The Drama Returns

There will be no six way tie after the aftermath of this Friday night's Big East basketball.  The only game being played Friday where if the 1-2 teams wins they would tie the 2-1 team will be at Rocky Mount  as Southern Nash invades Rocky Mount  for the second time this year.  They played a very competitive game in the first round of the Christmas Tournament with Rocky Mount winning by 7.

Standing 1-2 Southern just can't afford to drop another game this early with the talent they have.  They are playing the road end of their games early third road game of four while Rocky Mount is home heavy the first time through third of four.  The Gryphons can't afford to lose another at home especially after the nice road win over Fike Tuesday.

Fike 1-2 heads to Northern Nash 1-2 and it is bad news for the loser.  Since Hunt and Nash Central face off at 2-1  then there will be at least one 3-1 team by midnight Friday.  Fike in the hole by one having lost a home game Tuesday needs to get it back and Northern needs to stay perfect at home to stay in the Hunt.

After losing both games during the Nash County Christmas Tournament you would never expect The Bulldogs to be playing for first against Hunt.  So the game of the week in the Big East will be the two playing for first but there isn't a game or team still out of the running.

The girls slate starts with Northern Nash and if you include the two games in the Nash County Tournament they have played five conference teams to date and they have won all by double digits.  Total domination thus far but truly the Lady Knights need somebody to push them because you know in the playoffs they will be pushed and they need somebody in conference to push  hard.

Fike 2-1 will get their chance to attempt to see how tough the Lady Knights 3-0 are.  The biggest enemy the Northern girls have are themselves getting complacent somewhere in the next month.

Southern girls 0-3 at Rocky Mount 1-2.  Here is one of the few chances Southern has in winning a conference game this year.  Wasn't close at Christmas because the Lady Gryphon defensive simply would not let the Lady Birds  attack the basket.  The strength of a Rocky Mount is the defense and when they get guard offensive contributions to go with their defense they can play with al most anybody.  Their problem has been getting that contribution from the guards.

Hunt 2-1 at Nash Central 1-2.    This is the game of the night in the Big East.  If everybody in the league is playing for second then the Lady Bulldogs  can't afford Hunt to get a two game lead in the league for second.

Whether it's boys or girls with the exception of Southern's girls and the dominant Northern girls everybody else are close in talent and size so another night of drama goes down Friday around the Big East basketball world.

Gryphons Get Their Home Loss Back

The way this Big East basketball season has started you can not afford to lose a home game.  The very first game of the season Rocky Mount lost to Hunt at home and in order to finish above 5-5 in the standings then you have to win games on the road as well as don't lose another game at home.

Tonight Rocky Mount made up for their home loss going to Fike and came out charging and never gave Fike a chance.  The Gryphons lead by nine at the end first, 23 at the half and increased the lead to 25 by the end of the third.   Rocky Mount allows Fike to  cut into the lead in the fourth but the Gryphons come home with a resounding 74-55 over the Golden Demons.

Rocky Mount record jumps to 9-3  and 2-1  and Isaiah Alston tossed in 28 for the Gryphons and the only other double digit scorer  was Sherrod Green with 10 .  Fike falls to 10-4 1-2 in the Big East  and now  tied for last at 1-2.  Rocky Mount joins a three way tie for first.

Rocky Mount girls struggled on offense with only one player getting double figures Tamara Harper 12 as she scores almost half of the Lady Gryphon points as Fike knocks of Rocky Mount 39-26.  The Lady Gryphons are now 6-6 1-2 while Fike ups it record to 7-7 2-1.

Hunt played host to Southern Nash and this night has become the night of big wins.  Hunt has little trouble holding off the Firebirds in a big way beating Southern Nash 71-48.  Be interested
To see how this one got so one sided.

We are down to two teams left in the NFL and Seattle and New England.  I was 2-0 this weekend and because of a Russell Wilson was pulling hard for Seattle.  You know quarterbacks get all the glory but let's be for real. The Seattle defense kept the Seahawks in the game and an onside kick muffed by the Packers gave Wilson one more chance and even with the comeback was still his worse game in NFL career.

Now it will be interesting about inflate gate.  The Colts turned over one of the game balls in which Brady had been passing with that was soft.  Does a soft ball help the passing game in wet weather?  We will see the outcome from this but I can tell you from my limited experiences as a quarterback it helped to have a smaller ball.

During my junior high days I was a backup quarterback and the balls we used were way bigger that what I could grip.  I could hardly throw the ball 20 yards until we used smaller balls which were easier to grip and easier to throw.  Be interesting in what the results will be from this.

