FLMS

Bonfire, I'm really amazed at how much you know about this district! Heck you know whats going on at every school amazing. As for L.C. the kids have been told for three years now they should win 20 games but they haven't done much. I guess you can say this is the most talent they have had in a while since they won about seven games last year? These kids were left very close to opening practice and the new coach is trying to just relate to them. The assistant coach is a very good coach and letting him teach the old system is smart. L.C. has several seniors so why change now. Honestly, in a different way the new coach has much more discipline than the former coach. Its not all about basketball with the new coach he is teaching them about being quality people and to have fun. L.C. hasn't been successful since the early 90's so trying something new isn't all bad!

Great Post J.J. Wildcat! Its great to see a player of your caliber be such a humble kid. Keep working hard and D1 opportunities will follow!

I have had the opportunity to Coach Ben in AAU. He is a great player. It was an honor to Coach such a great passer of the ball. The thing that stands out with Ben is first how hard he plays and secondly how well he passes. I must say his shot looks better than it did this summer. I haven't seen been play football but have heard he is excellent. On a side note Loudon wll have two great guards in the future when Grant Gasper another super plyer joins Ben in the backcourt. They will have alot of fun playing each other this year.

Philadelphia is strong and will probably play Cherokee in the finals. Coach Waller at Philadelphia has his girls playing well. Also Coach Boling has LC playing well.

J.J. Wildcat thanks for giving my girls some props! We are working hard and every game will be a struggle. However, they are hanging on in the end. I think you guys are in for a great season! Also that transfer North got is the real deal! You guys work hard this week in practice and good things will happen Sat. Coach W.

Splainshort, I am no longer coach at FLMS but current girls coach at North Middle. If you are interested in a scrimmage I would be happy to help arrange that with our boys coach. Since, I teach at North yes we do have a very good transfer. My response to J.J. Wildcat was kinda a joke. The transfer is a great middle school player. He is not hype. We are blessed. The tough teams in the L.C. Tip Off tournament will be Riceville defending Champs, Ft. Loudoun TNT champs with a great point guard in Gasper and a very good post in Fickey. Philadelphia should good as always with great coaching and a very good point guard in Everett. Rockwood should be strong this year. We have a great team as well. It should be fun, we are excited about our team! I really don't know what the rest of the teams have returning. Lenoir City will be well coached. Hope this helps!

J.J Wildcat, I hear North Middle has a pretty good transfer. The problem right now though is he has a hitch in his shot. Work hard this week in practice. UK

cbg & bulldog69, I have no intrest in Maryville football, so don't take this as a Maryville fans point of view. The question was who is the best team in Tennessee? I agree with both of you it is clearly not Maryville when you are talking about the overall state. That is clearly the private schools such as Breantwood Academy and MBA. However, I do think Maryville would hold its own in that great football area known as Nashville. I disagree that 4A is weak compared to others especially 3A. East Tennessee teams such as Austin East and Fulton have done well at the Clinic Bowl the past couple of years and they for one would get pounded by Maryville. Also, Maryville is a 4A school and I would love to see them play the 4A schools in Nashville on a regular basis. I mean to do you have to win 5 to 10 state championships in a row to prove hey we may not be the best team in the state but we are for sure with out question the best 4A team in the state. As a matter of fact I would love to see the 3A and 4A Nashville teams come to East Tennessee and get it handed to them each night. Folks from Nashville need to realize that MBA and BA can recruit the best so yes they should be the best. I'll give you guys credit Riverdale is great on a regular basis.

Holcomb is a quality pro but Chad Pennington an East Tennessee boy is the most accurate passer in the NFL.

Automatic, I was curious to how some of my boys are doing( J. Hawkins, Packett, J.P. especially)? Oh by the way, I hate seeing all these posts about L.C. on here, we haven't had a descent team since the mid 90's or a great team since the Cozart era. I would like to see L.C. have a good year agian. By the way Loudon has a great tradition and with the young TALENT coming in will be tough to beat in the future. Good Luck This Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Travis Cozart was prbably the most highly recuited player to come out of East Tennesse since Leroy Thompson. The guy was an amazing talent! Hespent his first two years at Coffeville Community College in Kansas and was an Juco All american reciever. He returned to Tennessee and was pushing Jay Graham for the starting spot before being dismissed from the team. He spent a year in the Canadian football league as a running back for the Shreaveport Pirates. He made practice squad for he Miami Dolphins and was doing well for the St. Louis Rams before getting into some more trouble. He has spen several years in prision and is currently back in Lenoir City. Could have been a top 5 draft pick.

