caramelcutiepie

Has the voting taken place or not. The voting is going on as I type. I have my nomination forms in front of me. They have to be faxed to the TSSAA by Friday, February 20th. They will then be counted and a group of finalists will be determined by a nine member panel in the coming weeks. Those panelists will then vote on the finalists. Sportsradio, To whom are the nomination forms sent to, sportswriters in different parts of the state or high school coaches? If a coach did not receive a nomination form, how can he or she obtain one? Thanks in advance...

I have only seen him play twice (last night was the second time) and he is absolutely amazing. Very underrated. He hit from everywhere on the floor and I'm not sure that the box scores were correct showing that he only scored 25. He hit like 4 or 5 threes in a row while guarded, left open, swarmed with defenders or just in someone's grill. He's an unconscious shooter...very smooth and quick. Who is recruiting him? He is one of the few who Coach Tippett has ever let have "the green light" to shoot and its obvious why. I might have to make a special trip to Murfreesboro to see them in the boys state tournament in addition to going the week before for the girls, which I do every year. Pigram is very fun to watch!!

You are absolutely right about that...I remember when they had the fab 4 freshman (LaToya Bullard, Phyllisha Mitchell, Cheron Brown, Amber Jones) who all started Varsity that year. In the beginning of the season, they started off 9-1. When it came time for district play, it was a horrible sight to behold as they lost like 9 or 10 straight, playing against teams with much more experience like East, Central, Northside and Melrose. Heck, even Whitehaven was pretty experienced that year. 16AAA was stacked top to bottom and you had a team that had four freshman girls who had played together (three of them for 2-3 years), but who had never played at the Varsity level, except for LaToya who took the district by storm the year before by playing Varsity in the 8th grade. In their first game freshman year, they played a White Station team with two D-1 players in Tiffany Roberson (UTC) and Tiffany McCollins (NC State) and lost by 1 on a last second shot,after having led the entire game. We knew they were talented, but they were shell-shocked when district play rolled along. They got blown out so many times we stopped counting...we really started judging the games on how close they got to winning. They ended up being the 6th or 7th seed in the district tournament and drew Central as their first opponent. Central had actually beat them by 40 earlier in the year. By the end of the season, they weren't freshmen anymore and went on to beat Central and Fairley to advance to the regionals. TrojanBob, I know you remember the Craigmont/Collierville game. Craigmont won that game before losing to East (who they have only beat this year for the first time since they started high school), who then went on to make its first State Tournament appearance that year. These girls are ready this year...they were so disappointed after their let down last year and you see the beatings that Northside had to take as a result of it. And the scary thing is, they lose only ONE person to graduation and everyone else will be back next season. I think they are going to pose a lot of problems for teams in the district, regionals and substate this year. Whether or not they do anything past that remains to be seen. It will be a new experience for a still fairly young team but hopefully, the experience of playing together in front of big crowds and against top competition at AAU Nationals every year will make the situation easier to deal with.

Porsha Willis will be back by that time, though, so Kirby should be fine. If not, its going to be tough for them. She makes a lot of difference for that team. Central does have a good chance, but with the exception of Demetrice Preyer, their guard play is not that strong. Inside, however, they can be a force tough for a lot of teams in our area to handle. They play Craigmont again Thursday and i should be at the game...I will be able to evaluate and see if Central's win over Craigmont was a fluke (which I think it was since Central lost to Whitehaven). Let's see who wins now since they would be dumb to double-team LaToya with Jessica on the court. They won't have an overwhelming height advantage this time, but the post players are pretty sound down there. I have seen Craigmont play since Jessica's return and that starting five could contend with almost anybody...the chemistry was there and the team looked complete. It's pretty amazing, actually.

White Station will win it when it counts...in the end.

I maybe shouldn't say this, but I went through the testing process as well and I feel that the testing process is used as a control measure to keep large numbers of certain groups of people out of those schools. Once I got there, there were kids who I had a hard time believing they actually passed anything, let alone the entrance exams. Briarcrest is really bad about this and there's no coincidence that most of the African American students (the few that actually go there) are athletes. There are very small numbers of "regular" kids. Very small.

Mav, You gotta admit...it was pretty funny, though.

90sWarrior, I was trying to think of a good comeback for that one, but all I could do is laugh (still blushing)!! You got me on that one! Nuff said...

