Back On The Court

Finally Rocky Mount High played in a strange place a home game.  The Gryphons have not performed there in 50 days or since December 13th.  The Lady Gryphons so unfamiliar with the rims took almost five minutes to make there first basket.  Once the boys started the Gryphons turned the ball over their first six trips down the court.

It didn't matter to Alexus Hill how long Rocky Mount had been away from home she doesn't play there but one time  a year but she played the first quarter as it was her home scoring eight points and pulling down five rebounds.  This game felt like Northern was winning by thirty in the first half but 14 was biggest lead. By the fourth quarter it seemed closer than it really was and Northern Nash girls take sole pocession of first place  beating the Lady Gryphons 57-40

The Lady Gryphons had better be glad Carmen Richardson showed up today as Richardson scores 30 of Rocky  Mount's 40 points. Only two other players scored for the Gryphons as they scored five a piece. Northern playing mostly zone bottled up the Gryphons they scored very few inside ten feet.

Alexus Hill lead Northern with 25 but she had help as five other Lady Knights scored five or more.  Hard to believe Rocky Mount out rebounded Northern 30-27 but many of Northern's resulted in put back points while the Gryphons didn't have many.  Northern made 15 of 18 free throws while Rocky Mount went just 19 of 33 .  Northern goes to 4-0 in the Big East while Rocky Mount falls to 4-1.

The much shorter Northern Knights hung tough with the Rocky Mount boys for a while but a spurt by the Gryphons just before the half gave Rocky Mount a 28-23 lead.   They put the game away in the third quarter out scoring Northern by 12.  With five minutes left leading by 29 Mike Gainey cleared the bench.  Final score Rocky Mount 69 Northern 44 .

Rocky Mount out rebounded Northern 54-27 and that doesn't include the many tap  backs at the basket as many times the Gryphon big men played volleyball  keeping the ball alive trying to tap shots in. After starting out with six turnovers at the beginning of the game Rocky Mount finished with 16 while Northern committed 14 .

Emmanuel King lead Rocky Mount scoring 20 and had 11 rebounds.Donte Battle was the only double digit scorer with 12 points and 9 rebounds but nine other Gryphons scored and another nine had rebounds. Demonte Johnson lead Northern with 11.  Rocky Mount goes to 4-1 in the Big East and Northern drops to 0-4.

Rocky Mount will host Hunt Tuesday night as this will be the battle for first place as tonight Hunt beat Fike at Hunt 83-68 to go to 4-0 in the Big East.  A Hunt victory on Tuesday would give them at least a two game lead on a Rocky Mount and even though it would not clinch first they would be in the drivers seat.

By the way I think Seattle is better than Denver but I'm taking Peyton  27-23.

No School Saturday But YES There is basketball

Nash and Wilson County school official have given the go to resume high school basketball Saturday and the Big East can get back on the basketball court despite no one has had any organized practice or games since Monday.

Rocky Mount will host Northern Nash starting with the girls jv game at 1pm.  The biggest event of the day  will be the girls game as both Rocky Mount 4-0 in conference play will collide with the Lady Knights  3-0 somewhere near 4pm.

On a normal Tueday when conference games are played both jv boys and girls play before the varsity takes the floor and I don't think I have seen a girls varsity game start before 6:30 after the jv girls started at 3:30. By the end of jv girls then the jv boys warm up and then their game many have pushed 7:00pm before the  varsity girls game gets under way.

The final match of the afternoon will be Gryphon boys who now stand at 3-1 in conference play taking on th Knights who have yet to win in conference play and will not have two of their better players.  One Paul Cherry out for the season with a knee injury and the other a disciplinary action.

Who will have the advantage as nobody has been able to hold practice with school out for weather?

