Tri-County Seven

[coachh17]

It was nice to finally see some games played with a break in the weather. Most of our teams had to shake off the ice after long layoffs, but the gyms got them heated up quick! There was a little movement this week in the rankings. Congratulations to Elizabethton for obtaining the first state #1 ranking in recent memory for our seven teams. Most teams will be playing three and four games a week now due to make-ups. I hope we can stay injury free.

 

1.Elizabethton(16-0)- Beat Unicoi Co. by 22 at Unicoi. Have passed every test so far. Will get another Monday night at South Greene. Still would like to see more depth and bench development. Averaging 66 points per game and giving up 37.

 

2.Hampton(13-5)- Huge wins over North Greene and Unicoi Co. have earned them the #2 spot. Weddle is healthy. All three Duggers are playing well and Guinn is making more contributions. Host Cloudland Friday.

 

3.Unicoi Co.(10-4)- Lost at home to Elizabethton and at Hampton. Frustrations mounting. Edwards is carrying too much of the load and needs some teammates to step up and help her. Should get happy against Johnson Co., East, and North this week.

 

4.Cloudland(13-3)- Drilled Unaka and Providence Academy. Weather has caused them to play an extremely weak schedule. Cupcake city is over. Have 9 games left against N.Greene(1), Hampton(2), Unicoi Co.(2), Chuckey-Doak(2), and South Greene(2). We will see how good the Lady Landers really are in the coming weeks. I hope they make all those games up. At Hampton Friday.

 

5.Happy Valley(7-5)- Wish the fans would update the schedule on coacht. Beat Johnson County. Rebuilding process is still underway. A regional appearance should (99% likely) be an attainable goal this season. Host Elizabethton Friday.

 

6.Unaka(6-13)- Smoked by Cloudland. Looking like they will finish 4th in the District. Could still make regional semi-finals. Tough one at North Greene this Friday.

 

7.Johnson Co.(0-10)- Must give them credit for sticking with it and continuing to play as hard as they can. They have the heart. The talent and skill level will improve with work and time.

Edited January 16, 2011 by coachh17

[THE KING]

Coach, I always respect your rankings. You are pretty spot on, however Cloudland is right there with the Lady Devils and dogs. Don't be surprised if they split with NG or Hampton.

[etownsparky]

Coach, I always respect your rankings. You are pretty spot on, however Cloudland is right there with the Lady Devils and dogs. Don't be surprised if they split with NG or Hampton.

Barring more weather related cancellations, the Lady Highlanders have a chance to move up the list over the next couple of weeks. The games at Hampton, SG and Unicoi will certainly boost their strength of schedule. Although the Lady Landers have a shot in all three, I think their best chance for victory is at Unicoi as the Lady Devils are not playing that well right now. However, the odds of beating these 3 teams in Roan Mountain when the Lady Landers get a chance to host are much improved. Good luck to all for the remainder of the season (unless you are playing the Lady Cyclones - LOL).

[etownsparky]

It was nice to finally see some games played with a break in the weather. Most of our teams had to shake off the ice after long layoffs, but the gyms got them heated up quick! There was a little movement this week in the rankings. Congratulations to Elizabethton for obtaining the first state #1 ranking in recent memory for our seven teams. Most teams will be playing three and four games a week now due to make-ups. I hope we can stay injury free.

 

1.Elizabethton(16-0)- Beat Unicoi Co. by 22 at Unicoi. Have passed every test so far. Will get another Monday night at South Greene. Still would like to see more depth and bench development. Averaging 66 points per game and giving up 37.

 

2.Hampton(13-5)- Huge wins over North Greene and Unicoi Co. have earned them the #2 spot. Weddle is healthy. All three Duggers are playing well and Guinn is making more contributions. Host Cloudland Friday.

 

3.Unicoi Co.(10-4)- Lost at home to Elizabethton and at Hampton. Frustrations mounting. Edwards is carrying too much of the load and needs some teammates to step up and help her. Should get happy against Johnson Co., East, and North this week.

