WrittenWord

You're right. I was surprised by the poor officiating all week long in Rockwood.

Congratulations to Harriman. Oneida came out extremely flat in the first half, then just couldn't ever quite get a run going in the second. Every time they made a good defensive stand on one end or scored a basket in another, they either made a crucial mistake or were whistled for a foul (some of which were a bit puzzling, frankly). I think Oneida did more than simply lose the district tonight. They probably cost themselves a shot at substate. . . Now they fall into the same side of the bracket as Cosby. The way Cosby has been playing, that could be a kiss of death. But, hey, you never know . . . It's tournament time and anything can happen. Maybe the Vespie boys and Andrew Knight will start nailing their threes again and Wartburg can pull a shocker over Cosby. It'll be another week of interesting basketball.

I think it will be a low-scoring defensive dandy. Harriman is very much improved without Thomas.

I'll give that a big 10-4. That was about miserable last night. I kept wondering why they didn't just open the emergency exit doors. . .

Now that wasn't what I said, was it? The people standing around the doors were standing there because they wanted to stand there. There were enough seats for all of them to sit down.

Can anyone tell me what the protocol is for determining when it is or is not appropriate for fans to stand up in the stands at tournament games? I thought Oneida's students were treated pretty rudely at Rockwood earlier this evening. First, they were asked to move from the corner of the gym at the beginning of the girls' championship game - where they had been all evening and where they were completely out of everyone else's way. Then, after being moved to another section, they stood (nothing unusual for them) throughout the first half of the girls' game before being ordered to sit by a law enforcement officer early in the third quarter. It is no secret that Oneida travels well. And that was the case tonight as usual. So there were a lot of kids standing up... What's the big deal? They were blocking no one's view, because there was no one behind them. I just thought they were treated pretty rudely. Am I right or wrong?

It was awfully darned crowded tonight and we were discussing what would be a better site earlier. . . But you should've pushed through the crowd and went on in, rSquared. There were a lot of people inside, but the seats were by no means all taken.

I thought it was a great game tonight, but of course I would. Rockwood did not play real well, but give a lot of credit to the Oneida defense. They did some things very, very well defensively. If there is a bright spot for Rockwood, it is Reed. What a game he had from the field. . . Without him, it would have been a really poor showing by the Rockwood offense. I was a little disappointed by Wartburg's play against Harriman tonight. Then again, the Blue Devils really look much improved without their big-mouthed point guard. Ledbetter impresses me more every time I watch him play.

There's no doubting that team's effort! They finished 0-10 in the district but were only really out of one game, and that was the first game against O.S. I think they were beat by 93-29 or something like that. Heck, they came within single-digits of beating O.S. the second time, the only team in district to get closer than I think 19 points. . .

The schedule for tomorrow night at Rockwood is: Girls Consolation (Wartburg/Harriman) 4:30; Boys Semi-Final (Oneida/Rockwood) 6:00; Boys Semi-Final (Harriman/Wartburg) 7:30; Girls Championship (Oneida/Coalfield) 9:00.

No, they have been postponed. They have been scheduled for tomorrow. I was looking for a great night of basketball tonight, but if there is a bright side, tomorrow night will now be an awesome night of basketball.

I would have to say Oneida, although I'm probably a bit biased. They went from just a handful of wins last year to a legitimate contender to be one of the Elite Eight in Murfreesboro this year.

Wartburg will be back as a big contender. Harriman can contend if they can get everybody healthy. I look forward to seeing an Oneida/Cosby rematch. They met in the Christmas tournament at Harriman and it was not for the faint of heart! 50-49 I believe was the final, with Oneida winning. My feeling is that it will be Oneida and Cosby in the championship game, but don't rule out Wartburg.

Pennyplay is right, the big guys did not have a very good game against Coalfield. . . Miller and Armstrong combined for eight points, Miller scoring only two. Oneida also shot poorly beyond from downtown with the exception of Walker in the fourth quarter. I think Oneida has to hit some three-balls if they're going to beat Rockwood. When Walker's shot is on and Miller has his game on in the post at the same time, I think Oneida is very close to unbeatable in this district. If Rockwood has to rely on Davis, they may be in for a long night. In two games against Oneida, Davis has scored a total of 11 points this season. Oneida has done a very goob job containing him. With those things in mind, I still think it's going to be awfully difficult for Oneida to beat Rockwood with the game being on Rockwood's home court. I hope they do.

