Thebballguru

SH having 1300 more students than the average AAA team in East Tenn may call for adding a AAAA division in Tennessee. How would Cloudland have done if they played all schools with at least double their enrollments. SH is a great team and is 50% more likely to have a better team year in and year out than most other teams in their region. Would sure like to see a re-shuffling of divisions based on size of student body.

This makes no sense for a number of reasons-mainly, who would SHHS play? Do u realistically want them to travel to Memphis and Nashville for games against schools of similiar size? Cause there just aren't that many schools that big around here

Science Hill easily won the Region 1-AAA Championship tonight. They embarrassed Morristown East, 85-40.

As expected...SHHS is several notches above all the competion in this half of the state this year-and presumably again next year barring an unfortunate injury or two

It was delayed because of tornado warnings last night...after April last year, they can't be too careful.

As far as being surprised, I am not at all. CD is a solid ball team and while grainger is as well, it is extremely difficult to beat a good team 4 times in one year...especially playing on their home floor 3 of those times!

Grainger peaked early this year and had some injury issues they had a hard time over coming from what I can gather...but regardless, good luck to both teams in the substate

What was greeneville score?

Cumberland Gap lost bad.

Not sure about Unicoi game.

I'm pretty sure GHS won by 10-15 points, but that is second hand info so take it for what it is worth...

Also found out that Unicoi won tonight. It's shaping up for some good ballgames in the next week or so! I love tournament time!

Where did this happen tonight?

Are you a scorekeeper? Or is this second hand info?

I know SG and GHS both won...any updates on the other games yet?

Wow what a disappointing end of the season for the D1-AA members of the Tri-County Seven! D1 was swept by D2 in the R1 quarterfinals. First, let me say congratulations to the D2 winners and good luck the rest of the way. Now back to D1. What happened? It's hard to believe that the D1 #1 and #2 couldn't beat the #3 and #4 from D2. No disrespect to D2, but with the exception of Grainger, the rest of the top finishers are weaker than anytime in the past 5 years in my opinion. Wow, if this is motivation to work hard in the off-season then I don't know what is...

I agree, I can't remember the last time that D2 was "down" as much as they were this year...especially SG. They have struggled quite a bit this season and have not been the typical "lady rebels" that all of east Tennessee had become used to seeing play. GHS has been less than impressive most the year as well and CD has taken advantage of it, as they aren't exactly loaded up with talent either. I fully expected to see Unicoi and Betsy win last night and had the CD game as a toss up...

It will be interesting to see how the rest of this season, and the next few to come play out.

What a sad way to end the season! Our girls had not fight. It seemed like some of them didnt want it bad enough. I dont know if they were jealous of each other or what but that was disgraceful! Coach should have done a better job preparing those girls. We may never see a sub state game in my lifetime now.

SG and Unicoi have had a rich tradition and long history of battling in the post season, and I am quite sure that they will have many more battles in the future...unless of course the rumors I have heard about SG moving down to single A when they reclass the brackets again are true-

How old are you? Just curious, because Unicoi traditionally has great girls teams with the exception of a rebuilding year occassionally...and I'm sure they will again make it to a substate and state tourney in the future

What is SLS?

This is a question that has been asked over and over this year...and yet it still goes unanswered.

I would also like to know what it is, but am not holding out too much hope of anyone answering it...

I didn't see the final, but a friend texted the score as 68-32 at the end of the third quarter. I doubt SN scored 26 points in the fourth.

It was like 89-38 or something close to that...what a long night it was for the north girls...

Boys game was a good one tho.

I will not be surprised to see them make it to Murfreesboro, but I will not be shocked if they get upset in the Regional semi-finals either.

Well said.

Basketball is all about matchups,I think where Elizabethton would struggle against Grainger is the pressure Grainger puts on your from one end of the floor to the other.And yes I know Elizabethton has seen Unicoi's pressure not only in the full court but half court as well,But their pressure is a whole nother speed than Unicoi's is. But just the overall agressiveness and the way they make you speed up the game along with trapping all over the floor is where I could see Elizabethton having trouble.

