Getting back to an earlier topic, after telling me about that Christmas Tournament I am now convinced that 1979 was the greatest year in the history of sports.

And TV- but we'll get to that at another time.

Anyway, you've given me another reason to hate the Arby's Classic.

What you describe to me about a local Christmas Tournament where smaller schools compete against SHHS seems a whole lot more intriguing than "YOU CAN SEE TERRY KIRBY PLAY BASKETBALL" or "THIS TEAM FROM ALASKA IS REALLY GOOD- WE PROMISE!"

By the way, Thornberry is on the Football Foundation.

Which is nice and he's a man of great respect. So, I'm sure, are the majority of the membership.

The problem is when you have Kim coming on here and saying "We have three members on our board with $35 million in their checking accounts" then I want to see some more results than what I'm seeing.

Their speaker this weekend was George Litton.

Now, if Todd Stansbury could bring in Bobby Crimins and Bobby Ross, if FAC could bring in Dan Reeves a few years ago, then I want to know why with over $100 million of potential revenue we aren't having someone along the lines of Emmitt Smith coming to reveal a blueprint of a football field and these three multi-millionaires coming forth saying "I will pledge this amount of money for this stadium to be built upon the reinstatement of ETSU football."

Keep poor-mouthing that little high school tournament in Bristol, meanwhile, the tournament director is now the A.D. at a school moving to D-2, and looking hard at adding football there, all the while COMPLETELY overhauling the athletic department at the college, and making a crap load of money on that little waste of time basketball tournament. A smaller tourney of Science Hill vs. Unaka is fine, but 6500 people aren't going to go and watch that, period.

The cocaine industry makes people rich, too.

Doesn't mean I want either the Arby's Classic or the evil white powder shoved up my nose.

The fact of the matter is it is a HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT!

ICKY!

As well as vastly overrated around here.

I could careless if it's underwater basketweaving. It makes money for Bristol, gives some of the local kids exposure to scouts when they come to watch the "marquee" names play. (Notice the marquee.) And after all that, where else can you go and get Doc to cook for you?

I would support underwater basket weaving.

"It makes money for the area!"

So did the Ludicris concert I'm sure- and I still don't want either one of them in any community.

NOTHING SAYS COW TOWN like a place that goes nuts over high school basketball.

And how nuts is Western PA over high school football?

High school football is an art form.

High School basketball is a celebration of losing our youth to thug culture and forcing gender statutes.

So a bunch of Stoney Creek white kids winning a state championship in basketball contributes to thuggery more than those same kids not playing it and knocking up teenage girls and smoking dope? Quit looking at just the NBA and people like Tim Smith.
For every A.I/Timmy, there's a Grant Hill, JJ Redick, Michael Jordan, Tayshaun Prince, Dwayne Wade, etc...
And putting it in perspective in East Tennessee/Southwest Virginia, with the exception of Science HIll, D-B and Va. High, it's essentially a bunch of middle/upper class white kids who can't jump that play to stay in shape for football/baseball. (SEE BRAD ROBBINS at Western)

And, Pitt, I will submit to you that high school basketball is an art form as well. HS football and HS basektball are one in the same. I look at some of the teams here in South Florida who are loaded with D1 talent but are not disciplined and poorly coached. Same with some HS basketball teams. However, a well coached HS basektball team, playing within a disciplined system is a great thing to watch. Being a HS hoops fan, nothing is more fun to watch than some of the top teams from Indiana and Kentucky. They are well-coached and could play with much more talented teams based upon the fact that they know how to play the game.

The Arby's Classicis well-known in basketball circles for being a very well-organized tournament that treats teams and fans very well. I wish he would quit inviting foreign teams. However, while not getting that year's national powers in the field, Burns does a great job of getting that are a year away. Hence, fans still get to see kids with great talent and potential.

ACK! COUGH! GASP!

Basketball!

Back and forth- Back and forth- Back and forth (yawn . . .)!

I go back to what Howard Cosell once said about the NBA-

"Two teams running back and forth across a court scoring at will . . .

It makes no sense!"

First off- JD LARUE- high school basketball players knock up a helluva lot more girls and smoke a helluva lot more dope than their non-playing counterparts.

Or, if they are women's basketball players, GET KNOCKED UP more than their non-playing counterparts.

The culture of the NBA trickles down to Stoney Creek, sad to say. I used to be around the Unicoi County program, remember?

You could not get farther away from, say, the inner city culture in America, in theory, than to be in Erwin.

Yet the players there were picking their numbers on NBA stars, wearing their shorts baggy, and generally waxing poetic for Tupac Shakur.

I used to be a great basketball fan. I used to be a Dr. J fan (that was a mistake), worshipped the 1983 N.C. State Wolfpack, played the sport as a youth.

Went to a college basketball camp.

Began to lose interest in the bouncy ball activity when they devoted a large part of the camp- in the middle of Central Pennsylvania- mind you (an area James Caraville once described as being the northern equivilent of Alabama)- to BREAK DANCING!!!!

You might not see it, but all I see the Arby's is a huge tournament where we glorify the future liquor store robbers of America.