 

4.Cloudland(13-3)- Drilled Unaka and Providence Academy. Weather has caused them to play an extremely weak schedule. Cupcake city is over. Have 9 games left against N.Greene(1), Hampton(2), Unicoi Co.(2), Chuckey-Doak(2), and South Greene(2). We will see how good the Lady Landers really are in the coming weeks. I hope they make all those games up. At Hampton Friday.

 

5.Happy Valley(7-5)- Wish the fans would update the schedule on coacht. Beat Johnson County. Rebuilding process is still underway. A regional appearance should (99% likely) be an attainable goal this season. Host Elizabethton Friday.

 

6.Unaka(6-13)- Smoked by Cloudland. Looking like they will finish 4th in the District. Could still make regional semi-finals. Tough one at North Greene this Friday.

 

7.Johnson Co.(0-10)- Must give them credit for sticking with it and continuing to play as hard as they can. They have the heart. The talent and skill level will improve with work and time.

Congrats to the Lady Dawgs on a big win against Unicoi on Saturday night...

[coachh17]

Coach, I always respect your rankings. You are pretty spot on, however Cloudland is right there with the Lady Devils and dogs. Don't be surprised if they split with NG or Hampton.

King,

I do not disagree with you. Cloudland may very well win a bunch of those remaining games. I have not seen them since early in the season. I know they are very young and have probably improved over the course of the season. However, I also know that they have lost to the only three teams on the schedule that can play (South, Avery Co., and North Greene) and I do not think South and Avery Co. are great teams. The Lady Landers can make a believer out of me with their play on the court in the coming weeks. If they beat those teams ahead of them, I will gladly move them up the rankings and be the first in line for the blue and gold Highlander Kool Aide!

[THE KING]

They only lost by 4 to NG at their place. All I'm saying is Cloudland is not far behind the Lady Devils, huskies, and bulldogs. Your rankings are accurate. Highlander koolaide is pretty good too.

[coachh17]

The Lady Cyclones picked up another quality road win at South Greene tonight. They jumped on South Greene early and built a double digit lead by halftime. The lead got as large as 20 before South Greene made a late run and cut it to 9. The Lady Cyclones hit their free throws late and won 57-42. All four Cyclone seniors played pretty well. DeMoss and Norris also hit some big buckets inside. It was a very physical game and any win at South Greene is a good one. Go Cyclones!!!!!!!

[etownsparky]

The Lady Cyclones picked up another quality road win at South Greene tonight. They jumped on South Greene early and built a double digit lead by halftime. The lead got as large as 20 before South Greene made a late run and cut it to 9. The Lady Cyclones hit their free throws late and won 57-42. All four Cyclone seniors played pretty well. DeMoss and Norris also hit some big buckets inside. It was a very physical game and any win at South Greene is a good one. Go Cyclones!!!!!!!

I agree that any win at SG is a good one. The Lady Cyclones played well in spurts but had some lulls. However, I don't think the game was actually as close as the final score. The Lady Cyclones missed a lot of open shots that they have been knocking down. Also, the officiating in the second half was horrible. I conjectured that the SG AD (in jest of course) threatened to dock the officials pay at half-time because their whistles seemed to only work on one half of the court during the 2nd half (especially in the 3rd quarter). The foul count was 9 to 2 against EHS in the 3rd. I didn't disagree with most of the foul calls against EHS because they play aggressive defense, but anyone that knows SG knows that they are as rough as a cob and foul a lot too. If the Lady Cyclones committed 9 fouls during the 3rd, then SG committed many more than 2. The officials ignored constant hand checks, shoves in the back, etc. On one occasion, a single EHS player was fouled 3 consecutive times on 1 play with no whistle. They just about let it get out of hand and both teams are fortunate that no one was badly injured. The fouls did even somewhat in the 4th quarter, but only because SG had to foul to stop the clock late. BTW, I believe the varsity officials were from Sullivan County (so I'm not blaming Greene Co).

