AirForceOne

The Midstate Ballerz Elite 16U team won the Substate in Nashville hosted by the Thunder this past weekend beating the Tennessee Thunder in the championship game by 3 (I think it was 76-73). The Ballerz beat the Thunder earlier this season by 30. Marcus Jefferson and Scott Newsom were HUGE for the Thunder. Jefferson finished with 29 points and a lot of assists. Newsom had probably 16, I'm sure a double/double in points and rebounds. EVERYONE played well offensively for the Ballerz. They broke down on defense allowing Jefferson to have his way in the paint. Kyle Upton also played well for the Thunder. The Ballerz are the REALEST team at the 16 year old age group hands down. Josh Henley went to work on the Thunder with 16 points. Known for his dominance in the paint, he took his game to the perimeter going 3-for-3 from the 3-point line. Latavius Williams DOMINATED in the paint. Scotty Hopson scored nine, but DID YOU SEE HIS MONSTER DUNKS, as well as Williams. "Beam me up Scotty". Someone said the Memphis teams were going to come down here and dominate. Come on. Two Middle Tennessee teams took the top two spots, and if we weren't set up to beat up on each other the Nashville Stallions would have taken the 3rd. They had losses to the Ballerz and the Thunder that bumped them out of the equation. No disrespect to the Memphis players because there is a BOAT LOAD of talent there, but to the s%^* talkers on these posts about how Memphis is going to just kick Middle Tennessee butts don't talk that mess any more until you decide to send a powerhouse down our way. I hear two 15 year old teams won the Memphis substate. Oh yeah, by the way the Ballerz were missing dominant 6'3" forward Rashawn Walker, 6'-7" Justin Hearn, and Jeremy Blair. One last thing, Tyshawn Edmondson blazed through the tournament with two 26 point games, Erik Wisdom who normally plays 2-guard is transitioning well at the point with two 6-assist games, Tyler Cutter is the real deal, he has eyes in the back of his head, Tyrone Caldwell dropped 10 on the Thunder with big time moves to the basket over taller defenders, Kevin Giltner (Thunder how did you let him get away) has MAD NBA range, and 6'5"postman Kyle Binder drops the 3 ball like he's one of the guards. I FEEL YA BALLERZ. We give respect where respect is due, so everyone else quit hatin' on us.

Unrecognized a lot because of his size and because he is playing around such good talent but Erik Wisdom played tremendous defense and distributed the ball well.

How many teams participated in this event at 16U?

Scotty Hopson drew the attention and positive feedback of Texas, Clemson, and Mississippi State coaches with his offensive onslaught and defensive tenancity in the weekend's Houston Kingwood Classic. Head Coach Jim Calhoun of UConn was in attendance at one of the Midstate Ballerz 16U games where Hopson poured in 25 or 26 points from all over the court. Other colleges coaches and scouts (one being Jerry Meyer of Rivals) attended Ballerz games as well. Other Ballerz teammates played well and also impressed coaches, but Hopson was by far one of the tops in the entire tournament. The team went undefeated in its pool and lost by 10 in bracket play to a Houston team that included a 7'4" player and 4 seniors.

I've heard the Thunder, Nashville Stallions, Midstate Ballerz, Memphis YOMCA Tigers, and Memphis Blackhawks. Not sure who else. I heard it was one other Memphis team.

Of approximately 1500 players participating on 156 teams in ALL age groups Midstate Ballerz 16 year old Scotty Hopson was ranked as one of the top 40 players to see in Arkansas' Real Deal on the Hill tournament. He was listed with the likes of O.J. Mayo, Bill Walker, Rico Pickett, Randy Culpepper, etc... This kid is the REAL DEAL. Way to go Scotty Hops!!!!!

Congratulations on the success of the Midstate Ballerz in the Riverdale classic. The 16's are a MUST see. Both 17 teams shared the honor of Co-Champions. The 15's went 3-1. Sixteen year old Scotty Hopson is the REAL DEAL!!!!!

Undersized Josh Henley 6'2" was a monster on the boards (21 rebounds) against Antioch's three 6'6" ball players. Jeremiah Crutcher handled them with ease. Mike Williams came off the bench and looked very good for Antioch. Casanova Donaldson hit 4 3's off the bench for HL. Antioch pulled with 8 as Jeremiah sat the bench the whole 2nd quarter due to foul trouble, but while he was in there they kept a double-digit lead. Antioch is young. HL is loaded with experienced players.

Does anyone have any details on how this game turned out?

BigY do you know if the Memphis Celtics entered a Super Regional after being removed from the 15U state for playing illegal players? How many illegal players did they have and do you know which ones they were (the #'s)?

The team out of Huntsville is the Southeast Elite. Smith does play with that team.