Fike and Hunt will play their game snowed out Tuesday on Saturday. At this writing Nash Central and Southern Nash had not gotten together  to try to finalize playing the game they missed Tuesday on Saturday. The reason is the fact that the Big East indivual wrestling championships can be held on Saturday now at Southern Nash and the game lost between Southern and Central was to be played at Southern.  Since the wrestling was already scheduled at Southern way back when the athletic directors made the seasonal schedules for all sports last year the gym is already allotted for Saturday.

Complete Mess

Schools are closed around the area again today as the secondary roads remained covered with snow and ice.  Closed schools means no sports.  A question I am waiting on an answer is with school out again can athletic teams play on Saturday of course depending on safe roads.  If the temp get near 50 as expected  today  and If the decision is made for all to play Saturday I will let you know.  If no games on Saturday as soon as the AD's can figure out how to play all these missed games in the next two weeks I will inform you.

Swimming and diving playoff swims were suppose to be Thursday and Friday but have been moved to Monday and Tuesday.  Wrestling Duels are schedules starting Tuesday but there is an interesting twist this year.  Since no team has been able to practice hardly at all this week there is a rule that if weather cancels school a wrestler is allowed to gain two pounds from his last weight in.

If wrestlers have been sitting around eating snow cream this week and gain more than two pounds must wrestle at higher weight.  Saturday morning is the official weight in and that is weight you  must wrestle during playoffs.

Nascar has finally gone to a playoff system where it will be a winner take all format when it gets down to the last race.  The first 26 races you must win a race in order to make the new final 16 drivers format.  I like the idea it is better than anything done in the past.  I still don't like the idea that if you can't win the title why are you racing. A wreck by the car in 30th place can't knock a contender out of the chase.

Saturday morning at 11:00 am Campbell University will be on ESPNU for their first ever national broadcast  of any Campbell sporting event.  I am not sure why but Campbell is not letting the students in free for this one.  They have to buy a ticket like anyone else.  I have no idea why but here's my guess.  You know Campbell is supported by the Baptist so I think they don't want any antics by the students put on TV.  I don't know what they will do if the students buy up the tickets and still get a shot to be on national TV.

Time for chest pumping by a proud papa.  There is a national website www.slowstitch.com on Wednesday ran an article written by Brooks Doughtie talking about the new NCAA Tri varsity sports for women.  This is no ordinary website as it is kind of the unofficial Tri website.  It has more than half million hits per day including forums on the site. If you are interested and go to that page on the right side says NCAA.  How many hits is a half million?  About a half million times more than I get per day.

We Have A Schedule Mess

Both Wilson and Nash County schools will be closed again today which will be the third straight day.  Rocky Mount and Fike foresaw trouble coming and moved their Wednesday game to Monday.  They are so far the only conference games played this week.

This week was suppose to be a three game week to make up the one game for each missed from last week's weather.  Now here it is Thursday.  Last night the temperature  hit single digits.  Today it might get to 30 degrees which means there will be wet roads Thursday afternoon that might be frozen again Friday.  Do you see any chance for school Friday?

Unless the schools system' select to go on Saturday with the expected high Friday near 40 the roads may be close to drivable by Saturday.  If no school this week there will be four teams Northern Nash, Nash Central, Southern Nash and Hunt all needing to play seven games in the last two weeks  of the season.  Rocky Mount and Fike since they did play each other Monday they only six left to play.

Coach Mike Gainey told me this afternoon by text when I asked the question "How many games are you allowed to play in one week".  The answer is four  but he also added."we have a mess".  If no other games are played for the rest of this week that will put those four schools that have seven to play having to figure out how to schedule those games. I think my thought is I would rather play four next week and have only three the final week.

Another thing to remember is there is no telling what kind of weather we might encounter in the next two weeks.  Should weather cause anybody to miss any game the threat will be there to push the Big East Tournament a day or two in order to finish the regular season on the Monday when the tournament should start.

You know the way the tournament normally goes.  3/6-4/5 boys play Monday and then the girls on Tuesday.  In order to make sure the tournament  finishes by Saturday they just might have to go to three games per night.  I don't know anyone who wants to do that.

