It was always going to turn out this way, and makes perfect sense for Memphis. It's all about recruiting talent, keeping the top kids in the program for a year or two, winning with them while you can, then moving on to the next set of McDonald's All-Americans. Penny can do that. He can sell the vision, he already has the relationships with the right kids and third parties. He might even compete well in the transfer market.

Gotta think Todd Day will be part of this too.

If I'm John Calipari, I am not happy about this news. Penny is going to get the kinds of kids Cal used to be able to count on.

Memphis is running off an outstanding coach, and a class guy.

Franklin has had some unexpected losses this year (Page? really?) but seem to be peaking. A team that rides shooting as its primary weapon is never a sure bet, but even on off shooting nights, Franklin has won games with defensive pressure leading to easy transition points. I'm sure the gym will be packed and loud.

Franklin has very little inside presence on either end of the floor. Mt. Juliet isn't much taller, but they they do have some strong kids down low. If Bryan Aiken and Isaac Stephens can own the glass and maybe get some cheap, early fouls on what little depth Franklin does have inside, Mt. Juliet may have a chance. If not, hard to see a win for them.

I'll call 15 3's for FHS in a 10 point win.

I didn't look that far down in the results... yes, strength at the 13s and 14s would be encouraging, and in fact a little surprising... the Sports Performance model historically hasn't lent itself well to competing in the lower age divisions.

Did the exodus you were talking about in those ages show up in Alliance's first weekend?

AES results suggest it wasn't a great opening weekend. On the one hand, it looks like the 18's team had a good run in pool play, then were rewarded with the opportunity to get rolled in the first round of gold bracket by the K2 18's (who, to be fair, are probably a top 20 team nationally this year).

But the rest of the TP teams looked outmatched against middling competition, just looking at scores and results.

Wasn't there, but AES results make it seem it was a real cakewalk for the Alliance teams. Surprising, I would have thought Tsunami and Union would have made it competitive.

I missed the Army All-American game. How did Max do?

Looks like most of the TPV top teams, including that 16's team, are registered for the K2 event next weekend (Jan 20-21). Unless they played an event that was not tracked in AES, I think this would be the first competition for the club.

I've seen maybe 25 games at the varsity and sub-varsity level this year. In a few cases, officials are clearly mailing the effort in. That is inexcusable. MOST of the time, though, they really are doing their best. But we are talking 60+ year old guys who simply can't keep up physically with the pace of play, so they end up out of position to make a call. In those cases, they either guess or punt (IE, call nothing). The solution here is, obviously, to make it more worthwhile / accessible for younger officials. How to do that is less obvious to me.

This isn't limited to high school, mind. I was at the Vanderbilt / Tennessee game last night and saw exactly the same phenomenon.

No TPV teams are in this event. Based on the acrimony between Trigg and Alliance, I would be surprised if TPV played in any events where they might run up against an Alliance team, especially events hosted (or in this case, co-hosted) by Alliance.

Has TP published any information? Schedule? Rosters? I found the web presence on the Franklin Fieldhouse page, but that is even less useful than the Alliance website (which is really saying something).

This thread has become clickbait by this point.

Sports Performance founded JVA as an alternative to USAV competition when their club director was banned.

On 12/19/2017 at 7:55 AM, RutherfordCoVolleyball1 said:

I personally think that Alliance does a pretty good job with the 9-11 year olds. I watched an 11 year old Alliance team a few years ago playing “up” and marveled at their good ball control skills. I watched substantially the same team two years later and wondered how that team had lost so much so quickly.

Speaking in generalities, your observation mirrors mine. I'd be less inclined to give Alliance credit for the ball control of those kids at that age... in a lot of cases, you are talking little sisters or daughters of volleyball-playing parents.

But I don't think you mean that the group regressed... they just didn't progress as much as the other kids over years/ That's what I meant in my earlier post about the tendency to take physically mature / athletic kids at young ages and populate your top teams with them. It's tempting, because that group will have a lot of success early. But then clubs with different paradigms (take lumps early, train kids with eye towards success as 16's and beyond) will generate more college-bound athletes.

Assuming that's the goal, of course, which maybe it isn't.

You can argue that TSSAA is incompetent, greedy, useless, or any number of unhelpful things... but the idea that they aren't doing anything is pretty laughable.

Interesting event in Knoxville at the end of April. TPV will be there, along with top teams from Alliance, Munciana, KIVA, Sting, A5, K2, and the Carolinas. Should be a good barometer.

