bballfever

i got a chance to see middle college play when they beat halls.they have all there returning players from last year i think.they looked like they improved alot from last year and handled the ball well.teams can hurt them in transition because there transition defensive isnt as good as there halfcourt defense with there size.it looked like they good alot of confidence from playing greenfield in the region tourney last year.a few of there losses came from AA competition like booker t washington.based upon there scores it looked like they hung in there good.lake county should be togh based upon what i saw from last year only loosing one senior who didnt play much anyway.one more year of experience to go along with last years big improvement is going to make them more confident even next year as well loaded with talent.

i think middle college hs several plyers back from last year.they are very athletic and gave greenfield a scare in the region tournament last year in the last seconds.jcs has several back from my memory of watching them play huntingdon in the region semifinals from last year.they return 4 starters for sure and it shocked me that greenfield beat jcs.jcs has some great players.the north kid can flat out dribble and shoot off of the move and they have a good inside post player about 6'5.jcs in my opinion should win that region based upon what i saw last year.in our region i know lake county only lost one senior and he didnt play much last year.lake county should be very tough and very dangerous.

hey guys.i just gopt home from memphis and wanted to give my replies about the game tuesday night in greenfield.after halls jumped out to a 10-0 lead,halls still had chances to open it up more and didnt drive to the basket enough or missed some open shots as well.although there were several touchy fouls called on hals,greenfield missed several free throw attempts.halls just didnt block out well enough against a very atletic brandon shane.he even cuffe a rebound off of a missed free throw.if the guy is blocked out properly,he doesnT give his team another chance to score.halls had chances different times after haing a 33-26 lead late in the 3rd quarter as well.although i think there was a bad offensive fopul caled on rashayn patrick,still i think other things that happened in the game could have been overcame anyway.greenfiend had smith return to the point guard and handled the ball well and made som,e good ballfake moves as he always does.as of greenfield playing hals a few years ago when vaughn was playing,i have to admit,those two officials werent the best in the world although greenfield did have a very bad night as well.those two officials dont officiaTE anymore.regardless what had hapened at the game,halls still had plenty of chances to win the game if only they do the little things like block out and rebound and be a littl;e more patient and drive more when needed.when greenfien went man to man,i didnt understand why we didnt give the ball to damarcas nd lwet himn create since he is a good passer of the ball.he will only get better.rayshaun patrick has improved alot and has played very well.thats my opinion on what i saw how halls could have won regardless.hope we learn from it anmd help us win later.

let me add another thing about damarcas patrick.he has showeed some leadership on his team and does a great job in scoring and passing as well as playing great defense.this kid is only a sophomore and will only get better as time goes on.

let me give some of my opinions on some ofg these players ive scene.tony tyler is a great point guard.he doesnt have to be as fast as a damarcas patrick although patrick is extremely quick with his first step.damarcas doesnt yet have the ballhandling skills to go with the moves that strayhorn has and ballfaking ability.patrick has a great attitude and will get better and has great poise showing what he is made of in the state last year.tony seems like a great kid how he handled himself getting the mvp award although most including myself think otherwise.the big guy inside for lake county poses a problem and lake county has several weapons but they do rely on the outside shot too much.lake county has several weapons and is capable of beating some good teams.they have emproved tremendously from two years ago.whitby has done a good job with them.halls lays very good defense and both teams will play very hard and should be a great contest.

halls ended up on a 38-23 scoring in the 4th quarter to open up a 37-24 previous lead to win 75-47 after both teams had a very sluggish start.halls played great defense early on but seemed snake bit from the field as both teams struggled from the field until damarcas patrick hit a few shots and tates hit a three to open the lead more.not much offense in the game until the fourth quarter for both teams.

