CAH09

agreed on Arnold...really a quality HS player. But the McKinney kid at CF is one or two in district 4 with smith the other spot. Murray plays hard, which I like, and is definitely a good player, don't get me wrong... But he just can't do what the CF kid can do on the court. Play any spot, shoot, pass, ball handling. He's worth 15 pts a game without ever taking a shot... Not a lot of HS kids can do that.

he 's likely to be all-district... Thats pretty good in a seven team district... Even if it is single A.

he is a pretty good hs player, but as is often the case....especially with boys... The early growers can dominate as 8th graders because they have some skills and are just bigger and stronger... By the time everyone is ajunior or senior, the other boys have caught up and while a kid is still pretty good, he no longer has a size advantage. That happens with lots of kids... 5'9 as an 8th grader....5'10 as a junior or senior. As a big, early growing 8th grader a kid gets 10 Rebs without hardly trying... And cheap buckets...as a 5'10 senior... Those easy boards and buckets are out the window... And the shots are much harder to come by when the defender is 6'0 and just as quick.

I think at Oakdale it's Smith, Jackson Hicks and then Steinmetz . CF...Mckinney, Lee and maybe Brown 3rd. Each team has a kid or two that really hamper both teams at times with bad shots outside of the offensive structure...essentially that's a turnover. Hicks and Lee are better defenders, hence 2nd IMO. I haven't seen Wburg together....saw them some individually in fall, but noone stood out except for Carroll... Same with OS...noone stood out except for Murray.

1-5...wow. who else did they lose to? Coach T sched has them at 1-4...That's a tough start either way. Bigger schools or not, this team was supposed to be good enough to win its share of games vs bigger schools. Heritage and Mville will both win a lot of games, but Clinton I'm not so sure about... they were certainly pretty decent, but if both CF and Oakdale are gonna be competitive in the region, they need to be good enough to beat Clinton and they weren't... at least in November. Wburg seems to be off to the best start of the three... and that's with less talent overall.

probably some truth to both of those... But the bigger factor is talent, or lack thereof, at both places in each sport right now. It happens in cycles at smaller schools especially. Oneida will bounce back... Now wburg rarely has winning seasons in football... So, I don't know if that will change much. .500 is a banner football season there. But yes, talent is very low even for wburg right now.

Good, thorough work there. Hats off to you. Wburg is always well coached... In a close game, A few more quality possessions makes a difference. Their coaching gets them better possessions. Oakdale should be fine, but yes, they have a couple players who have never figured out how to play effectively in an offensive flow... It hurts them for sure. CF doesn't actively work to get their best player as many shots as possible. They need more action purposely to get him good looks off screens, etc.

While I think six classes in too many for a state of tennessee's size, the one benefit is that it gives the very small schools a chance to play much longer each fall. It has helped the coalfields of the state a great deal in terms of post season chances. They had almost no chance when there were 3 classes in FB.

is the Johnson kid Harriman's best player? Or someone else?

Good win by WB. Oakdale lost by 8 at Clinton on Monday. CF lost at home to Clinton by 15 last nite. Pretty good game till late, CF was in major foul trouble which led to Clinton getting the lead and shooting foul shots for the win. Clinton is just ok for a big school...not great.

CF beat WB twice the yr before last as well. You're right though, the Lee kid will be tough to replace for them. They'll need the sophomore group(played a ton as freshmen) to show very good growth from last yr to help replace him. So, who's wburg got outside of the carrol kid that can really play?

Don't get me wrong...Wb could finish in the top two... but my guess is they likely lose all four games to CF and OD unless they just hit on the right night where they play really well and CF/OD are off. They'll likely be a distant 3rd in my view.

Carrol (sp?) at WB is good, but the Mckinney kid at CF is better.... who else does WB have? I saw a few of them in the fall... none stood out except for him, unless I missed someone. CF beat Wb by a decent amount both games last year. How much has Wb improved? Remember these fresh, sophs and juniors are the ones Wb wouldn't even schedule as middle schoolers because they knew they would have lost by 40 pts. Have they (WB) improved that much since then?

keep in mind CF's football players(5 of the top 8) had practiced once when they lost to TP. They're a lot better than TP...or will be in a month or so. Now, will CF or OD be able to beat grace or meigs? Doubtful... although both should be better than usual for 4a.

it's early, plus those are solid opponents. They have a good group, just gets tough vs quality opponents for a school ODs size. In this district, they shouldn't have any trouble finishing in the top 2. I'm wondering if they might have a better chance this year in the region. Be tough with Grace and Meigs in there though... A few more players at those schools typically.

The Oakdale score was a bit of a surprise...although Monterey won 20+ games last yr (and beat OAK then as well) Coalfield was not really unexpected...Majority of the kids that play were FB players and had barely been on a bball court before the game... and Northview won just 7 games last year... so Wburg winning at home not a shocker....the Carroll kid (right name?)is a really a good player. OS is not very good... .500 would be a good yr for them.

I don't doubt the officiating wasn't great... But the foul numbers you posted don't seem back up the claim that the officials cost them the game. Yes, it's a lot of fouls and I'm sure it made the games unpleasant... But the foul numbers were fairly close. 29-22 and 31-22 aren't way out of balance toward one team. Timing of fouls... Well that's possibly a different matter.

Yea, they were OK considering five of top 8 or 9 were football players and hadn't practiced but about once, if that. Sloppy early... Ok as the game wore on. Not sure where points will come from after Mckinney though. He'll need to be more aggressive to the basket... cause they need 20 + every night from him to be successful against the better teams. They'd probably beat TP by 15+ with a couple weeks of practice in.

It's always good to win your first one. But as a measuring stick, OS only won 8 or 10 games last year... and likely not a lot better this year. Probably 4 or 5 fifth at best in that district... and it's not particularly strong anyway. Two solid teams, maybe three at most.

The Coalfield team I saw lose by 50 at Tellico Plains last night will be lucky to win 5 games. Just a poor effort across the board. Very slow team, no size, terrible on defense and played with no effort. Same mistakes over and over. TP would have easily broke a 100 pts had the clock not run for whole 4th qtr. Their second unit would beat CF by 20 pts. If CF is one of the top 2 in 4a, then it's the worst district in the state. I know, I know...just one game, but it was really, really bad.

not to give you grief, just ask a real question: The varsity MS baseball team was very bad last year... one of the worst in the 25 (or so) team knoxville league. Can we expect Grace to be in the bottom half of district 3 in a couple of years? Because I didn't see many "good ones"... at least not enough to rack up any more state championships in baseball. I mean since the middle school is where you all find them, as you said.

if accurate, obviously poorly handled by the superintendent and the parents....but can a coach punish a kid for not going to camp in summer? I don't think he really can.... it's not in season. Let's say the kid was involved in other activities baseball, fishing whatever... I don't think camp can be required....yes? no?

Obviously the opponents were different.... but CF is averaging about 45 a game with the QB and a very ugly 19 or so without him. He makes a couple TDs difference maybe more against a poor pass defense like Harriman's. What was it before? 21-16? Sad to say, but I think CF rolls at Harriman... 36 to 20.

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