I know that going to schools and actually playing are different. Let's just keep it simple and say that all of these girls signed scholarship offers and played at least one year, most staying the whole time (except for King and Cianciola). The point that I am trying to establish if not for the nitpicking, is that they were all talented players who could go on to play at the next level, also pointing out the feat that a coach at such a small private school accomplished. Most other coaches in our area have never sent so many players big time like she did, feeder program or not. I was already at Harding in elementary school (before playing for the Celtics) but I still think that it was a good idea for the others because in some cases, you take kids from urban parts of the city and put them in an exceptional academic environment that a private school has to offer and they excel in both athletics and academics and are better prepared once they get to college and usually do well on the ACT. I know it worked out fine for me...I was very prepared and learned a lot as a result of going to private school for most of my time in school. Some public schools are very good also, but I'm just speaking of my experience...it also worked well for Juana and Nikki, who got degrees from very good universities UNC and Kansas.

You couldn't make me happy if I told you how to and if you gave me a million dollars.

She did have over a dozen...I should know, I played with them. Consider the ones before Juana and Nikki like Tasha King (Kansas), Laura Cianciola (St. Johns) Julianne Signiago (Ole Miss) Nikki kendrick (Arkansas) and Tarol Page (Austin Peay) just to name a few. If you worked there, you should know this. Maybe they were there before you got there. I know I was. Knowing what happened in her situation (rather not discuss), I'm not throwing a pity party for her and I'm not saying that she is the greatest "person" in the world. I'm just giving her credit for being a good coach. You say don't overstate what she has done, Freeze was at Briarcrest at the same time and never won a State Tournament (not to mention even never making it to state or regionals for that matter) while playing in a "non-D2/pre-D2 league". Mears beat some of the top teams in the city, Northside being one of them while having some of the top players in the city on that team (Marquita Mackey, Rashida Allsgood,etc). That was during the regular season, but do you think that Freeze could have won all of his many state tournaments in D1 girls basketball in the state of Tennessee?? I don't think so...and like I said, he was coaching before the change took place and lost to Kirby and other teams in the city who were not even top teams. Although Harding did have the backing of the Celtics, so what? It's not any different than what Briarcrest is doing with the Waves/Blackhawks feeder system and if you say something bad about Coach Clinton, I'll have to come and find you myself.

Last I heard, which was a couple of years ago, she was coaching at Treadwell. I haven't heard anything lately but she was a super coach! One of the least known but one of the best that ever coached in Memphis, although her coaching stint was short...she did some amazing things in a few short years.

You're right on target, Devilfanatic. I think less and less of our coaches in this area focus on fundamentals like they should and quite a few if not most, actually lack having their own basketball philosophy that proves to be successful. I think that a lot of the coaches now, particularly in the city, don't try to create "basketball purists" and players who really know the game and believe in a system, whatever system that might be. Most depend on talent and I'm hoping that this is not so obvious when our teams from Memphis/West Tennessee advance to State. The coaches in our suburbs are better at this, but lack a full team of talent sometimes to be able to compete both locally and statewide. There were only a few who I can name (and one who coached me as well) who benefitted from having an several super talented players combined with exceptional coaching ability and most were very successful. Robert Newman at Melrose is an example, but he hasn't had the overall team talent that he has had in past years (80s,90s). Hugh Freeze at Briarcrest is one, although the level of play in D-2 is not as comparable these days and Lesa Mears (former coach at Harding Academy) is another. She actually coached at a private school that played a MONSTER of a schedule (there was no D-2 back then and they actually played Christ the King in Ny while Holdsclaw was there) and very seldom lost, having talented players like Juana Brown (UNC) Tasha King (Kansas) and Nikki White (Kansas). She sent over a dozen players to top level D-1 college programs by herself. They were the first team in our area (I think) to be ranked by USA Today. Briarcrest was the second team to accomplish this. There are other coaches in the past who have been great, but I think now the level of commitment by the coaches to spend an immense amount of time is not as strong as in the past. I don't know if we'll ever see this trend fade...maybe I should teach high school and coach myself...then, you'd see a change. (haha!)

Now, that might be true, but I was at the game, and Tyner played more than 5 people. Even if they didn't, they were no more at a disadvantage than Kirby, who played with 5 that game, has played with 6 all season long this year, has played with 5 or 6 over the last few years and will be playing with 6 or 7 for the rest of the season. At least you guys get your players back. But, more players do make a difference once the season wears on...its easier on the team.

