ashjan

I'm not going to say whether a change should be made or not but I'll make points both ways. First, away from the gym, coach Hall is a good family and christian man and a good teacher. When the previous coach stopped coaching, she stayed on staff also being a good teacher(she's now the ad). He was the boys assistant and was on staff and wanted to do it. He also coaches golf, and does a great job with that. My daughter played golf 4 years and got a full ride for golf to Belmont. It wasn't his job to get her a scholarship. On the floor, the team definitely underachieved the last 2 years. It was talented at different positions, very experienced, but just never put it all together. Now he has 1 experienced solid high school level player. There are only a couple of other kids that are talented and they are young and inexperienced. The best player from one feeder school went to Station Camp 2 years ago and is a contributor. The best players from the other feeder school has gone to JPII the last 3 years. All 3 had older siblings at JPII and all 3 pay tuition. Anyway, this factor has hurt as much as anything. Also the best returning player (a 6-2 post) went to Blackman. So thats a post and 4 good guards not there. Talent can make any coach look good or lack of it can make coaching weaknesses more glaring. I wish luck and good things for all, but Hank, your not going to get your change unless he decides after this year to give it up. Just my slant. Happy Holidays to all

Huge congrats to Paige Baechle of JPII for winning Miss Basketball this afternoon for DII-AA. She's deserving for what she's done on the court, but more so who she is off the court. A great all around player, she's a 31 on ACT, 4.25 GPA at JPII, and volunteers many hours for various organizations. In my 20 years being around girls basketball, she's the epitome of of being the best student/player/teammate/person combo I've been fortunate to be around. Congrats also to Taylor Reece of BA and Marie Carpenter of Ensworth fo being nominated. Thanks Paige for reminding us why we coaches do what we do! Good luck to all the teams playing the next few weeks and the other Miss Basketball nominees.

I agree that this fee should be an optional donation. To those of you that this really bothers, ask yourself these questions: 1) Does my kid really need a 250.00 bat for fastpitch or baseball? 2) Do I really need to spend 300.00 next weekend going out of town for that travel soccer or softball tourney? (by the way, your kids not playing in college) 3) Does my stay at home wife really need a Lexus SUV to go to the store? (hun, when you're out, pick me up 20.00 in powerball tickets. my 1/3,000,000 chance may hit. 4) Does my middle school daughter really need that 200.00 cell phone? 5) Will that new 400.00 Taylormade driver help me break 100? 6) Does Andy Griffith look a lot better on that 60" plasma? While over the top, my point is we all waste money on stupid items, it's only 3-5.00. Good luck to the teams still playing.

Williams has 618 pts this year and should've been around 500 last year. Bell has 431 this year and if she averaged around 12ppg last year would've put her around 330. She would have to averaged 8-10ppg as a soph to get 1000 and I don't know if she did.

Williams is good and will get better but there are 2 better all around posts in the midstate, one you'll see in Clarksville. The other is a DII-AA finalist.

Congrats to all finalists. Actually, the DII-AA was right on. The only change might have been Clay from GPS over Reese. I've seen Briarcrest and St. Benedict and while they are good teams, they don't have a state top 4 player that has performed on that level all year. Good luck to everyone tomorrow.

Ensworth should be favored. However there are only 3 out 8 teams that have a girl that can get you 25 any night. GPS has one of those, as does Ensworth, so GPS's chances improve. Ensworth doesn't have a guard to guard Clay. Hubie won't put Carpenter on her, in fear of foul trouble. He'll play zone which helps Clay. Ensworth should win, especially at home, but it won't be more than 10-12. Also, I like our position in the brackets. But we could lose, Paige could hurt her ankle again, who knows. Paige Baechle for Miss Basketball!!!! No surprise. Go ahead and put your laughing face in your post! Congrats to Paige, she's one you only get once in a blue moon, off and on the court! Good luck to all.

There's a reason they finished 4th in the district tournament.....they were the 4th best team. Clarksville will win by whatever they want it to be. WC had a 10+ lead vs Station Camp in the semis and folded late. Also they didn't look good vs Beech in the consolation. Clarksville tops the midstate poll for a reason. It will be out of hand by half.

Clarksville will beat Mt. Juliet. How the game is officiated will be key. Clarksville is deeper and quicker. Also, Graves is 6-2 and is quicker than Williams and goes to the glass well. She's hard to block out. Williams is great on the low block and has good hands but MJ can't high low over Graves. Key will be which one gets into foul trouble. MJ didn't play any good big posts in 9AAA and Clarksville's pressure is much better than Station Camp's. Either team could win by 10 but I'll say CV by 6. Good luck to all.

That same logic also indicates that Ensworth can be beaten by an average team, such as HH. GPS beating them wouldn't be as far a stretch as HH beating them earlier. GPS was like 20-6 and somehow lost to Baylor twice. If they would've beaten Baylor once, they would've finished second on our side. Also, wouldn't surprise me if BA beats Briarcrest. We'll know in a few days. Good luck to all.

It was 40 pts on 18-20 from the floor and 4-6 from the line. She came out of the game with 5 minutes left in the game. Also 11 rebounds, 7 steals. BGA isn't good but she played against a solid 6-3 post in Ramer. Earlier in the year she dominated 6-5 Myers from Lavergne (28pts) in a 4 pt loss. Also hit Sycamore with 25 in a 1 pt road loss. Missing time with an ankle and sitting half the game 6 times against bad teams may keep her from getting the consideration she deserves. We should see the Memphis players in the tournament so I'll have a better comparason. Good luck to all.

