Vandy Wins. Explanation for no hilights…

So Vandy picks ups a huge win on the road, it is our lead sports story. We are ready for action……..Except the USC folks didn’t feed us one second of video from the game. Back up plan………. Call the Columbia ABC at 9:50pm. The only way they can feed is to drive the tape 15 minutes to their uplink. They can’t because a 30 minute round trip means they miss their sportscast and get fired.

I’m a little hot right now. It is standard protocol for all SEC schools to send post game feeds. The satellite time was purchased but somebody at USC never delivered the tape. I hope they are OK. I am sorry we could not bring you hilites.

High School and College Scores…

Tennessee High School Girls Playoffs

Brentwood 51
Antioch 49

David Lipscomb 48
Marshall County 35

Forrest 58
Middle Tennessee Christian 23

Clarkrange 38
Jackson County 28

McNairy Central 69
Liberty 68

Collinwood 67
Moore County 44

Wilson Central 73
Northeast 66

Knox Webb 53
Pope John Paul II 38

Riverdale 54
Shelbyville 46

Upperman 54
Livingston Academy 37

NCAA Women

LeMoyne-Owen 65
Clark Atlanta 50

Martin Methodist 65
Freed-Hardeman 61

Union, Tenn. 113
Blue Mountain 59

Trevecca Nazarene 65
Bethel 59

True Student-Athlete…..MTSU’s Chrissy Givens.

One of the best stories in Middle Tennessee this year has been the continued dominance of the MTSU women. We ran a story Tuesday about Chrissy Givens earning Sun Belt player of the year, and defensive player of the year along with 1st team honors. What I didn’t tell you in the story was that she graduated in 3 years and is working on her Masters.

You would be hard pressed to find any other college student-athlete, with all her awards, who is so strong academically. Name me another with her individual and team success?

3 years to graduate!! I went to Indiana University and it took me 4 1/2 years to graduate. The only thing I did with my free time was have fun. I didn’t have to worry about practice and travel (except intramural basketball and football-and we never practiced, just played once or twice a week). Now I’m not a rocket scientist, but I’m also not a bump on a log. I can’t imagine how much stress it would have taken for me to even think about graduating in 3 years.

Chrissy Givens is in a league of her own and she deserves a standing ovation for what she has accomplished in Murfreesboro. If you need a good role model for your kids, just point to Chrissy Givens. I will sure tell my kids about her some day.

Vols thump Florida. Huge win for NCAA seeding.

Tennessee took Florida to the woodshed Tuesday night 86-76 the final. Heading into the game the Vols were probably an 8 or 9 seed in the NCAA which is usually a kiss of death. If you make it out of the first game you get the #1 seed in the 2nd round.

But tonight’s win should propel them to at least a 7 seed regardless of what they do at Georgia or the SEC Tournament. If they can win at least one more they should move up to a 6, maybe even a 5 seed if they really get hot.

What do you think? Are the Vols a solid 6 seed in the NCAA? I have no doubt they are.

Area Scores From High School To College

High School Hoops Region Semi-Finals (Boys)

Whites Creek 61 Antioch 58
Moore County 56 Summertown 48

Culleoka 70 Collinwood 63
Mt. Juliet 57 Wilson Central 41

Giles County 47 CPA 41
East Literature 58 Nashville Christian 37

Eagleville 30 Forrest 29
Pearl-Cohn 65 M.L. King 60

Pickett County 42 Jackson County 38
White House 51 Smith County 40

Clarksville 43 LaVergne 36
Station Camp 62 Livington Academy 52

Franklin 78 McGavock 75
White County 53 Riverdale 44

Friendship 49 Trousdale Co. 32
Oakland 44 Shelbyville 67

College Games
==================
SEC
4) Florida 76
Tennessee 86

OVC Men’s Tourney
TSU 85 Austin Peay 89 Final-OT
Tennessee Tech 88 SEMO 60

OVC Women’s Tourney
Tennessee Tech 60 Samford 63
Austin Peay 54 SEMO 58

SEC WOMEN POSTSEASON AWARDS…

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Southeastern Conference announced its 2007 women’s basketball postseason awards Tuesday, highlighted by Tennessee’s Candace Parker being named Player of the Year and Georgia’s Ashley Houts being named Freshman of the Year. First-team and second-team All-SEC honorees, All-Freshman team, along with Player, Coach and Freshman, Defensive Player, 6th Woman and Scholar-Athlete of the Year were chosen by the league’s 12 coaches.

Parker, along with Georgia’s Tasha Humphrey, LSU’s Sylvia Fowles, Ole Miss’ Armintie Price and Vanderbilt’s Carla Thomas were unanimous first-team members. Rounding out the first-team were DeWanna Bonner of Auburn, Tennessee’s Alexis Hornbuckle and Vanderbilt’s Dee Davis.

Price was also named Defensive Player of the Year, while Georgia’s Christy Marshall and Vanderbilt’s Liz Sherwood were both named 6th Woman of the Year. While Arkansas’ Sarah Pfeifer was named the SEC Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, in her 33rd season as head coach of the Lady Vols was named SEC Coach of the Year. This season Tennessee finished the regular season with a 27-2 overall record and the #1 seed of the tournament after going 14-0 in conference play.

The 2007 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament begins Thursday, March 1 and runs through Sunday, March 4 in Duluth, Ga. SEC’s regional sports network (FSN South, FSN Southwest and Sun Sports) will televise all games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday while ESPN2 will broadcast the championship game at 6 p.m. ET.

The complete 2007 SEC Women’s Basketball Postseason Awards follow.

