Best Teams to Never Make it to State Tournament

[ccalum]

Region Tournament upsets always happen, and sometimes they claim a truly great team. Thinking back to some of the best teams never to make it to state, I would offer the 1992 Franklin County Rebelettes. They twice beat Shelbyville that year, but lost the district tournament final. This was their deathknell as they were drawn with White Co. in the region semis, who dispatched them. This team was top 5 in the nation for most of the year. Unfortunate for a program that has had very little luck over the years. 

[85warrior]

I remember those years. Seems like we(White County) played them a couple if times back when they had L. Davis and company. Of course we were top 25 in the country ourselves. 

[ccalum]

Latina Davis was a great basketball player. But White Co. was a beast of a team all throughout the 90's. The year my school won the state, all 3 losses we had were against those Warriorettes. Best teams never to have won a state title were some of those Sparta teams. 

[85warrior]

1 hour ago, ccalum said:

Latina Davis was a great basketball player. But White Co. was a beast of a team all throughout the 90's. The year my school won the state, all 3 losses we had were against those Warriorettes. Best teams never to have won a state title were some of those Sparta teams. 

Yep. We beat Coffee County by about 31 in the region finals and a week later Coffee won the State in a blizzard. Vivid, but bad memories that year. Ha

I was at all 3 games vs Coffee that year.

Edited February 27, 2019 by 85warrior

[FCmom]

Latina Davis was a great basketball player. But White Co. was a beast of a team all throughout the 90's. The year my school won the state, all 3 losses we had were against those Warriorettes. Best teams never to have won a state title were some of those Sparta teams. 

Yep. We beat Coffee County by about 31 in the region finals and a week later Coffee won the State in a blizzard. Vivid, but bad memories that year. Ha

I was at all 3 games vs Coffee that year.

Edited 9 hours ago by 85warrior

 

 

You have your years confused.  CC won the state in 1993 not 1992.  FC only played White County when regional play came around, it was only once that year.

[85warrior]

8 hours ago, FCmom said:

Latina Davis was a great basketball player. But White Co. was a beast of a team all throughout the 90's. The year my school won the state, all 3 losses we had were against those Warriorettes. Best teams never to have won a state title were some of those Sparta teams. 

Yep. We beat Coffee County by about 31 in the region finals and a week later Coffee won the State in a blizzard. Vivid, but bad memories that year. Ha

I was at all 3 games vs Coffee that year.

Edited 9 hours ago by 85warrior

 

 

You have your years confused.  CC won the state in 1993 not 1992.  FC only played White County when regional play came around, it was only once that year.

I believe we all knew Coffee won it in 93.

[ccalum]

I was at all 3 as well, incl the beat down in the region final. I tell you, we were ecstatic that Sparta had lost to Henry Co. We felt like we had it at that point, even though we had to beat a great Oak Ridge team in the final.

 

[85warrior]

48 minutes ago, ccalum said:

I was at all 3 as well, incl the beat down in the region final. I tell you, we were ecstatic that Sparta had lost to Henry Co. We felt like we had it at that point, even though we had to beat a great Oak Ridge team in the final.

 

Henry County will never know how good we were. We had Oak Ridge on our schedule that year too. They were ranked in USA today. We beat them by like 25.

[FCmom]

Latina graduated in 1992 and the way you said it (because the discussion was about her), made it sound like you were confusing your years.

There was no need for the snarky "I believe we all knew" smh

[GoBigOrange20]

1996 Gleason Lady Bulldogs (31-1). Two Miss Basketballs on that team (Kara Sanders was a Senior in 1996 and won the award (she was a finalist in 1995) and Ashley McElhiney was a freshman and would win the award in 1999 after being nominated in 1998), three strong post players, one of the best shooters in Gleason history, Alisha Lehmkuhl, on the wing. Ended the season with a 31-1 record after losing to Lake County in the region semifinals. A devastating loss and one that was very difficult to watch. Gleason had beaten Bradford by 10-15 each time they played (Bradford went on to win the 1996 state championship). 

That was one of the best class A teams ever assembled because they were so athletic, quick, could shoot and the press ran teams out of the gym. 

[EagleOldEyes]

On 2/28/2019 at 1:57 PM, FCmom said:

Latina graduated in 1992 and the way you said it (because the discussion was about her), made it sound like you were confusing your years.

There was no need for the snarky "I believe we all knew" smh

my FCHS Lady Rebels should of won that year and it still haunts me

[tradertwo]

On ‎2‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 3:47 PM, GoBigOrange20 said:

1996 Gleason Lady Bulldogs (31-1). Two Miss Basketballs on that team (Kara Sanders was a Senior in 1996 and won the award (she was a finalist in 1995) and Ashley McElhiney was a freshman and would win the award in 1999 after being nominated in 1998), three strong post players, one of the best shooters in Gleason history, Alisha Lehmkuhl, on the wing. Ended the season with a 31-1 record after losing to Lake County in the region semifinals. A devastating loss and one that was very difficult to watch. Gleason had beaten Bradford by 10-15 each time they played (Bradford went on to win the 1996 state championship). 

That was one of the best class A teams ever assembled because they were so athletic, quick, could shoot and the press ran teams out of the gym. 

I completely agree, and will add that all through the early nineties the loser of that storied rivalry in their region championship came to Scotts Hill, won close games, then went on to win state a remarkable amount of times. Gleason, Bradford, and Scotts Hill were definitely three of the top teams in those years.