I didn't know you attend Shelby State (especially since it doesn't exist anymore) and work in Tunica. Boy, I envy you...I want your life! Seriously, though, the girls that I am talking about have gone to Kansas, North Carolina, Indiana, Louisville, St. Johns, and Tennessee (just to name a few) not to mention the ones we have at Kentucky, Texas A & M and too many schools to name in addition to the signees from this year and last and the ones from next year and the year after. I know it sounds kinda cocky, and I don't mean it to be that way,really, but we have people who constantly belittle this area for its basketball quality. If you listened to them (as most of you have and now believe), you would think that no one over here can play at all and that the level of basketball is just stagnant. The number of signees and AAU state titles in recent years proves the naysayers wrong. I won't ever say that we have been great in girls basketball and have been the best and produced the best high school teams annually, because that would be a flat out a lie. What the Shelbyville's and Jackson County's and Oak Ridge's have amassed and accomplished over the years is UNREAL to say the least, and that's a credit that has to be given to them. What those programs have done probably won't ever be duplicated again by any single program in the state. You other people, however, have no room to talk, because your programs haven't done anything either! We are simply tired of people adding to the myth that there's no good basketball in West Tennessee and Memphis, a myth that several top college coaches have already verbally stated they ignore and it shows by the players that they sign. I will admit that the level of coaching is no way up to par with the coaching that girls receive in the stronger regions of the state and that just is what it is--there's no denying it. But, I would hope that people would wake up and be realistic as well and examine this for what it really shows...there is a buttload of talent in this area, period. The players aren't responsible for the lack of coaching, but they receive the brunt of the criticism for it. Whether you admit it or not, your opinions won't change the obvious fact that the top players for next year will be coming from this area and will be the most highly recruited players in the class of 2005 from Tennessee. You might as well just get ready to deal with it.

You're right!! No matter what happens, no one can take anything from these girls and they don't have to prove it to anyone but themselves because the parents and their fans (like me) already know what they are capable of and see not just the potential, but the elite level talent that they already have. They don't need the hype that some need...and Memphis doesn't necessarily need the gold balls either...that'll just be icing on the CAKe...plenty of girls have gone on to get the GOLD BALLS that sit in their coaches offices or in the school trophy case while they work at the town Kroger and talk about "way back then" and past accomplishments...we have girls EVERYWHERE getting what matters more...College diplomas...and they are playing D-1 basketball, not having to pay the get them either!! Just add these two names (and several more in the future from our underrated city) to the list! The recruiters know where to go to find the players they need for their programs and it ain't in Martin, TN that's for dang sure! You'll see where all the talent is when AAU begins if you haven't already.

Did you guys hear or read anything?? Is someone saying something? Must be my imagination...for a second, I thought I smelled a "HATER". Guess not... By the way, I heard Westview has a great band! Maybe they can get two All-Americans to transfer to Westview, swap basketball for band, and really grab the attention of all the "band scouts". What fun! (yeah right)

The difference is that if someone moves while they live in the town of Shelbyville, chances are BECAUSE ITS SMALL, they will still go to Shelbyville High School. Now, in a metropolitan area like Memphis or Nashville, if someone's parents move 30 minutes away (its not like the kid has any say so) or more, they would obviously need to change schools. Its not that hard to understand...TrojanBob, I hate you even brought it up and what Shelbyville has been rumored to do (I don't know if they have or not and that's not really my concern) has nothing to do with the latter situation that you asked me about. I really like their program, Tacosparoleofficer and I'm not hating on them if they bring in good players and win...I'm proud of their tradition and I've seen them help girls get to college and that can't be a bad thing, now can it? If a person wants to send their child to Shelbyville to play for a good coach then let them...what business is it to anyone else?? Just like what business is it to anyone on here what someone decides to do with their child?? I really think that questions about people's personal lives (especially those of teenage kids) should really not be posed here...if they must for discussion's sake, maybe they could be asked in a "less prying" manner. This is slightly off topic, but not really. I'm a really private person who doesn't really care what other people do in their lives and I absolutely hate and detest NOSY people who want to know what I'm doing all the dang time. There's just something about someone who is always concerned with what someone else is doing...makes you wonder when they have time to focus on what they are doing or SHOULD be doing for themselves. HMMM.....just had to get that off my chest.

TrojanBob, You should trust me on this one...Jessica DOES NOT live in that house. Why is someone continuing to lie to you? Her parents are too smart for that...I live down the street and the old house is just a stone's throw away from several coaches in the city...they could drive by and see that for themselves...or maybe you should drive by and check on it since you don't believe me. I can honestly say that they moved into a very nice house...and its not that one and nowhere close to it. Amber's mother bought a house in the Kirby district. It was too hard for her to keep driving her back and forth to Covington Pike everyday from that area and that was part of the reason she left. She does not live at the address where she lived at first.

