Tri-County Seven - - Week of 29 November, 2009

[krichunaka]

1) Unicoi County

2) Elizabethton

3) Hampton

4) Cloudland

5) Unaka

6) Happy Valley

7) Johnson County

 

We will probably see a lot of change - four-through-seven -

throughout this season, and, there are a couple matchups this week that might,

or might not, clarify things - one-through-three.

 

And, none of this is to rule out the possibility of Seven moving to one, or vice versa.

 

Tuesday brings a good two vs three matchup when Elizabethton travels to Hampton.

And then Friday the Lady Bulldogs host this week's number one, Unicoi County.

 

So far we have two common opponents to compare our top two:

Unicoi County beat the Lady Greene Devils by eight - - 35 27.

Greeneville defeated the Lady Cyclones - - 39-34.

Morristown West took apart both teams:

MW 77 - - Elizabethton 47.

MW 70 - - Unicoi County 46.

Those four games indicate Unicoi County is slightly better than Elizabethton.

However, any of us who have seen many, or most of the last twenty or so matchups

between EHS and UCHS, know better than to read much into these scores.

 

Chuckey Doak has played our two and three teams:

The Lady Black Knights defeated Hampton by six, 60-54.

Elizabethton beat Chuckey Doak by 18, 56-38.

Those common-opponent scores suggest Elizabethton should have an easy

go of it against Hampton. More than likely, however, we'll see why it isn't always

wise to use comparative scores.

 

Hampton is easily the third-best of our Seven, and it wouldn't be surprising to

see the Lady Bulldogs move up; perhaps by this weekend. They host the Lady

Cyclones, Tuesday; and Unicoi County plays at Hampton, Friday.

 

Cloudland got off to a 5-and-0 start before losing to Daniel Boone. The Lady

Trailblazers split two games with our number five, Unaka.

 

Happy Valley has been knocked around in early season, but the Lady Warriors

have several winnable games on their schedule, including many matchups with

their Seven counterparts.

 

Lots to talk about. We'll catch up a little at a time.

 

Good Luck, everyone.

[coachh17]

Glad to see Krich is back for another season. His analysis looks dead on for this early part of the season, so I will concur with his rankings:

 

1. Unicoi Co. (By virtue of the Greeneville win)

2. Elizabethton (Will try and make another state run)

3. Hampton (Tuesday game with Elizabethton will be a good one)

4. Cloudland (Looking good early)

5. Unaka (Seem to have their team back!)

6. Happy Valley (Scrappy but pretty thin)

7. Johnson County (Campbell is a nice player)

[limestonecove]

Gawlee Ned, I agree with you two. Thats scary.

I just have a question, why does Betsy not claim the loss to greeneville, but yet they claim the win over ChuckyDoak? Both were hall of fame games, if ya count on you ought count both of them, right? I saw where the jc paper has them at 4-1. It oughta be 3-1 or 4-2 dont ya think.

Betsy has lost two games, not one, Mr fritts, the unbiased sportswriter (cyclone homer).

for the record, I think betsy and the blue devils split in the regular season and both end up with one conference loss. Nobody else in the three rivers can play with them. Much weaker conference this year with Doak and SG gone.

[ladycyclone]

ok well everybody knows that in a hall of fame game that if you win then you can count the win but if you lose you dont have to count it. And most teams choose not to count it if they lose.

[victory]

But the point that limestonecove is trying to make is that you should count all of them win or lose. Unicoi County is the same. They are counting the win over Volunteer but not counting the loss to Science Hill. There are some teams that count them all win or lose. The coaches are the ones that make the decision whether to count a Hall of Champions game or not. The newspaper reporters usually ask the coaches what their overall record is before or after a game.

[coachh17]

We beat the HOF topic to death every year. If I was still coaching I would count the wins and losses, but some choose not count the losses. It is one or two games, but it does not really matter. Elizabethton had a nice 57-41 win over Hampton tonight at Hampton. The Lady Cyclones could use one more tall post, but they are looking good. Unicoi Co. and Elizabethton should battle all the way to the Region, where South Greene awaits.

[dog4life]

The Lady Dogs definitely did not show up last night. I hear that they are having some issues. I noticed LT trying to find the right combination, because a couple of players minds are elsewhere. Did anyone else notice what I saw? Elizabethton is up by 15 with 1 minute to go, starters still in the game, Hampton had already cleared the bench 2 minutes earlier, and they call timeout. This reminded me of Urban Meyer doing it to Mark Richt. I thought that Coach Dugger and LT were friends. I could understand it if you put in a whole new 5, but they didn't. Guess they didn't feel safe with that big lead. What goes around comes around.

