ETNBB

This has got to be a joke right!!! How many games did Farragut lose in spring ball this year to mediocre teams? They lost one game to Fulton last year but beat Fulton 2 -3 times. The saving factor is the top teams in the region are down.

Does anybody have any info about the rumors that Phillip Jurick is transferring to UTC?

The coverage was terrible but there were not very many good games except today Farragut beat Walker Valley by 3. WV was undefeated until now. In other games WV beat South Doyle and Lenoir City by alot. Farragut beat Sweetwater and Hardin Valley by a lot and Lenoir City beat Sweetwater by a lot. Not sure about the other games.

Farraguts guard will be playing he was just resting his knees during those games

whats everybody thinking about this rivalry game?

I know both landon and riley and he has twice the potential his older brother does and he will be huge this year for farragut. Confindence for him will be a huge key though.

Sam watson is a solid player and did outscore the entire grace team with 9 but the 6-10 kid isnt aweful hes a project and will grow alot by the end of the season to become a strong contributor and please dont smack talk a single player who plays hard and is a nice person

looks good and i wouldnt change anything except maybe swtich Farragut and AE

Farragut and Siegel are playing

Do others agree that "Sunshine" Logan Johnson (former South Doyle high school player) is playing really well in Rocky Top games? He seems to be playing very strong fundamental team basketball compared to some of the "name players" that tend to get a lot more press. His basketball IQ seems really high and he is a good shooter with enough quickness, energy and hops to compete at a pretty high level.

Things are looking better since Seniors Austin Bolen and John Jester decided to play again this year. Although neither have played since Freshman year they add some toughness. A 6'9" 270 lb post has also transferred in.

Although the Ballerz do have a tendency to play to the level of the competition (who doesn't) they have "consistently" won their pool in every major national tournament they played going 3-0 and making it to at least the sweet 16 or final 4 of championship bracket play where they have had a few heart break 2-5 point losses to top teams. They do not have a bad loss. This is not easy to do. With their team speed on offense and defense, multiple shooters and scorers, good coaching and enough size and strength to keep other teams big guys from going off they are a very hard team for any one to beat. These rankings are amazingly subjective but from what I have seen you could easily justify this ranking plus or minus a few spots. If they can hold it together and get that break through win over a top ten team by the end of the summer I could even see them moving up. If you don't agree with the rankings why don't you do something constructive like giving an alternative and rationale instead of picking out one team (the Ballerz) to bash.

Congratualtions to Coach Shulman, Coach T and the Ballerz!!! The Midstate Ballerz defeated a very good Memphis YOMCA team in the finals to win the 17U State tournament this weekend in Memphis. The Nashville Gators beat the Franklin Rage in the consolation game to take third. The Ballerz had to beat the Gators, Rage and YOMCA teams Sunday to win the tournament. The Ballerz won the 16U States last year as well.

Sam Watson of Farragut is also getting looks from D1 schools.

This is different from your original statement of "Farragut is not a top 10 team in East Tennessee." They are probably not playing at the same level as Bearden, Oak Ridge, and Fulton at the moment because they seem to be playing to tight. They only lost to Maryville by 3 and they beat Fulton 3 times in spring ball so they have the potential and talent but the players will need to find a way on their own to relax and play with more confidence, defensive intensity for the whole game, block out and rebound, and attack the basket on offense. It will be interesting to see if they can pull it together and play with the upper tier teams by the end of the season. But hey why not start with Oak Ridge on Thursday....

Hard to argue with this order based on current records and head to head results. Could argue Bearden should be #1 based on how they peformed in Super 16.

