GovMan

Well, the Govman is 0 for 1 on his prediction that W.B. would win both games this week. They just never could get anything going against Bearden tonight. I'm sure Coach Baumann will do whatever's necessary to get them back on track before Friday night. They'll have to play much better to have a chance against Maryville. If there was one positive ... Dustin Rose shot the three-ball as well as I've seen him shoot it in a while. Still looking forward to coming to the "Jimmy C House" on Friday night. I might show up in a William Blount wrestling uniform and a cape and mask. Then again, I might not. People might not be able to handle me in spandex. GovMan [Edited by GovMan on 1-14-03 10:23P]

Bearden took it to W.B. in a pretty major way tonight. Blount could just never get it going. Lots of turnovers. Kyle Cruze went down with an injury early in the third quarter. It was either a knee or an ankle. Hopefully, he just turned an ankle. He was in a lot of pain, left the floor, and I never saw him return. Any body got any info on this outstanding young player? Hoping he's ok. GovMan

RebelRon, I've watched Cait play--against my daugther-- since she was in 6th grade. It's been obvious for several years that she was in a whole different universe than the rest of the girls from a talent perspective. But she has also worked on her overall game and the improvement there has been phenomenal. She reminds me a little of Dawn Marsh (former Alcoa star who played for Summitt at UT) but I believe she is as good right now as a freshman as Dawn was as a senior. I'm agreeing with you ... if she continues to progress, she'll have her choice between the UT's, Conneticuts, Dukes, etc. of the college basketball world. Or better yet, she might come straight out of high school and go pro ... somebody's bound to do it eventually. GovMan P.S. For those of you who are getting ready to message and tell me how nuts I am and how overboard I'm going on just a freshman and on how you know a freshman that's better ... YOU JUST NEED TO WATCH THIS KID PLAY ONE TIME.

Reb, just don't feed the goat. Lord ... you goin' to school in Chattanooga? Go easy on the juice man, a young mind is a terrible thing to waste. Kill a brain cell, it's dead for good man ... it don't come back. GovMan

Our coverage of high school basketball in Maryville is probably the worst it's ever been. I don't thing the Daily Times even makes much of an attempt to cover any away games for the local schools and their idea of coverage of home games--with the exception every now and then of a local rivalry game--is to send someone to write up the boys game and to merely look at the scorebook from the girls game and put in a line or two about who the leading scorers were. On an away game, they will write something if someone from the school calls it in, but even then, the headline might say one team won and the body of the story conflict with it saying the other team won. Fortunately, the Knox Sentinal covers our area some also. GovMan

I saw Maryville man--at least I think--was he wearing a wrestling leotard thing??? I thought Teague and Wagner looked pretty good in their overalls too. LordIn ... are you kidding? Maryville by 25?!? Give the Gov's a little credit. Just for that ... I'm going to lead the "look at the scoreboard cheer" late in the game after William Blount has it locked up !!!! Reb, you can buy a piece of 2' x 4' white board at Home Deport for pretty cheap. It's thin and doesn't have the big frame around it or anything. Might work. GovMan

Reb, Listen, I was there last Friday night at the Heritage game. Your dry erase board is is too little. From the other side of the court I couldn't read what it said. Whoever's doing that, needs either a bigger board or at least to write bigger. Also, please consider not yelling "daddy" at Nick Everett. The kid made a mistake, but he's done the best he could by it. I'm not proud of him for getting his girlfriend pregnant, but I am proud for the way he's stepped up and taken responsibility. Am I asking too much? GovMan

OK, Friday nights a big night in Blount County B-ball. William Blount travels to Maryville. Let's see if we can break it down without trashing each other. Last year in region semi's and first half of game at WB this year, Blount was able to shut Lee down. They won the region game, they had a pretty good lead at half-time this year. Lee came back strong the second half and Maryville blew the Gov's off their own court. We've debated the quality of the rest of Maryville's team and how good they might be without Lee. William Blount has good, solid talent 1 - 7 or 8 players. But they are going to need somebody to step up and be their "horse." Sophomore Aaron Eakins had 6 threes Friday against Sev. County. He could be a key for William Blount. Also, Maryville will have to stop Blount's post player, Bobby Golden (who incidently is the son of Jimmy Golden, a.k.a. Bunkhouse Buck for all your rastlin' fans). The past couple of years (with last years regional tourny game being the exception) Maryville's defense has just stifled William Blount. For Blount to win, they'll have to keep Lee in check and they'll have to be able to score some from outside. If they can do those two things, I like their chances. They've got to go to Bearden tomorrow night, so it's a make or break week for them, as far as district seeding goes. GovMan