The Coach's Chess Match

A month ago it looked like Duke, Carolina and State basketball were headed to one of the worse years ever when all their records were added together.  All of a sudden Duke looks like Duke and Carlolina and State are not as bad as once thought.

Even closer to home a chess match has been going on.  Mike Gainey has one of the tallest teams in eastern North Carolina if not in the whole state.  The Big East however hardly has any six five players at all.  Almost every team in the league plays three guards a small forward and a power forward who has to play the center position.

Gainey's Gryphons  from day one on this season has not found a guard that has shown the ability to bring the ball up court against all these teams with three guards and get the ball inside where no one has shown an ability to match the Gryphon big men.  Those teams how ever have made it tough on the Gryphons to match them with the outside speed and shooting ability that teams playing against the Gryphons have shown.

So Rocky Mount has started trying to out power other teams, gamble that teams would not  make a great number out outside shots and this has been a year that it seems every team shots are falling.  Gainey has also gambled that he continued the up tempo  game even without a guard to run the fast paced that they would have enough chances to score to over ride the negatives.  For a good portion of this season that thought has not worked.

Coaches schedule games based on what he thinks his team can handle based on the ability of what he thinks his team will be when they make the schedule in the spring.  This year there were no games with SouthWest Edgecombe but those two games have been against stronger 4-A programs. Hertford County is the only  2-A school on the schedule but in the past the Bears have been one of the strongest in the Northeast.

So when you play a tougher schedule and you find yourself with a weakness all of a sudden the Gryphons have six losses four to 4-A teams,Hunt and Hertford County.  Teams have burned the Gryphons on the outside.  Harassed the Gryphon guards enough to keep the ball from going inside like the Gryphons want.  So how do you stop the other teams outside shooting?

Instead of going with the three tall men  replace one with a guard.  Now the Gryphons have two shooting guards a so called point guard and two tall men on the floor all the time.  Still with only two big men the Gryphons are still the biggest team in the Big East and now all of a sudden they have enough speed outside to cover those hot shooting outside shooters.  Now they have a rested big man coming off the bench.

The result is the Gryphons have won two conference games with the new line up in which they controlled the games most of the way.  If you remember in both 2010 and 2012 it was mid January before the teams came together to put runs on to win the state championships.  This team is coming together.  They still have flaws.

  Right now with six conference games to go they have five at home and then the last game of the season at rival Northern.  Do you realize this team has played only three home games all season?  The Miami Heat would be glad to be 9-6 having played 12 of 15 games on the road. Looks to me this team is right where Mike Gainey wants them.   I know he wants and needs someone to say I am the guard you are looking for.  If that happens that team might be a force into late Febuary or early March.  The guards have got to play better to think about  mid March and Chapel Hill.

