Basketball in Tennessee (Memphis, Knoxville, Jackson: high schools, college, live in)

[JMT]

In case you haven't been paying attention--and I wouldn't blame you since basketball isn't nearly as popular around here as football--three of the top 25 basketball teams in the country are right here in Tennessee, more than any other state can claim:

Memphis is ranked #2
Tennessee is ranked #8
Vanderbilt is ranked #14

And all three had good wins last night before raucus, capacity crowds:
*Memphis beat East Carolina 99-58 in front of 17,308 in Memphis.
*Tennessee beat #16 Ole Miss 85-83 in front of 21,846 in Knoxville.
*Vanderbilt beat South Carolina 80-73 in front of 14,325 in Nashville.

(And let's not forget that Tennessee's Lady Vols are ranked #2 in women's basketball.)

[Sparkman]

Let's see:

Bruce Pearl ( us U of I people still can't stand him from the crap he pulled when he was at Iowa) but came from Wis-Mil.

Kevin Stallings played & asst & Purdue before going to Illinois State (my alma mater) and leading them to the NCAA.

Derrick Rose - from Chicago Simeon, watched him play 4-5 times in person, also a class kid. After Simeon beat my HS for the Pontiac Holdiay title last year, he signed autographs for kids for about 45 minutes and was great with them.

Looks like the Tn schools need to recruit our area for their coaches & players. That's OK though. How is HS basketball in TN? If we end up in Cookeville next year, I'd be following their team. My 5th grade son already plays on a HS feeder team & would be looking to play there as well. Looks like a moderately successful program, but I don't know what the competition is like there.

[alleycat]

Originally Posted by Sparkman

Looks like the Tn schools need to recruit our area for their coaches & players.

That kind of works both ways, for a lot of things including basketball. Some of the people from Tennessee go off to somewhere else, and people from out-of-state come here. I don't think the original post meant to apply that any of the programs depended solely on local talent. I think Vandy even has someone from Australia playing (I'm not sure . . . because JMT is right, I don't keep up with it that much).


And let's not forget little ol' Belmont, which has done rather well for a small college in the past few years.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by Sparkman

If we end up in Cookeville next year

Good luck with that.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Sparkman

Let's see:

Bruce Pearl ( us U of I people still can't stand him from the crap he pulled when he was at Iowa) but came from Wis-Mil.

Kevin Stallings played & asst & Purdue before going to Illinois State (my alma mater) and leading them to the NCAA.

Derrick Rose - from Chicago Simeon, watched him play 4-5 times in person, also a class kid. After Simeon beat my HS for the Pontiac Holdiay title last year, he signed autographs for kids for about 45 minutes and was great with them.

Looks like the Tn schools need to recruit our area for their coaches & players. That's OK though. How is HS basketball in TN? If we end up in Cookeville next year, I'd be following their team. My 5th grade son already plays on a HS feeder team & would be looking to play there as well. Looks like a moderately successful program, but I don't know what the competition is like there.

So you're saying that all those great Midwestern basketball coaches had to come to Tennessee to become even more successful? heh heh

At any rate, there's tons of basketball in Tennessee. The Cookeville area has tons. In fact, many of the teeny weeny high schools in the state don't field football teams, but boy howdy they all have basketball. And I think most towns also have church league basketball.

One thing that might surprise you is the popularity of girls basketball here. I'm sure Pat Summit and the Lady Vols have something to do with it. I remember at one time Clarkrange High School (near Crossville in Fentress County) had a girls bball team but not a boys team. And their girls were winning state championships left and right.

[Mike in TN]

What teams, year in and year out, field great basketball teams? North Side (Jackson) Shelbyville Central??? I'm just curious.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Mike in TN

What teams, year in and year out, field great basketball teams? North Side (Jackson) Shelbyville Central??? I'm just curious.

That's a good question. I don't really follow HS basketball like I used to, but it seems Shelbyville's girls have been a dynasty for years. And it seems that several schools in the Memphis area do really well and would probably win state championships if they didn't have to keep beating each other up during the regular season.

[alleycat]

I don't keep with high school basketball either, but I'd heard of the Shelbyville girls team for years.

[Mike in TN]

I didn't live in middle TN at the time, but I've heard the current MTSU's lady's basketball coach had an epic run at Shelbyville.

I heard the gym floor couldn't even be used for anything other than games, similar to college teams.

[Beretta]

Ah, Tennessee basketball. Where men are men and the women are national champions!