neutral05

Notre Dame 0, Signal 0

Just giving this a shot. 1. GPS 2. Notre Dame 3. Baylor 4. Soddy-Daisy 5. Chattanooga Christian 6. McMinn County 7. East Hamilton 8. Signal Mtn. 9. Cleveland 10. Grace

Rankin would leave the Alcoa program in great shape - that whole team is sophomores and juniors, but in the end, Alcoa will always be the little brother to Maryville. Might be why he's considering leaving.

Again, I don't know who the best team in Single A is (I played in AAA myself), but I'm just looking forward to watching the top 8 teams in Class A playing. If the winner comes out of the Humboldt/Manassas game, then that's great, but if they get beat by Knoxville Grace or Grace Academy in the semifinals, your argument is null and void. And, just in case you didn't know, here's photos of the live draw. Snakedriver, if you want, we could hook those two little boys up to a lie-detector and find out if they have a conspiracy against West Tennessee. http://www.tssaa.org/boysdrawing.htm

I haven't seen any of the eight teams play (I'll be there Wednesday and plan on taking the games in), but I just don't think it's right to imply that a conspiracy exists in Single A basketball, especially when the success in A doesn't rival that of the higher classifications. Now, if we were talking in AA or AAA (like if Raleigh-Egypt were to be playing White Station in the first round), I could buy into that because I don't think anybody would want that first round matchup. Just a question, what happens if the winner of that game gets beat in the semifinals? Are you going to make the excuse that "they were emotionally spent from the first game?"

I don't really get the whole "conspiracy" thing. For one, a great record does not equal a great team, so I'm just not sure that Humboldt and Manassas are the best teams in the bracket. I just looked at TSSAA, and the Chattanooga-area has won four state championships this decade in Class A, so the whole "West Tennessee is better than everybody else" theory doesn't really exist like it does in AA and AAA. Could Humboldt or Manassas be the eventual state champion? Possibly, but if another team wins, I wouldn't be surprised because West Tennessee doesn't dominate in single A basketball.

I think you meant White Station, deadeyedave. Station Camp is in AA and is where John Jenkins goes to school. AAA state should be good this year.

Of course - I would have the same discussion in any sport. But in the end, this is nothing but candid discussion because we all know that it wouldn't happen, which is almost surprising considering the way the TSSAA is all about dollars and cents.

I'm not sure if anybody was talkin about Bradley. I, for one, wasn't. I know plenty about the Bradley legacy and how great it is (except for those Creagans, lol). To me being nothing is tarnished by the two state champion wrestlers not having one extra match, just saying that FOR ME!!!!, if I had been a state champion wrestler (or a wrestler in general), I'd want to go against the guy who held the same title as me.

But you did respond, Slingshot, which I appreciate. It means you're reading what I'm writing. Actually, if you read my post thoroughly, you would have seen that I wrote STATE champion. When I re-read the post, I realized that STATE was in big letters and pretty clear. Maybe you didn't read that. Let me type it one more time...STATE. When I re-read that post, STATE looks pretty clear. Maybe next time in your attempt to make me look bad, you'll read the entire post thoroughly before responding. Just a thought. I'm not exactly sure what Georgia or California has to do with the Tennessee state tournament, but if that is the state I live in, I would want to be the best. Obviously you're the wrestling guru, so you can tell me. I apologize for being a competitor. I never wrestled, but, being an athlete, I don't want to share a title with somebody else. I would want to be THE Tennessee State Champion. It would be the same with any sport. Yeah, I get the state championship, but I don't want people to get on a message board and debate who is better. I want to know, just like I bet that guy in the other division would want to know.

I don't post much, but I don't see the trouble if it were to happen. The kid has been crowned state champion of either the public or private school division - they have a state championship. It sounds as though the people who are against it are afraid of getting a loss. A true winner takes on all comers and doesn't back down from anybody. Just my point of view. If I'm a state champion in my weight class, I want to be the STATE champion, not the Division I state champion or the Division II state champion. I want to be able to say that I defeated ALL comers, not just all the ones within my particular division. Even if I get beat in that match, it doesn't take away from my public school state championship - just meant that I wasn't as good as the guy who won the private school state championship. I'm not going to feel any worse than I would if I lost any other match.

Walker Valley (15-0) has wins over Cleveland and Red Bank, sub-state teams from a year ago. Also defeated Temple, so I think they're in there somewhere.

Goals? Assists?

Neither Cleveland nor Chattanooga's papers voted in this week's poll, so they have nothing to do w/Cleveland still being ranked in the top 10.

"Leave" of absence.