Let's see if this link works:

Memphis East basketball transfers Wiseman, Boyce ruled eligible

I don't think anybody has any news. The story is dead. To summarize:

- Jake is moving to Marrietta

- Coach Webb is excited about 2018

- Franklin isn't returning much size next year

I see everyone is eligible again.

On 12/4/2017 at 11:25 AM, kwc said:

Well, according to that article I posted, they have a hearing on December 7th.

Anything come out of yesterday's hearing? I didn't see any news on it, but neither did I scour the Earth looking for it.

Johnny got an emoji for "I fell asleep waiting for the next episode"?

15 hours ago, kwc said:

Thay said ... sponsor.

I agree that was an error on their part. Let's see if it costs them.

4 hours ago, kwc said:

No, I don't think simply playing under a player's name confers anything...

They just allow their name to be used. They, for the most part, are trying to give back in the best way they know how, as well as, stay involved with the sport they love.

The first sentence is logically inconsistent with the other two. Penny (and others like him) is involved in some way (your second set of statements) or not (your first). If involved, it isn't too big a leap to say there is a "coaching link".

On 12/1/2017 at 3:31 PM, kwc said:

They are going to have to show that Penny, is sponsoring those AAU players in a non monitary way. THAT is going to be TOUGH!

I think the TSSAA is getting what they want here. They WANT that argument to be a difficult one. This serves them in 2 ways... first, the longer this drags out, the closer they are to coming across like they got what they wanted (IE, they enforced their rule, poorly written though it was). Second, if they prevail (and by your logic, they won't, but if they do...) then the umbrella of circumstances in which "coaching link" applies will grow.

But playing under the banner "Team Penny" or... who is the other Memphis group... Mike Miller? Or Dontae Jones, or Jahlil Okafor, or... (insert some current or former NBA player)... simply playing under the player's name confers something, don't you think?

What is the next step? Is there a hearing date set for whatever is supposed to happen next?

On 12/2/2017 at 0:45 PM, SummaryJudgment said:

I think the reason Alliance does so poorly in the older age groups is that the players have never had to overcome adversity and failure when younger. They don't know how to fight and compete.

A lot to touch on in your very reasonable response. I'll just give my take on this piece for now.

To my eye, Alliance has historically placed young kids on top teams based primarily on skill. Some years ago, here is how 12 and under tryouts worked: first, line up everyone and tell them to serve. Keep the kids who can serve overhand and evaluate their other skills to determine who is first team, who is second, etc. Kids who couldn't serve got moved to a secondary evaluation court. This is a great way to put together teams that will win as 11's and 12's and 13's: get athletic, coordinated, physically mature kids, and serve and pass other teams off the court. But this is a poor recipe for long-term success at the older ages.

Reason being, many of those kids who will be monsters as 17's and 18's are awkward and uncoordinated 11 year olds. They often can't serve overhand at that age, and maybe can't do much of anything else, either. In many cases, they are years behind their peers in terms of physical maturity. So in the old model, those kids were either cut outright or relegated to a third team, where they experience a lower volume and quality of training and competition.

But what happens to those top team kids when they turn 14? 16? If you haven't been training kids as younger athletes, remedial training is difficult and time consuming later. If you build out your teams to win at the younger age divisions, you probably aren't going to win at the older age levels. To Alliance's credit, I think they are better about this now than they used to be.

The Sports Performance group in Chicago understands this. I believe they don't even play their top younger teams in Open Divisions... maybe they start playing Open at 14's?

Hence the word "link". It's a Rorschach word, you could read whatever you want into it, as befits your point of view.

Mine is... well, mine is uniformed. So feel free to dsimiss it. But from the information I have, I don't doubt that Penny wasn't part of adding these guys to his AAU program, nor do I actually believe he had no interaction or involvement during their time playing in the Spring / Summer circuits. Whether he was The Coach of that time is immaterial. So from that standpoint, it seems the ruling is completely justified.

On the other hand... at some point, the TSSAA needs to be called to accountability on the vagueness of their regulations. I don't know if they were intentionally vague here... if so, well played on their part. I think it is more likely that they were simply lazy, sloppy, and didn't think this through. If they are forced to be more precise on these things going forward, that's a win for all of us.

Back to East... they are still plenty good enough to win AAA without these kids. And the players themselves don't need the 2017-8 high school season to get where they are going. I'm not crying for Penny, Todd Day, or the East program, regardless of how this turns out.