Oneida shakes hands with the officials before every ball game and they usually are the team with the most fouls called, so I wouldn't suspect that there was any sort of underlying conspiracy in them shaking the referees hands last night. It is a bit odd that Oneida was called for fewer fouls than Harriman; Oneida is usually called for the most fouls because they are more aggressive on defense. However, I think Oneida shot something like three more free throws than Harriman. I wouldn't say the officiating made a big difference in the game, especially when you consider that Oneida had a big lead late before putting in their reserves.

Well I picked Oneida to win it, but I didn't think they would be playing Coalfield on Friday night! Harriman's injuries really hurt them tonight. That and the fact that Oneida is so deep, they use aggressive defense and just wear you down.

Hard to say. I give the edge to Rockwood simply because it is on their home court. Outside of that, they match up very, very well. I'm looking forward to it.

Wow! That was a shocker!! That should clear the road for either Harriman or Oneida to win the championship, but Coalfield has got to be considered one of the most dangerous teams in this area right now!

Keith and Ray do a great job. They never get on the officials, are never overly excited for their team (I am one of those who feels like radio announcers should be homers . . . But there is a place where you can go overboard and start to sound like Larry Munson at UGA ) and that southern accent adds a good flavor to the broadcast. Tim Smith at Oneida does a great job also. He never gets on the officials too bad either. He has been known to say "int'resting" a time or two, though.

Seems a bit shocking. But it wouldn't really be that much of a surprise. At the Harriman/Oneida game last week, the Harriman coach had to have an assistant coach take him from the court after it became apparent that Oneida would win. It's a shame that a kid with that much talent has that kind of attitude. If the Harriman coach took that kind of action, though, you have to respect him for doing what he had to do at the most crucial time of the season. Most coaches wouldn't.

When was Thomas dismissed?? Didn't know anything about that. That's a shame. Such great talent, such a poor attitude.

There was some pretty good basketball at Rockwood tonight. Coalfield played very well against Oneida before Dustin Walker came alive and shot the lights out in the fourth quarter to help the Indians come back and win it. Coalfield did a great job of playing very aggressively on defense and keeping the game at their pace, while Oneida came out very, very tight and played exactly how I was afraid they would play: They played not to lose instead of playing to win. Oneida pulled it out, though 54-48 was the final I think. I believe Walker had 15 in the fourth quarter. The officiating crew tonight was one of the lamest I have seen this evening. I don't get on the refs often, but it was pretty pitiful tonight. They couldn't get anything right. I really felt like Oneida got hosed the first three quarters, then I saw some blatantly missed calls go against Coalfield in the fourth quarter. Oakdale played a real feisty game against Wartburg. They kept it close until Wartburg pushed it out to 14 in the second quarter. Then Oakdale battled back to close to within 4 in the third quarter, and were only down 11 with 4:30 left before Wartburg put it away and won 83-62. Andrew Knight had a huge game, 30+ points.

Congrats to Lenoir City. They hit a shot with 1.5 seconds remaining for a 52-50 win. That is really surprising. First game of Region 4-AA is a pretty sizeable upset. Should be interesting the rest of the way.

tigersfan, I don't think there has been any talk of firing her or at least not retaining her as coach. . . I think speculation is that she won't return by her own decision. The effort has been there for the girls this year but they struggled a lot, obviously. You're right, Scott has a pretty good tradition in girls' basketball and it hurts to see them 0-10 in the district. But when you look back at what they did accomplish this year, the effort was there on almost every single night. I think they will be back, whether or not Nancy Branim is back as coach. I believe she was an assistant somewhere before coming back to Scott High, but I'm not sure where. Of course she was a standout player at Scott in the early 1990s.

Phil Newport is a very good coach, obviously, but I don't believe Scott will go to Oneida to bring someone in right now. That tends to not sit very well with parents and fans from the county, and Mike Davis is fighting for his job. I imagine that a decision will probably be made on who the director of schools will be well before it is time to put a new girls coach in place, if in fact Nancy isn't coming back. My guess is that the new director (assuming Mike Davis doesn't come back) is going to be someone from within the system already. You can bet they won't be wanting to ruffle any feathers by hiring someone from within the Oneida system. Coach Kries is very capable also. Coach Yaden, it's just a matter of time until he is a coach at the high school level. I think this job is taylor-made for him. We'll see, I guess.