I didn't say th coach from kaya was poor in any manner. I'll give credit when it is due he has taken a bunch of extremely talented players and they play very well as a team no question. To me that is a sign of a good coach especially in today's me first game. I was just curious to why they didn't press because they play so well that way. It is when they are at their best! They are the best I've seen at that style and I know that first hand believe me so aaucoach 13 don't take my comment wrong. You won the tournament by +71 points so obviously the strategy worked. It is to my understanding that most of the teams out west are really big and I felt like that would be the style he would choose to play to advance at state. I hope kaya wins it all they are the best team I've seen and I respect their coaching extremely. As a matter of fact the move to go box and one agianst the elite won them that game ifthey didn'tgo to that defensive they may not have even won the game. I just felt maddox didn't adjust to the box and one.

I will be honest after watching the tournament as an outsider. I felt the best player in the tournament was cory cavin from the top gun. The reason that the kaya beat elite was because they are better. Yes the Elite had one great player but the kaya took him out of the game early in the 2nd qtr. kaya was the team with the most depth which helps but the elite wasn't coached very well. the kaya took that great shooter out of the game with a box and one to start the second qtr and the elite were finished. I think he took one shot the rest of the game. The coach placed him on the free throw line and there he stood for three qtrs. Yes you do try to atack the middle of the box but he stood there and couldn't get the ball. o changes were made at half time and all the elite did was take one pass and shoot the three the rest of thegame. they went from winning to losing by 30 in three qtrs because a failure to adjust. I was shocked however that kay dosen't ply any type of pressure. tey had far and away the best athletes and just set there in a 2-3 zone the entire tournament. At statethey will have to do more when they face teams with the same type of ability. The 2-3 mayhave been used to rest the players but they are so deep rest should not be an issue. Yes hey won the tournament due to ability but more pressure needs to be used for them to advance at state.

The finals for Sunday in the east sub state are the KAYA vs the winner of the knox lightening/ top gun winner. the top gun had a slim lead late not sure who won. the kaya spanked the nashville elite by 35 pts. they are clearly the most talented team in the east sub state. however the top gun play well together.

I haven't played with either in a long time but I can give you some info from high school. Cusick played a little bit of every postion on the floor mostly at the wing/post postions. He had quality skills for a player with his size. His shooting was special for a player of 6'5 as was his ball handling. He also showed the ability to get up eith a couple of dunks his senior year. Massey was a quick point who had the ability to score when needed. I think Cusick played in the blue Chips game not sure about Massey. I hope this helps. If you get a chance come out and watch their wendy's elite team play you would be impressed with the quality of play.

This weekend while working a turnament at ft.loudoun middle I had the privelage of watching both Cusick and Massey coach their Wendy's Elite team. I really hope these two youngmen continue to coach in our community. They handle the kids well and are really teaching the fundamentals of the game to our young women. They are helping lady panther basketball and I'm sure coach lee is thankful. I hope more people from our community could get out and watch the ELITE play they play soud aggressive defense and shoot the ball very well. Lets just say the folks in L.C. are proud of the coaches and the girls and keep up the good work. Great Job Elite on a super tournamen this weekend. State or Bust ! Go Elite!

The last I checked both are attending Roane State Community college. Both are good basketball players that played on some very quality Panther teams. However, their true rise to fame will be in coaching. Both Masey and Cusick coach two quality AAU teams in L.C. called the Wendy's Elite. Their teams have been a true pleasure to watch with their high scoring fun and run offense and pressure defense. Keep your eye out on these two quality young coaches! A good blend of coaching and talent will make the Wendy's program a force in girls aau.

I find it hard to call McMinn overrated! Yes, the Cats won and were the better team last night. However, Livingston didn't get the lead till 50secs left in the game. McMinn led most of the way by 6 to 8 points. Great job by Livingston especially Beechboard and the guard number 11. Beechboard is a special player the best I've seen this year. But to not give McMinn credit is plain dumb and these posters should get alife rather than just try and disrespect other kids and fans. McMinn also beat Walker Valley by over twenty twice. They can play with the best teams in the state regrardless of classification. It was proven last night they could even though the results didn't go the way they would have liked. Ask the Livingston Academy fans who watched their team tail 98% of the game if McMinn is as good as any team in the state but like a qualty program does LA steped up and advanced.

The player that could jump out of the gym was probably Travis Cozart who played at Lenoir City and not LOudon. He also played football for Tennessee.

