tonybologna

Here's what I got/predict from early observations from games: Class AAA Farragut Blackman Riverdale Class AA Covington Elizabethton Greenbrier Class A Loretto Greenback Union City Those are the top teams in my opinion but it's very early in the high school baseball season. Elizabethton in Class AA made it to the state tourney last season & is absolutely loaded especially with pitching. They did lose a doubleheader yesterday to Loudon & Union City here early on but both of those teams are pretty good as well. Class AAA has several really good teams. Not just the Top 3 that I named above. Collierville, Brentwood, Brighton, Hendersonville, & Tenn. High are also teams to watch out for too.

You hit the right picks for the Class AAA title game but Bearden beating Memphis East so easily was surprising to me. I picked Bearden to win in the "Big Ones" contest from the site but I would have never predicted for them to handle ME so easily.

What did I miss here? She was discredited for being in Class A. That was my point!

Well, it wasn't close. Wooddale was clearly the best team in Class AA.

It was a stall tactic to be able to do exactly what you & I both said.

She's a great player & was only a freshman this season. The only part of her game that I think she needs to work on is going to her left (off-hand). She can dribble OK left-handed but you can tell that she's not as comfortable dribbling and/or taking the ball to her left. If she is able to do that better starting next season she will be unstoppable because she can already shoot the ball from way beyond the 3-pt. line. She's a good passer too but in the Championship Game there wasn't much of that to show because the coaching was depending/allowing her to do basically all the scoring for them.

Oh don't worry. Karly Weathers WILL be a Class A Miss Basketball Finalists her final 3 seasons in high school & WILL win the Award at least 2 out of 3 years remaining.

Stop trying to punish or discredit Karly Weathers just because she's in Class A & not a higher Class like AA or AAA. It is what it is sir. She's a star basketball player at the Class A level. Stop the nonsense talk!

The bold above is my biggest problem other than the 1 1/2 hour gap between games. The way the TSSAA schedules the tournament games now one classification has 2 games (4 teams) that get that extra day off before playing their quarterfinal game. That right there alone right off the bat for the quarterfinals isn't fair to ALL teams involved. You're right! I think they should play ALL of the same classification on one day instead of mixing up the games between classes each day in the quarterfinals. They already alternate the classes each season @ the state tourney as to when they play in the quarterfinals. I'm OK with these alternate classes playing each season but do this with only one class (A, AA or AAA) playing ALL of their quarterfinal games on the same day. As far as having the game played @ 2 different sites I'm not in agreement with that. Lipscomb University is not even in the same city/area as MTSU. There's no way they can have the tournament setup this way. Murfreesboro (MTSU) & Nashville (Lipscomb) isn't exactly within rock throwing distance. LOL!

I saw this in your last post but I don't see the TSSAA putting Sunday's into play for the tourney. Maybe they need to take 1 day off the rest period after the Sectional games. They really only have up to 3 days rest anyhow so they could cut that rest gap to 2 days instead & start the tourney a day earlier than usual. I know this time of the season the teams are fatigued/tired so maybe the TSSAAA wouldn't think a 2 day rest period would be enough between the Sectionals & staring the state tourney. Other than this though I don't know what would be a better idea to make sure it's fair to ALL teams playing in the state tourney.

I don't think he meant his comments to be a low blow to the Loretto team. It showed tonight that Loretto has a star player in Karly Weathers & the rest of the team just didn't have it. I know Loretto is a much better offensive team than what they showed tonight besides Karly Weathers. She had absolutely no support at all in the Championship Game. I do think Loretto showed signs of fatigue but they played the same amount of games as Gibson County. Loretto will be back strong again next season. I really think they have a very solid chance @ making the state tourney again for 2019-20 season. Karly Weathers will be a Class A Mrs. Basketball Award Finalists I believe in all of her last 3 seasons in high school.

Do you mean a week from the boy's playing their last game or a week from the end of the girl's tourney? I assume you mean a week between their last games played because it's not a week from the end of the girl's tourney. That would be only 4 days. I don't know what the TSSAA needs to do to address these 1 1/2 hours between games but most of the scheduled games start later than scheduled. The only games that seem to get started on time is each day's 1st game. There was a few games in the girl's tourney that actually did end up starting on time or very close to starting on time. That is rarely the case in past state tourney action. Just about all games usually start at least 15 minutes late with that 1 1/2 hour gap between games. This seasons girl's tourney did seem to have a better timing with games at least starting either on time or very close to being on time. Keep in mind too, there has to be a minimum 15 minute break between games so with that in mind they really only have 1 1/4 hour between starting schedule games so for the TSSAA to think that scheduling games 1 1/2 hours apart is not a bright choice. I know they start some games as early as 10:00 AM local time (CST) so that would be the earliest that a game should be started but they have got to change these short 1 1/2 hour gaps & make them at least 1 3/4 hours apart but it would be better if they were 2 hours apart.

Game announcers said they were hitting 83% from the FT line coming into the Championship Game for the season as a team. That went up a little because they were 10-10 just down the stretch of the game.

