Disappointing Night For Montrezl Harrell

Scuttle Butt had Montrezl Harrell going in the first round of the NBA  somewhere between the 22nd and 28th pick.  If you are a first rounder you are guaranteed a contract and big time money.  Eleven PM came and Harrell never got on stage.  If you do make the first round say in that 25th  pick area that means you are heading to a playoff quality team.

The early thirties normally are reserved by the bottom feeders  but the Houston Rockets the 32nd  picked called out Montrezl  Harrell.  So now Montrezl is a pro basketball player.

Harrell spent three years as big man on campus at North Edgecombe High School but chose to finish out his high school career at Hargrave Military Academy where in his senior season Hargrave lost once in 39 games.

Harrell chose to attend Virginia Tech  and committed before his high school senior year ended.  Shortly after the end of the college basketball season Tech fired Their coach Seth Greenberg and Harrell asked for and was granted his release of his committment  to Virginia Tech.  Now open to more recruitment Harrell chose Louisville and head coach Rick Pitino.

A backup big man his freshman year Harrell was part of the 2013 Louisville National Championship team.  He gave up his college eligibility in April that he would declare for the NBA and his three years in Louisville brought an 11.9 scoring average, 6.9 rebounds and .9 assist per game.  Once he signs his contract he will give the Twin Counties a Tri-vector  of professional sports athletes.

Three play professional football Julius Peppers from Southern Nash who is a defensive end for the Chicago Bears.  Shaun Draughn who has resigned with the Cleveland Browns and is a special team player.  Todd Gurley Who was the top draft pick of the St Louis Rams who today declared he would be ready when the Rams begin training camp in late July.  Gurley was picked first by the Rams despite having knee surgery in November while playing at Georgia. Both Draughn and Gurley graduated from Tarboro.

Baseball is covered by four Rocky Mount Gryphons who are all climbing the ladder in the minor leagues. Brian Goodwin who has been as high as  AAA Syracuse but due to injuries in on the recovery trail at Harrisburg Pa the AA home for the Washington Nationals. Brian is rated as the Nationals 14th best prospect.

 Hobbs Johnson moved up to AA ball for the Milwaukee Brewers just this spring.  He is rated as a top 30 prospect for the Brewers.

Just this week Benton Moss pitched in his first professional game for the Hudson Valley Renegades  of the New York Penn short season league.  He was the sixth pick this month of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Collins Cuthrell is finishing up his second week as a professional baseball player.  His summer is being spent in Florence Kentucky a suburb of Cincinnati where is is playing in an independent league hoping that his stats will impress a major league team to sign him.

Right now he is on the outside looking in but Nash Central grad Xavier Macklin  cut earlier this spring by Florence Ky is checking out any other possible baseball moves.  To say the least the Twin Counties with  a population between the two counties of 150,000 gives you a one in 18,000 are professional athletes.  I think that stacks pretty high with any place in the country.

ACC ACC ACC

Yes Chicago Cubs fans there is hope.  There is a chance that one day the Cubs will be more than the team who doesn't have  a fan living that saw their last title they are all dead.  Wednesday night and early Thursday morning the team with the worse record ever to win the College World Series the Virginia Cavaliers 44-24 a member of the ACC beat the defending National Champions  Vanderbilt  4-2!

1955 national baseball power Wake Forest won the title.  Since that time almost 30 teams wearing the ACC Moniker on their sleeve have played in Omaha and everyone of them were better than this year's Virginia team but Yahoo for the Wahoos.  They removed the monkey from the ACC's back.  I would suspect this is the opening of the door for the ACC much like when Duke finally won their first basketball title.  They will now come in bunches for the ACC.

Both games Tuesday and Wednesday were hard to watch as both took near four hours to complete.  Too many batters staring at their bats in the batters box.  The Virginia catcher stared into his dugout looking for the pitch call more than he watched his pitcher.  The pace was mighty slow.  However there was enough spectacular defense to keep you awake by both sides.  If it wasn't for the defense the Championship game may have taken five hours.  Regardless of how tire I am it's worth it to see the ACC win it all.  How good of a year was this for the ACC?  Third in football first in basketball and first in baseball.

