Knox Central

[IrishBBall]

Powell has more than three players.

1. Connor 2. Smith 3. Hargis (I was giving him the benefit of the doubt on a good day) and ????? who is #4 McGaha would be my next choice but he is questionable at best. I realize that there are 10-12 other guys over there with orange uniforms.

[DietCoke]

irish,

 

I can't determine if you think these guys can play or not? Are you saying that these seniors developed under you over the summer into college level players? You said they did not have any fundamentals but got better throughout the summer. Is AAU known for their practices? How much individual practice time did you spend with these guys. Strange how they PLAYED better throughout the summer about the same time they were PRACTICING long hours in the gym with Coach Lambert and Tummell.

 

These seniors improvement is attributed to practice not by playing a bunch of games in AAU. AAU is known for games not practice. Practice is where you improve your skill. They practiced with Lambert and Tummell. Practice is how you learn everything. You can't throw a 3 year old a book and say read it! They first have to learn their ABC's. The catchy song helped us all learn our ABC's and then we practiced and practiced and we learned to read. Tom Brady went from a very late, and relatively unknown, draft pick to a 3 time Super Bowl QB. How? By playing all the time? No, he was watching Drew Bledsoe from the sidelines. He did it by practicing. Over and over he was practicing with receivers late into the night. Ben Williamson got his offer from Birmingham Southern due to a team camp down there where he shot the fire out of the basketball. Did he develop that shot by playing AAU or by practing and making 1,000's of shots in the gym on passes and instruction from Lambert? Ask Ben. He practiced. Ask Justin Wilson what took him from a Karns afterthought to a high teens scorer and double figure rebounder per game at Central. The answer, countless hours over the summer practicing with his high school coaches, mainly Coach Tummell. Justin didn't play over the summer, he practiced!!!

 

Any success these young men are having this year is a direct result of their practice over the summer in their gym with their high school coaches. What kind of year would they be having if not for their practice? I agree with smalltown, Central has never been good but here they are competing in every game they play. Winning some and losing some. But they are in every game. Why? AAU games or practice? Ask the players!!!!!!!!!!

[IrishBBall]

Diet Coke aka Lambert's brother in Kentucky-

 

1 Good to see that you finally learned to type.

2 Figured you would be a Moonshine drinker not Diet Coke.

3 It is Brey not Bray--no one named Lambert can spell.

4 If anyone calls Central for a scouting report--They do the opposite.

 

IrishBB if the post player was not good enough to play for your team

must have been a strong group.

The Tennessee Zags were a very strong AAU team. We were the top team in ET. We beat the Midstate Ballerz Select, Travelers #2, Wolfpack and played very well with the Ballerz Elite and the Travelers 1st team. We finished first out of 42 teams in the Silver division of the Kentucky Hoopfest which is one of the oldest and largest tourneys in the South. Our posts were Lee Smith-Powell, Blake Derrick - McMinn Central, Tremane Brown -Catholic, Tyler Powell - Farragut, and Jordan Glasgow- Wm Blount. With the exception of Tyler Powell offensively, everyone of these players was much stronger fundamentally than Wilson. It seemed like no one had ever worked with him in the post. He was WAY, WAY behind.

[Know Nothing]

The Tennessee Zags were a very strong AAU team. We were the top team in ET. We beat the Midstate Ballerz Select, Travelers #2, Wolfpack and played very well with the Ballerz Elite and the Travelers 1st team. We finished first out of 42 teams in the Silver division of the Kentucky Hoopfest which is one of the oldest and largest tourneys in the South. Our posts were Lee Smith-Powell, Blake Derrick - McMinn Central, Tremane Brown -Catholic, Tyler Powell - Farragut, and Jordan Glasgow- Wm Blount. With the exception of Tyler Powell offensively, everyone of these players was much stronger fundamentally than Wilson. It seemed like no one had ever worked with him in the post. He was WAY, WAY behind.

