LPD Semi-Finals: Clintwood vs JJ Kelly

I think quite a few people, like myself, are still in a bit of shock over this one.

I expected the Lady Indians to win, but I really thought this was going to be a very close, competitive game. But make no mistake about it, the Lady Indians dominated from beginning to end.

I think the final score was something along the lines of 61-36 but JJ Kelly led by as many as 29-30 pts at one point in the game.

If Kelly comes out tonight and plays as well, they'll give the Lady Blue Devils a real challenge for the championship.

Congratulations to the Lady Indians on an impressive win, and to the Lady Greenwaves on a great season.

Go Kelly!! Great team effort. If Kelly plays this way tonight, they will beat the great GC!!

The second Kelly/Clintwood matchup, Kelly in the second half seemed to find a [censored] in the armor of Clintwood and exploited it. I am not that shocked that they won, a bit shocked at the ease. Sounds like they were ready to play.

Kelly did a very good job of creating turn-overs. At the same time, Clintwood's shooting game was way off.

JJ Kelly - Gate City should be a very good time.

I'm still kind of confused as to why they moved the girls game to the nightcap. I realize they want to give the girls the "headliner" game for a change, but I've got a feeling a big chunk of the crowd is going to leave after the boys championship game.

Clintwood had a very good team, but they were not as good as their record indicated. They picked up a lot of out of district wins against lower level competition - not being challenged by some of the better out of district teams in the area.
I really think they need to look at scheduling tougher opponents if they want to step it up to the next level. Unless they do so, they will be looked at in the same manner as Haysi when it comes to football.

I'm gonna disagree a bit here. Clintwood was a local tournament, where they had Ervinton and Council. In one at Coeburn, where they had East Ridge, Twin Springs and Ervinton again. Outside of that, the only non-district games was Twin Valley and Lee.

Now is Kelly's that much better? their out of district was Rye Cove, Lee, and Shelby Valley. They may have someone else but this is according to their schedule on the school's webpage.

Gate City has Sullivan South, Sullivan North, Battle, Va High, and Elizabethton. (Due to tournaments and such). I'll give you that those are bigger schools , not sure who is good or not (don't keep up with it that much) but something that some need to consider is, gripeing about how long of a trip it is to Clintwood or Haysi or such from Gate City, well its just as long from this way to there and a bit further to schedule those teams...its a lot easier to schedule games 15 minutes down the road or play in a tournament next door. The boys played in the John Battle tournament and driving an hour and a half (or 2 hours by bus) then back home, and having to do that 2-3 times in a couple days kind of wears you out.

We can't really go to much into 'strength of schedule' when at least 14 of your games are the same (no matter what) and others are tournaments, which sometimes you get a good draw, a lucky matchup or what not.

I don't so much think it was Clintwood playing bad competition or good competition, just think that some teams improved more as the year went on than they did. They didn't strike me as a terribly diverse team, if something was working, they were in good shape, but if taken out of what they wanted to do, they didn't have the weapons to adjust much. Just my opinions though.

Elizabethton and VA High are great teams...the other 3 not so much

My cousin plays at JJK and she echoed those same sentiments a few weeks ago after beating the Wave by 12. JJK figured out how to beat the Lady Wave and took it to them last night. Congrats to the Wave on another solid season. They lose 3 seniors if I remember reading that right.

JJK played in the Tipoff at Virginia High, dealing with powers like VHS. Playing competition like that pays dividends. Shelby Valley is solid, Rye Cove was a team that JJK had to get past in regions last year. Lee is also one of the better programs in our area. To question JJK's schedule as soft is to say so without researching.

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To question JJK's schedule as soft is to say so without researching.

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Pretty much goes the same for Gate City's girls schedule. Virginia High is the #5 ranked team in class AA in the state of Virginia, Elizabethton is a solid team - currently in the Tennessee state regional playoffs - and South showed that they could be a team to be reckoned with - they have the athletes, was the Tennessee AAA state runner-up in volleyball this season - and are still alive in Regional playoff action as well within in Tennessee's AAA ranks.

Like Indian Dad has referred to, not knowing other teams opponents and touting your own usually does bid well when you get right down to it.

Mmmm dont think I questioned their schedule, I said went by what was listed on their website. The schedule listed is not that much more. I agree that playing better competition is good, but tournaments, you normally lock in for several years, what is a 'good tournament' this year might be a bad tournament next year, depending on what other schools do. I don't think that there was a huge disparity in the schedules. I don't think anybody 'touted' anybodys opponents.

"Now is Kelly's that much better?"
If that isn't questioning, then I don't know what is. As for the good tourney/bad tourney different years, that doesn't wash in the Tipoff Classic. Can you remember how long it has been since VHS wasn't solid? Throw in JJK and GC, and you are assured of at LEAST 3 real-deal state powers. Most tourneys can't boast that, and that's not even mentioning the other teams who show. That tourney just doesn't invite anybody amigo.

Ok now that we're enjoying picking out things said, go read the part about 'ACCORDING TO THEIR SCHEDULE POSTED ON THEIR WEBSITE'. I don't have the Kelly schedule committed to memory so I can only go by whats listed and if their own website doesn't have it listed, then what? If they played greater teams, then thats fine and probably right, it did help them.

Not picking out things at all. You questioned their schedule based on nothing but a listing from their website without stopping and doing a little research on those particular teams. I don't have the Clintwood schedule committed to memory either, but I do know that playing folks like Ervinton hurts you in the long run.

Uhhh I listed the teams on their website. Clintwood had Lee scheduled, so thats a wash.

So its comparing Rye Cove and Shelby Valley to Council, East Ridge, Ervinton and Twin Valley I think it was. Sorry, I dont see that being such a huge disparity. One game against better competition is probably not going to suddenly morph a team.

I have no idea if Ervintons girls team is worth a hoot or not. It was a tournament, they aren't a regularly scheduled game. Maybe they would have Haysi in the tournament, who normally is a good team. You dont get to pick your opponents in a tournament.

And for the record, I didn't expect Clintwood to get that far. They had some good players this year, but I think they end up developing (or relying on) one player each year to carry them, sometimes at the expense of developing another threat or two. It seems like we have, an a normal year, one of the top scorers and then a huge dip to number two on the team. The one dominant player works great against most teams, but when you're playing other good teams with good coaching, they force other players to step up to beat them, and since they aren't used to doing that, it mostly catches up with them.

I disagree. Clintwood had 3 players who could have potentially dominated the district this year. They were doing that at the first of the year. They were getting the ball to who it needed to go to and were winning. However, in the second half of the season, the ball was not getting to where it needed to be. The one player was still scoring for the most part, but the other two were not stepping up. I agree that you cannot win with one player, but I don't agree that Clintwood didn't have those other two or three dynamic players. They simply didn't step up the second half of the season and the rest of the team didn't get the ball where it needed to be.