Congrats to the SMC All Conference Team
- Thread starter MRC3
- Start date
Congratulations to all the young men on their achievements. I do feel though the Phillips boy from Andrews should have been on the list. One of the top scorers for the last two years and averaged 17.1 ppg this season 4th best in Conference this season
How does Robbinsville only get honorable mention? Is this correct? Every athlete is deserving on this list but I have to give a shout out to my boys who played their heart out and were only swept by Swain and Cherokee. I do believe if Day played all year he would be POY. However that is my 2 cents and Cottrell was definitely the heart and soul of Hayesville.
Congratulations to all on the list, all very deserving. This list is derived from coaches voting. The problem is if you want to add someone then you have to remove someone. Who would you take off? Remember it is difficult to determine who is the top 10, I am sure there could be several we could make an argument for. All in all, I feel it was a good squad selected.
Clark from Murphy should seriously consider going the prep school or JUCO/CC route. He has the size and upside to play scholarship college basketball. He's never solely focused on basketball and I think he could be a D2 level player if he solely focused on hoops, he improved massively this year.
Last edited:
I agree with mbdfan clark is a great player and going somewhere possibly taking a redshirt I could see clark definitely playing at a college level. Wildcat while a I agree with you that phillips is a solid player teams that only get two conference wins its hard to argue if they deserve any all conference spots. My thought is that most the players on the all conference list if you trade them for phillips andrews wins more than 2. He produced good scoring numbers but lots of those number came in garbage time of games they were losing.
He would need to add some weight and work on his jumper--basically what some time at a JUCO or prep school would allow--but I agree that with his size and mobility he could play at a Mars Hill/Lees-McRae down the line.
18 pts vs Rosman lost by 4
31 pts vs Hayesville won by 13. SMC Tourn
20 pts vs Cherokee lost by 22
39 pts vs Swain won by 1
21 pts vs Hayesville lost by 6
24 pts vs Murphy lost by 8
Actually his lowest performances came during blowout losses. Feel free to look his game stats up
Phillips is a very good player--unfortunate that voting happens before the conference tournament, as some of his best performances were in the tourney. On a related note, it'd be nice if the SMC would have an all-tournament team.
he has one good stat to his credit points per game but when you look at his shooting percentages they are very mediocre. 32% from 3, 43% on two point field goals and a shooting % overall of 37 just is not very good in fact some might say they would have been better off giving barton and ellis more shots both of whom had affective field goal percentages 7% higher than phillips.
He was the heart and soul of the team like Cottrell was to Hayesville. He had a lot of pressure being only 1 of 2 seniors Barton being the other. They were Times he tried to hard to make things happen when it wasn’t there which drove his percentage down but being such a young team you wanted the ball in his hand when it came down to the wire. I also wish more people were involved but the confidence was lacking in the younger players
I don't see how Cottrell is player of the year just by leading in ppg alone. I see 2 or 3 other names on that list I would have given it to other than him. Nothing against the kid personally he can shoot lights out if you let him but when our boys hold him to 13 and 18 in blowouts then Andrews takes them out of the conference tourney holding him to single digit scoring, I don't see that as POY play.
I disagree that POY was PPG alone--if you take Cottrell off that team, I don't know if they'd have won a single conference game, and instead they finished second. You also have to consider that two of the other frontrunners missed a lot of games this year.
Last edited:
Even taking into consideration that Day and Thomas both missed games, Mintz averaged almost a double and the Thomas brothers carried rosman to the conference championship game behind some awesome shooting from them both.
Interesting. First, the vote is before the conference tournament. Cottrell lead a team that had one returning varsity player to a 2nd place finish. Every night he faced every teams best defender, often faced box and 1, diamond and 1 and sometimes triangle and 2s with both on him. Did anyone else see defenses like this? No. Is Hayesville 2nd without him? Finally, college coaches must agree, I believe he is the only D-1 signee from the conference this year.
Very valid points about Cottrell and that is one reason I am not upset he received it. I think his D-1 offer is a little inflated and I think his name carried a lot of weight. I will not say he can't be successful in college or at D-1, I have just stated many times, I have seen several similar players just didn't have the connections like Cottrell. I do wish Wachacha or Price from R'ville had made it. Wachacha in my opinion boosted our offense and was important to many key victories. However the votes have been tallied and I can't in good conscience replace any kid who received all-conference.
I don't think being a D1 prospect should weigh on anyone's vote. Mintz isn't a D1 prospect in basketball because he's going to play D1 football. Regardless of only having played 15 games Deland Thomas is still the better overall player in my eyes. 2 years ago McMillan had better overall numbers except in rebounds than Zach Cottrell and still failed to make POY. Was that because he was D1 prospect too? I figured coaches voted on what they did during the season, not what they're going to do when they graduate
I disagree with you completely about Cottrells name being the reason he got offers. He had more than the western offer, he had an offer from app st as well, Harvard, and several other D1 schools, so him being a D1 player didnt have to do with his name he just made the choice to be close to home.
As well the most valuable player role is what it say the player that brings the most value. Cherokee without mintz same record, an argument can be made for Thomas but i still think their ceiling with him this year would have been 4th if he was healthy but hayesville without cottrell may not win a single conference game.
Like I've stated just before, "I have seen several similar players" in the SMC that can shoot and yet they do not get offers like the Cottrell did. I am not saying he isn't deserving of the offers but he has better connections than other kids. His family has deep roots in the college game and that helps. It is not a bad thing, IMO he is not an anomaly of athleticism, but a great shooter and ball player who was connected enough to get noticed. As Bravenation pointed out, Mcmillian was a terrific shooter/ball handler but he did not receive his offer until his senior year. The year before Cherokee had the Durant kid who was MVP of the Blue & White game, no D-1 offers. I also agree about the Thomas kid from Rosman, his size and ability to shoot make him an ideal prospect. It is hard to get noticed playing 1A ball but not impossible. I do not think anyone will take anything away from Cottrell and he has worked and earned his ability. My opinion was that he has better connections, no fault of the kid, he is still a great player.
I’m not sure if Cherokee dominates the way they did without him. He was a double double. 20 and 10. Cottrell Gainst Cherokee the last two years might have avg 12 with most coming from late game when Cherokee was up 40 or 50. I just don’t think a poy should have 5 conf loses and lose in first of smc tourney and 1 st round of playoffs . IMO
Ordinarily I would agree with you, but I think if you look at what Hayesville had this year, it says a lot about him that they even finished second. I think the voting reflected that, giving the third place teams three all-conference players, but only giving the second place team one--but with that being the POY. As far as them losing in the first round, he had 38 and they lost to a charter school by 6 with their second-best player out with an injury. If Mintz had gotten POY, I wouldn't have argued with it--great player who had a great season, but Cottrell also had a great year.
Did anyone lead their team in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals? Cottrell did. He was also their best defensive player. We have many talented players but I think Cottrell is the most well rounded. In all honesty I really don’t think anyone else could of done as well with his team.
Yes, he had multiple offers but fell in love with Coach Hunter and WCU in about 4th grade at a camp.
Once again the voting was before the postseason tournaments.
Yes, he had multiple offers but fell in love with Coach Hunter and WCU in about 4th grade at a camp.
Once again the voting was before the postseason tournaments.
Latest posts
-
My Breakdown of what 8 Classes Could be if they'd quit playing around
- Latest: bluedevil2022
-
-
-
-