It's time to talk hoops baby...

Today is the official beginning of another great Basketball season, the first day of tryouts. I figured now would as good a time as ever to be talking hoops. Over the next few weeks, we'll all make our predictions on who should be the favorites to make a run at a State Championship.

No real rules changes that I know of have been made going into this upcoming season. But one thing that has changed is a Western Region Tradition. As you know, back in the spring, the NCHSAA voted to move the West Regionals in Basketball from the Hickory Area (Hickory High, Lenoir-Rhyne, CVCC, East Burke HS) to the Winston-Salem area (Lawrence Joel & Annex facility). I for one will miss the atmosphere that Hickory High and Lenoir-Rhyne brought to the Regionals. There's no way that LJVM will match the mystique that Hickory brought to the West Regionals.

Anybody else ready for some hoops? Let me hear ya!!!

 

somehow I knew you would get this thread started.....

 

i was seating on my hands waiting on him to get it going.............
WSalem will not match the atmosphere in Hickory but another nchsaa decision we have to deal with!

Good luck bb teams with tryouts and madness!!

 

lol...


If my memory serves right, this is the first full Basketball season for these message boards. I know on the football boards we have a lot of people who represent most of the schools in the Charlotte coverage area, but there are also quite a few from Asheville westward, and quite a few from the Triad and farther east. Hopefully the hoops boards will be as active as football is.

 

lets start making some predictions for the conferences around here

heres mine for the nw4a

1t.Freedom-returns 5 players who started last year and has 2 of the best players in the state in Leah Barrier and Tara Tate.Look for some great things out of them.Ive seen this team work out and they look like a whole different team than last year.Coach loftin is really exicted about this team.Also Watch for Alissa Scruggs and Whitney Cline to make some noise as well
1t.Mcdowell-Returns 3 starters including nw4a player of the year Anna Atkinson.Along with Freedom should be on of the top picks to win the nw4a and contend in the state playoffs.Post play may be what they need to work on.
3.Ac reynolds-Returns almost their whole team as well,could be a sleeper team this and surprise some people.
4.East Burke-Helton is back,and they could be successful,Coach Jay murray has been known to bring out the best in them.
5.South Caldwell-not sure what they have,not having barrett could hurt them,its a shame a great player has had the problems with her knees like that,shows how fournate we are to have Tara.
6.Alexander Central-not sure what they got back.
7.Watauga-New coach,not sure what they have

Players to watch
Tara Tate-Freedom
Leah Barrier-Freedom
Anna atkinson-mcdowell
asheigh Helton-East Burke
Oak-dont know first name-reynolds
heather Pricthard-SC
Emily Lovick-mcdowell

btw Big dan
I will miss going to Hickory for the regionals but if we make it that far and have to go winston-salem to make it to the state title game its fine with me, and im sure u will feel the same way if mcdowell makes it that far.In case u didnt know the 4a state championship games are in raleigh this year.

 

i think the bb board will rock this winter and we hope you will invite other supporters of girls basketball to join in on our discussion and sharing of results. Lets make the first year of TBR Basketball Forum a benchmark for all the other forums.......softball forum surely rocked last spring and summer, thanks to alot of great fans of WNC and the charlotte area.

 

Look to see Mcdowell and Freedom battle for the top spot. From there back it is a toss up. SC probablly has the most talent of the 3-7 place groups but absolutley no post players. I don't see Alexander or Watagua scaring anyone except each other.

 

For any early prediction, I'm gonna go with McDowell right now, but the lack of strong post play for McDowell may make things much closer than last year. Freedom should be very good again, with Tate and Barrier leading the way, but they need someone to really step up inside. That was their weakness last year and could be again this year. Reynolds will also be very tough. Coach Art Snead did a very good job in taking those girls all the way to the Conference Championship game and into the playoffs. He is one of the better young coaches out there. They lost Stone, and Oak (I think?) to graduation, but they should still be competitive.

The rest of the conference, IMO, is in question. South Caldwell returns most of their players from last season, but quite frankly, they just don't impress me. They're athletic bunch of kids, but no real height on the floor, and they are inconsistant on offense. East Burke is another team that I wonder about. Ashleigh Helton returns, but I'm afraid they're gonna be WAY TOO DEPENDENT on her putting up big numbers. As you know, Helton is known to take a lot of shots.

Right now, I don't wanna make official predictions until after the first scrimmages. Then we will all have a good feeling on who's gonna be key to their teams success.

 

it's time to talk hoops baby

Southern Foothills 1A will be more competitive this year. Hendersonville returns all their starters, Maiden will be strong, Polk County returns all starters, but Cherryville will be hard to deal with. They lost Abby Owens but returns 11 players from last years team. Ebony Johnson will be a force to contend with in the middle also their speed and ball control will be faster and better.

 

welcome aboard xpert_88. We don't get to hear much about the smaller classifications, good to see someone keeping track of the smaller schools. BTW, which school are you affialiated with or keep most track of?