Champ, I keep hearing John Reid's (Head Coach at WB) name thrown around in conjunction with the opening at Alcoa. You hearing that? GovMan

Reb, Sounds to me like you'r pretty familiar with those guys and know what you're talking about. I was at the MHS - Heritage game last Friday, and while I know you have to consider the competition, I was probably more impressed with Gaskin than I ever have been. I used to play rec ball against his daddy and I wasn't even close to being in his league. I think his dad might have played D1 basketball somewhere. Tipton has a lot of potential, no doubt. He's really stepped up this year. Did he even play varsity last year? Drew is a great athlete. I'm not sure you can fairly compare him and Dusty on the court, because the play different positions. Dustin is probably better handling the ball, but Drew is a lot stronger around the goal. Here's the big question ... if you and Drew could take Dustin and Jose' ... I'm assuming Drew matched up on Dustin. Does that mean you 'were taking it to' Jose? Seriously, Jose' is a great role player for WB. He gives them a back up point guard who can handle the ball really well and play pretty good D. He's not a threat to score, but neither is Nick Everett. W.B. has to play their sophomore, Aaron Eakins more. He can shoot the eyes out when he's hot. GovMan (random thoughts)

To be absolutely honest, I was just trying to get a rise from some of the upper E.Tn folks ... and I think I was successful. One cannot question S.H.'s rich tradition. I don't think of DB as being a basketball school as much as I do a football school, but evidently they're pretty strong too. I know there are some other great schools up there to ... I think Greenville knocked off William Blount early, didn't they? Bottom line, whether it's Bearden, Maryville, Blount, ... whoever , they are still going to have to go through Science Hill most likely at some point if they are going to advance far into the post season. GovMan

An Open Message to Surf4: Man, I'd almost forgotten about this thread until it popped back up today. So I get to looking back and see where you called me and idiot again. That made me wonder, so I started looking at some of your other posts and I see that you do that alot to people ... call them "idiots" or "stupid", etc. Man, are you insecure or what? I love the back and forth banter on here, but it gets kind of old being called an idiot. I might be one, but I don't need to be reminded by you. My wife can handle that job. And by the way, as you learned, I'll not quote or say somebody said something if they didn't. I don't need to do that to make my points and I certainly don't need to resort to personal attacks on people I don't even know. GovMan [Edited by GovMan on 1-10-03 10:00P]

I've seen the Alcoa girls play twice in the past few days ... Maryville and William Blount and I'm impressed. Coach Brown has them playing as a team. Kara and Deveda are so quick and Kara can shoot the eyes out. Sarah is doing a great job of distributing the ball ... I believe she is one of (if not the top) assist persons in East Tennessee. Whitney ... good grief ... she's an animal down in the post. And Koral ... she is such a hard worker ... she gets more out of her athletic ability than most any girl I've seen this year. Alcoa's gain was definitely William Blount's loss, when the Lady Tornadoes got Koral. Any talent on the eighth grade level coming up next year? GovMan [Edited by GovMan on 1-10-03 10:12P]

Number 1, who said he was that good? Number 2, name me one place he ever got fired from. Number 3, tell me about all of his "short time" jobs. Gov

I agree that Alcoa will "return to the top." They've got an incredible amount of young talent. I believe that Fickert, Satterfield, or Hale could come in and win right away ... so any of those three they pick, they should be fine. Oh, one another name getting tossed around alot over in the Springbrook area is Charles "Cookie" Frye. Former MHS assistant under Hammontree and native Alcoa boy. And speaking of Hammontree, there's much speculation that he's thrown his name into the hat. GovMan

OK, here's the deal. I'm a great guy and I really need to get one of those good marks to stroke my ego, so here goes.. My beloved William Blount Governors go on the road next week to Bearden on Tuesday night and to Maryville on Friday night. If I go on record right now predicting not one, but two stunning upsets by the Governor boys, and if they pull it off, WILL SOMEONE SHOOT ME ON OF THOSE GOOD MARKS? I truly believe W.B. will win both games next week. Check back with me and see. GovMan

Coach T, I agree with you overall, but nevertheless, where there's smoke ... Before just summarily dismissing the entire issue, it would be interesting to know the particulars. Did all four girls leave the program at (or close to) the same time? Did they move to another town or city? Was the move job related for one of their parents? There are certainly a lot of non-basketball variables that could play a role in the girls leaving the program ... but there are also two sides to every issue. If four young ladies left the team all around the same time, it would at least give cause to check into the situation I would think. GovMan