 

IrishBball:

 

You must be one freaking incredible coach. Why don't you submit your resume to Central? How could they not hire you on the spot. bigcatt is retired, so you seem like the logical solution to this situation. You obviously want the job since you have nothing better to do with your time than get on here and badmouth coaches. You bad mouthed Ogan on here not too long ago as well. I'm guessing that both Lambert and Ogan could coach circles around you.

Edited February 11, 2006 by Know Nothing

[chsbaseball41]

I think that you all have very strong points on how you view things. What this is all going to come down to is the district tournament.

 

OR is leading it right now which they probably have on lock. Clinton had the hot streak but lost that when they lost to Powell. Then followed it up with a lost to West in overtime friday night. Central started out bad in the districts and probably won't make up much rank with not much time left to go. Powell has had a little run with beating Clinton at home and also have descent record in the districts.

 

The tournament is where the competition is going to come out. Central has the momentum right now, and it may carry them pretty far. I don't for-see them beating OR to take the crown, but they could very easily upset Clinton, Powell, or Halls to take that second spot. It should be a great tourney!

 

Clinton has one final district game against Halls at Halls next tuesday. It should be a very good game and that may swing some momentum towards Clinton if they can win.

[Know Nothing]

1. Connor 2. Smith 3. Hargis (I was giving him the benefit of the doubt on a good day) and ????? who is #4 McGaha would be my next choice but he is questionable at best. I realize that there are 10-12 other guys over there with orange uniforms.

 

I think that Daniel Hansen, Jason Seymore, Tyler Howell and T.C. Dinkins are pretty good high school players as well for Powell.

[chsbaseball41]

Powell definitely has some good players. I don't think they take advantage of McGaha's size enough. He's a pretty big boy and they don't really feed it to him down low like they should. The tournament for that district is shaping out to be one of the best. It's going to be good competition for teams, I'm seeing some upsets as well.

[DodgerSS]

btw, irish.....didn't you coach the central girls?

[IrishBBall]

btw, irish.....didn't you coach the central girls?

No.I'd rather stick toothpicks in my eyes than coach bad girls basketball. That was Tony Scott who is a Catholic asst coach now.

Edited February 11, 2006 by IrishBBall

[IrishBBall]

IrishBball:

 

You must be one freaking incredible coach. Why don't you submit your resume to Central? How could they not hire you on the spot. bigcatt is retired, so you seem like the logical solution to this situation. You obviously want the job since you have nothing better to do with your time than get on here and badmouth coaches. You bad mouthed Ogan on here not too long ago as well. I'm guessing that both Lambert and Ogan could coach circles around you.

To establish my credibility since you probably think I'm just an average fan, I've coached players that have gone on to play in the WNBA, NBA, been an NCAA Regional MVP, numerous D-1 players that have gone to little schools like TN, NC, Duke, Vandy, Bama etc. and coached several AAU teams to Final Four appearances. I also played and have an SEC championship ring. I've been offered high school and college jobs. I work for one of the biggest banks in the country so high school pay doesn't get me real excited. I didn't bad mouth Ogan I just said he made several coaching mistakes in the Catholic game that really cost them the game. Remember, He started stalling with about 5 minutes to go in the game when 4 of our 5 starters had 4 fouls. We have no depth if he would have attacked we would have fouled and we have no bench. PHS ball handling is shaky against good defense which makes it harder to stall. Point was proved by turning the ball over late several times that led to Catholic's win. Not continually bad mouthing, just stating facts. Since you're a Powell fan ask Lee Smith what he thinks of his AAU coaches.

[DietCoke]

irish,

 

I don't think any one is doubting your coaching success or knowledge. But thank you for listing all that information for us. We now know that you have benefitted from being on the sideline with all-stars and watching them play. My question to you was the development of the, as you called them, college level talent at Central. Is this another feather in your coaching cap or the result of their high school coaches tirelessly working with them over the summer? Please address this topic.

 

Again, thank you for your resume.