[screenandroll]

Krich, good to hear from you. Know everyone is excited about another year of Tri-County Seven. Don't think they'll be many debates about the number one team this year except from the Cyclone and Devil faithful. They are by far the better teams. Hampton probably stands a lone at third with seperation from the rest of the field.

 

Rankings:

1. Unicoi

2. Elizabethton

3. Hampton

4. Cloudland

5. Unaka

6. Happy Valley

7. Johnson County

[dog4life]

I don't know if I would say that they are head and shoulders above the Lady Dogs. Granted they did win by 16 last night but Hampton played very bad and the Lady Cyclones shot the ball very well. I still think that if and or when the Lady Dogs get rid of their issues they can be just as good as either of the top 2 teams. Unicoi Co. may beat them by 20 Friday night the way they are playing now. Atleast there is room for improvement, where Elizabethton looks to be in mid-season form. Remember the Lady Dogs were 3-6 at Christmas last year and came on. Hope that is the case this year, but I'm not sure. Also, Cloudland and Unaka have performed better than many expected, so I would put them right there with the Lady Dogs because they probably are playing better right now. Kudo's to Coach Birchfield and Coach Wright.

[coachh17]

The Lady Dogs definitely did not show up last night. I hear that they are having some issues. I noticed LT trying to find the right combination, because a couple of players minds are elsewhere. Did anyone else notice what I saw? Elizabethton is up by 15 with 1 minute to go, starters still in the game, Hampton had already cleared the bench 2 minutes earlier, and they call timeout. This reminded me of Urban Meyer doing it to Mark Richt. I thought that Coach Dugger and LT were friends. I could understand it if you put in a whole new 5, but they didn't. Guess they didn't feel safe with that big lead. What goes around comes around.

 

I was at the game last night and am a little surprised that the Bulldog fans are taking exception to the final couple of minutes of the game. The timeout call did not even register with me. I did note that Coach Tolley took out his starters with about two minutes to go and was a little surprised. The Lady Dogs did not play as well as I thought they would at home. Weddle and Lewis had pretty good games, but no other Dogs did much. Elizabethton's defense and intensity had something to do with that. To defend Coach Dugger, I remember losing 10 to 15 point leads quickly a time or two in my coaching days. If you sub too early, especially on the road against a press, a couple of steals and threes can make things scary quick. Elizabethton only plays seven or eight kids right now. Powell, Kiser, Jefferson, Fritz, Chelsea Bowling, and Cara Bowling give them essentially six starters. Powell, Kiser, Fritz, and Jefferson all played well last night. Both Bowlings struggled. Jones and Norris make seven and eight and were both in with three starters the final two minutes. Could Coach Dugger have put in his sophomores and Freshmen the final two minutes? Yes, but I did not get the feeling he was trying to run up the score. The Lady Cyclones just played their top eight players hard until the final whistle.

[Dawgfan88]

Truth to tell, I didn't think of the starters for Betsy staying in the game late until about 30 seconds or so were left. Then I thought it not too classy, as the game was well in hand. HOWEVER, the Lady Dogs looked BAD. If they had half the turnovers, they might have won. The entire game long, turnovers, turnovers. The Lady 'Clones showed all sorts of hustle and determination, and plain out-played the Lady Dogs all game long. If there are issues on the team, that's a sad statement. I hope egos aren't getting in the way of what could be a great season. I've seen it happen before, and it's such a waste. I think Coach Tolley will NOT tolerate things like that, and I hope he can work things out. These ladies seem to have forgotten what made last year's run so special: TEAMWORK.

[krichunaka]

A couple notes regarding Elizabethton at Hampton:

 

Jasmine Jefferson might just be the most under-acknowledged player around. She's a quiet player, very subtle, but consistently fills the stat-sheet (fifteen points - - eleven in the first half). And with EHS's lack of a prototypical post game, her production will be vital against Unicoi County, and on down the road, against (potentially) South Greene and other, taller teams.

 

It was a little surprising (to me at least) to see the double-digit turnovers in the first half by the Lady Cyclones against Hampton's zone press. Of course, it's still very early in the season, but with so much talent and experience in the EHS backcourt there should've been a much smoother transition game. No doubt, pressure defense will be getting a lot of attention in practice.

 

And where did the Lady Bulldogs leave their hands? Hampton isn't that far behind Elizabethton. But way too many dropped or mishandled passes. There's not that much difference, from one and two... to three, and with a little better ball security, this game could have been a nail-biter.

 

And, there are issues a-plenty... in both programs. Coach Tolley and the Lady Bulldogs will get things

straightened out in due time. Elizabethton might also. But the Lady Cyclones, regardless of its talent level, often looked confused. In fact, if Kristen Powell doesn't go off for five threes - four in the second half (three of those in the third quarter), Hampton, in spite of playing absolutely awful, certainly could have won the game. Again, it's still early, but the chemistry isn't there. Not yet.