hey guys.i have to tell ya that i wasnt sure how we would start the year off.we won over obion by 40(not a very good obion team) and a very quick brighton team by 18 last night.damarcus patrick and several other players for halls played well in the two games so far.i dont remember damarcas missing a free throw last night.i honestly thought we could have opened ity up more if we could have done a better job of handling the ball with a 21 point lead with 5 mnutes or so remaining.we ended up winning 76-58.should be an interesting year with lake county returning every player from last year for the exception of one senior who didnt get much playing time last year.trenton with the doaks kid inside and several people back from last season.5 out of the first 6 games for halls are on the road and 2 road games already played with wins.i also saw greenfield on the schedule as well.good to get greenfield back on our schedule.we have had some great battles throughout the years.cant wait to see some of the district battles later on with lake county with there annued sprited crowd at there gym.it was great in the district tournament last season.should be another exciting year of high school basketball coming up.

i was surprised halls didnt pull it out.we have tougher teams in our own district as well as the opposite region where Middleton and jcs play.Greenfield upset jcs who has 4 starters back for next year.i saw jcs play and Greenfield managed to beat jcs on there turf.Unaka managed to win when they needed to.halls had been hitting free throws late and making plays all year against better teams all year but didnt make it happen when they needed to get it done.5 missed free throws as well as one front end of a one and one was rare for this team.at least,they will be returning 5 out of the 7 players that played although they will be loosing there top two scorers in leading scorer dane strayhorn and second leading scorer lajoel nance.strayhorn was a special type quality player who is very rare.we will be missing him as he will be playing basketball somewhere collegiately.also,trenton Peabody has most of there returning players including 6"8 doaks,and several current sophomores at least 6"2 and other players along with some upcoming talent.lake county looses basically nobody who was the only single A team to beat halls at halls.they will be loaded with talent the next two or three years.Middleton was tall and very athletic.halls had to make a great comeback from 15 points in the third quarter to win with a game winning bucket with 20 seconds left to win a great game with another winning score by dane strayhorn who had done this several times in his career.too bad we didnt get the ball to him with 20 seconds to play to give halls a chance to win against Temple.it should be alot tougher for halls to get back to the state next year because of some tough matchups in our region and substate if we make it that far.

i agree gamer16.hes probably the best shortstop weve had at halls in awhile.his high school coaches told me he wished every ball was hit to him.not too many people are good of a shortstop then ive scene from this kid.anyone whose scene kyle blackwood play shortstop knows he can play the position very well.i know he wants to play college baseball.hes got a great attitude and very respectful young man.any collge team will be glad to have this young man on there team one day.

barkley,i was only making a list in single A basketball.its ovious willie kemp should make the list hands down.i was very impressed with kemp the first time i saw him.

i dont know when the all west tn teams come out and home many are named on 1st team,2nd team or third team.but i have my opnions on some who should definately make first team in single A basketball in no particular order.i might miss a few but heres my picks. dane strayhorn(halls),doaks(trenton Peabody),alan north(jcs),xavier webb(West Carroll), and brandan shane(Greenfield).those i think are the best five that ive scene in west tn.i know there are some good ones that play for Middleton but the names escape me.great talent in west tennessee.sure would be a nice team to play in murfreesboro with that bunch.

excuse me dude but kyle blackwood for halls has been a solid shortstop for all three years.he usually hasnt pitched much but he is definately a heck of a shortstop.they are a very young team this season with lots of freshmen.one player just got finished with basketball(josh daniels).he will play shortstop when blackwood pitches.halls lost several key players from the last two seasons.there best player in the school system dont even play.and thats ashame because the kid can flat hit a baseball a coutry mile,has speed, and a great arm.i dont think they will be as good as the last two seasons but maybe in the future with several freshmen playing.hopefully they can get much better.

brandon shane of Greenfield,the kid from Gordonsville and cook of Chattanooga Christian in single A.

leslie delk of Haywood county is cousins with the delk twins of northside.northside and Haywood played each other this season as well.awesome talent in them genes.

its saturday in memphis on the 27th of march.cant remember the time.

i figured the teams who ot beat the first game didnt make it.if they voted on who are the better players in the tournament who played well,then,gordon would have made it AA just like strayhorn in A.apparantly,they voted for the ones who advanced to semifinals,not whose the better players necessarily.

