Holiday Tournaments Mid-TN (Who and Where?)

[GCPioneer]

How is the Hickman Co. tournament going? I talked to someone that was there today and I was told that undefeated Clarksville Academy was defeated by Ensworth. Is that really considered an upset?

[basketballjones85]

How is the Hickman Co. tournament going? I talked to someone that was there today and I was told that undefeated Clarksville Academy was defeated by Ensworth. Is that really considered an upset?

 

I wouldn't call it an upset. I saw Ensworth play against Beech (a good AAA team) this year and they had a 15 point lead but did not hold on to win. It was only their 3rd game of the season and Beech had played 6 or 7. They played 15 guys and sent 3 different groups of 5 players in and out the whole game. They were deep and had some players. I would think Ensworth would be expected to be a contender for state champs in Div II.

[ttower]

Ensworth is a good team. They will play today at 5:30 vs Northeast, another undefeated team from Clarksville. This should be a good matchup. Northeast held on earlier to also beat Beech.

 

Any DII team beating a DI class A is not an upset.

[HerdFan]

At Overton yesterday, the Spring Hill/Whites Creek game was a really good game. Glencliff/Lipscomb was not a good game. Greenbrier/Harpeth was better than I expected, but ended like I anticipated. Overton was not really challenged in either game they played. Kind of thought that Spring Hill would give them a better game than they did. Did not see the Giles Co game against the Arkansas team, but I believe that Giles lost.

[basketballjones85]

I ended up at Beech tournament the past couple of days, choosing to go to the closest in proximity.

 

Some good action in the tournament. Livingston played well day 1. Red Bank and Bolton are fun teams to watch. Not much height on either team but very active and both play fast. RedBank plays wide open and never slows down even with a 20 point lead they were running and shooting within 5 seconds of crossing 1/2 court line. They actually let Livingston mount a little come back cutting it to about 9 pts by turning the ball over. They held on to win and won by 13. The freshman Ramsey never got it going in either game that I watched him, getting in foul trouble in both games. TJ Smith scored 33 for Livingston tonight and was very impressive, he hit 6 threes and it seemed like 12, he had a very hot shooting hand. I don't know the name of the kid from Redbank (#50) but he had to have hit that many or more 3's along with some inside shots and some terrific "d", the young man could jump out of the gym as well and was fun to watch both today and yesterday.

 

Beech and Bolton was a very fun game to watch. The refs let both teams play. I'm sure both teams fans thought the refs were bad, but from a nuetral spectator I loved it. I will say that they let a lot go for both teams. I actually prefer when refs let the teams play defense and don't call fouls on every shot block or all the incidental contact that goes on with athletes. My opinion for what it is worth is that Beech did not take advantage of Jon Taylors inside presence as they could not seem to get the ball inside to him where he had a 4 or 6 inch height advantage over the Bolton players. The few times they did get it to Taylor, Bolton didn't have an answer for it. Seems to me they settled for jumpers too much rather than working it in. It was a good game and Beech down 2 with 3.9 seconds left inbounded the ball and set up a good play for the inbound passer Chamberlain to get the ball back with a good look at a 3pt shot and it just missed and Bolton won by 2.

 

I can't understand how someone could put on a tournament and not have a program for sale with the rosters of the teams. Beech has a good crowd for their teams, a couple of the Memphis area teams traveled well and the girls team from GA brought quite a few fans. I believe middle TN is missing out on some great basketball, not sure why attendance is always so sparse for mid-TN basketball. There are a handful of schools that really seem to support their programs but their is just a lot of apathy toward the game, which is unfortunate for the kids playing and dedicating so much time to the game.

[basketballjones85]

Redbank beat Bolton in the championship game by 2 pts in o.t. A goaltending call ended the game as time expired. It was clearly goal tending hitting the rim and then backboard and then swatted away over the cylinder. Refs hesitated on the call and mass confusion ensued and they finally counted the basket and the game was over. Two evenly matched teams with athleticism to burn. I thought Bolton was better coached but RedBank had a couple of individuals that just made the difference on both ends of the court.

 

Looks like Livingston is really struggling the past 2 games as they lost big to Beech in the 3rd place game ending up 1-2 at the tournament. They were beat by 13 last night and by 36 to Beech with a final of 58-22, with Livingston only scoring 8 in 2nd half. They have some players and were very impressive with a win on day 1 of tournament against a very fast Antioch team who pressed them the whole game. Then looks like the wheels came off the next 2 games.

 

Beech is impressive when they work it inside out with Taylor and Reece. In tight games they have a short rotation playing 7, maybe 8 guys. Not sure about there depth.

 

All in all a fun tournament to watch. Some really good teams, it is so sad to see the championship game and only a handful of fans were there that weren't family from one of the 2 teams playing. I don't understand why Middle TN is so apathetic to high school basketball. I'm used to KY where people can't get enough of it.