JPII's Paige Baechle hit BGA for 40 tonight. Hit 18-20 from the field and came out of the game with 5 minutes to go. She's one of the best there is.

They shot lights out early and soundly beat us and are the team to beat. Slots 2-5 up for grabs. Every game counts. As I said before, anyone on any night... Good luck to all. At least we finally snuck into the top 10... where we should've been all year.

No, she had 14 playing about half the game vs hillwood. They called it in. She's basically 100% now. Our last game vs Ryan was her first game back and has slowly got back to her Paigeness. I guess Ensworth didn't like losing to Harpeth Hall and slapped them by 40 last night. Last AP poll was more of a joke with HH getting votes to be 12th with a 8-13 record and 2-5 in the region. Gimme a Break! Good luck to all.

Ryan at JPII is now Wednesday the 3rd. Varsity girls at 5:00, boys at 6:30.

Last word yesterday was that they're trying for Monday or next Thursday. Everyone be careful this weekend.

Here are the best of the players I've seen this year. I haven't seen anyone from the West. And yes, I am homer for one. Clay, GPS - soph point guard. Will win one before she graduates. Probably the most natural ballplayer of the bunch. Wyatt, FRA - only a freshman but plays beyond her years. Will get better and will contend each year. Carpenter, Ensworth - very good player but, like Baechle, teams can key on her. She's second in DII-AA in ppg at 14.5. Baechle, JPII - all state last year. Leads DIIAA in ppg with 16.5. Had been around 20 ppg all year but is still recovering from an ankle sprain. Has had best games against best opponents. Really no clear cut favorites as in the past unless someone from Memphis is lights out. Just my thoughts.

Go figure. Adds to my point that no one is much better than anyone else. Doesn't surprise me that Ensworth lost, just that it was HH.

Should've known. No, we shouldn't have lost to GPS. But looking at the schedule, it was a game on the road against a solid team that we knew we'd have to play well. There hasn't been any opponent we've played that I would say was just hands down better than us, even Lavergne (lost by 4, missed 14 FT's). There are many teams that if you don't play well you can lose to. Baylor beat BA and GPS twice and we drilled them. Who knows each night? I hate that the game Friday will be called off as we need to get right back out there. Our #1 goal now is to be in the top 4 to get a first round home game. Should be good 3 weeks as no one is heads and shoulders above anyone else.

Last night was a bad hit as it was our first loss to a team that we shouldn't lose to. We had the lead early in the third and totally fell apart. It was our biggest game so far as far as the standings. BA played well but they're not a final 4 team. We'll need to respond friday vs Ryan. Good luck to all

Were you there? I wouldn't say soundly defeated. They jumped out to a 9-0 lead and it was 6 at half. Also, with 3 minutes to go it was 5 and we had 3 posessions to cut it and didn't. I've seen them 3 times and it was the most aggressive I've seen them. Paige was held by 3 first quarter fouls. Carpenter and Allsmiller were also in foul trouble and were non factors (10 total points). We missed 11 FT's and had 26 turnovers. Their "other" players played better than ours. It may come down to playing them at their place for first. Allsmiller hurt her knee so I hope she's ok. She missed so much time injured last year and she's a senior. We go to GPS Saturday so that will clarify things a little. Good luck to all. PS- Paige's last name is Baechle. She was first team all state ly and will be again so get it right when you continue with your "stop Bachel" nonsense. Last check was DII-AA PPG leader.

It was a scrappy game as usual. They came out aggressive and hustling like I knew they would and took the lead. We didn't panic and were up at the half. We played better the second half and hit 20-28 free throws for the game. It looked a lot like Ryan's game against BA where Ryan jumped out early and as the game went along they couldn't score in the half court and BA hit FT's late. As I said before, Jason and John are doing a great job there. Their JV did beat my JV and had a couple of athletes in that group. We'll all get a good view the next 2 weeks of how we all compare to each other. Baechle was about 75% the other night and we need her at full strength. Good luck to Ryan and we'll meet again on th 29th.

I'll predict FRA by 6. Fra has 2 defensive posts to limit LeGate and good guards to handle DA's pressure. Davidson won't have an answer to Wyatt. Both teams are well coached and starts a great run of games in DII A and AA the next couple of weeks. Good luck to all.

Wow, I don't remember saying anyone is "no good". In my review of DII I may have said they weren't good last year, which they weren't. Jason has done a good job and Sneed is the best coach, boys or girls, that's not a head coach. I've seen Ryan 3 times this year and they play harder than most teams but that doesn't disguise the fact that they don't have many "true" basketball players. Can Ryan win? Sure, Paige can reinjure her ankle early and Jalissa can get in foul trouble and then it may be a game. JPII has won more this matchup the last 8 times. It just is what it is. Spin it however you need to. Good luck to all. PS- the AP rankings in DII are a joke!

Lazarus come forth, you are still kicking. Whatever that means. It was a good hard fought game on both sides. FRA won't lose many games. We were up early, then down 2 at half, kept it close, and made some plays at the end. We finally got Paige some help. It was good experience for both teams. FRA's Wyatt is a very good player and has to be the best freshman in this area. She has an understanding for the game that not a lot of seniors have. Good luck to all and merry christmas.