.  Mabry is the first player off the bench and the 3rd leading scorer on the team at 10.8 points per game.  He has been red hot shooting 45 per cent of his threes.

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Fike Falls From The Unbeatens

I questioned on this blog Monday the quality of the Fike boys undefeated 12-0 team as to who they had beaten this year to prepare them for the Big East Basketball Season.  Tonight Fike traveled to Southern Nash and the Firebirds were ready to give the Golden Demons all they wanted. Southern Knocks Fike into the loss column for the first time with a 50-49 win.  The Southern girls pick up their first conference win beating the Lady Golden Demons 53-48 .

Rocky Mount and Nash Central boys have already met before Christmas with the Gryphons winning by 12 on a neutral court at Northern Nash.  Tonight Rocky Mount travels to the Bulldog gym and you would think tonight this is the Bulldogs chance but not so.  Rocky Mount dominant the Bulldogs 53-27.  Yes that score is right.  Seems every rebound belonged to the Gryphons.

Two of those teams looking to challenge Northern met for the second time this year and for the second time Rocky Mount wins a close one 52-45 over Nash Central.  Carmen Richardson led the Gryphons with 26 points.  So after the first night of Conference Northern,Rocky Mount and Southern  all are tied for first in the Big East.

Northern Nash girls started on the road in what might have proven to be at the second best team in the Big East when they traveled to Hunt.  The Lady Knights start off Big East Conference play with a 57-40 victory over the Lady Warriors.  If it proves out Hunt is second best in the conference then it looks like a log jam fighting for second.

I promised that we would look at local high school players who now play college basketball and today we look toward Charlotte and Queens College.  Tia Hudgins was a small forward/power forward when playing at a Rocky Mount.  The 5'8" player has had to adjust to playing guard in college and Tia is doing rather well. Queens is 4-7 so far this season and Hudgins is averaging 8.6 points per game. while in high school Hudgins had a magnet in her hand and she always knew where the rebounds were going to be.  She hasn't lost that trait at Queens as she is averaging 6.8 rebounds per game.

The Next Week Of NFL Playoffs

We get another weekend of Saturday/Sunday double headers this weekend as the four teams that got byes must be ready to face teams that already have playoff wins under their belt.  I was three and one last weekend and let's see where we are heading this weekend. Let's get it started with the home team Carolina Panthers.

The Panthers get a home game against a team that has two offensive players back in Davis and Crabtree.  You could see what those two do for Colin Caepernick.  All of a sudden he is not in a slump any more.  Winning hides flaws and really this winning ways for the Carolina Panthers has come from the defense not the offense.  Yes Cam has had two winning drives the last two games but quite frankly if the defense didn't keep'em in the game those winning drives would never happen.

SteveSmith'sinjury hampers the offense for the  Cats. I know the Panthers won the division but I think they would be better off with a team full of players never in the playoffs they would be better served to have played last week.  Do you honestly believe this games is 10-9 again this time.  Carolina might get ten but the 9'ers will get more than nine.  SF 27 Panthers 10.

Last time New Orleans play in Seattle they got slaughtered.  The Saints got their first playoff road will but they will not get their second one this year.  Seattle has too much defense for Drew and company.  One thing that Russell Wilson does for Seattle he doesn't  lose the game like a Dalton will in Cincinnati.  He let 's the D control the game and scores enough to win.  Seattle 26 New Orleans 17.

Indianapolis at New England sends the miracle team Indy to New England who lost another defender this week for the year. I can't see a team giving 45 surviving on the road but look I don't see the Patriots being all that good either.  I think some how or other New England gets another Brady tuck rule call and wins.  Pats 34 Indy 27

Talking about somebody who has pressure on him this week but Peyton Manning needs to back up this season with a Super Bowl win but do you really believe the Broncos D can hold down San Diego after Von Miller is out for the Broncs. Philip Rivers is 2-0 against Manning in playoff games and he has won five of the last seven trips to Denver.  I'm telling you San Diego defense  which has had all their starters in the lineup for the last five games which are five wins.  Denver only had three games all season that they scored less than 30.  28,27 and 20. San Diego D was the 28 and 20.    I believe in the Bolo magic.The Chargers are the non bye week team that is going to win it all if the D stays Healthy.  Chargers 35 Denver 27.