Virginia went 15-15 during conference play and at one time was 10-14. Won their play in game and then lost three straight games in bracket play in Durham.  Went west and maybe the weakest regional in the entire tournament and played as a three seed.  Saw two major top eight teams in their bracket lose and hosted the Super Regional after Maryland who was an upset winner  in their bracket never made a bid during the season to host a Super Regional.  Omaha saw the Whoos beat the top seed Florida twice and then knocked off the defending champs twice after being down by losing the first game of championship series.

Virginia was a patsy in baseball until coach Brian Conner arrived.  Conner play his college ball in Omaha for Creighton and pitched in the World Series  in 1991. His home town of Council Bluffs Iowa is just across the state line from Omaha.  Some times the stars just line up right.

Virginia is  a prime example of when coaches tell players never give up.  They got many breaks along the way.  Today They  have come from the dead to be National a Champions.

Moss Sees First Action

Benton Moss just newly signed minor league player for the Tampa Bay Rays went to the hill for the first time Monday night for his summer team the Hudson Valley Renegades.  He threw his first professional pitch out of the bullpen in the sixth inning of game four on the season. One inning he walked one and struck out one batter.

Hudson Valley is a team in the New York Penn League and the season just started last Friday. Playing their home opener after starting with three wins on the road  Moss took over in the sixth inning with his team ahead 1-0.  The next pitchers after Benton gave up six runs in their first loss.

Collins Cuthrell now more than a week into his professional baseball career playing for the Florence Ky Freedom is hitting 387 in his first eight games.  He has 12 hits in 31 at bats and a 387 average would be leading the league in hitting if he had enough at bats to qualify.   A player in the Frontier League needs to bat 2.7 times per game to have enough bats.  They have already played 32 games this season so Collins  would need to have batted almost 80 times.  He has hit a homer and driven in five RBI so far in his young professional career.

Brian Goodwin is on the upswing playing for the Harrisburg Pa Senators.  His low point this season his batting average had dipped to 206 but a hot streak his average is up to 240.  He has hit two home runs and with his speed now has three triples and nine doubles.
Brian started the season in AA coming off shoulder surgery which derailed his season in AAA Syracuse in July last year.  He is listed as the 13th top prospect in theWashington National organization.  If this hot streak continues Brian just might be heading back to Syracuse shortly.

Brian has a new teammate in Harrisburg in the name of Trea Turner former number one draft pick of the San Diego Padres who was acquired by Washington June 15th.  Sine he has been in Harrisburg he has played short stop and is hitting 313.

Finally Hobbs Johnson is now 4-4 pitching in Buloxi Ms.  His era is up to 3.68 and his sixty innings pitched he has walked 25 which is a high number for Hobbs. All during his high school days at Rocky Mount  and college at Carolina his walks per nine inning were under three.  Right now he is near five per nine innings and those extra men on base is keeping him at a five hundred pitcher.

Former Carolina pitcher Matt Harvey us making a nice comeback after having missed all of the 2014 season for the New York Mets after Tommy John surgery.  Harvey is 8-5 with an ERA of 3.18.  Harvey who has been known to toss the ball to the plate some times at 100 miles and hour has hit 100 since his co back.

Post 13 Best Start Ever

Wilson Post 13  (11-1) is  off to the best start ever in the history of  Wilson Legion baseball.  Much of the success so far can be laid on the hands of three players who might  not be there if Rocky Mount  Post 58 was fielding a team.

Rocky Mount Gryphon Blake Helms so far is 3-0 pitching  while Rocky Mount Academy's MJ Jones is 1-0 as well Northern Nash pitcher Derrick Carter.  These three have won five of the 11 games that Post 13 has won so far this season.

Twenty four hours after the U.S. Open In which maybe the last fifteen minutes had more leader changes than ever had 11.5 million watching which was 40 per cent more than last year's open so I think Golf has moved on from Tiger being the only reason to watch golf.  Sunday night was the second most watched Fox sporting event ever only behind Super Bowl coverage.