Smoke Clears Time To Start Over

Six way tie in a six team conference.  Everyone is tied for first and everyone is tied for last.  Twenty per cent of the season is over and everyone is back like it is the first  game.  Nobody wants to lose the first game which is now the third game.  Somebody needs to step up soon or the Big East will be a mess by playoff time.

Rocky Mount @ Fike:  The Gryphons have already played twice at home with mixed results.  They need to make up for the home loss with a road win.  Rocky Mount 8-3 and Fike 10-3.  Fike won at home lost on the road and if they do that all season they would be 5-5.  Somebody has to say enough is enough and grab hold of first place.

The girls game features two teams at 1-1 both either hovering above 500 Rocky Mount 6-5 Fike 6-7 just below.   Both are 1-1 in Big East and after Friday's destruction by Northern of Hunt it should show everyone they are playing  for second.  The team of the four at 1-1 Rocky Mount, Nash Central, Hunt and Fike the one that has the best record from the other three will get second.

Southern Nash 9-5 @ Hunt 9-6:  Southern had  a one point loss on the road Friday so they have shown the ability to keep it close on the road.  Hunt is the only road winner so far beating Rocky Mount so at this point two games in they still have the edge plus they have two road games off the schedule.

The girls game will feature Hunt's chance to get their second win facing the winless Lady Firebirds.

Northern Nash 4-9 @ Nash Central 8-4.  Only home game amongst Rocky Mount teams.  After watching Nash Central in the Nash County Christmas Tournament NC has improved more than any other team.  I have stated The Knights are better than their record.  All teams in the league being tied we are back to where one loss just drops you out of first so even having two conference losses is not as bad as it has been in the past at least until Wednesday.

The question in the girls game Northern 13-0 against Nash Central 10-4 is there anybody in the league that can push Northern?  The Lady Bulldogs get them at home and here is their big chance.

Montrezl Featured On ESPN.COM

One day last week ESPN.COM ran a story on Louisville basketball player Montrezl Harrell the former North Edgecombe and Edgecombe County basketball star who now as a junior may very well be heading to the NBA  after this season.

The story is titled Friends Keep him in line.  It is a story about his friends coming up through the AAU days and those that were teammates.  It includes many names that if you are a high school basketball fan of the area you will recognize from this area. I don't know how you access ESPN archives but I know you can pull it up on Google at Montrezl Harrell Friends keep him in line or m.espn.go.com/ncb/storyline=12467742.  It is another story I think you will enjoy about people from our area.

I have talked about this many times where the want-a-bees wanting to move up to the high rent district and they get a win over one of those Wall Street teams.  Last week State beat one of those Wall Street teams in Duke and stormed the court to celebrate.  The very next game after the massive celebration State starts out the game kind of in la-la land and Carolina who is also a Wall Street team  sends the want-a-bees  back to the low rent district.  Maybe beating this year's Duke team is like ECU's football wins  that when all the smoke clears it wasn't all that much.

ECU football had the same problem in football after beating both Carolina and Virginia Tech.  The season proved out that both those wins were just against average teams.  At the time of both games ECU had beaten teams that they wanted to mirror.  ECU got so high beating those two that they had a hard time playing Joe Average team there after.

How does Alabama stay so close to the top in football every year.  The view from the Pent house is a lot different than the basement.  When you stand in the penthouse beating Auburn is just another win.  Yes it is big in the State of Alabama but no storming the field because it's just another win.

Today there is relief for Carolina fans that they beat State but there is no conformation in beating State that Carolina will win the National Championship.  State's victory over Duke gave Pack fans hope that maybe  1974 and 1983 is  on the horizon again.

Every team has their rivals and don't care who you are you get up for those games regardless of how good that team is that year.  Does the State Carolina Rivalry mean more to State or Carolina?  Carolina will not admit it because as the Wall Street team they don't want to lose to the team from Brooklyn.  State when they do win tend to go over board and Carolina's pressure in that game is to keep State from going overboard.

State fans or ECU fans and remember when we talk about football Carolina is a want-a-bee they tend to when they get that taste  of beating those Wall Street teams get high off success.  It's like when I'm dieting and lose 20 pounds.  The first time I eat a piece of chocolate I go overboard for more and get fat again. The want-a-bees fall right back in government subsidized housing and have to start make the climb out of the low rent district.

