ptguard12

Aren't I always......

Based on what I can remember from camp this summer, everyone on their perimeter is capable of knocking down the "3" with great consistency. Based on the box scores, Warden has been very impressive. Never pictured her being the offensive threat that she has become this year. And the freshman, Jaycee Coe, is going to be yet another very special player for Jackson County. I saw her at a travel ball tournament this summer and was very impressed with her. Appears to be yet another great Jackson County team.

CPA is looking very good early on. They have a lot of girls contributing, and their scoring is very balanced (both inside and out). They are going to be tough for anyone to take down.

Scotts Hill is the clear favorite. From what I saw, they are better than last year, and they were already good. I think Madison finishes second. This group doesn't play as hard as some of Coach Patterson's past teams, but he will get that worked out in due time. Riverside and Middleton should battle for 3rd. Riverside has everyone back and should be much improved. I imagine that they will go as Culpepper goes. Middleton is really down from last year, as they graduated a lot of talent. Adamsville, South Gibson, and TCA should round out the bottom. Adamsville has the guard play to compete, but they'll need to find some inside scoring. South Gibson is still young, but you know they will compete hard.

Quickness is definitely not one of Perry County's strengths, but none of the teams in their district have the quickness of Lake County . Figured they would have a hard time with Lake County's speed and athleticism. Perry only has two really strong players in Simmons (the PG) and Starkey (the bigger W/F). Those two can fill it up and will play hard. The rest of the team is average at best, and none of the others play hard. Simmons and Starkey are enough to beat a lot of teams with limited speed and athleticism like themselves (like Greenfield), but taking down someone like Lake County is a huge challenge for them. Nice to see a 12A team venturing up to 14A to play some of their teams. You can't fault Perry County's schedule, as they are not shying away from the competition. This type of game will benefit both Perry County and Lake County in the long run.

Honestly, this year, I don't think anyone from District 10A can beat them. It would be incredibly difficult for anyone from 10A to beat Moore County or even Forrest, for that matter.

Middleton is no where near the team of last season. One of their stronger players is out with an injury, but even with her they are mainly a group of inexperienced guards. Fundamentals are lacking early this year, but they will get better as they go. I don't think they will make it to Sub-State this year. Scotts Hill is better than last year. They lost their top outside threat in Montgomery, but they are much better without her because they are a more balanced team. Montgomery looked to shoot the ball at least 20 times a game last season, and every team knew she was going to do everything possible to get those shots. This year, there is no one real "star" player, but the entire starting five is good. They know their strengths and their roles, and they focus on doing their jobs to the best of their ability. As for looking at who they beat and by how much, that is very deceiving with Scotts Hill because Coach Chandler plays a very controlled, half-court game with his girls. They rarely blow-out teams, because they don't look to score in great bunches, unless they cause turnovers on their press and can get easy lay-ups. Scotts Hill will very likely be the winner of Region 8, but their district, overall, is better than last year as a lot of teams returned most of their players, so it should not be as easy for them.

Moore County will probably go through the district undefeated. The only team with a shot of beating them is Forrest, especially when the game is at Chapel Hill. Forrest has the guard play to compete, and I think their defensive pressure will cause Moore County some problems. However, they don't have much inside to handle Vann or Raby. I don't see Cascade coming within single digits of beating Moore County. Moore County's weaknesses are their inexperienced PG play and their depth. However, their inside play is dominant, and likely the best in the state. They are also one of the most versatile teams in the state as Vann, Raby, Garland, and Howell can all play multiple spots on the floor. I think Moore County gets to sub-state without much trouble.

Houston County should win the district with their solid guard play. Smith will keep McEwen in contention, but overall, they are really down from past few years. Everyone else is extremely weak. The winner of 10A will have a shot to win a game in the Region 5A Tournament, but it will be tough for anyone else to pull a win over 9A top 3 teams (although, overall that district is down as well with the exception of Moore County).

Cornersville is always tough at home, but Moore County has a lot of weapons on the offensive end. On paper, Moore County should win by double-digits, but games are not played on paper....

Friday's Semifinals Marshall County vs Loretto Lebanon vs Forrest Marshall County's win over Creek Wood was a surprise. Creek Wood did not shoot the ball well, and Marshall played hard most of the game. A good win for Marshall. They will need to play equally as hard to beat Loretto. Loretto would have had a much tougher time defeating Creek Wood. Loretto should beat Marshall County. Lebanon has some good weapons that led them over Independence. The Curtner girls were exceptional for Forrest in their win over Santa Fe. Lebanon is no Santa Fe, however, and that game will be much tougher for Forrest. Home court advantage will be a huge boost for Forrest. Should be a really good game between Lebanon and Forrest.

My sources at Summertown have confirmed this as well. They also said that there is "at least" one other player that is considering a similar move. Apparently, many of the girls are not happy. Not exactly the way Summertown wanted to start the new season.

