MRM10

Some news from the Central team. Senior PG Mickey Brown could potentially be out for the year. His only shot at playing again is in the tournament. This is from the elbow dislocation in the championship game of the VA High tournament. How will this play out for the Cougars? They will have to move Roberts to Point Guard, no doubt. Which will cut down his scoring output. Devault, Roberts, and Vannoy are going to have to carry this team, and they need good preformances from those guys night in and night out to have a shot.

This is a pretty powerful post, yet I'm not sure how anyone could disagree with it. I'm not going to get into it, but Vannoy will still be playing at the end of the year. That's the sad part. They kid has talent, but it seems to be all about him. You can tell his teammates are getting frustrated with him too. Especially the seniors. Brown was on his case a few different times during the South game. Something will have to change to keep this Central team from being a bust and a waste of talent. As far as Roberts being a non factor, he was very sick. Yet he still tried to play. You could tell he wasn't 100%. He was worn out.

This Central team is pretty beaten down right now. They really need to get everyone healthy. Not having Roberts hurt them tonight. I think he only had 3 pts for the whole game. They did give the ball to Devault more (who also dunked tonight). They are starting to get the hang of it, they just need everyone healthy. Great game Rebels /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" /> I also want to say whoever #24 is for the Rebels is, shot the ball great tonight.

The Central team is a little busted up tonight. It might be a little better game than expected. Albright is still recovering Brown is going to be playing on a hurt ankle Roberts might be sick as well, so he might not play or he will have fewer minutes. Central's guards being hurt is no good for them. They aren't very deep at guard and Roberts has been filling it up from 3 lately. It'll be a good game and Central might need to definately give Devault the ball more tonight. He can defiantely score. /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

I don't see East beating DB. I know they killed Central and Central beat DB, but I don't see it happening. The fact that East has all these 3pt shooters, year in and year out blows my mind though. Snapp last year, along with Cross and Deeb, now this year both Cross and Deeb look impressive. If you guys remember, the senior class this year at Sullivan East and Sullivan Central has the Mary Hughes and Holston teams that played in the State Championship game in Middle School. Cross was playing on the Mary Hughes team as a 6th grader then /blush.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blush:" border="0" alt="blush.gif" /> Both of these teams could quiet possibly make some noise this year.

I won't go into too much detail about tonights game (Central vs. East) but I'll give my opinion. Centrals defense was TERRIBLE! Absolutely god aweful. You would think after Deeb knocked about 5 in your face you would put a guy on him. Deep and Jordan Cross single handily beat the Cougars. East really stuck it to them, they shot the ball VERY well which is what they need to do to win. I don't see the Patriots winning too many on the road just because they rely on the outside shot. Its tough to shoot in different gyms. Centrals only bright spot was Roberts. He had 7 threes I believe. He should have had around 23 points or so. He had 11 in the first quarter if I'm not mistaken. Brown being out for the Cougars really hurts them on offense. Brown helps the Cougars so much at PG regardless if he scores or not. He just doesn't turn the ball over very often. I can only remember one turnover he had against DB! With Brown out, they had to play Box and Harmon. Neither one had very good games, they threw the ball away, a lot. I would like to know just how many turnovers the Cougars had, I'm sure it isn't pretty. What really disappointed me the most was the fact that the Cougars didn't take advantage of their post play. Against teams like East you need to be feeding the ball to DEVAULT! He doesn't get near as many touches as he should. One thing I would like to know is where in the world does East get all these shooters from! The Deeb kid and Jordan Cross both are lights out shooters. I'm sure that can change in any given game but you could tell from watching Deeb in warmups that he was a shooter. YOU CAN'T LET THOSE GUYS SHOOT THE THREE BALL!!! I'd say they both scored over 20pts a piece. Centrals offense needs to start scoring too. You can't score 60pts a game every week in the Big 9 and win all the time. In order for that to work they have to play defense like they did against DB. Oh well, back to the drawing board I guess. /rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" />

The Cougars played some great basketball. Theres no doubt about it. They were leading the game for the majority of the game then went down 9pts in the 4th and came back to win it. It's up there as one of the best high school basketball games I've attended. Adams was almost a non factor (somehow). The Cougars had an all around team effort. No real standouts. Another statement I think I could make is that Carl Roberts is one of the premier 3pt shooters in the conference. He has really stepped up his shooting. If you leave him open from behind the 3pt line, or just let him set his feet in general he's dangerous. Sylvester was probably the leading scorer for the Indians, he had quiet a few steals. I'd be willing to say this will be DB's lowest scoring game of the year.