 

I will say yes Grainger does have a guard Tailor Morgan who can and will keep up with depew for 32 minutes.Is she a better scorer?No but yes she can score when she has to but totally a different type of player than Depew,She is the same speed as Depew if not quicker.I have seen both teams play quiet a few times and dont get me wrong I think Elizabethton is heading in the right direction but in my opinion I think Grainger has a better overall supporting cast and is a whole lot better on the defensive end of the floor than Elizabethton is. But like you said that is why they play the game.

Is this why unicoi beat grainger earlier this year? I just don't think that your anology is a good one considering unicoi beat them heads up...where was all the speed and pressure against them?

Is grainger a good team? Yes absolutely, but so is Betsy...we will all find out who is left standing soon enough.

Lost to Cherokee by 15. I heard East had a top player injured, but will not mention name until verified. Know what happened Trotter Coach??

Ouch...is that their first conference loss?

I'd say Science Hill, Grainger and Cloudland are the best bets. Hampton could make it from D1A. But, unless someone has seen something I haven't, I don't see a D1AA representative or anyone else from D1AAA making it this year.

I agree. Those top 3 have all been impressive this year, and I have no reason to think they are gonna slow down now. Science Hill is one of the most balanced teams I have seen in a while and it shows on the floor.

I haven't been overly impressed with Morristown East this year in the games I have watched. There is no doubt they are light years better than they have been recently, but I think they still have quite a way to go before being a true contender. That being said, I have only seen them play 4 or 5 games and they may prove me wrong...but I just don't see it happening for the Lady Canes this year.

It's odd you mention this. I was surprised (pleasantly actually) when I saw the officials walk in before the game. One calls alot of middle school, high school JV and even lower level high school games. I like the job he does. The other, which happens to be the ref involved in the main fray, calls many higher level high school games and has called at the Arby's before. As a matter of fact, he was the head official for the EHS/Sullivan East games last night. He normally does a decent job, but is known to be somewhat of a hot head. I didn't really have an issue with the way he called the game but rather the way he handled the situation I described earlier.

I would imagine it could have and should have been handled better, but even officials are human. A lot of times we as fans tend to forget that, and in a job where you are held under a microscope and have so many critics I can imagine it being stressful. This doesn't excuse bad behavior on any refs part...but I can for sure see where they could be "on edge".

I normally am sympathetic towards refs because I have several close friends who are officials on various levels of the game, but there is a line that needs to be drawn. Professionalism and consistency is all that can be asked for in a ref, no matter what sport or what level the sport is being played on.

Just my opinion.

Sparky I didnt think it would be you; sorry if you took it that way. It was a middle school game so the quality of officiating would be lower anyway. TAD has a very good team this year and will most likely get back to the Forge for the Sectional tournament and make some noise there.

Ref definitely took a bad situation and made it worse.

While in some cases the refs at middle school games are newer or lower caliber officials, a lot of times they are varsity/college guys who don't have a higher level game that night.

It is not uncommon to see the same 2 refs from a middle school game one night in a prime time conference game in a 3 man crew the next night.

It is what it is...

WG over GHS by 2 in overtime on a "buzzer beater"....anyone who was at the game care to share their thoughts on it? The radio made it sound a certain way, but I would like to hear both sides arguement and see tape before passing any judgement...

Science Hill is a very focused team right now. I say they make it to State, and have a pretty good shot of winning the Championship.

I agree. And barring injury or other unfortunate event, a good shot next year as well.

