liveNplay4him

No excuses for either team.. I was a little dissapointed with both. The game was very sloppy. I guess it is early in the year and that always plays in. Collinwood is still nursing injuries to 3 main players, and Mt. Pleasant is learning to play without who they expected to be thier key man. Outside of Frierson nobody played very well for either team. About Collinwoods Sophomore class.. Ray shoots the ball well. I knew he had been seeing the floor with players out, but i dont expect that his minutes will dwindle when kids return. He can shoot. I hope for Region 7A both teams were just having early year isssues. I do expect Richland to struggle with Mt. Pleasant once they get things together.

I dont expect S'town and Lorreto to advance to the Sub-state this year. I dont think Region 7 will compete for it but Collinwood will. Lorreto got hot late last year and suprised C-wood in the region, but C-wood only lost 1 player, and she missed most of last year and didnt play much when she returned. Lots of experience and so far good health with Arnett back. Collinwood and Summertown both should make a run to Murfreesboro, not sure which one will get the sub-state game at home though. Both have lots of experience returning.

Richland played out of controll in the 4th. Dont think the coach new what to do late in the game. Richland kept shooting with a lead late. The coach spent more time worried about where Collinwoods coach was standing than what his team was doing. If the 3pt shooter is hot and hitting from deep like he was the other night they looked good, but Farrar and the stocky kid(#23 maybe) didnt look his way enough. The stocky kid sees to much floor time. He fouls hard and takes bad shots. the offense ran well with him out and #25 in.

For some reason people dont like Montgomery, but he is the best on a really good Collinwood team and would be the best on any team in Region 7A. Collinwood has others that can score so they dont depend on him every night and they dont have to run their offense through him. Pigg suprised people last year but we will see if he has made improvements. I dont think he has played alot thus far, i think foul trouble must be a part of that. The Andrews kid and Robertson made things go for Collinwood when i saw them at Richland. They will be tough when Montgomery starts playing. Risner is out with a hand injury i believe. Look for these two to meet up in the Region Finals.

Two of those sophomores, littlejohn and Ray have been getting minutes with players out. Both will be a big help throughout the year and can make plays. Ray can fill it up from outside. I think the other kids potential is high. he has a long atheletic build.

Collinwood is has been missing 3 Starters(Montgomery, Butler, Daniel) and another guard(Risner) that will see lots of minutes. And they have still played well. It took Richland extra minutes to beat Collinwood. I expect them handle Richland with Montgomery back in. Only having 7 kids to play killed Collinwood in the late minutes. As for the injuries; Daniel is out, Butler should be back by tournament time, and Risner will return in a few weeks.

1st off congrats to McEwen on a state tourney bid. However, i dont see Mcewen competing at Murfresesboro. They had a size advantage on Cwood and were still out rebounded all night long. Montgomery and Pigg dominated underneath. If Cwood had been able to get a couple of shots to fall(especially a free throw) late in the 1st or in the 2nd at all I think Cwood would have led the whole game. Not taking anything away from McEwen. they did what they had to do to get the win and advance, but they really relied on the pg too much. the only penetration or passing came from him. the one kid hitting 5 threes was HUGE for McEwen, but 3 pt shooters usually struggle in the big open gym at the boro. if McEwen wants to play for a gold ball they need to be opposite of PC. as stated before about the pg. I wouldnt be surprised to see him get called for a push off or two early on and get in foul trouble.. if he does McEwen is finished, they rely on him way to much to create and score, and even just get the ball up the floor. Good luck to them and congrats to Cwood on a great year. that was good experience for a young team to take with them. again congrats to McEwen i think their boys program really needed this

No where did i bash Dill nor say that he wasnt a good player. I think that he is the one player on the PC team that can be left wide open on the offensive end to allow doubling on Tucker or help through screens for Rhodes at the top of the key. Dill would start for probably every team in the dist. However, he does leave a window for other teams to slow PCs offense.. I never said that he couldnt play defense or even hinted that defense didnt matter. I will be the first to tell you that if you cant play defense you cant win past a certain point. The point that i made was that he provides teams a chance to squat an extra defender in the paint for more help side. You PC fans get too defensive sometimes. Somebody finished with "Who won". Im not bashing PC. I think they are a top 4 team. I havnt seen every team in the state just like you havnt so i can say they are the best or that they are not. And if you can tell what stats a kid is averaging. either A.) you are that kid B.) Your just making something up to defend him or C.) you need a job, wife, or friend or something. Good luck to both PC and Cwood tonight. hope to hear good news from both games. DOES ANYBODY KNOW RADIO STATIONS TO HEAR EITHER GAME?

