Irish40

I would like to also warn everyone in DII not to ever count out Father Ryan. Unlike BA, we do not have a middle school to use as a gauge for our future talent, and i'm sure after this year (with 5 seniors making up the six man starting rotation) that people will be quick to count Father Ryan out. Probably the same people who wouldn't shut up about how terrible Father Ryan would be without Billy May. I think its fair to say we much more than held our own without him. I came from a public middle school, and i can say first hand that Father Ryan does not recruit basketball players. I gave them every oppurtunity to recruit (attending summer bball camps, visiting the school, etc.) yet was never once approached by a coach with anything more than a handshake. From playing in the public schoool leagues as well as Junior Pro, i know that this lack of recruiting is not the case in all DII Schools. Thats okay, i guess thats why they made DII in the first place. My point is, don't ever count out Father Ryan. Coach Bontrager (in my opinion, which i know can be argued ) is the best coach in the state of tennessee. What cannot be argued, is that he is by far the most underrated. Father Ryan has been at or near the top of DII since its begining, yet how many DI college players has Father Ryan had? Besides Enoch Bunch (marshall) and maybe a player or two from this year's team, none. Yet Coach Bontrager has found a way to take the talent he has and win A LOT of games. Any basketball player who decides to attend Father Ryan as long as the current Coaching staff is there i'm sure will be a part of lots of success.

Whoa Whoa Whoa..This is Brent Carney right here, and i do live in The brentwood area, but thats not me..You're not gonna see any Father Ryan players posting on here until the season is over..No distractions All Business...

Whats the deal with this new guy from Briarcrest? Where was he at the begining of the year?

Man oh man, thats a lot of stats..how did you pull that off?

Man oh man, thats a lot of stats..how did you pull that off?

Father Ryan wins by 2 (69-67 maybe???).The Irish were under-maned playing without Jeff Degrauw who required 5 stitches above his eye on Monday, Joe Thompson, taken to the hospital for X rays after a hard fall in the opening moments of the third quarter, and Will Myers who retired to focus on baseball last Friday. Thompson's condition is still unknown, but the possibility of a broken wrist/arm is high. (editiors note-JT did hit the shot, and picked up the foul too.) The Irish were up 6 at the half and withstood a tenacious full court press that brought Clarksville back to tie the game with under two minutes to go. After two missed freethrows by Ryan, the Wilcats missed a tough shot in the lane at the buzzer to tie. OVerall, a great game. The Irish, acustomed to playing 10 players, only had 3 players dressed out on the bench. Nevertheless, the game gave younger Ryan players the experience of playing in a tight game in a hostile gym.

Great defense? You only need to know two things. 1) The only good defense is "team defense", and 2) Father Ryan is the gold standard when it comes to defense. Dylan Lynch sets the tone for all out hustle but it's guys like deGrauw who draw charges and do the hard work that produce wins.

It was 59-43, not 59-63.

I know it makes for good conversation on these boards; but personally i believe its next to impossible to rank the teams in DII. There are several reasons for this. first, the Teams are so spread out that its hard to get a feel for who has played a tougher scheldule, or for one person to see any team play more than 2 or 3 times. Also, with so many dII teams having to travel to play games against out of state teams, the win/loss comparison can also be a bit misleading. For instance, i don' think anyone would have predicted that MBA (with 1 win ) would beat BGA (with one loss), but it happened tuesday night. Father Ryan has no way to know they're better than Harding at this point, Harding has no way to know if they could beat Mccallie, all we really can rely on now is speculation. Speculation from people who 1) are totally biased or 2) Have seen one of the top teams play 1 time and shouldnt judge. DII is special beacuse there are few enough teams that everyone pays attention to everyone else in the state throught the season. This year lets just hope that all the "good" teams can avoid the upsets in region play and make it to the big show. Oh and by the way vballdad, thanks for the inteligent observation about Billy May being gone. 13 games into the next season and we still really seem to be struggling without him... I guess theres some rule about not being able to be any good the year after you graduate a mr. basketall? [Edited by Irish40 on 1-9-03 10:04P] [Edited by Irish40 on 1-9-03 10:06P]

Blah Blah Blah...You know the great thing about being part of the Father Ryan program is we dont have to talk about winning next time, or almost winnning, or out playing teams...we dont bother with all that worthless talk, we just win games and let the record speak for itself...You earn that right from proving you can win, and over the last few years i think we've proved it. As far the game i thought Notre Dame played very good. There athletecism is terrific (especially for DII) and they dont rely on one specific player to carry their team. I would definitly not be surprised to see them back in the Boro come March. Oh, and i dont think Ryan was over 50% from behind the Arc at the game. Pretty low shooting percentage for a team that "couldnt miss a three"

So Ego, did ECS already Beat Harding this year, or are you just predicting it?

Christian Brothers is a very solid team and should be ranked higher. also word from memphis is that, along with Harding, ECS is the other team to beat in DII.

Congrats To Brett. It's true he did sign with UNC Asheville, and he seems very excited about it. I was a teammate of Brett's for four years, and he is still one of my favorite players around. Best of luck to ya in college.

Big Ups to Brentwood Junior Pro..those were the days

Nick Petrone. Sr. Father Ryan.