Dobyns-Bennett 2022-2023 Early Outlook

[TribalEmpire]

I have the schedule in hand and once again it's a doozy.  Some highlights:

• We play Hampton in the season opener on Tuesday, November 15 at John Sevier Middle
• We play Tennessee High and Clinton in back to back games at Viking Hall on Thursday, November 17
• We play three games in the Florida Panhandle Thanksgiving week (November 21 at Destin, 22 at South Walton, 23 at A. Crawford Mosley)
• We play Karns away on Friday, December 2
• We play in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in Asheville on December 9-10 against North Guilford (NC) 12/9 and A. C. Reynolds (NC) on 12/10
• We play Greeneville away on December 13 and home on January 27
• We host the Alpha Invitational once again on December 20-22 (not sure who else is in the tournament)
• We play in the Arby's Classic from December 26-30 (see Arby's Classic thread for teams)

With the Buck Van Huss Dome shut down for the forseeable future, all of our home games this season with the exception of the season opener against Hampton will be played at the old Sullivan North high school gymnasium.

Early topics of interest:

• The obvious one, can the Tribe repeat as 4A champs?  Lost some key players from last year's team in Hale and Metz and important 6th man Tincher.  Have a good nucleus back however also in Stump, Gillespie, Browder.  Hearing Day has improved tremendously in the offseason as well.
• What impact will Dante Oliver have?  A lot of the talk going around in the offseason is the transfer of Dante Oliver to Kingsport.  Oliver is the son of East Tennessee State basketball coach Desmond Oliver and has been receiving much hype from folks I have spoken with.
• How will the Tribe adapt to playing in a new locale?  As mentioned the Dome is out of business for the forseeable future.  How will the boys adapt to playing in a different setting than they're accustomed to?  North's gym is not small, but it's not as wide open as the Dome either.  Just something about the dome seemed to bring out the shooters on our team, namely Gillespie.

Either way, can't wait for the boys to start defense of their state title from a season ago.  Should be another exciting season of hoops in Kingsport!

[WaCoJaCo]

On 9/28/2022 at 9:23 AM, TribalEmpire said:

I have the schedule in hand and once again it's a doozy.  Some highlights:

• We play Hampton in the season opener on Tuesday, November 15 at John Sevier Middle
• We play Tennessee High and Clinton in back to back games at Viking Hall on Thursday, November 17
• We play three games in the Florida Panhandle Thanksgiving week (November 21 at Destin, 22 at South Walton, 23 at A. Crawford Mosley)
• We play Karns away on Friday, December 2
• We play in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in Asheville on December 9-10 against North Guilford (NC) 12/9 and A. C. Reynolds (NC) on 12/10
• We play Greeneville away on December 13 and home on January 27
• We host the Alpha Invitational once again on December 20-22 (not sure who else is in the tournament)
• We play in the Arby's Classic from December 26-30 (see Arby's Classic thread for teams)

With the Buck Van Huss Dome shut down for the forseeable future, all of our home games this season with the exception of the season opener against Hampton will be played at the old Sullivan North high school gymnasium.

Early topics of interest:

• The obvious one, can the Tribe repeat as 4A champs?  Lost some key players from last year's team in Hale and Metz and important 6th man Tincher.  Have a good nucleus back however also in Stump, Gillespie, Browder.  Hearing Day has improved tremendously in the offseason as well.
• What impact will Dante Oliver have?  A lot of the talk going around in the offseason is the transfer of Dante Oliver to Kingsport.  Oliver is the son of East Tennessee State basketball coach Desmond Oliver and has been receiving much hype from folks I have spoken with.
• How will the Tribe adapt to playing in a new locale?  As mentioned the Dome is out of business for the forseeable future.  How will the boys adapt to playing in a different setting than they're accustomed to?  North's gym is not small, but it's not as wide open as the Dome either.  Just something about the dome seemed to bring out the shooters on our team, namely Gillespie.

Either way, can't wait for the boys to start defense of their state title from a season ago.  Should be another exciting season of hoops in Kingsport!

Just seen where Dante Oliver signed with ETSU today. 

[TribalEmpire]

12 hours ago, WaCoJaCo said:

Just seen where Dante Oliver signed with ETSU today. 

Yeah, I believe that was pretty well a given considering his dad is the coach.  Going to be interesting to see if he's the real deal.  Definitely getting a lot of hype for sure.  Guess we'll see on Tuesday, although Hampton won't be much of a test with the football players still playing.

[TribalEmpire]

Just noticed I had the OP incorrect as Browder has graduated as well and is now at Carson-Newman, so that's three starters off of last year's team.

