tradertwo

Ball is in your court since this person has left a trail that can be followed back to them. If you are just looking for sympathy (not judging...just being plain) on here, there are several who will gladly rally to your defense. If you are not looking to be engaged by anyone on a personal level for posting your thoughts/opinions on a public forum, you now have the avenue to do something about it. Those were facts. My opinion is that I would strongly encourage you not to brush this aside as "not serious enough to get the police involved", and have this person made accountable for carrying words to another level. Not trying to scare you, but you never know the mentality of people, and almost no one would expect it to get to the point that it already has. On the more practical side...probably just some "mouthy" bully who thinks that the best way to deal with people they disagree with is to go to a level that normal people won't go to. Bottom line is that this behavior is not OK, and you have the opportunity to let at least one psycho cyber bully know that there are repercussions if they carry it to an inappropriate level.

*sigh* Makes my head hurt reading some of these...do better dudes, just do better.

You're right about weak regions and easier paths to get to Murfreesboro, but every year it seems (several this particular year) one or more of the consensus favorites stumble at the wrong time and fail to get there. This year, some of the "best teams" in their classification aren't in the mix just because they lost when they couldn't afford to.

To a small degree...and it had to be camouflaged. Now it has been endorsed and funded by our state government. Has the potential to really change the landscape in a hurry.

Spot on Waker. These people are selling to the public that they are placing the power in their hands to improve their kids educational experience, and that they control where their kids go to school because the choice is in their hands. The power is all in the private school's corner. They set the price. They control the enrollment number. They have the authority to deny or admit any student for any reason, and they don't have to disclose their reason. This bill has given them the ability to recruit the best athletes and the best students. If your child is not an asset to them, he/she will not be accepted to the school...period. They will get better...better ACT scores...better GPA's...better athletes...and better sports teams. Then, they will compare theirs to ours publicly, in order to recruit further. Take little Billy and your $7,000 voucher to a private school and tell them that although Billy isn't really good at sports and only has a 2.5 GPA, that he comes from a good family and could really benefit from their advanced educational programs. Tell them that Billy has been bullied because of his weight and would benefit from a fresh start there, and that surely the students at (fill in the alphabet school blank) wouldn't engage in such behavior as the public school kids. Now sit back and wait for approval while they admit kids to enhance their athletic programs, as well as kids with 4.0 GPA's...only to cap their enrollment number to remain in whatever TSSAA classification in sports that gives them the best chance to win a state championship. If Billy is admitted and some four star running back prospect with a 3.8 GPA is declined, then I may change my point of view.

The true (if there is one) best team may not win it all either...the only guarantee is that whoever takes home the gold ball will have earned it on the floor, and that's really all that matters. In a perfect world the next most deserving would get silver, but that maybe happens half the time and most understand it. The great thing is whomever finishes second can claim it, and probably at least one or two others will feel that way too.

Our baseball team in '16 finished 4'th in district...then 2'nd in region and beat one of those not too good Memphis teams to make the field. Loretto was in our bracket and was loaded...ranked #1 all season and had Weathers pitching. All the "good" teams were in the other side of the bracket, and people were grumbling about how easy a path Loretto had to the championship game. Long story short, we beat Loretto twice and the defending champs to take the trophy home. Nobody better count their chickens before their eggs are hatched.

The top side of the bracket is harder but trust me...there aren't any cupcakes in the bottom either. Bracket is as tough as I can ever remember from one game to the next.

Someone will win the silver ball. May not be who you think "deserves" it, and may not be the second best team in the tournament either...the thing is, this is set up to declare who's the best team in their classification and right now Coffee Co. has the same number of games left as anyone/everyone else. If you're arguing that blind draw seeding is taking experiences and accomplishments from one group, I'll just say that some other team has been granted those by winning their games. Nothing's perfect...this year there are teams at home right now that would poll amongst coachT'ers as among the favorites to win a gold ball, but they lost one game at a bad time to lose it, and were eliminated. Make the most of the opportunity, enjoy the time there, and always remember that it's an honor just to be there among the final eight.

Her form, arch, and backspin combine to form one of the prettiest shots that I can recall. ESPN's Kilborne coined the three-word phrase that I thought of while watching her shoot last night...release, rotation, splash.

Business is better than the traditional Memphis 1A/2A tournament team, but after looking at their record and using Middleton as a common denominator against rural west teams that are familiar, GC should handle them with a cushion. Only wildcard is playing at their place, but your fans will outnumber them...maybe 2 to 1 or more.

"Handing out byes" isn't generally done as a reward, but to achieve a bracket divisible by 4...six team district, and you have to have two byes...eight team district and none.

Thought that your coach might just have something up his sleeve after having all season to figure a way to beat Westview, but Simms was unconscious tonight. Wasn't necessarily how many she hit, but how few she missed...I've witnessed some good players over the years have big scoring nights because they took an unnecessary (unwise) number of shots, but I actually thought that Simms gave up the ball several times when she was open. I told my wife the other night that I might just take Simms over the Miss Basketball nominee, and tonight solidified that for me. Not knocking the other young lady because she's obviously a great talent, but Simms is the package...cool under pressure, tough on D, deadly from way behind the line, great cutting to the hoop, and had several steals and assists. I don't think GC matches up too well against WV, but coming from the same district someone may catch them a little off and give GC a shot to get through the other side of the bracket if you get a decent draw (provided you get by sub-state...I think that's almost a lock). Good luck to both in the Boro, I'm planning to be there for the finals and would love to see y'all get one last shot at the 'View.

