smalltown

Underrated - Gene Huskey (Sevier County), Mike Potts (Jefferson County), Johnny Galyon (Morristown West)

Winning is part of the equation, but can't be all of it. Some schools, for various reason, will have more difficult time winning than others, regardless of how well a team is coached. Other factors are important: class, organization, discipline, hard work, character, effort of players, strategy and adjustments. Sometimes the best coaches don't win for a variety of reasons (lack of talent, no support, etc.). Sometimes poor coaches win because of an abundance of talent. It's easier to judge college coaches in any sport because they are responsible for getting their own talent. In high school, sometimes coaches have to play the hand they've been dealt. At one schoo, for example, 17 wins might be a poor season where at another school 17 wins would be a great coaching job.

Knox Farragut (most players back from a good team last year, including great post play with Lange and Munday, Heritage (great freshman in Kate McMahan), Oak Ridge (obviously), Clinton (came on strong late in the season with a bunch of freshmen starting), Sevier County (still have Uner, Fleming, Wilhoit, and Broyhill), Greeneville (great talent), Oliver Springs (lot of experience and Hall may be the best guard in Tennessee).

I saw the Thunder play a little bit and I hope everybody isn't getting their hopes up too much. Stanly Asusmu is much better than I thought. He should be a factor this year. C.J. Watson is better than any point guard the Vols had last year, but that isn't saying much. I thought he had trouble with the better point guards - Raymond Felton and the guard from Iowa both got the better of him. I saw Mario Moore last year and I think he is better than Watson by far. Boomer is a project. Winchester is athletic but I don't see how he can help in the SEC. Also, other than about three or four other teams, the quality of the competition wasn't that good. This isn't like the 17-u on down because many players choose not to play 19's and many strong organizations don't even field 19-u teams

What about the Patriots? They were absolutely dominant in the 1980's - one of the top two or three programs in the state and definitely the best in East Tennessee. Now they struggle to finish .500.

Tennessee teams can compete. The Travelers have competed with a great deal of success at this level for many years. They just choose not to play AAU anymore. One of their coaches explained that they would rather play invitationals only because of more exposure and better competition. Every tournament they play is like a national tournament. Before they stopped playing AAU, they won something like 15 state championships in nine years and made like three or four AAU national championship games. They lost one of those at the buzzer. Just because they don't play AAU, let's not forget the program who set the standard statewide along with the YOMCA.

The Travelers 15-u had a good summer. They finished 14-5 and won the Adidas Classic in St. Louis. They were also 3-1 at their own round-robin tournament, which tied them for the best record with the Alabama Ice, a team they split with. They had some big wins, including beating the Connecticut Flame, the team that won the Bob Gibbons tournament in Virgina. They also beat the Alabama Ice and St. Louis Eagles this year

Lee Humphrey - Maryville JaJuan Smith - McMinn County Daniel Singleton - Rutledge Landon Thomas - Oak Ridge (SO next year)

Most parents don't care about the team, only their son or daughter. The day has passed that the team comes first, and that's too bad. To top it all off, most parents think they know something about the game because they coached rec league or something of the sort. Parents can be the strongest asset to a program if they support the coach. But they can destroy a program if they aren't behind the coach. And contrary to what seems to be a popular belief these days, most coaches know what they are doing and care about their players.