ccalum

85warrior, yes Gerald King was a junior on that Oakland team.

I was at all 3 as well, incl the beat down in the region final. I tell you, we were ecstatic that Sparta had lost to Henry Co. We felt like we had it at that point, even though we had to beat a great Oak Ridge team in the final.

Latina Davis was a great basketball player. But White Co. was a beast of a team all throughout the 90's. The year my school won the state, all 3 losses we had were against those Warriorettes. Best teams never to have won a state title were some of those Sparta teams.

Region Tournament upsets always happen, and sometimes they claim a truly great team. Thinking back to some of the best teams never to make it to state, I would offer the 1992 Franklin County Rebelettes. They twice beat Shelbyville that year, but lost the district tournament final. This was their deathknell as they were drawn with White Co. in the region semis, who dispatched them. This team was top 5 in the nation for most of the year. Unfortunate for a program that has had very little luck over the years.

With Region Tournament upsets, I always think back to the truly great teams that never made it to the Glass House. I would say that many of the best teams never to make the trip to the Boro are from Memphis, but I would offer the 1995 Oakland Patriots, who were upset by Lincoln Co. in the Region 4AAA tournament. I think it was only their 2nd loss of the year. Thoughts?

Well said. I was excited to see those 6 make it as well (sometimes the best teams stub their toe in regions or substate), however, I wouldn't be surprised in LC beats SH. I am basing this partially on my mid state bias, and the fact that I'm not real sure who SH has played this year. I think there are more teams this year who have the talent to take the gold ball than last year. Riverdale's gonna be hard to beat, though.

Thanks for letting me know. I guess I should've been on here more in the reg season and district/region, and I would've known. Personally, I wish they'd go back to the break btwn morning and evening sessions, so that working people could get to see more games, but I guess that's a $$ savings for people since one ticket gets you in for all the games of a given day.

Hey fanatic, do you keep on typing "Loretta" to get under Loretto fans' skin, or do you just not know how it is spelled? I think "Loretta" was the girl The Beatles sang about in "Get Back". All the same, I think JC will win by at least 10.

I got on tssaa.org to check out the pairings this pm and noticed that they have the AA playing QF games first, then they have AAA split btwn Wed and Thurs, and A games in the typical times that AAA QF's used to be played? Maybe this development was posted earlier on the website, but I didn't even think to check before the brackets were filled out. I worked it out to be off work on Thurs pm to catch most of the AAA games. Is there anything else T$$AA that you want to tinker with? Are you going to start charging for parking at old Belle Aire also? Was there an outcry to change this up?

I just hope GC and McMinn Cent. don't play in the first round.

I was afraid that would happen. I was pulling for RBS. As poor as their FB team has been over the last decade, their basketball has been strong this season. Maybe they can win their boys game on Monday.

Is this the first year for Scotts Hill? I've been following HS hoops for 25 years and don't remember them ever making it. Could this also be the first year region 7A hasn't had anyone in there? Who else are 1st year programs in the state? Can't remember if Walker Valley made it in AA or not.

From the late 80's through the mid 90's District 8-AAA was one of the toughest Districts in the Nation...not the state the Nation. I say that because I believe at one point in the same year Shelbyville, Frankiln County and Coffee County all were mentioned in the top 25 in the Nation...and they are all about 25 minutes (or less) away from each other. That is stout. Some of the best battles I ever witnessed was in '92 when Franklin Co and Shelbyville had 3 classic games. FC won the 2 reg. season games, but lost the district tournament final. That was huge as FC had to take on Sparta in the region semis and lost. FC had been ranked as high as #2 in the nation that year. FC was stout again in '94 with Memphis signee LaTonya Johnson, but haven't had much since ole Harlowe left.

I agree. That's what we always said in Manchester. In the '90's, Sparta went to the state tournament I think 8 times (every year except '95 and '99, maybe), and all they had to show for it was 2 runnerup finishes. I enjoyed that back then, but now I wished that they had gotten one, b/c Sparta always had some good fan support.