I agree with most of this assesment. Especially about Central. Odem didn't seem to try to take over the game at all but he didn't really need to. Chris Smith looked better than he did. Atleast, I thought so.

Well spoken. However, I think Devault was just about the only bright spot on the Cougars offense. It wasn't a standout preformance by any means but he made a few buckets. Roberts didn't get too many good looks from 3. The majority of his shots were heavily contested. He had some he should have knocked down though, but the Science Hill pressure was impressive to say the least. They were really playing some good defense, and putting a lot of pressure on the ball. I'll be interested to see just how many turnovers the Cougars had. It was way too many, I know that. Something that didn't help the Cougars any way, was not having Albright on the floor. He's a big help in the post. Him not being there, forced the Cougars to play more of their bench. Like you said though, the first quarter and a half looked like it was going to be an awesome game. After that, the Cougars got really sloppy. They can usually depend on Mickey (Brown) to handle the ball and really push it up the floor, and he had an off game. He didn't see the floor nearly as much as he usually does. Odem really started putting an exclamation point to the victory towards the end of the game.

Wow, is all I can say.lol. Even brought out middle school statements. lol. You seem to know a lot about him! He'll play this year, no doubt, I'm not sure where he'll fit in the rotation with Harmon off the bench. Vaughn seems to be playing Harmon quiet a bit. Box will get his chance to prove everyone wrong, and earn playing time. We'll see how the year goes. Let him get healthy and see what he can do, that'll be a fair test to see if he can contribute. For now, I think Harmon will see more "backup" time than Box at this point.

I'll agree with the Winchell statement. He's going to be a good player. Sturgill is a strong post presence but blows A TON of close buckets. Lay-ups are his worst enemy. He's a great defensive player though. Hyden is a good option off the bench. He's yet to knock down shots though, it could be rust from not playing last year, who knows. He got beat a lot on defense Friday night too. He doesn't seem quick enough, and let his man around him a lot. Box will heal with time, but seems to be REALLY weak with the ball, and doesn't seem to have the ability to knock down shots. Honestly, I don't think they can take Brown and Roberts out at the same time, and still be efficient. They are extremely lacking in guard help. Shipley might be a decent player, I think he's better suited as like a 3 man. He's not physical enough to make it inside. He has the ability to knock down jumpers. I know it's been run into the ground but their starters are VERY solid. Brown has turned into an excellent point guard and is extremely quick. He can also shoot the ball really well. Roberts is a great guard, he rebounds exceptionally well, and plays bigger than his actual size. He also showed everyone Friday night that he's a lights out shooter. He'll have a great year this year. Vannoy has shown some talen, he led the Cougars in scoring against Tri-Cities Christian, and added 10pts on a poor shooting night against Cocke County. It seemed to be an off night for him, because he also had a few turnovers . He also got a little frustrated Friday, costing the Cougars a technical. When he's knocking down shots, he's great, and he'll be tough to guard. He'll be a great player for the Cougars this year. He'll put up 10pts+ a game. Albright showed a little rust Friday night too, he threw the ball away quiet a few times, but who wouldn't be rusty, they haven't played much yet. He's athletic though, and will provide another scoring threat for the Cougars and will help a lot. The kid that really impressed me, and probably everyone in the gym was Tyler Devault. This kid has a huge upside and has come a LONG way in his four years. He went into high school as a 5' 7" guard and now he's knocking on 6' 5". He plays strong, he's an excellent shot blocker too. I can't say enough about him. If the Cougars can find some help off the bench, they are headed towards a great season. They will win a lot of games regardless, though.

Who are the best players in the Big 9? Which players are the ones everyone needs to be watching out for?

Central looked decent last night in a win over Cocke County. They played some really good basketball at times, but they had some bad moments, especially during the second quarter. Carl Roberts shot lights out and Devault looked REALLY strong down low. Mickey Brown did a great job running the offense. They still lack depth. The guys they brought off the bench didn't contribute much at all. They still have work to do, especially with the second team.