Who thinks the conference in basketball is weak this year? I know Cherokee has dominated, but I don't see a 3rd round team no structure. Hayesville and Murphy up and down. I don't see them making it out of 1st round. To be honest I don't see many of us making playoffs under the new system so I'm not even going into rest of conference. It just feels like this year as a whole SMC is down.
SMC
- Thread starter TigerDen1
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It isn't great this year in boys. Talent goes in cycles at small schools. SMC was very strong 2-3 years ago, I'm not sure the league won't be even worse next year but it should be very strong again in about 2 years. I will disagree about Cherokee, though. It all depends on matchups, but they will have a bye then are more than capable of winning at least one home playoff game after that. Honestly I think they go past round three, but I'm wrong a lot. The thing to remember with any team that wins a football state title is that they peak a lot later in basketball than other teams.
Girls side isn't deep like the last few years, but the teams at the top should go far.
Girls side isn't deep like the last few years, but the teams at the top should go far.
LCS losses on the year are to #1 3A Cox Mill by 2 points on the road, #2 4A Independence down 3 going into the 4th and had an injury, #5 4A Butler in tournament actually had the lead with 2 mins and blew it, and #3 Private Carmel Christian and they led at half and blew it down the stretch. LCS is good....I have seen WSP play and they are really good too. Their 3 losses have come from some bigger schools and private school who are good as well......But I think MA, North Stanley, Cherokee, Bishop, North Rowan are all capable of playing with and maybe beating either team. 1A will be fun to watch this year. I don't like the 48 team format and I don't like the idea of smaller conferences with a couple of wins being able to make the tournament over a 4th place team in a better conference....it happens each year.....Good luck down the stretch to all teams.....
I do not like the 48 team setup. I think it’s ok for football but not basketball. Two years ago our Andrews Girls team was 4th in the Conference with a 10 - 12 record and went down to Lincoln Charter and beat a much higher ranked team by 16 after a 4 hour road trip. Two nights later we gave the lead away to East Wilkes with 40 seconds left in the game and they were higher ranked also and a 3 hour road trip. In 1A Basketball I feel you have a better chance on getting a upset win where you wouldn’t in football. Just my opinion
Agreed. The 48 teams in 1A makes sense for football because of the 20-30-30-20 system. But since they divide the classes based on football-playing schools then add in non-football schools, staying 48 teams in 1A basketball playoffs is unfair since the 1A class has so many more non-football schools. There are going to be some teams left out, especially from the Northwest on the boys side, that could have been dangerous.
Yeah I definitely agree, Cherokee fans seem to think they have one of the all time SMC boys teams this year but I don't see it. What I see is a real good team beating up on a weak conference. I know as far as Murphy is concerned I've been a little surprised that they've done as well as they have in conference this season, but personally I think it's got a lot more to do with the league being weak than this being a strong Murphy team, 'Dogs are good athletically but not basketball good (for perspective this Murphy team would get destroyed by the early 00's and late 00's Murphy teams imo).
Before Braves fans get up in arms, I'm not saying talent wise this Cherokee boys team couldn't hold their own with the better SMC teams of the last decade and a half, just that I'm not seeing them as a great TEAM, simply a very good team. Personally I think the McMillan senior year team (15-16) was a better Cherokee team.
Honestly I see a lot of parallels to this Cherokee team and the '08-09 and '09-10 Murphy teams: i.e. super talented, but lack of team chemistry and questionable coaching. I have no doubts that had you put someone like Coach Cottrell in charge of the '08-'09 and '09-'10 Murphy teams you would be looking at a state title for Murphy in boy's basketball. I will never get over Murphy's loss to Hendersonville in the sectional finals in '08-'09, talent wise Murphy had the best team in the state that year imo. The '09-10 Murphy team was even more talented, but would've had a much tougher go of it in terms of winning a title because the top level of the 1A field was a lot stronger that season. Murphy's loss to Mitchell in the 2nd round of the playoffs that year may in fact be the worst performance ever from a SMC team in terms of talent to results.
A lot of that could apply to this Cherokee team, how much better might they be with someone like Cottrell or Tullos in charge? We can only speculate, but I imagine a decent amount better in terms of state playoff potential.
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09 would have been the year to win it, mbd, even though I think the 2010 Murphy team was even more talented. In 09, WS-Prep had the rare rebuilding year and lost 14 games, Thomasville was on the way down, the regional field included a 15-loss South Stokes team, and Monroe didn't somehow get put in 1A until the next year. Cherryville and Bishop each had a great individual player but were beatable. In '09 I thought Murphy had a great season just a bad night in the third round. The next year, though, it was very apparent that there were a lot of egos and chemistry issues. When you think about Murphy graduating most of their rotation and a huge chunk of their scoring in 2010, then still going to regionals the next year when the role players from 2010 (Allen, Sudderth, Reid) became stars in 2011, that shows just how talented and how underachieving the 2010 team was, and how sometimes having enough talent can be preferable to having the most talent.
I’m very disappointed for the conference. A lot of things didn’t go as I hoped it would but you can’t control injuries and you sure can’t control the NCHSAA. Cherokee was our best shot but after winning the State Championship in football got a late start then when things started rolling Day goes down. Hayesville accomplished more than they expected. I still can’t figure out Swain because IMO they had the athletes to go deep but just never got it together. Murphy had a solid season but was cheated out of getting to play in the screwed up playoff system. Robbinsville played good team ball and had the potential but still had some good quality wins. Rosman was another team that fought adversity all season with injuries and sickness but still managed a good season but also didn’t get a chance at playoffs because of the 48 field system. Andrews had so much youth and it showed. Let a couple slip away but over all i’m proud of how they progressed. It has to go back to a 64 Field team format. Basketball does not subdivide like football and they are over 100 1A basketball schools.
It was a down year, next year may be down some, too, but there is a good wave of talent coming.
I agree. It might be a couple years away. I feel like we are going to have a lot of good competition from top to bottom with Hayesville being the top team with all that’s coming back plus what’s coming out of Middle School. Good luck to Murphy Lady Bulldogs, Cherokee Lady Braves and the Lady Yellow Jackets. Till next year men, take care everyone
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