Thanks for the Coffee Co. plug. In our only state tournament appearance, we made the most of it in '93, ending the year #13 in the national rankings, with 8 inches of snow on the ground. That championship has to still kill White Co. fans, b/c they accounted for all 3 of our losses that season, and mopped the floor with us in 2 of those! Believe me, when Henry Co. put WC out in the state that year, we breathed a sigh of relief. Alas, that season is just a memory. And that's about all we have in CC these days. But what a year that was!

1A-Friendship 2A-Alcoa 3A-Fulton 4A-Maryville 5A-Smyrna

As far as stats go, Woods (QB Ooltewah) has 413 yards passing, nearly half of it on 5 screen passes to Marshall (5-159). Smyrna could not stop that all night. Neither team ran the ball too well, but Smyrna had a little running game going in the first half. Maceo has about 60 yds rushing. Rod Wilkes was the man for SHS, as he had 3 TD receptions, one on an improbable play at the end of the first half for 58 yds, and had a key first down run on a fake punt right at the end of the 3rd quarter that ended up being one of the biggest plays of the game. But that guy who had the sacks at the end of the game on OHS's last drive gets the player of the game. That was an excellent call on the blitz, taking OHS out of FG range. I was privileged to have watched that game in person.

As much as I'd like to see the Owls win, I think Coach Rankin will do something that he rarely did in this stadium in the '80's, and that is win a playoff game. Alcoa 35, Smith Co. 14.

It's a final: Smyrna 9, Riverdale 7. Congrats to the Bulldogs!

Smyrna 41 Wilson Central 33

I don't know anything about your team, but I know it's been a long time since there was something to cheer about over there in Maury Co. I'm rooting for you guys in the postseason.

Congrats to the Red Raiders tonight. They will be playing in the 8AAA championship for the first time in well over 20 years. That doesn't say much for our tradition in boys basketball, but nonetheless, I'm proud of my guys from Manchester, especially that Marcrom kid.

I can guarantee you that you won't be seeing Buzz! It's not unusual in previous years to have seen the head coaches of UT, Vandy, or some of the smaller schools' coaches scouting out players, but prob. not this year b/c of Vandy being in Bloomington tonight. It reminds me of a memory I have when I was in Memphis watching the NCAA's and sat next to Kevin McHale, who was scouting at that time for the TWolves. As a fan of the old Celtics teams, that was a thrill, but the best I've ever gotten in the Boro is getting to meet Pat Summitt at the '95 girl's tournament. Maybe Tony Delk will show up to see his old Tomcats team or see his kin for JNS.

I've read all these posts and now I'll chime in. Just about every growing county in TN could be having this conversation. Bradley Co. (Bradley Cent. and Walker Vall.), Wilson Co. (Leb and WC), Germantown (G'town and Houston). 30+ years ago these conversations probably took place in regards to M'boro with Central, Jackson with just JCM, or Morristown before East and West. What about the converse of consolidation? We probably would've never seen the dominance of Lincoln or Jefferson Co. in football without it. I think about the juggernaut girls basketball team that would be formed if all the Gibson Co. schools consolidated into a huge AAA school instead of a lot of A and AA schools. What about a single Carroll Co. HS for football? It is pretty cool to think about how OHS would be with all the Siegel kids, but you never know what would have happened to the team chemistry, with too many stars wanting the ball. I think the great thing about both teams was that each player knew his role. If it were one team, the roles would be different, some people may be complaining about PT, etc. All these schools opening up lately here in Ruth. Co. is just part of progress and shows how popular our county is with people moving here. We live less than a mile from SHS, but who knows, when my kid starts HS in 2012, he may not even be zoned for Siegel.

Siegel played it's most complete game of the season tonight against a very outmanned CC team. How they made it this far is a complete mystery to me. I guess when the number one seeds are eliminated, anything can happen. It looked like Richie Cunningham, Potsy, and Ralph out there. My props to the guy from CC playing in the cast. And he made a lay up! That's some guts. Siegel has to get a little less aggressive when controlling the ball. I saw at least 4 charges. I don't know if that's typical Siegel ball, but in a state game, they'll need those 4 possessions. The Nation was hoppin', so much so that my 6 year old son, who was witnessing his first Siegel game, wanted to play with the "crazy kids". I told him that they would let him crowd surf, but he declined. Actually, I was afraid that some in the Nation, donned in war paint, might eat him or sacrifice him to the gods.