gomerpyle

17's begin bracket play tonight. 16's were 1-1 (don't know about 6:30 game). 2OT win over Team Takeover from Maryland and 3-point loss to The Family (Detroit). 15's finished 2-1. Won at buzzer over Chicago Fire, 21-point win over Metro Flash from South Carolina and a 9-point loss to the Metro Hawks (New York).

Travelers 17's are 2-1 in pool play - big win over D1 Sports (NC) this afternoon. Don't know about 15's and 16's yet. Great showing so far for the first tournament - two wins over power programs. Not at the tournament - just in contact with the coaches. Jalen is playing well. Travelers are without point guard Brandon Herman - came down with chicken pox on the trip.

Travelers 17's win over Alabama Challenge. Challenge won the AAU state title in Alabama this year.

At Boo Williams on Friday night: Tennessee Travelers 15's won over the Chicago Fire Tennessee Travelers 16's won in 2OT over Team Takeover (MD) Tennessee Travelers 17's lost to Team Final (PA)

Gary is an excellent coach.

Thank you. Hopefully all the elite teams in-state do well this spring. It is certainly good for basketball in our state.

Here is the pool-play schedule for all three Traveler teams at the Nike Boo Williams Invitational, the premier spring event on the travel circuit. 15-under vs. Chicago Fire vs. Metro Hawks (NY) vs. Metro Flash 16-under vs. Team Takeover (MD) vs. The Family (Detroit) vs. Boston Amateur Basketball Club 17-under vs. Team Final (PA) vs. Alabama Challenge vs. D1 Sports (NC)

Send me an e-mail at matrines@yahoo.com and I'll e-mail you a copy

As a fairly young coach, I can say this: Coach Darden has always been very nice to me and very supportive. I think he's an outstanding coach and has been a credit to Knoxville high school basketball for a long time. He's a good man and a good coach.

Greeneville will not be in the IMAC next year. The league will have 8 teams. They are: Cherokee Cocke County Jefferson County Morristown East Morristown West Sevier County Seymour South Doyle

The Travelers didn't have anybody named David on our 14's, and that entire team plus a couple of additions are back. Of the two that aren't back, one is injured and can't play this spring and the other is playing 14's (he was playing up last year). The David reference may be to David Howard. I think he played with the Tigers last year. We did not lose anyone to the Celtics.

Good points - Jackson is a great prospect and it's hard to compare him to anybody else in this class in-state, but Steele is better than he gets credit for as well.

Brandon doesn't owe anybody an explanation. It's his choice, his life and he doesn't have to justify his decisions to a message board.

12-u and 14-u (April 3-5) 11-u, 13-u, 16-u (April 17-19) 15-u, 17-u (April 24-26) * All substates will be at Seymour High School and Seymour Middle School. * Please contact Andy Rines at (865) 591-4868 or at matrines@yahoo.com with any questions. * Boys basketball website www.seaautnboysbasketball.org

Lester has a chance to be a great player, and does some things great right now. He's really improved the past couple of years. If he improves his ball handling and ability to score off the dribble, he has a chance to be special.

Different type players, but both are outstanding. Jalen is underappreciated a great deal because he isn't flashy like some other guys in the class in-state, but at the end of the day, he and Jackson are the best two players in the class. It's unfair to compare them because they have different-type games. Using an NBA analogy, and I'm not saying either one is that good, but Jackson's game is kind of like Iverson and Jalen plays a lot like Richard Hamilton.

Not sure if this applies to the Panthers or not, but there are a few exceptions to the 3 players (cross-boundary) rule. Although this isn't applicable in this case, Tennessee and Alabama are considered part of the same AAU association (Southeastern), so the rule isn't in effect when dealing with these two states. Secondly, if a player lives in one state and plays in high school in another, that player does not count as a cross-boundary athlete. For example, Stuart Miller played in our program (Tennessee Travelers) several years ago. He lived near the state line in Harrogate but played in high school at Middlesboro (KY). He did not count as a cross-boundary athlete for us, nor would he have counted as a cross-boundary athlete for a Kentucky team if he had played there. Same thing with Jonathan Adams a few years back. He lived in Georgia but played in high school at Baylor. He didn't count as a cross-boundary either. It seems to me this criticism is unfair. North Georgia is only about 1.5-2 hours from Seymour, where the Panthers are based. That's closer than Middle Tennessee and not much different from the Tri-Cities. If the Georgia girls are happy playing for the Panthers, what's the problem? We have two players from Asheville, and for them to come play with us is actually closer than going to Charlotte to play.

I don't have to explain it. I just said "perhaps." The point I was trying to make was that exposure might not have anything to do with Brandon's situation. I am really glad for him. In addition to being a really good player, he is a great kid and a great student. I don't know why he is leaving A-E, but I trust his decision-making enough to believe he is doing the right thing for him.

Perhaps this isn't about exposure

James Gallman (Fulton) is a Middle Tennessee State signee. Regarding Dustin Craig, he is going to the Air Force prep school, which is not the same thing as the Academy. He will not be playing for Air Force next season, but the year of prep school does not count against his college eligibility. He would still have five years to play four at Air Force or any other school if he chooses not to attend the AFA.

Sometimes the spleen doesn't swell with mono. There are different degrees of severity. A lot of times, it doesn't get diagnosed until it's almost run it's course because the main symptom is just being tired all time. There are a lot of false negative tests for it as well - just a tough illness to deal with.

I would disagree on the point that the Celtics played the toughest schedule. They played a very tough schedule, but so did we. We played Athletes First (Xavier Hentry, Kyle Hardrick, Daniel Orton) five times and the Gauchos twice at 17-u. Our schedule, across the board (14's through 17's), was very tough, as tough or tougher than anybody's. Our purpose is to provide the best competition and exposure possible, and we accomplished that, just as we have for the past 22 years, as good or better than anybody. And our teams were fairly to highly, highly successful. The Nike circuit is incredibly competitive - Athletes First, Gauchos, BABC, Boo Williams, Georgia Stars, Houston Hoops, Arkansas Wings, Memphis Y, Wisconsin Playground, etc. No easy games, not even in pool play. It just doesn't get any tougher than that - period. The Celtics played a good schedule. To say that is was tougher than ours is not true. Was it as tough? Hard to say because we play on different circuits - kind of like playing in different conferences. You could make the argument they were equally as tough and I would understand that, but tougher - no way. Our schedule is consistently as good as there is in the nation, and has been for years.

Player development is part of any good summer program. We (Tennessee Travelers) feel like we do a very good job of that. Our track record is unmatched. However, there is only so much any program or coach can do. Player development is really up to the individual player. Summer programs and high school programs play a role in that, but are not the defining factor. Lee Humphrey, for example, took things to a higher level because his individual work ethic was second to none. Did we play a role in that? Yes. Did his high school coach? Yes. But Lee's accomplishments were a tribute to how hard he worked each day. Same thing for all the great players that have come through our program. We played a role in their success, but they were the ones who put in the hard work and gave themselves a chance to be successful. We've had 23 Mr. Basketball winners and too many finalists to even count, but those guys got to that point because of their hard work.

I completely understand. There are so many kids that go to that school that are not from the community. There is no real sense of of pride there. When South-Young and Doyle were merged, things really changed for the worse. Those mergers in Knoxville were pretty good for some schools - very helpful for Fulton for example, but not good for South Knoxville.

Gary Barnes is an excellent coach. They just don't have a lot of talent.