That's terrible news. I hate that so much for Miss Prince. She is an excellent player and person. Very tough break for her and Waverly.

Thanks, I'll try to fix the score for Creek Wood/Dresden. My notes were so scratched and everywhere that I could have put down something incorrectly. I remember looking at the scoreboard and thinking they were up fourteen with 2:00 left to play. I must have looked at it wrong since it was a game on one of the courts using the small tabletop scoreboards (ugh, on those things).

#1 for Creek Wood is a Freshman whose name has completely escaped me. She is a future star for Coach Mullinicks. He was very complimentary of her this summer at the Wayne County Team Camp when he discussed her work ethic (apparently she is in the gym at all times of the day and sets a weekly goal for herself in terms of number of shots to get up). She can flat out stroke it from the outside when she gets on a roll. She is very smooth and fluid with the ball in her hands, but I suspect she will play the 2-guard spot for Creek Wood simply because of her scoring ability. They have capable ball handlers who can deliver the ball adequately that are not quite the scoring threat that she is. If she continues to work, you will be hearing great things from her over the next four years.

A very strong showing for Chassidy in her first game as a Longhorn. Here is a link to the box score for anyone who is interested: http://www.texassports.com/sports/w-baskbl/stats/2010-2011/trinity-box-110510.html

#35 from Calloway County (KY) is Averee Fields, a 6-0 W/F, that has already committed to West Virginia University. She was the most dominant player in the Elam Center yesterday. The scary thing is that she is only beginning to scratch the surface of her potential. If she continues to develop, she will be a force for West Virginia in the Big East Conference.

Region 5A is Moore County's to lose. Only Forrest and MTCS have any real chance of taking them down. I don't believe any 10A team has the firepower necessary to knock them off.

After today, I would say Gleason and Dresden have an equal shot of coming out on top in District 13A. In fact, they are both very similar teams, and one would suspect that they will have some good battles this year. That being said, I don't know that either can make it out of the Region 7A Tournament this year. 14A looked considerably stronger than 13A today, and at most, I would think that 13A gets only one first round Region 7A Tournament win (and that depends heavily on the matchup). Regardless, should be a great battle for the District 13A Title between Dresden and Gleason this season.

Four of 12A's six teams were at Westview today. Results were as follows: Wayne County (2-1) - Wins over Rossview (AAA) and Dyersburg (AA); Lost to Lake County (A) Loretto (1-2) - Defeated Munford (AAA); Lost to Westview (AA) and Chester County (AA) Summertown (1-1) - Defeated Chester County (AA); Lost to Humboldt (A); Result Unknown against Dyersburg (AA) Perry County (3-0) - Defeated Chester County (AA), Harpeth (AA), and Halls (A) After watching all four, I think this district may end up being even closer than I originally thought (and I knew it was going to be close between the top four). Summertown, Loretto, and Perry County all seem fairly even. While Wayne County is still considered the favorite, even they did not look particularly strong today, and they certainly did not do anything to make anyone think that they were considerably better than the other three 12A teams present today. I did come to the realization today that Risner may actually be the best overall player on Wayne County as she carried them for long stretches today. She is without a doubt the most important player on that team because they would be in a world of trouble without her at the point. She may actually be the other favorite for 12A MVP this season with Laws (Loretto) and Simmons (Perry County), instead of Daniels. This is going to be a very interesting year in 12A.

Based on what I saw today at UTM, Lake County is the clear favorite in 14A. Greenfield is a distant second, simply because they struggled at times with handling the ball and limiting turnovers (even at times when they weren't pressured heavily). Galey was even forced to run the point at some points today when teams applied a lot of pressure. Bradford looked really bad early against Riverside, but decent later on in the day. I think Humboldt would beat Bradford, and Union City would give them a run. South Fulton also looked decent as well and can hang around with any of those three on a given night. South Fulton has one really good playmaker on their team that if she continues to get better would be a major problem for the teams they face. Neither Peabody or Halls looked particularly strong. After today, I would go with: 1. Lake County 2. Greenfield 3. Humboldt 4. Bradford 5. Union City 6. South Fulton 7. Peabody 8. Halls I think the top two and the bottom two are pretty much set. However, 3rd through 6th could go any number of ways. I see a lot of good games between those four teams this year. I also expect those four teams to challenge Greenfield nightly, and at least a couple of them will probably hang around with Lake County long enough to give them a scare.

Lake County won 41-31. Wayne County struggled with Lake County's press and speed. Wayne County was never able to dictate tempo, and Lake County sped them up to a point where they just played rushed and careless. Lake County looked very good all day long.