Sounds like somebody got some sour grapes for Christmas. Are you basing your whole opinion on a close game with WB? You don't say who you think is better than Farragut and should be in the top 10 instead. They are 13-3 with only losses being to top tier teams in the State. They are ranked 11 in the strength+success for AAA and beat the best team in NE Tennessee, Dobyns-Bennett, by 19. Bearden, Fulton and Farragut were clearly the best teams at the super 16. Carter, Loudon and the rest of the teams were not very impressive. Carter barely beat Morristown East in OT where Farragut crushed them. Cocke County has been really up and down and has not looked like a top ten team and Cathloic hasn't really beaten anybody good. William Blount is probably better than this group of teams and may have a case for being #10. South Dyle and Karns have also looked good at times this year.

The admirals have a poor fan base they only show up for the bearden game except for 10 kids that go to every game

Jay is a great PG, but i have to mention Johnathon Moore from farragut he is a pure point gaurd distributes the ball and makes people better when hes on the court, he can also knock down a shot whenever you need it in a game.

MISSING EASY SHOTS AND BAD SHOT SELECTION

I hate when people judge other players by one game even if he had an off game you still have to look for other things he did besides score like defense rebounding passing and things he does to just make his team better unless you watched him for the whole game and only him like a scout would you dont know what your talking about dont bad mouth players you only saw 1 time

Farragut lost 4 starters and the sixth man and they had a 21 point lead with 5 min left but took out all the key players thats when clinton made there run. the game was never really very close till the last minute or so Also farragut scrimmaged OR and they are on a level above clinton when i compare the two

Prepxtra rankings are out: 1. Bearden 2. Maryville 3. AE 4. Fulton 5. Oak Ridge 6. Farragut 7. Loudon 8. Anderson County 9. Powell 10. Catholic This is probably the strongest group of Knoxville area teams I can remember. 1 through 6 are all very good, although from what I have seen AE is good but ranked to high. Maybe they will improve as the season goes on but just about everyone below them - Fulton, Farragut. Oak Ridge, and AC looked better in spring ball and scrimmages. 3 Bearden (Simpson, Jenkins, Craig), 2 Maryville (Douglas, Damron), 2 Fulton (Gallman, Minor) and 2 AE (Jones, Florence) and 1 OR (Dowdell) players listed as top players. As usual a talented group of Farragut players is overlooked. Binder is the only one mentioned in the ready to shine category.

Prepxtra rankings are out: 1. Bearden 2. Maryville 3. AE 4. Fulton 5. Oak Ridge 6. Farragut 7. Loudon 8. Anderson County 9. Powell 10. Catholic This is probably the strongest group of Knoxville area teams I can remember. 1 through 6 are all very good, although from what I have seen AE is good but ranked to high. Maybe they will improve as the season goes on but just about everyone below them - Fulton, Farragut. Oak Ridge, and AC looked better in spring ball and scrimmages. 3 Bearden (Simpson, Jenkins, Craig), 2 Maryville (Douglas, Damron), 2 Fulton (Gallman, Minor) and 2 AE (Jones, Florence) and 1 OR (Dowdell) players listed as top players. As usual a talented group of Farragut players is overlooked. Binder is the only one mentioned in the ready to shine category.

It probably isn't fair to pick out individuals because all the players had to play their hearts out to get these victories. D'alvin Brown knocked down the game winning three while being fouled with 2 seconds left in the Atlanta game. Sam Watson was huge in the Atlanta game scoring @17 against much bigger players and slowing them down defensively. Skylar McBee played well in the Carolina game and hit the game winner with 5 seconds left. Charles Taylor has really stepped up his game and played well through out. Derrick Walker and Terrance Williams had really strong contributions as well. Jordan Rorex, Jay Murphy and Joey Lee (he is always around the ball) did a great job running the point and putting pressure on the ball. Their was a 15u that played up for the tourney but not sure of his name that gave some quality minutes. Coach Shulman deserves a lot credit for this championship. Considering this was one of the biggest tournament championships by a TN team all year it is disappointing there was no coverage even by the TN websites. Rivals had a big article on the Atlanta and Carolina 16u teams at the start of the tourney but nothing on the Ballerz after they beat them both. Just not enough star power I guess.