Gryphons beat Weather And Fike

There is plenty of stress for those who have to take part in three conference games in one week. Those three games have been made necessary because of the brush with snow and ice that disrupted the normal two game schedule when only one game was played last week. Hearing of the impending weather was schedule to come in late Tuesday just maybe the scheduled Tuesday night match up with Northern Nash might still be possible. Still hoping to play Tuesday Rocky Mount and Fike got together looking as though Wednesday's makeup game was in doubt so in order to beat the weather Rocky Mount High headed south to Fike High to try to at least get one game in before this pending snow. I couldn't get there myself so I don't have details but I can report that the Lady Gryphons who started tonight tied for the conference lead with Northern Nash has beaten Fike who came into tonight's game at 0-3 in conference play. Final Lady Gryphons 45 Fike 30. As far as I know no other conference teams played other than Fike and Rocky Mount so for a short time the Lady Gryphons are in first place at 4-0 while Northern remains at 3-0. Heading to Fike who stands 14-1 and 2-1 in conference Rocky Mount 8-6 2-1 are tied with each other. Fike's only loss was a heart breaker late against Southern Nash at Southern. Rocky Mount lone conference loss was an embarrassment at Hunt. To say the least tonight is a biggie in Big East basketball. All Gryphon fans can celebrate tonight as Rocky Mount has beaten Fike 76-68. Rocky Mount remains within striking distance of Hunt 3-0 to Rocky Mount's 3-1. Fike drops to 2-2 but the bad news for them they are now two games back in the loss column. The weathermen for a week now started out didn't know what to say about this weather impending on Tuesday. As mid day Monday the weathermen were now calling for snow covering the ground before dark Tuesday so that means the hope for Northern Rocky Mount would not be possible for Tuesday so Mike Gainey and Patricia Haggerty got together and with the possibility that school might not happen at all Wednesday and at this point maybe even Thursday the games have now been moved to One pm Saturday. They are trying to do everything they can to get at least for Rocky Mount all three of their games in this week. It seems this storm system is moving even faster than expected and Nash and Wilson County schools are already closed Tuesday as the weatherman now says at least and inch can be on the ground by Noon. So Rocky Mount has one of their three out of the way so the next game on the schedule is Friday night at home against Nash Central for their first home game in I think it is 48 days. It would seem that by Friday school would be back in session but look they are now calling for 3-5 inches total in Nash County. If you are a person that takes notice to prediction makers especially weather men most of the time when they start calling for more than a dusting they most of the time are not willing to predict extremes so 3-5 just might be on the low side. If we were to get something like 10 inches I would doubt there will be any school for the rest of the week and if not both Friday's and Saturday's games could be in jeopardy. At this point it only matters if you are a kid I am sure they want to miss school rest of the year. But if you are like me anything more than a dusting is too much. Boy, I sure would like some snow cream.

Big Week Ahead

Do to possible weather complication Wednesday. the Rocky Mount at Fike games have been switched to TONIGHT. Since this storm system may be here Tuesday afternoon the Northern Home game for Tuesday night has been moved to 1pm Saturday at Rocky Mount High. Thirty per cent of the conference basket ball season is over and in order to play just three games it has taken three weeks. If weather permits another thirty per cent of the basketball season will occur this week.

Hunt  11-3 3-0 has a matchup Tuesday with Fike 14-1 2-1.  Right now there are four teams at 2-1 or better in the conference and Tuesday this is the game of the Night in the Big East.  These two have already faced each other during a Christmas tournament in Wilson and the Golden Demons won 52-50 .

Hunt has a Wednesday night trip to Southern Nash 6-10 2-1 and a Friday excursion to Northern Nash.  Fike will Host Rocky Mount on Wednesday and Southern Nash on Friday.  Hunt will face two of the three teams at 2-1 this week while Fike will will meet everyone they are tied with at 2-1.

Rocky Mount 8-6 2-1 has it's rival game with Northern Nash  6-10 0-3 Tuesday at Home, a Wednesday trip to Fike and then a home game Friday with Nash Central 4-12 0-3.  They face only one of the top four teams.  Southern Nash starts out Tuesday at Nash Central a home game Wednesday against Hunt and a Friday night affair at Fike.  So Southern will face off against two other teams that are either tied with or trail in the standings.

Northern Nash heads to Rocky Mount Tuesday, at home Thursday with Nash Central and have a Friday visit from Hunt.  Northern with three conference losses could do themselves well if they could beat Rocky Mount and Hunt.  Nash Central in the same boat as Northern gets a home game with with Southern Nash Tuesday, a trip to Northern Thursday and a Rocky  Mount ride on Friday.  They too could do themselves a favor by knocking off the big boys but if both Northern and Central have a bad week they could be completely out of the race by Friday night.

After this week there is only two weeks to go but I think by Friday night we will have a good picture who will be heading to the playoffs and who still has a shot at the regular season Big East title.  That is of course pending what the weather does this week.