brock20

If Greeneville hits their 3's then this one will at least not be a total blowout. I think DB wins by about 15 just cause this is at Greeneville. Gash and Shortt cannot overcome the huge height advantage DB has.

Here is what I know about the District 2 that Central played: Greeneville - They have the best player in the Region in Tremaine Gash. I know that is a bold statement but he can play. If you are playing man 2 man against this guy do not try and put your quickest guy on him because Gash will be quicker and just abuse him. You are better off putting a tall guy on him and making Gash shoot over them (TN High will probably play a zone so that will not matter). Greeneville's other player is Shortt who is also one of the top players in the Region. He is pretty tall but is quick enough to take the guards off the dribble. Gash and Shortt are going to score no matter what, just don't let the other guys from Greeneville beat you. Mo West - Their best player is Dustin Fanney. Quick and likes to penetrate but his favorite shot is a pull up jumper from the foul line. He is a very good player. The point guard for West is also a good 3 point shooter so watch out for him. The first time we played them they had a kid (more like a man though) who was about 6-6 and wore a head band, but he was not at Central when we played them last. Don't know if he got kicked off, quit or what but he is pretty tough if he plays. Cocke County - Did not see this game so I can't comment too much about them. From what I am told this is the only District 2 team with any post play. Even though East has to play them away, they at least don't have to worry about the home cooking that many teams suffer from when going there since it will be Region 2 refs.

I knew that after 4 years on here I would rub off on you eventually.

I am not going to say which one he is because he has intentionally lied on here a couple of times to try and conceal the fact that he is a ref. I will say this, he probably reffed the King/Walters State game last year if that gives you any hints. Yeah I guess I am a pretty big Cougar fan but it is not because of some allegiance to the school. I have cheered for Central the last few years because of coaching some of these kids during summer camps/AAU teams, watching them play in middle school and of course because of my brother. I am also glad to see Coach Vaughn doing well. I've always wondered what my group would have done playing his style of ball. I'll always wish Central the best but I doubt it will be with the same enthusiasm I have had in the past few years. I will probably just listen to the game Saturday on the radio. Believe it or not I actually have some Viking gear. I won 2 Mr Hustle shirts from Viking Camp when I was in middle school!

I know that we have had our words on here Cap1 but I have always liked the fact that you pull for your team and always feel like that they can beat anyone. You also really could have rubbed it in that you guys put us out, but you didn't and I appreciate that. Good luck to you guys from here on out. OK, for anyone who hasn't figured it out, OldDoc08 is a referee in the Big 9 conference. He once started a thread on here asking for people to rank the best officials in East TN...I mean are you kidding me? That would be like ranking who is the best scorekeeper or best clock operator. This is the kind of arrogance from officials that fans from the Big 9 have to put up with. So are you asking where I have been so you can rub it in my face that Central got beat? You my friend are a class act. I guess now, since that I know who you are on here, you will have to go back to bashing me anonymously on the East TN Softball board right?

"The General" is the new principal at Central and she was definately not there in 04-05 or any other year but this one. "The General" nickname (I am guessing she made it up herself) comes from a shirt that she wears that says that on it. Pretty mature...huh? She has done her best to try and make the basketball games all about her instead of the players or the fans. She even went as far as to ask a fan to say her name in a cheer. The crowds at Central have been great again this year except for the last 2 games, but again they were a non-conference game and a game againist Boone. I am sure there will be a lot of fans at the last home game Friday and when the Districts start. Central has a great group of kids and fans. Totally wrong. Nobody under the goal was drunk. "The General" decided she needed to yell down from above and tell one of Central's best former players that he had to throw his skoal out or he would be ejected from the gym (Like he was the only person in the gym dipping skoal). She also thought it was necessary to send 3 constables his way to make sure he did it (he spit it out in the thrash without a fuss by the way). All she had to do was tell the person herself to throw out the dip and nobody would have even known anything was going on. Anyway, after she makes this scene the guys father made a comment how ridiculous that was and she said that he needed to leave because he was "being smart" to her and then she sent the 3 constables his way. As sad as I will be when this season is over and how I will miss seeing these players and the student section, I will be glad that I do not have to go to that gym anymore and see the "Clown Show" that Central has become this year and last. I honestly don't know why the students come to the games to only get treated terribly by their own administration and their own constables. Look at any other school, the administration and constables throw out fans from the OTHER TEAM, not their own! You are supposed to take care of your own fans, not threaten to make them leave just to show how much control you have.

It is on tricities.com (Bristol Paper). It is not on TriCitiesSports.com yet. bud, there is always a point in every game where a team hits a cold streak and struggles to score. Even in blowouts, there is always a small stretch where a team cannot either get in there offense or cannot make a bucket. We hit ours about 3 or 4 minutes into the 4th and I think we were up about 2 or 3 and Taylor Harmon hit a couple of big buckets to put them in the lead and they took the momentum from there. Now, here is where the refs come into play. We are only up by 2 points at that time when, if the game is called anywhere close to fair, we are up 20 at this point and once they made that run we call a timeout, regroup and still have a sizable lead. This is how SH and DB put away teams, they get out to such a big lead that even when you make that late run on them you have used up everything you had just to get back in the game and make it close. This should have been a game where the JV players were getting time at the end. Every time we got a decent lead around 10 or so the refs would make unbelievable calls that would keep the ball on TN High's end until they scored.

Just looked at TriCities.com, I was just a little off. Foul count on there is 20-8 and TN High shot 21 free throws and we shot 5.