TW Hoops, I don't respect your comments when you say 92 LC was one of the best teams to ever not make a state tournament. That team was good but not that good. Oh by the way you stated you played on it, I guess thats why you feel that way. You must live in West Tennessee as well, I guess that has alot to do with your opinion. Yes anything can happen when you reach state but that tough comp out there in the west should have you guys ready. AE does make it to the state finals just about every year and beats alot of teams from Memphis and loses to alot of teams from Memphis. They like most of the teams from Memphis need coaching. I feel differently about all this domination because it seems to just be trends. The mid 90's saw small schools in east tennessee win three out of four years and I'm talking about Sweetwater and Harriman. I hope the better Memphis teams didn't choke three out of four years. Also Science Hill dominated the state for a period of about 5 years with maybe not the best players but clearly the best teams the state has produced in along time. I think in a four year period they reached as high as number two in the nation. But I forgot they didn't play anybody even though they beat Oak Hill academy. But thats still not as good as playing Memphis ciyt teams LOL. The stats don't lie and the numbers are similar for a ten year period. I will say this Memphis is the best but often come up short at the state. However, they haven't been lately. Will their state tournament winning streak continue probably but it hasn't been the norm over the years.

Yawn! I get so tired of hearing about West Tennessee! We know Memphis is by far the most talent and better teams. Anyone who knows basketball would not argue. But, I would say at the Championship level it has only been dominant in AA. Yes, I understand that if you took the best eight teams from the state in each classification you would get at least six for each class from Memphis. But these tough schedules which they are should prepare a team for state. In fact since 1990 East Tennessee has won in our states top classification 5 state championships. Middle Tennessee has won 2 state champioships. West Tennessee has won 5 and maybe one more because I'm not so sure where Bartlett is located. All I'm saying is when they get over to MTSU the East and Middle Tennessee teams more than hold their own agianst the best teams from Memphis. On a side note Science Hill of the mid and early 90's were clearly the best team in the state and had incrediable records. They played tougher competiton on a national level than is played in Memphis on a nightly basis. The 95 team is the best team I have ever seen play and I go to the state every year well at least the past 12. I haven't seen Memphis produce a better team. Individual players sure but team nope!!

Some of the rankings on this board are getting funny! How can someone put Shelbyville over Oak Ridge who beat them at a neutral gym. This middle Tennessee stuff is getting old. Yes they Shelbyville won the Deep South Classic but Oak Ridge has faced tougher comp in both tournaments they played in. Great post it gave me a good laugh.

This post is so funny! Do you all not realize the best two AA teams played in the first round of the state last year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is a blind draw!!!!!!!!!!!!! The state championship game was played in the first round last year and if you were to ask the coach from Jackson County he would agree. McMinn Central returns four starters and their bench from that team. As a fan of girls basketball not McMinn Central they are the best team in the state this year. If someone want to say Jackson County I will give you that due to their success. The best team mabe in any class is Central. They beat the AAA state champion last year in a couple of scrimmages and haing seen both I think they are btter than Oak Ridge which has proven its the best team in AAA so far this year.

I hate to disagree with you but to put Oliver Springs and Giles County ahead of McMinn Central is wrong. McMinn Central maybe the best team in the state in any class! They are clearly better than Oliver Springs and beat them by thirty this summer! I will say Jackson County is better until McMinn beats them. However, I am not from McMinn and actually live a good bit away but have followed bothOliver Springs and McMinn and right now Central is about 15 points better. Giles County finishing second in the state is misleading McMinn and Jackson County drew each other in the first round. At that time McMinn was ranked number 1 in the state with only one loss. They return four startes from that team with mayb the best point guard in the state. Another East Tennessee Oak Ridge returned alot from last year and though I haven't seen them this year, I felt McMinn was better last year. On another note glad to see Oak Ridge beat shelbyville today!!!!!

However, I think Lee is clearly better. She runs her team better, she shoots better(dosen't shoot nearly as much as Hall)and is just fundamentally better. Now, Hall is a great player cat quick, can fill it up, and just plays so hard. The difference is the control and team leadership Lee brings. I think Hall trys to do to much and thats because she dosen't have as quality of players around her as Lee has. That is not saying OS dosen't have good players Central is twenty points better than OS. They only lost one player from a team that only lost one reagular season game. I know that they beat OS by 30 this summer and it could have been more. While we are on the topic Honnah Housley can play with the both of them and she plays the two for Central. As a matter of fact she is a better athlete than the other two. Of course this these are only my personal opinions which dosen't mean anything.