[WaCoJaCo]

2 hours ago, TribalEmpire said:

Yeah, I believe that was pretty well a given considering his dad is the coach.  Going to be interesting to see if he's the real deal.  Definitely getting a lot of hype for sure.  Guess we'll see on Tuesday, although Hampton won't be much of a test with the football players still playing.

I suppose if your dad is a college head coach then you're probably gonna' be a smart player on the court. I guess that's the way it usually plays out. I figure he's got talent or the "school" is not gonna' waste a scholarship on him. I figure now that he is signed he will be more likely to be a team player because he doesn't have to "show out" to impress college scouts. But you're right, he still has to come out and play ball. 

[TribalEmpire]

Season opener last night for the Tribe and it was a struggle to say the least.  The Hampton Bulldogs came to play and almost left John Sevier Middle school with a big upset.  My thoughts:

• Not having Gillespie and Day in the lineup certainly hurt.  Not sure how long either is out for, though I heard Gillespie may be back Thursday against Tennessee High.
• Oliver is a good player, but didn't "wow" me last night.  I'm sure he'll have better nights and the Tribe will need them if they expect to challenge for any postseason glory.
• Thank goodness last night was the only time we'll see JSMS gym this season.  I've said it before, but our boys, namely Stumpy, shoot better in wide open spacious gyms.  Not these cracker box gyms.  Next "home" game isn't till the Alpha in a few weeks.  Hopefully the old North gym now known as the "Tribe Athletic Complex" will warm up our shooters.

[WaCoJaCo]

1 hour ago, TribalEmpire said:

Season opener last night for the Tribe and it was a struggle to say the least.  The Hampton Bulldogs came to play and almost left John Sevier Middle school with a big upset.  My thoughts:

• Not having Gillespie and Day in the lineup certainly hurt.  Not sure how long either is out for, though I heard Gillespie may be back Thursday against Tennessee High.
• Oliver is a good player, but didn't "wow" me last night.  I'm sure he'll have better nights and the Tribe will need them if they expect to challenge for any postseason glory.
• Thank goodness last night was the only time we'll see JSMS gym this season.  I've said it before, but our boys, namely Stumpy, shoot better in wide open spacious gyms.  Not these cracker box gyms.  Next "home" game isn't till the Alpha in a few weeks.  Hopefully the old North gym now known as the "Tribe Athletic Complex" will warm up our shooters.

Oliver had 47 points last night so was just wondering what it would take to "wow" you. Probably no shame in squeaking out a win over Hampton considering the situation. Hampton usually has a good team and their well-coached, DB was playing without two key players and Hampton was probably a little more comfortable playing in a small gym than DB was. Two players accounting for 70 of the 85 points is both concerning and impressive at the same time. 

[TribalEmpire]

1 hour ago, WaCoJaCo said:

Oliver had 47 points last night so was just wondering what it would take to "wow" you. Probably no shame in squeaking out a win over Hampton considering the situation. Hampton usually has a good team and their well-coached, DB was playing without two key players and Hampton was probably a little more comfortable playing in a small gym than DB was. Two players accounting for 70 of the 85 points is both concerning and impressive at the same time. 

47 points yes... but made a lot of mistakes as well.  Needs some polishing on the fundamentals.  Scoring points is nice, but it doesn't always win you games.

Poore is a good coach, he'll help Dante improve as the season goes along.

Edited November 16, 2022 by TribalEmpire

[gritsngravy]

Gillespie won’t be back until the games in Asheville probably.  Should have been dismissed from team from what I’m hearing. 

[WBNC83]

17 pt loss to TN High. Didn’t see that coming...

[TribalEmpire]

12 hours ago, gritsngravy said:

Gillespie won’t be back until the games in Asheville probably.  Should have been dismissed from team from what I’m hearing. 

I was told last night, he'll be out for the first game of the Florida swing next week but should be back after that.  And it was disciplinary reasons, not injury.  

6 hours ago, WBNC83 said:

17 pt loss to TN High. Didn’t see that coming...

Yeah, we're just not very good at all right now.  Gillespie coming back will help some but nowhere near the amount we need if we're even going to sniff the Glass House this year.  It's still early and got a long way to go, but that team that played last night wouldn't finish top 3 in the conference.

[WaCoJaCo]

Well that was a Suprise. I hear Tennessee High is just a little better than average so this might be a long basketball season. I wasn't even thinking we'd go back to the tournament this year but I figured we'd get close. Not gonna' happen.  But I was wrong once before.