First Team All-SEC
DeWanna Bonner, Auburn
Tasha Humphrey, Georgia*
Sylvia Fowles, LSU*
Armintie Price, Ole Miss*
Alexis Hornbuckle, Tennessee
Candace Parker, Tennessee*
Dee Davis, Vanderbilt
Carla Thomas, Vanderbilt*

Second Team All-SEC
Lauren Ervin, Arkansas
Marshae Dotson, Florida
Cori Chambers, Georgia
Sarah Elliott, Kentucky
Samantha Mahoney, Kentucky
Quianna Chaney, LSU
Sidney Spencer, Tennessee
Caroline Williams, Vanderbilt

All-Freshman Team
Donica Cosby, Arkansas*
Jordan Greenleaf, Auburn
Ashley Houts, Georgia
Christy Marshall, Georgia
Angel Robinson, Georgia
Allison Hightower, LSU
Alliesha Easley, Ole Miss
Alexis Rack, Mississippi State*

Coach of the Year
Pat Summitt, Tennessee

Player of the Year
Candace Parker, Tennessee

Freshman of the Year
Ashley Houts, Georgia

Defensive Player of the Year
Armintie Price, Ole Miss

6th Woman of the Year
Christy Marshall, Georgia
Liz Sherwood, Vanderbilt

Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Sarah Pfeifer, Arkansas

…………….Refreshing……..

I get tired of people saying when we cover high school sports, ’so what, who cares?’ That really drives me nuts sometimes. Because I will tell you who cares, parents, students, kids, grandparents, relatives, etc.

We all care.

Monday night, went to Ravenwood High School, which was hosting the Region 6-AAA semi’s, girls. The teams that were there, Antioch, Brentwood, Franklin, and Hillsboro. The gym was packed, we had 2 really good games and the atmosphere was very electric.

A couple of months go, the Tennessean did an area sports survey about who likes this, who hates that, etc. One of the writers for the paper said that no one cares about high school athletics, except Grandparents.

Seriously, how could one be so obtuse? Really? Try going to any gym in February and March on the high school level and tell me that only Grandparents are there? Brentwood and Franklin had a ton of students there last night. So did Antioch and Hillsboro.

Or Friday night football in Gallatin, or Lincoln County, Giles County, Marshall County, etc. Just because one or two people say ’so what,’ there are a ton more who are saying, ‘We Care.’

HIGH SCHOOL PLAYOFFS MONDAY….

Seasons continued and seasons ended Monday in the girls high school playoffs. Brentwood, Antioch, Clarksville NE, and Wilson Central all advance to the Regional Finals. They are one win away from the state finals.

Brentwood 42
Franklin 37

Antioch 44
Hillsboro 39

Wilson Central 67
Dickson County 34

Mount Juliet 46
Clarksville NE 55

Summitt returning favor…Pearl knows but isn’t telling.

I can’t wair for this. Pat Summitt will return the favor to the Vols men’s team Tuesday when they host Florida. Bruce Pearl painted his upper body orange for the Lady Vols when they hosted top ranked Duke last month.

By ELIZABETH A. DAVIS
AP Sports Writer
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Now it’s Pat Summitt’s turn.
Tennessee men’s coach Bruce Pearl painted himself orange and
cheered in the student section for the women’s game against No. 1
Duke on Jan. 22. Pictures and video of Pearl were very popular
online and on highlight reels for several days afterward.
Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt said then she was planning a similar
gesture for a men’s game, and now her time has come.
Summitt and her staff are planning a special appearance during
Tennessee’s game Tuesday night against No. 5 Florida.
Summitt didn’t want to say exactly what she is doing, but she’s
dropped hints by mentioning her days as a cheerleader in seventh
and eighth grade.
“I might come back and perform with my staff,” she said
Monday.
Pearl is in on the secret.
“I know what Pat is doing, but I’m not at liberty to say,” he
said. “I think (fans) are going to love it, and I think America is
going to see a side of Pat Summitt that they haven’t seen in a long
time.”
Summitt noted the appearance will be “a little out of
character, a lot out of character actually.”
Summitt, 54, is known for working players hard in practice and
her icy stare on the sidelines during games. She’s also the
winningest coach in NCAA basketball history - men or women - with
940 victories.
“I think people see me as being really serious, and I’ve just
always been a kind of person that likes to have fun and do things
like I’m going to do tomorrow night. But I usually don’t do it on
camera in front of the whole country,” she said. “I figured, why
not?”
Pearl had promised on a joint radio show with Summitt that he
would do his stunt.
Before the Lady Vols game, Pearl stood in front of the student
section with four players and a manager to spell out “GO VOLS” on
their chests.
“It’s all for Bruce. The fact that he and his guys painted
their chests. He made that statement and generated a lot of
excitement to the community and obviously brought a lot of exposure
to the university and I respect Bruce,” Summitt said. “From the
time he’s been here, he’s been nothing but supportive of the
women’s program.”
Summitt said she was surprised at some of the criticism Pearl
got within the coaching ranks.
“You stop and wonder what kind of relationship do they have
with their women’s basketball coach?” she said. “Because here
there is a mutual respect and friendship. We give and take on
facility requests. He comes to our games. I go to his games.”

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Tourney Time!

It is college basketball tournament time around the country. Middle Tennessee is loaded with action beginning Tuesday when Austin Peay tips off the OVC at home as the #1 seed.

Belmont and Lipscomb head the Johnson City to begin A-Sun play Thursday. Joe and Brandon just headed out the door to talk with both teams before they leave town. We’ll have that for you tonight and Tuesday.

The Vandy women tip off SEC Tournament play later this week. The men get to work next week in Atlanta.

The Belmont and Lipscomb Women play in the A-Sun tournament next week in Dothan, Alabama.

How many Tournament Champions will we see in March?

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