[IrishBBall]

irish,

 

I can't determine if you think these guys can play or not? Are you saying that these seniors developed under you over the summer into college level players? You said they did not have any fundamentals but got better throughout the summer. Is AAU known for their practices? How much individual practice time did you spend with these guys. Strange how they PLAYED better throughout the summer about the same time they were PRACTICING long hours in the gym with Coach Lambert and Tummell.

 

These seniors improvement is attributed to practice not by playing a bunch of games in AAU. AAU is known for games not practice. Practice is where you improve your skill. They practiced with Lambert and Tummell. Practice is how you learn everything. You can't throw a 3 year old a book and say read it! They first have to learn their ABC's. The catchy song helped us all learn our ABC's and then we practiced and practiced and we learned to read. Tom Brady went from a very late, and relatively unknown, draft pick to a 3 time Super Bowl QB. How? By playing all the time? No, he was watching Drew Bledsoe from the sidelines. He did it by practicing. Over and over he was practicing with receivers late into the night. Ben Williamson got his offer from Birmingham Southern due to a team camp down there where he shot the fire out of the basketball. Did he develop that shot by playing AAU or by practing and making 1,000's of shots in the gym on passes and instruction from Lambert? Ask Ben. He practiced. Ask Justin Wilson what took him from a Karns afterthought to a high teens scorer and double figure rebounder per game at Central. The answer, countless hours over the summer practicing with his high school coaches, mainly Coach Tummell. Justin didn't play over the summer, he practiced!!!

 

Any success these young men are having this year is a direct result of their practice over the summer in their gym with their high school coaches. What kind of year would they be having if not for their practice? I agree with smalltown, Central has never been good but here they are competing in every game they play. Winning some and losing some. But they are in every game. Why? AAU games or practice? Ask the players!!!!!!!!!!

Our AAU team is a huge exception when it comes to practicing. I know most AAU teams rarely practice. I admire our kids and their parents because some of them have an hour drive to get to practice. We practice 2-3 times a week for 2-3 hours. We have parents, players, and even high school coaches calling to get their kids on our team because we work their tails off and teach alot of the things they haven't been taught by their high school coach. We put these guys thru intense college type practices. It probably didn't hurt that we took them to Maryville College and scrimmaged against their team with Coach Lambert several times this summer either. In defending the high school coach, it's hard to get the quality of practice needed to improve when your first 5 are normally markedly better than the second 5 they're going against in practice. They aren't really challenged in practice. You've got to play against better players to truly improve. All but 1 of our players are ranked in several categories in the PrepXtra stats. They went against some of the best area high school competition everyday in practice. We also brought in current and former D-1 players and pro players to work with them this summer and that paid huge dividends for those guys. Both coaches played at UT for Don Devoe who is without a doubt one of the best teachers of the game in the country and we taught what we were taught. We are fortunate to have a coaching staff where one can teach individual perimeter skills and the other can work individually with the posts at every practice.

 

I know these guys can play! My question is how could they perform at such a high level this summer and be faltering now. Have their skills suddenly diminished after playing against some of the top players in the south all summer. The competition level at the high school level is much, much weaker than what they've faced.

 

Justin Wilson quit because he didn't feel he could keep up. By the way, he played for the WolfPack this summer. I know they were in the gym all summer shooting 1000s of shots but that's far from all they need. Plus with all that shooting you'd think they would have 4 or 5 guys ranked in the PrepXtra shooting percentages. McGill is the leading FT shooter at 73%. Williamson is a 36% from 3 and no perimeter player is shooting over 50% from the field. These are hardly eye opening stats.

 

Funny, I have asked the players and I 'll tell you their answer after the season is over. As a matter of fact, I sat and talked with the parents during the game as they lost to a Catholic team with much less talent.

 

MAYBE YOU SHOULD ASK THE PLAYERS ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE IN THEIR AAU EXPERIENCE vs. HIGH SCHOOL! I KNOW THE ANSWER