I will say this though. The players for TN High are very respectful to the other players and are good kids. I am sure that Coach Witcher has taught them this. Its not TN High's players fault, they played hard and did what they had to do to win. It is just a shame that the kids put in a ton of practice in week after week and then get officiating like that. I do not remember the officiating being that bad when I played and their is even a lot of the same guys out there. Maybe they loved Coach Warren or something, I don't know. The great thing about this game though is that it really didn't mean a lot as far as seeding in the district goes. It looks like we are playing TN High again in the 4-5 game.

The foul shots were 22 - 5 and you will see it for sure in the box score tomorrow. The foul count was around 22-8 also. Like you said though, we will see. You can put whatever you want to on here. Anyone who saw the game tonight knows how bad it was. And it was not just the fouls, it was the ludicrous calls that just come out of nowhere, like the lane violation where nobody was even close to going over the line. Cap1, I am done with you on here. You consistently put statements that are untrue on here and try to pass them of. If you wanna talk ball, just ask Phil who I am and see me at the districts when we play you all again.

You could not have called it any better. The first half of this game was the worst officiated game I have ever seen in high school basketball. No exaggeration, and the second half was the 2nd worst half I have seen. If this game was called anywhere near fair we win by 15 or more. TN High shot 22 foul shots to our 5. But that doesn't even begin to show the real story. Anytime we started to get any kind of lead by about 10 or more the refs would call either a lane violation on a free throw, moving screen, a phantom walk, 3 seconds or a foul not even near the ball to allow TN High to get back in the game. Then once we hit a 2 minute stretch where we struggled to score TN High hits a couple of shots and it was over for us. whereas if we had gotten a fair shake we would have weathered that because we would have been up 20 points. Once TN High got the lead all they had to do was throw it near the paint and the refs were going to call a foul on us. The refs let TN High's post players just kill people inside on their zone and there is nothing you can do about but hope that somehow you can knock the people of your arms long enough (and without getting a crazy offensive foul called on you) to somehow muster the ball up to the goal. Funny thing was that TN High actually went to a man-to-man for about 3 possessions and we get 3 easy buckets because they didn't have any of their goons inside near the bucket to hammer us when we took it up. They quickly got away from that and went back to their usual going over the back and beating people under the goal. People want to go off on Volunteer for their physical play but really TN High in my opinion is worse than they are. Volunteer may be physical but they at leadt get called for those fouls, where as TN High does not. But it has been like this for the last 10 years or so because of the Arby's. As long as TN High gets to appoint refs to this tournament then they are always going to get the benefit of the doubt, but tonight it was just put to the extreme. In my opinion TN High has not had a good team since Kevin Springs, John Sproles and Davey Wilson played. These TN High teams should be thankful everyday for the Arby's or they would be a consistent cellar dweller. One of the refs we had tonight used to call in District 2 but for some reason is calling Big 9 games now. I mean what is the deal? Did we not have enough terrible refs that we had to go and get some from another District? Was this guy like last the final piece to the all-time worst officiating crew ever and we finally got all 3 of them teamed up together tonight?

I just seen on TriCitiesSports today where Keith Cradic needs about 19 point to become Volunteer's all-time leading scorer. The person he is going to pass is Chucky Lindholm, who played for Volunteer about 3 or 4 years ago when them and Central were still in AA. The thing is Chucky accumulated all those points in just 3 years, because his senior year he transferred to Twin Springs. He may have scored over 2500 points if he would have stayed there his senior year. I wish that Central, Volunteer and Elizabethton could have been in AAA during those years. P.S. Does anyone else besides me remember when the Kingsport (now SW VA) Times-News gave previews about the upcoming games in the area and also had little weekly columns about some of the standout players from the previous week (I think it was in the "Sportsporri" section)? Now we are lucky to get an article about the game the next day. I know that the internet has probably hurt their business and they have had to have some cutbacks but it just doesn't make sense to me to have articles on NBA and NHL games instead of articles highlighting local athletics. If I wanted to read an article on the Suns/Spurs game I would pick up a copy of USA Today. The Times-News still has good writers (Bill Lane) but unfortunately that does not make up for the lack of coverage they have given the Tri-Cities teams. Which brings me to my last rant about the Times-News. Does anyone know when they decided to change their coverage from the Tri-Cities area to the SW-VA area? Does someone in charge there have a girl who plays volleyball for Gate City or something? I remember last year on a Sunday where the front page of the sports was the all SW-VA girls Volleyball Team picture and article instead of articles about local high school basketball games the night before. Has anyone else noticed these changes or is it just me?

I doubt he is hands down better than any Freshman considering Jordan Cross is the sixth man on a pretty good East team. In fact, I think it is pretty much not open to debate that Cross has been the best Freshman in the conference this year. Matt Harmon from Central is another good Freshman. He dresses Varsity and until he suffered a head injury that has sidelined him for the year, was a standout on the JV.

No, there was no dirty play Friday night by either team and the game never got out of hand at any point. It was just a VERY inconsistently called game, for both teams. I shouldn't have used the word "murdered" because it was not like that. I was just referring to a couple of break away layups were the defender tried to go for the block and got the guy with body. Nothing dirty.

I said after the game was over that I thought that was the worst officiated game all year. The inconsistency is what was so bad. A guy goes for a break away layup and gets murdered and it is a no call, but if someone tries to pock the ball out from someone on the perimeter it is a foul.