LATOYA BULLARD...PERIOD. Hey TrojanBob, Its like talking to a wall or a piece of fruit...its falling on deaf ears. People believe what they want to believe because the truth sometimes hurts or makes them face reality which sometimes ain't too pretty. We all really know who the best point guard in West Tennessee is...heck, actually, the best point guard in the entire state. I kinda wish people would not post these types of posts because most people are not objective enough to be rational. They just pick their kids, cousins, friends, baby mamas, baby mamas' cousins, etc. It's really funny actually... One time, some guy actually picked his grandma and had several people agree that she was the "best I ever seen!!" LOL!!

Showtime, I agree...that would definitely be a great matchup...probably the best! I know several scouts who have already said that they will be in attendance if that game should take place. However, Fuller and Newman have the edge because they have the experience of getting that Gold Ball and having played in the State Championship several times (I think). Experience will be a key factor if that matchup takes place. Plus, I definitely have to give the coaching edge to Rick Insell. Who wouldn't? But, for next year, its going to be hard to find another group from 2005 who will be able to keep Craigmont from at least getting to the Championship game. They will return everyone from this years team except for one player. I hope that TSSAA isn't as crappy as we all think and I hope that they set them on opposite sides of the bracket so that the best game will be played last. Buuutttttt, there are several teams (Central, Kirby) on this side of the bracket that on any given night in the Regionals or sub-state could stop Craigmont from getting there and I like their chances to meet up with Shelbyville if they get past sectionals.

Also, 90sWarrior, the thought of monkeys flying out of your butt is a mental picture that none of us deserve to be presented with...WHAT PUNISHMENT!! If we have to see something that mortifying happen to you if Craigmont wins state, I'd rather they not even go. I love the girls, but the sight of monkeys out of your butt eradicates any chance at normalcy and I just couldn't go on with that thought on my mind for the rest of my life. LOL!!! Ugghh!! The HORROR!!

90sWarrior, exactly what part of your brain is missing?? The WHOLE part? No where in my post did I say that Craigmont will win the whole thing...if I did, point it out to me...you must be blind. I'm just saying that they have just as a good a chance as any other team and I'm backing up Showtime7 who has actually seen the girls play, unlike you. I would be dumb to say that your team won't win or someone else's team won't make it or don't stand a chance to make it, when I've never seen that team and everyone knows that I don't know what I'm talking about. That is the case with you...you absolutely have no idea and are CLUELESS. You rant and rave about your teams but I am not unrealistic and unreasonable enough to stoop to your level and tell you what they won't do when I don't know that...I have never seen those teams and they might actually be that darn good! WHO KNOWS! That's why we play the state championship so everyone can get to see some other teams that they've never seen before. And since there are two teams from every region, there will STILL be several good teams that some of us will NEVER get to see. Its common sense, but look who I'm explaining it to...GEEZ!! And if Craigmont does win the state, you don't have to make yourself look more stupid by apologizing to me. Please don't. I'm not on the team...and I'm sure they, along with other teams you don't give a chance, don't really give a rat's fat butt what you think. When all is said and done, only one team can take home that Gold Ball and since none of us are psychics, we'll just have to wait and see which team that will be. There are some teams that seem to have a better chance than others (some of us think that Craigmont is one of those teams along with Shelbyville, etc), but odds are made to be bet against and are just odds anyway. Just shut up and play...or rather, you just shut up and WATCH like the rest of us.

90swarrior, Showtime knows something that you don't...he knows that 1) there are two, not one BUT TWO All-Americans on ONE team and 2) he knows basketball. Craigmont has a top 10 Point Guard and the other is a top 20 Center. They run circles around the girls that you boast about every single summer by themselves. And, they have talent around them too...several girls who play for the Memphis Showboats in the summer time play with them at Craigmont. I know that West Tennessee generally doesn't represent well at the state tournament, except in recent years, Memphis East performed well the year before and last year (beat Oak Ridge who was the #1 team), and Melrose led Sevier at halftime last year before losing momentum in the second half to a very good team. I don't make excuses and I'm not in denial about the dominance of middle tennessee and the sometimes dominance of East Tennessee. You can only go by the facts and no, West Tennessee has not done much lately (except Briarcrest). However, I'm just saying that we rarely have so much talent on ONE team here and this year could be different...usually, the talent is very spread out and the top players are all at different schools because we have SO MANY schools and school zones. A lot of Craigmont's players just decided to go to school together and they are only juniors. They have several D-1 prospects on that team. The college coaches know where the talent is in the Class of 2005...even if you don't. We are honored to see several big time coaches at their games all the time. Read the article in case you missed it when Coach T put it on the first page... http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/prep_s...2619459,00.html

Look for a reorganization of another AAU team next year.