Yes people are just like that too.  Win a million in the lottery and three years later right back where you were before the win because went go over  board over this that are not natural to us.  There is an old saying in football that when you score a touchdown act like you been there before.  The State's  and ECU's of the world just don't get to stay long enough in the high rent district to learn how to act as a Wall Streeter.  They get there ever so often and like the feeling when they are there and would like to get that feeling more.

Congratulations are in store for the Nash Rocky Mount schools Athletic Director Angie Miller.  She has won the Distinguished Service Award from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administration Association.  The Distinguished Service is for her length of service, Special accomplishments  and her contributions to interscholastic Athletes in local, State and national level.   Way to Go Angie!!!!

How Do We Get To Be Who We Are

If you are part of the circle which I live you have heard me tell this story before. How did I get here in my life where I am now especially when I was 12 what I wanted to do.  Back during my hey day it was the 60's and am radio was king.  The big 50,000 watt stations boomed into eastern North Carolina at night  and my two favorite DJ's were "Cousin Brucie" on WABC in New York and at the time Jackson Armstrong WKBW Buffalo New York. 

"Brucie was the #1 jock in America and he played the rock and roll hits.  I liked Armstrong because he played the hits too but he talked so fast if you didn't know the lingo you missed it with him.  My grand father Minton gave me a 6" reel to reel tape recorder  when I was 12 and I use to hold the mic up to my record player and record songs.   I would wait until WABC played a jingle.  WABC had a simple one where a group of singers would  sing   the call letters W A B C or Sing out "Cousin Brucie".. I would then splice out the jingle  and I would talk into my mic as if I was "Cousin Brucie" then play a record  like the Beach Boys Good Vibrations and hold my mic over my player and record the song.  I would then splice in the jingle and record another record and then after my 30 minute tape was completed I would lay back on my bed and listen to myself being a bedroom disc jockey.

That of course led me to go to work at WRCS radio in Ahoskie in 1970 and after graduation from high school went to work the following Monday as a full time jock in Ahoskie.  I pretty much played radio until 1976 and upcoming marriage led me to believe that being a disc jockey  in Ahoskie was not going to feed my family the way I desired so I found a sales job as a living and played sportscaster for the rest of my life.

The live ball games on radio are dwindling for me so it has been more taped TV in the past few years.  Now this brings on the story of how did I get into the blogging business?  My freshman year in High school my first period class, was English which is not a very good way to start any day in high school.  In fact it is not a very good day at all when you have to take English as a 13 year old.

My second class of the day was typing.  Like all typing classes you were timed and ever how many mistakes you made was how you were graded.  Almost every Friday our typing teacher Mrs Taylor would give us a timed test and after than was over do what ever you wanted as long as it didn't require spit balls or excessive noise disturbing other classes down the hall..

My little group of us football players who all sat in the back corner would sleep, talk about girls or in my case I would write made up sports stories about the guys around me.  The stories were as long as time allowed and for me to read my results back to the guys before class ended.  They would go something  like this.

Ahoskie High JV football team beat Edenton yesterday when Clint Steele tackled  the Ace's quarter back causing a fumble.  Jimmy Godwin   the Indians linebacker    pick up the fumble and start running the wrong way causing Bobby Harrell Ahoskie end to give chase to Godwin and tackled him before he cross the wrong goal.  The force of the tackle caused Godwin  to fumble where "Hoss" Earley lineman for the Indians scooped up the fumble where he preceded to run 90 yards the right way for an Ahoskie score.  The touchdown secured another conference championship for the Ahoskie JV's.

They were funny stories that everyone liked and every body thought I would got to school to be a newspaper sports reporter.  As I progressed into the radio sports business my becoming a newspaper man took a back seat and with the advent of the blogs it has brought  me back to writing as the live play by play gig dwindled..  The late Charles Alston rode with me to many games when we were doing Gryphon sports on the radio and we had many discussions traveling to and fro  and once he started the Gryphon Grapevine I ask him if I could write a weekly column  for the Grapevine.  It didn't take long before Charles set me up with this blog and it is almost a daily obsession for me. 

So you see, whether it is talking on the radio or writing this blog it is in my genes.  Just imagine if I had of played the drums instead of a reel to reel tape recorder where would I have been now?

Inter State Pileup

Hold on  to your hats the Big East basketball race is up for grabs as Hunt visiting Northern Nash has gone down to defeat to the Paul Cherry led Knights of Northern Nash.  Cherry had his greatest game ever for the Knights getting a double- double  10 points and 10 rebounds as the Knights Upset Hunt 65-61.  This puts Northern at 4-9 1-1 and Hunt 8-6 1-1.