Scores and results from today's play day are located below. The team highlighted in bold was the winner. Some of the games I never saw the final score, but do know that they won based on what I was told or the score at the time I moved on to another game. Some results could not be gathered. UTM Elam Center Court 2 10 Greenfield v. Munford 11 Dyersburg v. Summertown 12 Greenfield v. FRA - (by single digits) 1 Riverside v. Harpeth - (37 - 29) 2 Humboldt v. McNairy 3 Greenfield v. South Gibson - (by double digits) 4 Chester Co. v. Loretto - (31-28) 5 Creek Wood 9 v. Dyersburg 9 6 South Gibson v. Milan 7 Creek Wood v. Hardin Co. Court 3 10 Gleason v. Union City - (36-26) 11 West Carroll v. Adamsville - (by double digits) 12 West Carroll v. Union City - (47-27) 1 Gleason v. Madison - (41-31) 2 Crockett Co. v. USJ - (42-27) 3 McKenzie 9 v. Creek Wood 9 4 Gleason v. Lake Co. - (45-36) 5 Crockett Co. v. South Fulton - (by double digits) 6 USJ v. Hardin Co. - (41-20) 7 South Fulton v. South Gibson Court 4 10 Dresden v. Lexington - (26-19) 11 Dresden v. Creek Wood - (by 4 points) 12 Peabody v. Lexington 1 Dresden v. Adamsville 2 Halls v. Big Sandy - (36-25) 3 Perry Co. v. Harpeth - (45-43 OT) 4 Humboldt v. McKenzie - (by double digits) 5 Union City v. Madison - (by double digits) 6 McKenzie 9 v. East Hickman 7 Big Sandy v. Dyersburg 9 Court 5 10 Bradford v. Riverside - (38-20) 11 Harpeth v. McKenzie 12 McNairy v. Munford 1 Creek Wood v. Lake Co. - (34-30 OT) 2 Loretto v. Munford - (33-25) 3 South Fulton v. Lexington - (29-14) 4 Bradford v. USJ - (39-23) 5 Wayne Co. v. Dyersburg - (by single digits) 6 Humboldt v. Summertown - (37-36) 7 Bradford v. Milan Court 6 (Main Floor) 10 Rossview v. Adamsville - (45-28) 11 Wayne Co. v. Lake Co. - (41-31) 12 Westview v. Loretto - (33-30 OT) 1 Wayne Co. v. Rossview - (52-47) 2 Westview v. FRA - (26-24) 3 Dyersburg v. Rossview - (33-17) 4 Calloway Co., KY v. FRA - (38-25) 5 Westview v. McNairy 6 Calloway Co., KY v. Creek Wood - (49-33) 7 Madison v. Crockett Co. Field House 9 Peabody v. West Carroll - (by double digits) 10 Peabody JV v. Creek Wood 9 11 Perry Co. v. Chester County - (47-38) 12 East Hickman v. Dyersburg 9 1 Summertown v. Chester Co. - (by double digits) 2 Hardin Co. v. East Hickman - (by double digits) 3 Riverside v. Hickman Co., KY - (by double digits) 4 Halls v. Milan - (by double digits) 5 Big Sandy v. Hickman Co., KY - (45-41) 6 Halls v. Perry Co. - (by double digits)

It appears that Waverly Central is really wanting to challenge their experienced team early this season by taking them down to Millington on November 6th, where they know they will have to face teams with plenty of athleticism and speed. This should really show Coach Rawlings what her team excels at and what they need to work on before their season starts.

District 11AA 1. Waverly Central 2. Creek Wood 3. Harpeth 4. Stewart County 5. Cheatham County 6. Camden 7. Montgomery Central Waverly Central should control the district since they have everyone back. 5-9 Senior PG Kati Prince is a beast at the point, and depending on the type of year she has (which I feel could be extraordinary), she could be in the talks for a Class AA Miss Basketball nomination at the end of the year. I don't think she would ever get nominated, but she should at least be mentioned when nominees are discussed. She will most definitely be District MVP barring some surprise season from someone else. Central also has capable scorers all around Prince, most notably Dyer on the wing and Jones in the post. Waverly should win Region 6AA and at least make it to Sub-State, where it will be tough for them to beat teams like CPA, Macon County, or Sycamore. Creek Wood is the other strong team out of 11AA. They lost Sarah Collins inside, but they have excellent guard play this year that is going to allow them to get up and down the court. They have tremendous outside shooters on the wings and what post play they do have is solid. They should be Waverly's biggest competition in both district and region play. Waverly and Creek Wood are probably dead set as the #1 and #2 teams (though they could swap with one another). Harpeth should be okay since they still have Felker, who is a great scorer in her own right. Camden, who was a contender last season, is way down after graduating Capps and Brandenburg. Montgomery Central probably won't win a district game. Stewart and Cheatham will probably split with one another. Either of them could also take down Harpeth at any given point.