Thursday, March 6, 2008
Game One: Greenwood 46 - Franklin-Simpson 31
Franklin-Simpson played Thursday's first round game with Greenwood with all the control of a Molly Hatchet song. Those wild-eyed Southern rockers always seemed to be out-of-control and sort of...well..."Flirtin With Disaster." High energy. Raw. If I was going to put a soundtrack with their game, I'd choose that song. I guess by the end of the game, I'd have to throw in Hatchet's song "Gator Country" or even "Dreams I'll Never See."
A little side note: A friend's mother was a professional singer and did vocals for commercials and radio promotions. She was in a recording session down the hall from Molly Hatchet when the band erupted into a drunken fracas that spilled out into the hallways of the recording label's offices.
The Wildcats played out-of-control for the entire game against the Gators. Both teams played tight defense in the first quarter, and Greenwood emerged with a narrow 10-7 lead. Greenwood scored 10 more points in the second quarter while holding Franklin-Simpson to just five points. The Wildcats shot 23.5% in the first half, making 4 of 17 field goals. They had 13 first half turnovers, but Greenwood had 11. The Wildcats were lucky to be down only eight, 20-12 at halftime. Cedrick Adams led Franklin-Simpson in scoring with three points. Dee Anderson led the Gators with five points.
The turnover bug continued to plague the Wildcats in the third quarter when they coughed the ball up six more times. Greenwood only had two turnovers in the third. Even though Franklin-Simpson couldn't control the ball, they outscored Greenwood in the third quarter by one point, 11-10. The Gators put 10 points on the board in the three quarters of play and held a 30-23 lead.
Greenwood controlled the fourth quarter and made Franklin-Simpson look bad. They forced the Wildcats to commit seven more turnovers, which made 26 for the entire game.
At the very start of the season, I explained to Pick and Roll readers that Southern women will not say that a baby is ugly. They cannot lie, either. When they see an ugly baby they say, "Bless its little heart." That's what the women down in Franklin would say about this "baby" tonight. It was ugly. It was mud fence ugly for the Wildcats.
Greenwood advances with a 46-31 win over Franklin-Simpson.
Rayco Bryant had 17 points and nine rebounds for Franklin-Simpson, while the next highest scorers were Courtney Dalcourt and Cedrick Adams with only three a piece. For Greenwood, J.J. Smith was the Player of the Game, and he scored 11 points while making some big plays down the stretch. Austin Reed and Mark Lacy each added seven points for the Gators.
Game Two: Barren County 60 - Metcalfe County 45
I finally got to see Trey Shirley play. I saw Metcalfe County play at Warren East on January 12th, which was a couple of days after Shirley was hospitalized with a serious illness. It was good to see him back out on the court, and he scored 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds before fouling out of Thursday's contest. He's a solid ballplayer.
Barren County and Metcalfe County are natural and intense rivals. They flat out do not like each other. When Metcalfe County came out of the locker room for pre-game warm ups, the Barren County players did not move out of their way. The players brushed shoulders and there were no friendly words exchanged between them.
The Trojans took control of this game early. They took an early lead and never looked back.
Metcalfe County played a 2-3 zone, and Trey Shirley patrolled the baseline of the zone. Whenever Blake Crabtree got the ball on the low wing, Shirley would yell at him, "Shoot it! Shoot it! Shoot it!" I guess he finally got under Crabtree's skin because he let one fly that bounced off the rim and backboard into Shirley's hands.
I've written about this before, but I can remember when players talked to one another all the time. There's hardly a word spoken on the court anymore. Players don't even yell at teammates when they're open.
Barren County's Lee Hubbard is a heck of a basketball player. He's one of those guys that I'd make sure I had on my team if I were choosing up sides. He can shoot from anywhere, and he is muscular and knows how to use his strength to get to the basket. He's also a good defender. He scored 21 points against the Hornets and grabbed nine rebounds. He also had four steals and two assists. I don't know if any colleges are recruiting him, and I don't really care. There are some guys who are great in high school but can't make the transition to the college game. Lee Hubbard is consistently the best player in the Fourth Region.
Will Warf led the Hornets in scoring with 16 points. Outside of Warf and Shirley, Metcalfe County didn't have many scoring threats.
Barren County, on the other hand, is a solid basketball team. They are solid at every position and have good, experienced guards. Matt Riley has a great sense of the game and is good at breaking down any kind of pressure. The Trojans have all the tools needed to advance to the final, win the region, and truck up the highway to Rupp Arena. They have to get past those pesky big lizards from Scottsville Road in Bowling Green, though. They play Greenwood on Monday night.
At the end of the game, when both coaches cleared their benches, we had a scary incident in the game. Ben Hubbard, Lee's younger brother, got a break away layup, but somehow got upended when Metcalfe's Russell Kindred blocked his shot. He hit his head on the court. I didn't really see what happened because it was on the opposite end of the court from where I was sitting.
I followed the action back up the court, but noticed that Hubbard was staggering around out on the court. He weaved around and came over and leaned against the press table, near where I was sitting. His eyes were dancing. The poor guy was knocked silly. Coach Steve Riley came over and retrieved the young man.
I guess he was alright. It's been a long time since I've seen someone knocked silly.
OBSERVATIONS
Funny Diddle Memory: When I was a student at Western, the men's restroom had round metal sinks in the middle of the room. Someone who needed to wash their hands stepped on a metal bar, which turned on the water. I never witnessed it myself, but I've heard stories about men stepping up to the sink thinking it was a urinal. My brother's best friend did that when they were students at Western in the 1970s. The guy was valedictorian of Trinity High School. Those old sinks are gone and replaced with less confusing ones.
Bowling Green Traffic: This has nothing to do with the ballgames, except that it nearly made me late for the first game. The traffic signal at Russellville Road and Campbell Lane was on the fritz when I was on my way to the ballgame. Oh my! Someone needed to announce, "assume crash positions" like they do when airliners are about to crash. My little boy has a figure-8 race track on which he tries to get the cars to hit each other. The intersection in Bowling Green was reminiscent of his little race track.
Wildcats Caged: The Franklin-Simpson basketball team refused to leave their locker room after the game. I don't know what was going on, but they were in there forever.
Trash Talking Refs: The officials for the tournament are from the Third Region. I'm surprised they can officiate games without Steve Sparks telling them what to call (just joking). I sat next to the three officials from Thursday's first game during the nightcap. One of them yelled at a colleague officiating the game, "get your head in the game." It became a big joke between them.
Tennis Shoes and Pink Ribbons: All Fourth Region coaches are wearing pink ribbons and tennis shoes to raise awareness of breast cancer. It is a tribute to Greenwood Coach Blane Embry's wife, who was recently diagnosed with the disease.
Don't Tell The ACLU: After Barren County's game, Lee Hubbard led the players, coaches, and cheerleaders of both teams in a word of prayer. The entire arena was quiet, and it was touching to see rival players kneeling and praying together. The Franklin-Simpson and Greenwood squads did the same thing after their game.
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