tough to sell 500 tickets for a two hour drive. Especially for a place with a population less than 2,000.. expect maybe 100-150 Collinwood fans.. 200 max. I think McEwen should be favored here.. Especially with a MUCH LARGER home crowd. Crowd makes a difference at this point in the game. But i dont expect a cake walk for McEwen. Would love to see this game tonight.. especialy if Collinwood was healthy. They are playing really well at times right now. Would be interesting if Butler was playing. But i think Cwoods age will be the ending factor here. However, if they get hot and shots start falling, the confidence will build and the "Young Factor" can be thrown out the window Cwood 48 McEwen 60 but i have a much harder time picking against cwood here than i did against PC in the region championship. there is something telling me Cwood could sneak out with one if a couple shooters get hot

Please do not get me confused with a PC fan.. haha

SOMEBODY PLEASE LOOK BACK AT MY PREDICTION!!!! Can i get a little love!?!?

I have thought most of the year that PC had 5 of the top 12 players in the district. But after seeing PC play several times in the past two weeks i have noticed this. Tucker-best player in the district.. only mathis has a slight argument here. But still Tucker no doubt Rhodes- best 3 pt shooter in the dist/region Hill- best pg in the dist, not much of a scorer but doesnt need to be. does his roll better than any other pg Gilboy- really good inside. great defender and rebounded probably best RB in dist. Dill- here is where my opinion changed.. Dill is PCs weak link. I think they are more dangerous with Endey on the floor. Dill is the type of player you can leave standing all by himself to allow double team on tucker. I have been suprised with his play on both sides of the floor these past two weeks. those 4 are top 6 or 7 in the dist. but Dill is not on the same level as any of those 4

I have thought most of the year that PC had 5 of the top 12 players in the district. But after seeing PC play several times in the past two weeks i have noticed this. Tucker-best player in the district.. only mathis has a slight argument here. But still Tucker no doubt Rhodes- best 3 pt shooter in the dist/region Hill- best pg in the dist, not much of a scorer but doesnt need to be. does his roll better than any other pg Gilboy- really good inside. great defender and rebounded probably best RB in dist. Dill- here is where my opinion changed.. Dill is PCs weak link. I think they are more dangerous with Endey on the floor. Dill is the type of player you can leave standing all by himself to allow double team on tucker. I have been suprised with his play on both sides of the floor these past two weeks. those 4 are top 6 or 7 in the dist. but Dill is not on the same level as any of those 4

Here was the deal with the girls. WC, Cwood, a loretto all tied for third. so instead of 1st getting 4 2nd getting 3 3rd and 4th 2 and the other 1. the tied teams got 2 and Summertown got the other spot.. AND DESERVED IT.. Who should of made it over any of those 5 Summertown girls???? yes there were girls who didnt make it better than some who did, but PC and Clifton have to get one. If you pick your best twelve PC and Clifton are not represented. So then your looking at 1 from WC(Risner) 3 from loretto(Hemmen, Brodie, the freshman#11) Cwood 3(Littrell, Haddock, Farmer) and that leaves 5.. Either way you do it those 5 are in the districts top 12 players. All this said.. ask PC boys if they care.. they have a plaque to hang up in the gym before their HOME game in the sub-state Monday. Those individual awards will be forgotten in a week. those plaques tend ta hang around for years in the TEAMS gym. good luck to both teams in the sub-state and hopefully beyond.. Maybe Cwood can squeak through and get a 5th chance at PC

Must be.. he led WC and ALL scorers with 18 in that game.