All of the innovations Fox promised very few made and impact on the coverage.  They loved using that animation of the greens so you could see all the undulation but when ever they used it it covered up the trek of the ball.  They had bragged that they were going to used more cameras get more angles than ever before yet did not have a  camera to see the face of Jordan Speith when Dustin Johnson missed the putt to tie.  When they finally got a camera over to him he was obviously stunned having won instead of a playoff on Monday.

Can the ACC  break their sixty year drought since they last won the College World Series?  Virginia for the second year in a row is playing  Vanderbilt for the title.  Virginia just two weeks before the ACC regular season ended had not even qualified for the ACC tournament.  Virginia in the World Series so far has beaten the top seeded team in the whole tournament Florida twice and now must beat Vandy twice in order to break the ACC drought.  Vandy won the first of the two out of three 5-1 last night. Virginia will need to win tonight and Wednesday to give the ACC it's second title.

The U S women advanced in the World Cup beating Columbia 2-0.  Last night watched maybe  twenty minutes of the soccer.  I have noticed from high school age on up no fat people play soccer which might be a good thing if we all got more exercise.  I looked up just to see the price for a ticket and the highest price was 80 dollars.  I looked up to see how many fans could sit in Edmonton Stadium and it holds about Sixty thousand.  I don't think there was more than 25,000 in the stadium.  The U.S. Plays China in the quarter finals next.

Chambers Bay Hard On Rookie TV Network

There was plenty of complaining about the condition of the golf course and especially the greens.  If the course was that bad why did the winner beat under par?  Anybody realize three of the last five
U.S. Opens the winner had matched par or one over to win.  Rory shot 16 under and last year 9 under at Pinehurst were the only under par scores.  More than half of the scores in the history of the tournament have been over par.  Since 1970 when golf courses have become manicured the scores have been under par more.

So the golf was good I wish I had of been able to have seen the results of many of the shots or putts. Fox loved to show long range shots of drives where they used a tracer so you could follow the ball.  What they needed to do was use the tracer on putts.  The greens were so brown the ball was lost many times blending into the greens or should I say browns.  Once Fox would zoom the camera in to follow the ball we could see it other wise missed most putts.

I have HD TV but that wasn't much good either.  The blonde interviewer who stood in front of a monitor and tried to interview certain players.  Where did they get her from.  Friday after Jason  Day had collapsed her interview question to Jordan Speith was where is your head now after Day's spell.  What kind of question is that to ask the leader of the tournament?

The blimp shots made the course look like a sand pit that was no longer used and had grass growing is spots.  I thought  the course was really unfair when you drive the ball almost in the left rough but before it gets through rolling it has plunked in the right rough.

If we had a hard time following the ball how do you think the cameramen felt?  There were way too many shots where the camera had no idea where the ball was and several times announcers were describing shots and the camera shot on TV was of something else.  Despite all the bad things getting to watch the U.S.  Open four nights in a row til after 10:30 is hard to beat.

He didn't win but Jason Day just might have won a million fans for his effort.  I had major knee surgery in 1974. It took me ten years before I had enough confidence not to watch every step I took because one little pebble if I stepped on it wrong would flip my knee out and I would be flat on my face.  I know Day's every movement he had to be thinking am I  going down again? All think in the middle of the U.S. Open.

What more could any golf fan ask for?  The winner Jordan Speith made a birdie on the last hole to take the lead and had to watch Dustin Johnson missed a ten footer to win.  Then missed again.  We will always remember Johnson's three putt for bogey but he made par and lost.  This tournament truly is the sign there is a new king of golf.  Tiger has his worse tournament ever and Speith becomes only the sixth player ever to win the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year.  The only problem I see is there will be no golf Monday night.