I agree this is a factor not to be ignored. As a matter of fact, Betsy was more accustomed to playing man defense with an occasional zone and pressing when Dugger coached. That resulted in normally more fouls being called on EHS than their opponents. Wilson's philosophy is different where he relies more on a zone. He still presses both full and half court at times. As I mentioned in a previous post, EHS had a lot of fouls too, but just not as many as Unicoi. I still believe uncontrolled aggression and poor technique resulted in a lot of Unicoi's fouls as much or more than the fact they played man to man defense. To your point, Unicoi looked somewhat confused by the Betsy zone and settled for outside shots. Credit Betsy's inside duo for creating problems for Unicoi on the drive. I think they had over 10 blocks between them. I must admit going into the game I didn't like Betsy's chances. However, they outplayed Unicoi on this night and deserved the win. Regardless, I don't think Betsy can catch Unicoi for the District title, but can grab second place with a win over Sullivan East on Friday. Then there's the districts and hopefully the regionals...

From an outsiders point of view, Betsy not only played better, more disciplined basketball-but they wanted it more. They left it all on the court. Unicoi didn't seem to care. They didn't act like they wanted to be there, which caught me off guard because in years past it has always been a heated rivalry in which both teams are pumped up and ready to play...

Betsys game plan was simple, get it to Depew and let her break the press, drive to the basket, and score....that was it-ALL NIGHT LONG, and Unicoi didn't have an answer for whatever reason...

Now who did you say is drinking the kool-aid? LoL...

J/k-I will give Volunteer credit, they are a much improved ball team from years past. Best of luck the rest of the year!

It actually happens quite often when one team presses and plays man defense the entire game while the other sits back in a zone and forces outside shots to be taken and is strong on the glass...and that is a fact.

Just for the record I didn't say the refs beat us my daughter plays for unicoi and I am the first to say Betsy beat us in every part of the game and earned the victory but a foul is a foul on both sides that being said that prob wouldn't have changed the outcome cause we didn't want it as bad as you all did or thought it was gonna be easy and if Edwards it our engine than you all better hope depew stays out of foul trouble cause like us you will be hurting bad Congtats to Betsy they took us behind woodshed

I am a fan of neither team, only of basketball...and this is only my opinion, but here is what I think.

Unicoi played a completely different style of ball last night than Betsy, they pressed the whole game and tried to apply as much pressure as possible on defense, while taking quick shots on the offensive end. They didn't appear to run any set plays designed to penetrate the zone that Betsy threw at them and didn't rebound the ball well on either end of the floor. That being said, when you play a man to man and full court press defense you are going to have more fouls called on you...that's just part of the game. This is why I believe Unicoi was whistled for more fouls...because they did indeed foul more.

I am very glad I made the trip to Betsy last night for these games...I enjoyed myself very much and got to meet some great fans from both sides and watch 2 good ball games.

The unicoi girls just acted like their heart wasn't in this game. Betsy played extremely well. Combine the 2 and you see what the result was. I have seen Unicoi play on several occasions this season, and last night was the poorest I have seen them shoot the 3, and def the poorest I have seen them play defensively. They seemed lazy and a step behind all night on defense, and that is what I believe led to so many fouls on their part...

My hats off to Depew, she played great and is really a huge asset to Betsy...they will be difficult to beat anytime she plays that well, and that is all there is to it.

It was well worth the trip to see this game, and the boys game too for that matter! Good win by Unicoi on that side of things, but I will say this-Elizabethton gave them the game...great night of basketball over all

That is a crock of bull. Fouling to stop the clock. 28 free throws by 1 player no there is nothing unusual about that LMAO.Same as it has always been at Eliz. the opposing team gets in foul trouble early in game it doesn't matter who is playing.Eliz. What was the score after 3 up by 4 points I think. Players knowing they can't guard because if the play any defense it is a cheap foul.On the home floor Eliz. is unbeatable but take them away and it is a different game. Oh well waiting on tournament at Unicoi County can't tell I may ref that.

Add another one to the list of teams who never lose a game, its always the officials screwing them over!

Comical!

Going in a different direction, how does Unicoi stack up against Betsy? I would think it should be a pretty competitive ballgame, but missed it the first go round...anyone have any insight on tonight?