If im not mistaken Rice led WC scorers in region tourney games.

as in any situation it is tough to beat a GOOD team 4 times in one year. And i think we can now say that Collinwood is a good team, and give them some credit.. However, this is a tough matchup for Collinwood. I think it will stay close and be exciting, but PC has had exactly what they needed to be prepared for the next two games. 1. Huge upset loss in Dist Championship to WC 2. Huge win a game that they were not extremely heavily favored to win over MTP. I think PC is out of cruise control and over panic mode in a tight game late situation. probably a good projection the way these two team like to score. but its region championship. they have saw each other 3 times and know what each likes to do. Im gonna say 56-44 PC.. close untill PC hits free-throws late..

I hope this was ment to be sarcastic. Good win for PC.

FROM MY UNDERSTANDING of what WC and SF fans said, He was ejected from the game which is an automatic 2 game suspension. Also from what i have herd from both sides is that there was some flop work involved in the ordeal. I have herd from one WC player that they though Sawyer legitimately laid the kid out with an elbow when it happened, but when seeing it on film realized that it wasnt at all what it looked like. Either way he will be setting his next two high school basketball games. but i dont think it will hurt WC too bad.. They have older kids who have played minutes all year long. And they will not be expected to score. Ray is just a get the ball up the floor and find somebody to get the ball to type pg.. plus C-wood doesnt do a lot of full court pressure d-fense other than the young G who has just started playing since the Butler injury. I think WC will be fine as long as they hit free throws and Mathis doesnt have a bad night shooting. But it SHOULD be a very intense at times sloppy game. Both teams will be fighting hard for this one

Franks done a fine job. But he had different teams. He had some very talented TEAMS. WC has had individuals the last 3 or 4 years. I guess what im saying is that Willard has done really good with a team that is more individual type team. But now they seem to be at times playing more as a team.. But i just dont see Willard moving to the girls. WC parents are a little different than Stown parents. Stown it was i dont care what you say or do as long as we win. In WC it is WE WANT TO WIN, but you dont fuss at MY kid like that.

Every since the dist championship game and we knew this MTP PC game was going to happen now, i felt like PC would take it easily. and I still feel like they will win the game, but i also know that if Rhodes has a bad shooting night, and Gilboy gets in foul trouble(rebounds) that it could be very interesting. But we know the MTP will most likely be in foul trouble sending its best to the bench, where as PC simply does not foul very much(WC shot 0 free throws in Championship game) So if WC keeps its 5 on the floor they will be fine. If they were to get in foul trouble(unlikely) they dont have the bench to help out.

I think Coach Willard is right where he wants to be. He took a WC boys program who generally has talent but not that much discipline and turned them in to Champions. And outside of Mathis this is not one of WCs most talented teams. But when they get strong team play they are tough, thats why they were able to stay with PC and surprise them, well surprise everyone.. Dont see him moving Back To Girls.. Why would WC be looking for a new coach any way. Like someone stated before.. Nobody other than a couple WC parents(like any parents would) expected WC to go very far. Why do you think Bird planned to retire after last year. He didnt make the decision after the state championship. He knew that things would be down for a while no matter who coached. Even his assistant didnt want the job because of how the future looked. I think Sisk will be just fine if WC fans and parents will let him through the next 2 or 3 years with just a region appearance. WC was too dependent on one player all season. And will have trouble scoring for a couple more years. ITS HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL.. IT GOES UP AND DOWN IN DIFFERENT LENGTHS OF TIME.. look at PC girls they were a top team in the region for a few years and now they are at the very bottom. and only made the region last year because Stown was infected by the Morris plague(luckily they found the antidote before it wiped out the Kingdom Willard built)

Yes Santa Fe beat WC and WC is out. But they didnt get kicked out of the region, so they are still relevant to discussion here. Tie your shoes tight because you will see Stown tonight. You will need more than % or 6 threes to beat a team this strong. but congrats on getting to the next level

Nobody has the confidence in a young Cwood team to win the big game. mostly due to their age, but because they have been so up and down all year. Many of these people just look at who teams lost to, they dont really kow much about other teams. and cwood shows losses to team that are not really strong in the season. However, they are much better right now than they were in Jan. They could really be tough without the injuries(Butler) I expect WC vs Cwood to be very exciting. hope both teams show up.

I agree that refs with dist or region connections should not be allowed to call within it this time of year. However, i have to correct you that it was jones who made the push call on Richland. Mcneese later made the same call on the other end but Richland was not in the bonus.. But i do agree with you on that he should not have been there in the first place.