Classless CPA

[CASC95]

Blackwell was off his game today, however, Haywood played a part for that today. The 8th grader is very good.

[bigchief]

The "8th grader" is 15 years old or will be soon. Like Blackwell, he will graduate at 19.

[uknoit2]

That's what I was thinking but wasn't positive. My boy is a junior and barely 16...Age in high school sports is HUGE

[Darkside20]

My take on the talent going to CPA. 1st I understand coaching & good academics will attract players & there is no rule broken when these kids choose to go that route. Ensworth is another private school that offers good coaching & academics. Now why would a family decide to go to CPA & not get financial aid when they could go to Ensworth & get a full ride legally. There is no logical reason to choose CPA unless there is money exchanged under the table. Teams like Haywood has this year is once every 10 years or so & I am glad they have their chance. The 2013 LA team was special like that & was the only team to give CPA a game that state tourn. Unfortunately, CPA had Lindsey, Blackwell, Bonds, Allsmiller (all aau transfers) & won by 12. These schools that are doing it the right way are being robbed of their opportunity (which may only come once every 10 years) & the CPA faithful are wondering why they have haters!

[GreenPap]

The debate is on about public vs. private. I think 'open enrollment', 'magnet' and 'private' should all have their own division separate from public. Greeneville, Austin East and Fulton aren't much different. 

[Darkside20]

The debate is on about public vs. private. I think 'open enrollment', 'magnet' and 'private' should all have their own division separate from public. Greeneville, Austin East and Fulton aren't much different.

Good point! The only way to even the playing field is to have public schools (zoned) as division 1 and magnet, open enrollment, & private schools as division 2. As it is Memphis aau programs can load up a team in each division (a, aa, aaa) & not break any rules. So it has to go further than a private/public split. We got to start somewhere tho!

[Darkside20]

The "8th grader" is 15 years old or will be soon. Like Blackwell, he will graduate at 19.

Kinda like Chris Jones a few years ago at Melrose. Couldn't play in Tn his senior year because he was too old. Now anyone saying age doesn't make a huge difference is a fool! The 8th grader already has an upperclassmen body. Wait & see if he doesn't grow anymore either!

[bjl1929]

My take on the talent going to CPA. 1st I understand coaching & good academics will attract players & there is no rule broken when these kids choose to go that route. Ensworth is another private school that offers good coaching & academics. Now why would a family decide to go to CPA & not get financial aid when they could go to Ensworth & get a full ride legally. There is no logical reason to choose CPA unless there is money exchanged under the table. Teams like Haywood has this year is once every 10 years or so & I am glad they have their chance. The 2013 LA team was special like that & was the only team to give CPA a game that state tourn. Unfortunately, CPA had Lindsey, Blackwell, Bonds, Allsmiller (all aau transfers) & won by 12. These schools that are doing it the right way are being robbed of their opportunity (which may only come once every 10 years) & the CPA faithful are wondering why they have haters!

You have hit the nail on the head! If you look at CPA in the last 4 years they have 2 gold balls and 2 semifinal losses. During the last 4 years there have been teams in their district who may have lost 4 games to them in district, district tournament, region tournament and also are faced with knowing that there will only be one team (besides CPA) coming out of their region instead of two. There are no telling how many players have not made an all-district team, all-district tournament team and all-region team- because it is always loaded with players from the AAU team (oops, I mean CPA). It is no wonder that there are so many haters out there. It is also no wonder that people are so happy to see them lose- it is all really sad and it is not good for Tennessee HS basketball.

[AlcoaBasketball]

The split debate will never end, whether or not it goes through.

[lazarus]

the solution is really simple.

classify teams according to the population from which they draw their student body,

not the school population. 

 

go by counties for open enrollment schools.

multiple counties for those who bring 'em in from all over

 

either that, or just get rid of classifications altogether, like Kentucky

and allow the small schools to have their own tournament....

admitting the schools who belong.

 

and I am glad to see that I am not the only one who has noticed that cpa is very good at blowing people out.....

but very mediocre when put into a competitive situation.

[ecu]

TSSAA needs to wake up and see that CPA is may be the only reason people want  a split. Privates don't want them and publics have to suffer the consequences of the TSSAA turning their head to the unethical behavior at best of this glorified AAU team.

[Tackle14]

How do they recruit? Not saying they don't just curious how they actually go about it.