They should have just stayed in their lane and voted yes to transfer one time for any reason or no that the player would be ineligible. Imagine them trying to police the intent of a transfer when they have never been able to find their own back pockets in the dark regarding transfers with clear cut guidelines. A no vote and legislature would have decided the issue for them without them looking so foolish...why include language pertaining to issues completely unrelated to your organization's mission at all? Athletics and only athletics are the concern of TSSAA...there has always been a path to play for true academic and socio-driven moves from one school to another, so what has really changed? Good luck to them if they try to block a voucher recipient's move, even if they make it clear that it's for a better opportunity to be recruited to play at the next level...it won't end well for them and it won't take long to be settled.

But it did matter what you did in the regular season...if you finished first in district play, you earned the easiest path in the tournament. Nobody's fault other than the higher seed if they get upset in the tournament.

It's progressive. Seeding for the district tournament depends upon regular season results, but only rewards high seeds with better chances, not guaranteed results. District tourney results do the same for region tournaments, then sectionals. I'm assuming that you question the progression because you're a fan of an eliminated high seed...if so, it happens all the time in all classes and is a must in order to trim the entire classification down to the final eight teams to go to the championships. Winning teams advance, not necessarily best team...there's no other way to accomplish deciding the final eight in the timeframe provided, which is universally used to perform the same function throughout sports.

I agree...it's all semantics from TSSAA. They give the appearance that they will not bend, yet they will allow transfers because they "have to" from the state gvt. If TSSAA had chosen to act on their own, that would have opened the door for every restriction imposed by them to be challenged.

You can't legislate character/morals. There's nothing that you can put on paper, or no way to align districts and regions that will eliminate lopsided matchups from happening. These instances are early round matchups...you'd figure that by now all the teams susceptible to mercy rule margins would be pretty much eliminated, but there will be some even into sectionals. I get the argument that coaches shouldn't be burdened with managing margins over sub-standard teams, but in the moment, the kids who are not at fault because no one cares enough to do better shouldn't have to bear the embarrassment of a beating of that magnitude. Nobody thought that "tanking" a game to avoid a superior opponent would ever be directly addressed until two coaches took it to the level of shooting at their own basket to outdo the other teams effort to lose... TSSAA banned both from the playoffs for two years for their antics. Maybe if the margin is 40 or 50 they could have a committee look at game video to determine if there was an effort to play everyone on the bench, or some other way to hold down the margin without restricting their own substitute players too much, but I'd rather just endure a couple of games like this than to subject teams and coaches to more oversite and potential corruption.

On the ladies' side, I just hope that we can make it a battle. A win would be meaningful for us, but all that I'm hoping for is that you get our best game win or lose.

Just for clarification, I'm "involved" a little bit...my position has always been for our coaches to vote to bid, and for us to make every attempt to be awarded the tournaments. It's not about the money. I'd like for all our fans to all be able to make all the games, and for our teams to have the advantage of playing on our floor. I also want our hospitality room to be first rate. Typically, our community businesses, our players parents, and some fans collaborate to have some outstanding food and snacks available for officials, coaches, and administrators...this district tournament was handled by school organizations, and although the food was good, it was a little underwhelming for what we usually do. I'm hoping to help "do better" for regions, but if it makes more sense for the boys side to be moved, so be it. Long post "explaining" our view of it, and to say that the host school doesn't really profit enough for the bother by the time the money is split with TSSAA, then paying the officials and hospitality room from the host's percentage before the remaining split with participating schools.

I agree. Without taking a hard stand one way or another I'll just say that lots of programs afraid to pass the ball defer to "lack of athletes" required to be successful...my two questions are "how do you know if you don't try?", and "if you have the athletes to win by running the ball, how come they can't throw and catch?". This only applies to winning teams, as sometimes the true lack of athletes is evident. My thing is, how do you win 9 or 10 games without players capable of running a flexible offense?

Usually in this situation the coaches get on the phones and resolve the obvious problem. It's left up to them to decide if and where it's moved, but Id bet that it gets "fixed" if anyone capable offers to host without disagreement. Not that it matters, but why post on the girls board about a boys problem?

I don't want my starters on the floor with a team that bad...leads to sloppy play and there's always the chance of being injured. "Game shape" is attained by being challenged, and I can't see any advantage of working out your players against no resistance. I have defended big margins when second and third string played (you can't put them in a game and hold them back) against bad teams, but starters in and scoring past the first few minutes is indefensible in this situation.

Thing is, it's up to each district/region how it's selected. Coaches meeting at the beginning of the year usually is the time that the method is chosen...some allow for bids to host, others vote on the site, and even some others vote to rotate from one school to another to another until all have hosted. Regions the same between districts...some take bids, some rotate, etc.. EDIT I think that for minimum seating capacity, TSSAA has to approve the choice made by districts/regions as well.

My thoughts as well, but that's a personal decision that he made with his dad, and it is commendable to honor a commitment made...not many have that in them nowadays. Only a select handful of teams in the nation who were set at QB wouldn't have taken Ty, got him paid, and got him valuable experience. I do hope that his path of choice ends where he wants...this year will be when the rubber hit's the road and we all find out.