Attending my first high school basketball tournament in several years was, overall, a tremendous experience. Whether it was the DII tourney in Cookeville or D1 in Murfreesboro, both venues were great places to host the best talent Middle Tennessee has to offer. For that, I will avoid critiquing the media and TSSAA side of things.
I will let more experienced people praise and criticize the conditions, (although I will say that the TSSAA personnel and the ushers in both locations that I interacted with knocked it out of the park). I am looking at this strictly from a fan’s perspective.
The Venues
The Good: Tennessee Tech and MTSU both offer nice facilities to watch a game, although I did favor the actual hardwood look Tech offered from a purely aesthetic view. There is not a bad seat in the house.
The Bad: Concessions were boring and bland. There is no reason that concession stands should be as unimaginative as they were in both locations. And while Tech’s offerings were bland, MTSU’s were sad to look at. I know there was an alternative there with (I’m told) great nachos, but I don’t think I need to take out a loan to feed a family of three. Take some notes from some of the local high schools, or better yet, hire Beech High School to run your concessions.
The Ugly: This one is strictly for MTSU. Parking was atrocious if you weren’t there an hour before tip-off. The issue with having the games during the week at a college is that there are still classes going on. Parking spaces are going to be at a premium. Several fans had to park more than half a mile away and walk to get to the arena. A few cheerleaders were walking from a couple of blocks away.
Several schools offer shuttle service. I did not experience this too badly, as I was there an hour or two before the first tip. It would be worth the expense at a buck a piece to offer auxiliary parking with a shuttle service. Either that or MTSU should look at a parking garage (which could be in the works, I don’t know).
The Games
The Good: Clutch performances by clutch playmakers ruled the tourney, including Mr. Basketball winners Jahvin Carter (Alcoa), Tyler Lee (Knoxville Fulton), and Tyler Tanner (Brentwood Academy), as well as Miss Basketball Haylen Ayers (USJ), showed out in their games.
Ayers carried her team down the stretch, hitting a key jumper in USJ’s triple overtime win over Goodpasture. Lee led all scorers with 22 in the Falcons’ championship victory over Ridgeway, while Carter led the scoring against Frederick Douglass with 28 on 76 percent shooting from the floor. Tanner had 22 points in a tough Eagle loss to champion Briarcrest. Independence’s Jett Montgomery set a TSSAA state tournament record with 32 consecutive free throws made, including going 11-of-11 in the Eagles’ championship game win over Cookeville.
The Bad: Clock killing made the games tedious at times. Shot clocks are a hot topic right now and I did not have a great answer for the financial issues involved in installing shot clocks in every gym in the state. I will say that the slow pace of some offenses was, in some cases, painful. Some games had teams struggling to get to double digits by halftime. One team opened the game with a modified four-corners offense. You don’t know the four corners? It’s the offense your grandad ran and brought about the creation of the shot clock.
The Ugly: The human highlight films were rated G. I have never seen the number of missed dunks as I saw in all levels of play. It was astounding. It was so bad that several players opted to turn to lay-ins and ups for fear of blowing the dunk. So many opportunities for ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’”’ turned to ‘oh’ and ‘meh.’
The Officiating
The Good: Overall, I thought the officiating was consistent. Whether you agreed with the fouls called or not, the officials seemed consistent with their interpretations. They called many legitimate walks and carries, which we don’t see at higher levels nowadays. I am not saying they were perfect, just consistent. They called several warnings which leads me to…
The Bad: The bench warnings are ridiculous. Basketball, and all sports for that matter, are emotional endeavors. Watching Independence coach Mark Wilkins have to turn to his bench to make sure his players’ enthusiasm was relegated to a seated position was just wrong. It happened after every big play. Cheering your teammates for a big play is not showing off or taunting and, in all honesty, most of the trash-talking was in the stands, not on the court. This was an overreach.
The Ugly: The number of defensive players “flopping” was embarrassing. This is one of those areas where the officials were consistent, but consistently fooled. There were several players that got “Oscars” when they should have received “Razzies” or public shaming. I saw a player take a three-point shot, uncontested, and launch himself backward to draw a foul. There was no one within three feet of him. Don’t do that, this isn’t the MLS.
There was much to love in this game we call TSSAA basketball, and even with its blemishes, it’s still a beautiful sport that I learn from. As Don Meyer said so well, “When you watch the game, be a student of the game.”
Thanks for the lesson.