Yes. All 3 Championship Games were really good games. The Class AA & AAA games really could have went the other way. Both Wesview & Houston could have won those games. Even though I think Loretto had a chance in winning they just needed to much out of Karly Weathers. She done a great job for sure but Gibson County's overall team play & clutch FT shooting was just too much for Loretto.

Gibson County is just automatic from the FT line. 10-10 down the stretch of this game. Karly Weathers for Loretto is a player. She alone kept Loretto in the game. K.J. White still done a really nice job of guarding Karly Weathers. Loretto will be back next year in my opinion. A very young team. Gibson County just has a better overall team but don't really have a star player like Karly Weathers from Loretto. They truly play team ball & depend on everyone that plays to help them win. Congratulations to Gibson County for taking home the 2018-19 Class A State Championship. Karly Weathers was just named MVP. Some may disagree that the MVP shouldn't go to the losing team but Gibson County didn't have a player that was really the MVP so I agree with Karly Weathers getting the MVP.

Here are the State Championship results: Class AAA Bradley Central 46 Houston 44 Class AA Cheatham County 43 Westview 40 Class AAA Gibson County 50 Loretto 42 Congratulations to Bradley Central, Cheatham County, & Gibson County on State Championships!

It's true now & has always been since basketball was ever invented. I personally think defense wins games in just about every sport.

Gibson County is just automatic from the FT line. 10-10 down the stretch of this game. Karly Weathers for Loretto is a player. She alone kept Loretto in the game. K.J. White still done a really nice job of guarding Karly Weathers. Loretto will be back next year in my opinion. A very young team. Gibson County just has a better overall team but don't really have a star player like Karly Weathers from Loretto. They truly play team ball & depend on everyone that plays to help them win. Congratulations to Gibson County for taking home the 2018-19 Class A State Championship. Karly Weathers was just named MVP. Some may disagree that the MVP shouldn't go to the losing team but Gibson County didn't have a player that was really the MVP so I agree with Karly Weathers getting the MVP.

Picks in bold above.

Here are the Championship Game matchups for tomorrows finals: Class A Loretto vs Gibson County, 4:00 PM CST Class AA Cheatham County vs Westview, 11:00 AM CST Class AAA Houston vs Bradley Central, 1:30 PM CST

I thought Loretto had a really good chance at winning this game but I still just couldn't make myself believe they could beat the defending state champs. I will say that this Greenfield squad is nowhere near as good of a team as the 2018-19 squad. Loretto has a really good team & they are a pretty young team too. Karly Weathers is just a freshman but she plays like an junior or senior. With only 1 senior on this year's team look for Loretto to be right back in Murfreesboro probably for the next 2-3 seasons. This is a very talented & well coached team. Karly Weathers will be in the Mrs. Basketball Award running for Class A probably her next 3 seasons @ Loretto. She's one heck of a player. Loretto vs Gibson County in the Class A Championship should make for a barnburner of a Championship game. I want to say Gibson County will win but this Loretto team can beat them if they have another game like they have played the last 2 days.

The final score ended up pretty close to the margin of victory I figured it would be. I was thinking between 12-20 points. Midway fought hard in this game but Gibson County just has too much talent for them.

This was a great game. I thought Oak Ridge would pull this game out but I did say that whoever won it would be by no more than 5 points. Well, with the OT it ended up being 6 points but very close contest as I expected. Was the best game of the tourney until the Houston-Riverdale game that was played after this game. More offense in the Houston-Riverdale game in which I like to see/watch. Defense does win championships but I prefer to watch offensive games. I feel Oak Ridge really blew this game being up 5 points with just under 2 minutes to go in the game. Blair for Central was definitely the hero for the Bearettes scoring 6 straight points in the final 1:40 of the 4th quarter. Having said that Oak Ridge blew the game in regulation I can also say that Bradley Central made the big/clutch plays in the OT to win the game.

East could win this game by 30+ over Cleveland really. I think with Dandridge being out for sure now makes it a little less painful for Bolton. Probably more like 15-20 points instead. Cleveland has the ability to play a game with stall tactics. I honestly don't even see how Bolton even remotely had early success doing this to Memphis East. Cleveland has a much better team than Bolton & to me if they slow the pace of the game down that will be their ONLY chance to knock Memphis East out of the tourney. I don't think Cleveland can keep it close playing an up tempo style game like Memphis East will want to play. Look at how Dobyns-Bennett played Bearden in the Sectionals. They used at least 1:00 minute off the clock each possession. Bearden got real frustrated wit these tactics because they are an up tempo high scoring team. Bearden never did really adjust to DB's style of play in the game but made enough plays in the 4th quarter to win the game. DB just gave other teams a way to play Bearden. However, teams that try this will need to have the guards to be able to do it. I think the same stall tactics will be the best way to beat Memphis East as well.

Here are the results from Day #3 of the girl's state tourney semifinals: Class A Loretto 66 Greenfield 55 Gibson County 75 Midway 61 Class AA Cheatham County 75 Macon County 51 Westview 46 Marshall County 37 Class AAA Houston 78 Riverdale 72 (2OT) Bradley Central 56 Oak Ridge 50 (OT)