My sources are telling me ... unconfirmed ... that the search committee has narrowed the list of candidates to three and will be interviewing these three soon: 1. Steve Fickert - former head man at William Blount 2. Bill Satterfield - current head coach at Greenback 3. Emory Hale - former Oak Ridge and Maryville head coach I don't see how they could go wrong with any of these three. GovMan

Just a comment on Cleveland's girls. Saw them Tuesday night. They're really good and really young. If not this year, then in the next year or two, they should be bound for Murfreesboro. I loved watching Buckalew (sp?) play. What a stud. She can do it all, inside or out. Plus, her name is fun to say. GovMan

Cleveland played at Wm. Blount on Tuesday night and impressed me a lot. Wm. Blount played a pretty good game the first three quarters, but Cleveland's quickness and depth wore them down the final period. A couple of observations: 1. Little has enormous talent and potential ... he's still a little raw (but I guess he's just 15 or so). If he continues to work and if he's teachable, I think Aaron will have him ready to be a blue chip D1 recruit in a couple of years. 2. WB has played Maryville, Bearden, Science Hill, Greenville ... Cleveland is the best team they've played yet by far. GovMan

Hey Reb, Did you make that above statement in a moment of passion, or do you really, honestly believe it? Throw out Humphrey, you and I both know he's D1 ... but if those other three fellows are D1 material than my W.B. Govs have at three future D1 players also because I promise you Dustin Rose, Jonathan Johnson, and Bobby Golden would give your three boys all they wanted in game of 3 on 3 ... I personally think the WB boys would have the edge. My lowly view: Houser - great leaper ... might play for Randy Lambert up at MC or somewhere on that level ... not D1 !!! Gaskin - incredible athlete ... would need to give up football and concentrate 24/7 on basketball for the next year and a half to have a chance at playing D1 (not yet as good as his daddy was in his prime) Tipton - real suprise ... incredible he didn't play any varsity last year (that I recall) ... still too inconsistant and inexperienced on this level to project as D1. Of course, only time will tell, but I think your quote, at this point, is just a little bit of a stretch. BTW, great win against Bearden. Blount hung with Cleveland for three quarters, but just couldn't handle their speed. Cleveland had a hard time handling Golden in the post, especially the first half ... but William Blount's other post players forgot to show up. GovMan

I don't know if she's got a 12.03 yet or not. I do know that this summer is Jr. Olympics she ran a 12.07 in her prelim while Deveda ran a 12.14 in hers. She ran a 12.42 in semis (qualified for final) while Deveda ran a 12.36 and didn't qualify. Finally, my little eighth grader (I guess she was still officially 7th grade at the time, ran a 12.24 in finals (that was 3rd in the country). Sounds to me like it would make for a good race. Did I mention the girl I'm speaking of just turned 14?? She was competing two full age divisions below Deveda. I know, I know ... there's a track and field board. I won't dwell on the subject any longer on the girls b-ball thread. GovMan

Daveda Dean ... "probably the fastest girl in the state" There's a young lady in the eighth grade at Carpenter's Middle School who'd I'd line up against her in the 100. What's Daveda's best time in the 100? I know she can fly, but I think my girl may have posted a faster time already. GovMan [Edited by GovMan on 1-7-03 4:09P]

Jason Adams --who's already on the staff at Alcoa--would be a good and a logical choice to replace Punky (Coach Dalton). They need some stability in the head spot, that's for sure. What is it now ... 3 head coaches in the past 5 or 6 years? Whoever gets the job is inheriting a wealth of talent. Alcoa will win a state championship in the next 2 to 3 years if they stay in AA. GovMan [Edited by GovMan on 1-7-03 2:36P] [Edited by coacht on 1-7-03 2:49P]

Hornet, Believe it or not, the original color scheme at William Blount, introduced in the school's first year 1979-80, was really more of a light blue and orange. I think the problem was, the shade of blue they picked was hard to find and over the years it became easier when purchasing uni's and such, to move to a darker blue. I'm not crazy about it either. And to top that off, last year or maybe year before, the boys came out with some black uniforms. Not sure where that came from!!! At least our football field doesn't sit next to a sewage plant!!! I can remember back in the day, coming to Carter to play football and there being an awful stinch in the air. Does that problem still exist? GovMan