We thought it would go   down to the wire game and it did as Rocky Mount hosting Nash Central tonight a two point game in Rocky Mount's favor at the half, tied at the third quarter mark and at the buzzer Rocky Mount holds of Nash Central 67-62  Both are 1-1 in the Big East and  overall Rocky Mount is 8-3 while the Bulldogs drop to 8-4.

Asaiah Alston lead RM with 22.  Got plenty of help from Amir Pittman and Broderick Caudle with 13 each.  Nash Central had a trio of double figure scores led by Aaron Spivey 20, Keshun Peoples 15 and Josh Mullins with 12.

Tonight in Bailey Fike has beaten  Southern Nash 62-61 so the Big East is in a six way tie for first everyone is 1-1.  I am sure that has happened to some conference some where in this world but this is the first time I have ever heard of all three 1-0 teams last week played teams 0-1 and all three 0-1 teams won creating mass confusion.

If this was the last game of the season I think they would have to pick the seedings out of the hat.  I doubt that any possible tie breaker goes as far as what happens when there is a six way tie.


Don't think that there is anybody that has seen the Lady Gryphons of Rocky Mount play  that they have had moments where they looked the part of a very promising basketball team.  Then they for a quarter they would play as if they were on a ship without a rudder.  Everything that they did well for three quarters would go away from the play in one.

Tonight the Lady Gryphons  keep it together for an entire game and down the Lady Bulldogs 50-38 as both even their record in conference play at 1-1. 

Keyanna Spivey 21 and Tamar Harper are proving to be and all conference type front court with Spivey getting 21 points and Harper 18.  Nash Central had three led by Kathryn Wilkes and Myia Spivey 11 each and Michaela Nelms 10.

Not quite the mess in girls basketball as Northern played Hunt and Northern was in complete control winning by 18.  Fike as expected had little trouble with Southern Nash 47-30.  Now that the smoke has cleared Northern is the only undefeated at 2-0.  Rocky Mount, Nash Central. Fike and Hunt are 1-1 and Southern trails at 0-2

Critical Week For Big East Basketball

Everyone has played once in conference play and once again only one conference game this week due to exams.  If the "old wives tales" are right next week will be under stress of weather .  I don't know about you but it thundered at work on Monday while a drizzle was falling in the fog and depending on how many days you have heard it should snow sometime between Monday and Wednesday of next week.  If it does happen no telling what the schedule might be next week.  Vital match ups high light this weeks games.

Hunt @ Northern Nash:  On the girls side this will pit two 1-0 teams  and record wise Hunt 10-3-1-0 could give Northern a tussle 12-0  1-0.  I doubt it will happen at Northern Nash.  This game does pit two of the three conference undefeated teams in this one.

The boys find Hunt 8-5 visiting Northern Nash 3-9:  Hunt showed the world against Rocky Mount that their height will be a major factor for any team wanting to take away from the defending conference and regional champs the 2015 conference championship.  This will be a tall task for Northern.

Southern Nash @ Fike:  Fike 9-3 - 0-1stumbles at Nash Central while Southern 9-1- 1-0 did their business to Northern.  This is a must game for Fike.  Nobody wants to be  0-2 but if it happens  to anyone the key to this season and any other is the ability to hold on for home court wins and steal a few on the road.  All three boys games Friday are1-0 team playing 0-1 teams.  We could have three teams 2-0 or three 0-2 or somewhere in between.

Southern girls 0-13-0-1 will not get too many opportunities to win this year.  This might be one  even though it is ever so slight.  Fike 5-6 - 0-1 will be on it's home court and this is surely not a game anyone in Big East can afford to lose.  As far as conference games go not many games on any one's schedule that they will be  out right favorites other than Northern.   Fike can't let this one get away.

Nash Central @ Rocky Mount:  Nash Central girls 9-3- 1-0 seems primed while Rocky Mount 5-5 0-1 still needs to get the water pump gushing.  Vital game for Rocky Mount having already lost at home. Here we go again looking at stealing one on the road for the traveling team and holding serve at home.   If Nash Central wins and goes  to 2-0 this could give them  the confidence to push on while if Rocky Mount drops to 0-2 it could work the other way.  Talk about a big game but this is it.

Nash Central Boys 8-3 - 1-0 Rocky Mount 7-3  0-1.  Both seem to have the same roster in size and speed.  Classic inter city Rocky Mount game.  I would suspect the gym will be over flowing by game time of the boys game.  Rocky Mount is staring at five of last eight games on the road and this is a must for them.