And if that brings money into Bristol, and Bristol supports it, then it is Bristol's shame.

The same high school kids who play basektball and carry out the activities you mentioned above, also play football.

However, look at the stats and see that the percentage of high school athletes who are involed in teen pregnancies and juvenile crime is far lower than the general population.

Stoney Creek is in Carter County (Unaka High School). Those same kids are playing football and knocking up girls as well. Some of us weren't just jock sniffers back in the day, most of the guys I went to school with it didn't matter what they played, they have a kid now.
And as far as smoking dope goes, they all do it at the pro level, same as high school. So don't give me that crap about how JUST HS basketball players are thugs, that shows you went to a high school with no football to speak of, you have no idea how those kids really are.
And commenting on female athletes getting pregnant in high school, HA! Most in this area carry high GPA's, go to college and are successful. Women's athletics have traditionally been a 180 to the men's side at the high school level (atleast in this area) because of the whole "you should be and act like a southern lady" thing.

This country romanticism is clearly transparent.

The difference between football and basketball players is that a football player is much more disciplined. The sport is almost militaristic- demands discipline- from the pain the players suffer to the practice methods.

And every position has a clearly defined role on the team. Tackles don't throw passes. Defensive linemen don't cover passes- etc.

Compare that to basketball, where, say, Tim Smith showed on a daily basis the team was nothing to his game- and was largely praised for it for the majority of his career.

Discipline is out- free-styling is encouraged.

High school, pro, or college- it doesn't matter.

Then why isn't Rhys playing for a Florida school? He was one of the most highly recruited golfers in the world when he came to the states, and he brought his friends with him.
If conferences mattered as much as you say in golf and baseball, then none of the Knoxville recruits that Coach Skole had on his team would have came to ETSU three years ago, they would have all gone to a Florida school, right?

Where did that question come from?

If you're a recruit in any sport, you want to play on the highest possible level.

In baseball, the Atlantic Sun is perceived, with its Florida schools, as a better conference than the So Con is.

Hence, just as the SEC will attract, generally, a better football player than Conference USA will, the A-Sun will attract a better baseball player.

Kim told me at the time of the conference change that Tony Skole was estatic about the move- just as a football coach going from the Southern Conference to the ACC would be.

As for Rhys Davis, maybe you know something that I don't, but he's the only player on the roster from Wales and the only junior, so I'm curious how he brought his friends with him.

Furthermore, could not his recruitment be attributed to the idea that by playing in the A-Sun, he'd be playing more in warm weather climes than he would if ETSU stayed in the Southern?

You're under the false assumption that Paul Stanton has signed off on bringing back football and will snap his fingers and $100 million will fall out of the sky for a new football program and such.

He has said "I'll think about it" instead of a flat out "no."

And there are a lot of people who will try to convince him to continue to say "no"- Warren and Skole included.

As for me, I can't wait. This skirmish has the potential to be far more entertaining than anything that will ever happen on a court or field at ETSU.

What does him being the only player from Wales have to do with anything? All 5 of the current members of the Golf team are from the British Isles. They all competed both againist and with each other several times in tournaments over there..
For Example Davies, McNamara and Shaw all played with each other on the 2003 Great Britain & Ireland Boys Team. McNamara and Findlay played on the 2004 team together. These guys knew each other before ETSU and I am sure that helped in the recruiting.

Rod

Speaking of golfers you think these two have met? Duh Pitt...Please note Kearney reasons for coming to ETSU..
Also ETSU is already being ranked 8th in the preseason for next year by Golf Digest.

Quote:JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Nov. 10, 2005) ? ETSU men?s golf coach Fred Warren announced Thursday that Niall Kearney has signed a National Letter of Intent to play for the Buccaneers beginning with the 2006-07 season.
Kearney, a native of Dublin, Ireland, won the 2005 Irish Boys Championship and was selected as the Irish Boys Player of the Year. Kearney will be the fourth Irish Boys Player of the Year to attend ETSU, joining Bucs such as former standout Keith Nolan
and current player Cian McNamara on that unique list. An avid rugby player as well, Kearney cited ETSU?s winning tradition and reputation in the college golf world as the reasons for his choice to come to Johnson City.

Quote:ETSU men?s golf coach Fred Warren announced Friday that Seamus Power has signed a National Letter of Intent to play for the Buccaneers beginning with the 2006-07 season. Power becomes the second Irish player this week to sign with the Bucs, joining fellow countryman Niall Kearney, who signed his NLI on Thursday.
Power, a native of Waterford, Ireland, was the 2005 Irish Youth Champion and finished fourth in the 2005 Irish Amateur. He also played in this season?s Irish Open, a European PGA Tour event.

Quote:8. East Tennessee State (NCAA finish: Missed Cut)
Not surprising that on a roster that has no Americans in its starting five, the two top recruits are a pair of Irishmen in Niall Kearney and Seamus Power. The duo joins a roster that returns all its starters and is anchored by one of the college game?s top players in Rhys Davies. The Welshman wants to play on a second GB&I Walker Cup team next year, and thus will stay for his senior season, and be a national player of the year candidate for coach Fred Warren

.