i really wished we would have given the ball the strayhorn(# 4) for halls the last 20 seconds of the game against Temple.ive scene him win so many games late with the ball in his hands.Temple would have had a tough time guarding him that late.he starts to dribble like hes doing a mahammad ali footwork crossing te ball between his leg and doing a hard step fake several times and gets the defender going backwards and setting them up to go by them by going quick and slowing down and going past the defender.and sometimes doing a spin jump stop as the ball comes off the floor and landing without establishing a pivot foot so he can either ballfake or create an opening to either draw a foul with a defender attempting to recover.ive scene strayhorn cause several people in one game to get in foul trouble.hes simply amazing and probably the best guard under 6 foot to play at halls. calab skoggins has a great double clutch crossover low to the ground as well.i saw him get open on a move driving in the lane against halls.

that move is an advanced pullback crossover dribble.very effective move.ive scene strayhorn make a guy fall down one time and then flinch and made the defender fall again the next time he guarded him.its always fun to watch good ballhandlers.

im from halls and i think several teams were very lose and evenly matched in the tournament.halls had more quickness then any team there but we missed free throws down the stretch and it cost us.Unaka made plays when they needed to when it was close.this was the deciding factor for Unaka in all of there games.in the first game Unaka played,early on,i thought Unaka was going to get blown out.but Unaka gave them some problems on the press and made a good comeback and made plays down the stretch in the first game and shot the ball well in the next two games.i have to admit i was surprised Unaka won it all after watching them play the first game.but there were several teams in the tournament that could have won it all.but Unaka done what they had to in order to win.and thats all that matters.

kyle blackwood(shortstop) for halls is as solid as they come.hes a smooth fielder and great footwork.

so did number 14 for Temple showing poise and wanting the wall and keping Temple in the game in the first half.

willie kemp is the one you have to watch.he the real deal.mlk post play looks very weak but the guards handle the ball well for mlk.mlk plays goutty defense and seems to have lots of respect for there coach.bolivar probably will come out in a man and use there size along with there guard play with kept.

who won? and details please.

hey.i was at the game.strayhorn was double teamed in the backcourt and surprisingly game up the ball to richmiond in the backcourt.richmond missed free throw attempt at the front end of a one and one.hes not the guy you want at the line.it shocked me that strayhorn gave up the ball there.but we still should have gave the ball to strayhorn late.i saw the panic and was hoping for a timeout cause i wouldnt want richmond to try to win it there especially with that much time left on the clock.we made some costly mistakes in the past that others didnt see and it eventually cost us.taking bad shots at wrong times but not putting the ball in our best players hands when all he has done since a freshmen and find a way to win games.a person has to be able toplay smarter consistantly but we had been getting away with things.such as,the reputation of shooting ourselves out of a game.we dont do that all the time but it will come back to bite you if you dont change it.yesterday did.one Temple fan along with several of there fans were simply amazed with strayhorn.i feel bad for the kid for him missing 2 free throws late inthe game as well as the others missing some key free trws late.it hurt me pretty bad to see a season end this way.i certainly hope the younger kids from halls can take a leason from the game and helped them become better people later in life.ive had a great pleasure to work with dane strayhorn when he was ten in youth league basketball and some in baseball when he was 13 and 14 some in all stars.hes certainly proved some critics wrong early in his life from some locals when he was quit younger.im proud the way he responded to those people and made a name for himself.im certainly going to miss dane playing high school basketball but hopefully see more of him at the next level.damarcas patrick(#5) is only a freshmen and played like he had ice in his veins as he made a big steal at the end giving halls a 2 point lead.he certainly has a bright fute ahead of him in all three sports.good luck to the rest of the crew.

last knight could have been the state championship.willie kempwas so good last night,i forgot about lake being a finalist for the award.raleigh eqypt cant flat out play some tough defense.but if they could have found an answer for kept,maybe rRaleigh Egypt could have pulled it out.Raleigh Egypt seem to hurt bolivar on the boards but the slow start with bolivar going up 13-2 early hurt them.ashame these two teams had to play first round.awesome game by willie kemp.hes certainly the real deal.