Fiddlefitned

I'm not sure if there is a mr basketball candidate caliber player on this team like there was a few years ago but McClain is definitely getting there. Top to bottom, this may be one of the best teams HHS has seen in a long long time. That being said state championship talk is a little premature. That's a tall task and a lot of things have to go your way (see the 2004 Unaka rangers). But a state tournament birth should be the goal for the dawgs this year.

Ned smith is obviously in carp and the landers heads. He is out coaching Carp and there is no denying it. Cloudland has the talent but the dawgs have tough kids and a top notch battle captain.

What is lost in all of this is the job that the coaching staff and players at Hampton have done this year refs or no refs. This was a team that was expected to win 5 or 6 ball games this year instead they are co confrence champions. When you looked at Hampton at the first of the year you thought they we're a lock to be in the pigtail game (lol, Unaka). Besides north Greene you probably thought they were the least talented bunch in the confrence. After lane smith went down I thought they we're done but they gave Elizabethton all they wanted, had the girls ball pulled out on them up at Unaka and played tough, beat a solid ng team, and found a way to beat Cloudland. Hats off the Ned, his staff and that YOUNG group of bulldogs.

Cloudlands style is what gets them put out at the boro because they don't let you hold and beat people to death down there either.

Yea, it's so sad that the refs didn't let Cloudland hold, shove and beat tonight.

Coudland plays pretty rough anyway. It looked to me like the refs just called the holding, shoving and beating that the landers do. The block call that Cloudland was so upset about was the right call. Murray jumped up and caught the ball and the Cloudland defender was set BUT the defender didn't give murrary space to land which means its a block. Bottom line is Hampton out played and out coached Cloudland

Unaka will be sent home way before any titles are handed out so they wouldn't be there to see it.

I’m pretty sure Kevin Ward made it to the last cut of the Dallas Mavericks when he was living in Texas. I do think Nathanial Hughes deserves come consideration for what he accomplished. I don’t recall any other Mr. Basketball candidates around here but I could be wrong on that.

Unaka is a bunch of punks. All they do is run their mouth and cuss the other team even when they are down 20. I think I’ve watched them 3 or 4 times this year and they’ve got a technical in every one of those games. No discipline at all. Aaron Dugger was a great player I’m just not sure about him as a coach. However, his ridiculous antics on the bench are defiantly worth the $5 to get in the door.

The 74 team was loaded. I always heard randy Waycaster was lights out.

The dawgs could beat a team they're not supposed to come tournanent time...that Ned smith is sneaky.

First loss to the rangers since 06'. Also played about half of the 3rd qtr with a girls ball until McClain told the offical that the ball was the wrong size. How does that happen? Welcome to Stoney creek, I guess. Hampton fought hard though, you have to applaud the dawgs last two showings against Elizabethton and Unaka considering smith is out. I guess it's good for these younger ones to play in that sort of atmosphere early on to prepare for the future.

Iv heard people say Barry Phillips is at the top along with mib Ellis, Leon Tolley and others but who you guys got?

Every kid on a basketball team is a different situation. Kids quit for a plethora of reasons. Jealousy, playing time, don't want to practice, sophomore is better than them, parents are nuts etc etc etc. So each case is seperate, you can't just say "hey if you quit we are done with you". These coaches can't just turn their backs on teenagers who make dumb decisions based on hurt feeling in the heat of the moment. Think of all the players that have been great but have quit at some point and time for some stupid little innocident. Now that I think about it, wasn't there a state MVP from Hampton back in 83' who was given 2 or 3 chances by Jerry White?.......

My prediction: Cloudland = 107 Creekers = -3