1. Memphis Bellevue 2. Southeast Elite Tigers 3. Tennessee Flight 4. Jordan All Stars

The SE Elite may be missing some key players in this tournament. They've got players recovering from some injuries. This team does not have all of the players that play on the AAU team. I think there may be 5 or 6 from that team. They still however have top notched talent. Go Elite!!!

Assistant coach, parent, and affiliate who has worked closely with those (coaches and admin) who have built the 14U and 15U programs. I am not the head person. There are several point persons for each age group.

Where are the games going to be played?

You are quite right Gomab the SE Elite 17U is not built on TN players, but the 15U and the 14U certainly are. The NCAA has had their run in with maybe one individual in the SE Elite 17U program in which no sanctions or concrete infractions that I know of were brought forth. Had that been the case the 17U more than likely would not have seen the success this year in the number of players headed to D-I programs. Aside from the 17U, the 15U and 14U have certainly tried to build a program based around middle TN players and is trying to continually build from there. There have been a lot of accusations in the past around the TN Travelers program as well, yet they've has some success in getting some individuals the needed exposure and get some of those players into good colleges. I guess bottom line, just as you have tried to do in your program, the same attempt is trying to be made by other organizations in middle tn, but to little avail, because the individuals at the top of the programs are miles apart in being on the same page. I certainly respect what you and your program has done in trying to realize this vision, maybe you can help open some eyes.

I feel ya Mr.B, that's why I quit commenting on this topic. It doesn't appear Middle TN is interested. The Southeast Elite 17U team has 8 Division-1 signees/prospects. If you can get some top area players on one team and get deep enough into a big time tournament you might get lucky enough for some college coaching staffs to come and check out your games and gain some interest in several players. So many teams enter big time tournaments that major coaching staff can't come to every game, especially pool play, but if you get into the final 16 or so, coaches can come to one gym, see 3 or 4 games and walk away with a good number of boys to get on their radar. If you think you can enter a team into a big time tournament and play a couple of pool games and get your players some exposure, you're kidding yourself. You've got to get a lot deeper than that.

How many teams qualified for the nationals? The top 3 or top 4?

Yeah, there's a big mis-perception about the shoe company involvement. BigY I'll touch base with you then with some others I know are interested.

Same coach each year, just as BigY has done, we've just started way late in the game. He's had a lot of these boys for a while. I'd like to see the 15 year old group play with the Southeast Elite from now until they complete high school.

I've got the names and numbers of everybody in middle tennessee on this post, players and coaches both. I'll be making the calls. I've already left voice mail and email messages for some. I've been waiting to hear back from some of you all. Keep in mind we are doing this for the boys, not for ourselves. I'VE GOT BIG VISIONS!!!

I definitely forgot to include Marcus Jefferson Josh Henley Tyrone Caldwell Timothy Ware Quiche Dowdell Marcus Jefferson Michael McAdoo Jason Jones DeMario Williams Derrick Mason Edwin Dorsey Deaunte Mason

Josh Henley Tyrone Caldwell Timothy Ware Quiche Dowdell Michael McAdoo Jason Jones DeMario Williams Derrick Mason Edwin Dorsey Deaunte Mason

Middle Tennessee the pressure is on. I'm going to hold onto this list and see what happens next year. If 9 or 10 of these boys aren't playing on the same team next year then somebody has dropped the ball. Looks like Mr.B.com is ready to make it happen. I've been affiliated with at least 12 of the players listed either through head coaching, assistant coaching, etc.

This is a great post with very valid discussion. There are way too many egos in Middle Tennesee (and I hear it's the same in the east). I for one have made sacrifices, putting my personal desires to win as a head coach aside to help other organizations build winners and something better for the kids in middle Tennessee. A post on here about a month ago challenged me as to why I got out of head coaching as if I were afraid to compete, but at this stage in the game it is more important for me to see my son and other top players around the mid-state combine to represent Nashville on a national level than it is for me to walk around Nashville and brag about what I have done on the local level. When more coaches and parents start making sacrifices and setting examples of some things being more important than just themselves then just maybe we can start convincing some of these players to do the same. There are too many head coaches in AAU, that won't even listen to their own assistants, experts of the game, or even high school, college level coaches that can help these organizations get better, and then we have a hard time trying to figure out why the kids won't listen to us. No one wants to bring anyone note-worthy into their organization because everyone is worried about the next coach stealing their glory. I think I watched a game where the Y's head coach sat in the stands and let his assistant coaches coach and I'm certain he was not tossed from the game or anything. Coaches around here are blinded by their overconfidence that they don't trust anyone else can help make their team better other than themselves or even coach without them. The players and their ability is here as far as Middle Tennessee is concerned to compete at a much higher level, but it is going to take heck to freeze over before some will break down and put their top talent under one umbrella.