 

Note: On the other hand, the JV officials were obviously "home grown" and as bad as I've seen in a while. The foul ratio in both JV games was about 5 to 1 in SG's favor. One of the guys in particular might as well have been wearing maroon and gray. I don't know who they were, but they should be ashamed of that very poor and partial performance.

[NE15]

Sorry to say ETown, I have been to atleast the last half of each one of the JV games at SG and I have not seen those officials before. I got there in the last half of the boys game tonight and from what I seen the calling was horrible. But consistently horrible across the board. As for the varsity refs, I have only seen one of them before, so they had to be from another county for sure. The refing was horrible across the board. If you look back to the beginning of the game Sparky in the 1st period, EHS had like 2 fouls called for them and SG had 7. So there was no difference and not one sided as you are trying to pass on. When SG and EHS play, they come to play and they BOTH play a very physical game. There were not any blatant, mean spirited fouls committed. Both teams played agreessive, just Etown got the job done. Congratulations, until they meet again.

[etownsparky]

Sorry to say ETown, I have been to atleast the last half of each one of the JV games at SG and I have not seen those officials before. I got there in the last half of the boys game tonight and from what I seen the calling was horrible. But consistently horrible across the board. As for the varsity refs, I have only seen one of them before, so they had to be from another county for sure. The refing was horrible across the board. If you look back to the beginning of the game Sparky in the 1st period, EHS had like 2 fouls called for them and SG had 7. So there was no difference and not one sided as you are trying to pass on. When SG and EHS play, they come to play and they BOTH play a very physical game. There were not any blatant, mean spirited fouls committed. Both teams played agreessive, just Etown got the job done. Congratulations, until they meet again.

I agree in the first period EHS had the advantage in fouls, but they evened out by half-time (don't remember 1st half totals, but fouls were 7-6 at one point in the 2nd quarter I believe). SG appeared to be committing frustration fouls early. I wasn't implying that there were blatant or mean-spirited fouls, only rough play. If you notice, I said I didn't disagree with the fouls called against Betsy in the 3rd, but SG was playing just as aggressive and was only whistled for 2 fouls. If you watched the game and are objective, you have to admit there was something wrong with that scenario. Regardless of the numbers, the officials need to control the game and there was a time they failed to do so and almost let it get out of hand. That's never good because both teams are in jeopardy of getting someone injured when it could be avoided. SG is a quality team, but something is different from the teams over the last several years. Obviously they have a new coach and a lot of different players, but they seemed a little out of sync from the normal SG. They still have quality players so I don't think that's the issue. Regardless, good luck to SG as well til we meet again...

 

Have to agree to disagree about the JV officials. They were not only horrible, but biased. They were even worse in the girls' JV game.

[etownsparky]

What's going on in Unicoi? It's hard to believe they don't have enough players for a JV team this year. I heard yesterday that another key varsity player has quit and they are down to 8-9 players total in the program. How can that be for a school that has over 700 students? I know softball is king in Erwin, but there has to be another explanation. What's the deal?

[NE15]

Your right there Sparky. A little out of sync. They are alot out of sync. There is some issues there obviously with coaching. You do have some experiencein coaching on the bench but your head coach calling it all in the game is only going to be as good as what you use. If your only going to use what your have backing you in practice and then not use it in the game or use your middle school knowledge in the game then, your not going to succeed at this level. When was the last time you came to a game in the SG gym and saw so many open seats in the home side. Even the fan attendance is down and it certainly is not because of the weather. Weather has never stopped them in the past. Fans can't figure out what their doing on the other side and their not wasting their money to come and see the tradition drove in the ground. There is quality players and talent on the team that he is not pulling together. He is keeping it seperated or allowing it to be individualized on the court. It has to be worked for the same common goal as a team and not as in individual or stand alone game. As a team SG has only played 2 good games as a team this entire season. If they don't watch it, they will be in the same boat as Unicoi is. They too are having their own coaching issues...