Wilson County Schools Strong In Wells Fargo Cup

It case you didn't notice it this year the two Big East schools from Wilson County dominated this year's Big East standings in the Wells Fargo Cup.  Each sport played by every team is listed with six points for the team winning first right down to one point for finishing last in the league.  When you add all the points up Fike wins the Big East conference Wells Fargo Cup accumulating 181 points.  Baseball was one first place finish for Fike.  Hunt finished second with 176.5 points.  Rocky Mount won both boys and girls track and with that effort finished third with 171.  Northern Nash finishes fourth with 161.5 while Southern Nash has 148.5.  Nash Central who started the year not winning a football game never got out of last with 125.5.

I find it rather funny that coaches have been going to football clinics learning how to teach  heads up tackling.  Back in my playing days they had a penalty called spearing if you led with your helmet.  We were taught that the only safe way to tackle was with your head straight up.  We were told you could not get a neck injury if you tackled that way.

The formula was make contact with the ball carrier with your head up into his number.  Grasp your arms around him and then drive with your feet.  It makes sense that if you lower your head you could have your neck driven back down your spine causing neck and spine injuries.  Never heard of neck and spinal injuries during the days I was growing up wanting to play ball.  Finally When it was my time never saw one either.  I was run over a few times but never had to worry about the spinal cord area.

If you think football drives the bus in college athletics.  There are more than 400 members of the North Carolina Athletic Association and 67 of it's member will have a new football coach by the time August football practices start.  Yes, some coaches  retired others move to a different school and some lost their job from lack of wins or pressure from not being successful.  If that figure occurs every year every school would have a new coach every seven years.

Since this is a one man operation it is very hard to be in the right place at the right time on any scoop that may occur.  I get Many text, calls, e-mails, and people walking up to me and say have you heard this.  I want to thank any of you who steer me into directions to find information that appears on this blog.  Sometimes that info needs further investigation and there are times I know the lead is dead on accurate.

If you watch any of the so called major networks sports reporters have their sources in which they rely on when they either go on the air with a report or write it down.  I guess in my small way I have a system of informants just like them.  We have in this area many athletes who do well in sports that nobody hears about until a source passes information on.  Why would they do that?  They want to see people get credit when credit is due. I know lots of information about things that will be happening but I have swore to keep secret until the proper time.  Thank you all the people who pass on to me your trust to give me what you know.  We have lots of things in this area worth everyone knowing about.

Tarboro Starts Hall Of Fame

Tarboro High school has started a Hall Of Fame to recognize outstanding sports accomplishments.  It has coaches players and even a team made the Hall Of Fame.


The 1970 football team which was the first team under the combined school of Tarboro and Patillo High Schools.  Playing on the Ahoskie High team in 1970 I remember Tarboro won their conference championship as the first team in the new consolidated high school.


Two coaching legends Doug Alexander and Jim Brett in football along with football players Kelvin Bryant who excelled at Carolina and for the Washington Redskins.  Donald Franks who played at Winston Salem St. and six years as a cornerback for Oakland and San Diego mostly.


Mike Caldwell  baseball pitcher  who excelled in Legion baseball, at N C State  and pitch for 18 years in the American League.


This century Marquetta Dickins took Tarboro high deep into the state basketball playoffs then spent four years playing for Kay Yow and only needed 11 more points to score a 1,000 in her Wolfpack career.  She spent a few season playing basketball in Europe but now is assistant basketball coach at Monmouth College in New Jersey.


Volley Ball has a representative in Casey Collins.  Carter Ray Suggs  and Wanda Phillips who were  outstanding in track.  Gus Andrews who starred in three sports.  Wrestler Michael Stokes, Artis Bryant who excelled in football at Patillo High.  Jontae Sherrod from men's basketball this century made the Tarboro Hall of Fame.


You know Tarboro is one of the last of the old towns where on Friday night it is all about Tarboro football.  Even a Tarboro High supporter made the Hall. Milton Steele "Coca Cola" Brown for his support of Tarboro High athletics.


Tarboro has been able to stay a small town where everyone knows everyone.  Those places are few and far between these days.  It is those small towns that have held on to local traditions because in Tarboro everything revolves around Tarboro High.  Don't care how big any town is Tarboro's Hall Of  Fame is as good as anybody else who has one.