Hairston will be ready to go on Wednesday against Western Guilford

The reports coming in on the front page at www.news-record.com say PJ will play on Wednesday versus Western Guilford.

Direct link to Tom Keller’s article:Click Here….

PJ Hairston will go as much and as long as he can, on his severely sprained ankle, which he injured late in the game on Monday vs. Oak Hill Academy at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center……

PJ went down hard late in the game, on the very last play of the game in fact, as he was trying to get a block on the final Oak Hill shot of the afternoon….

PJ will be ready to play on Wednesday and he practiced on the ankle on Tuesday and as I said earlier today, I have seen this kid go down before and then come back stronger than ever; and that might not be case on Wednesday night as the Panthers host the WG Hornets, but Coach David Price told the N&R’s Tom Keller that he will have players ready and in place if PJ can’t take it for the long haul….

They won’t be PJ, but they will play and so will Hairston when Dudley and Western meet on Wednesday night…..

Again, go to www.news-record.com for Tom Keller’s full report/update on this story….

16 thoughts on “Hairston will be ready to go on Wednesday against Western Guilford

  1. Two things why was he in the game and why try to stop a shot when your down by 20 in the last second’s of the game??????

  2. Maybe he was just competing. That drive is probably part of the reason he is the player he is today.

  3. you don’t think that extra hustle had anything to do with Roy being in attendance do you? PJ had better hope he and Bulock are noy vying for the same position

    Comparison—

    basketball knowledge Bullock
    strength PJ
    range PJ
    Athleticism Tie
    decision-making Bullock
    Passing Bullock
    Defense-intensity PJ
    anticipation Bullock
    overall Bullock
    Teamwork Bullock
    Ceiling –college Bullock (better fit in UNC system)
    –League PJ ( Bullock will have to get stronger—if he does, then it’s a tie)

  4. I think we all agree that PJ should not have been in the game at the point but at the same time it’s hard to tell a competitor to go half speed rather you are up by 2o or down by 20. As a former athlete a lot of the times you forgot what the score is and your competitive nature just takes over.

  5. This is not my post! This is a post I read on http://www.insidecarolina.com It is a very good article about PJ and Bullock!

    While Bullock and Hairston are both outstanding players, I think their styles are very different. People tend to group them together because they are both deadly shooters, but that’s really about all they’ve got in common (and that similarity is HUGE! They are both great shooters and we could use them both right now).

    As far as their shooting goes, I have seen them both play a handful of times and I would say that Bullock is a “better” (i.e. more consistent) shooter but I would also say that when Hairston gets hot, he’s more dangerous. Hairston is streakier, in other words. While I would personally feel more comfortable with Bullock shooting a 3 if I really needed someone to make one, I do think that Hairston has more range and he showed off that range tonight both in warm ups and in the actual game. He hit one in the game from the “100 year celebration” logo. My estimate would be that it was a 26 foot shot, nothin’ but net.

    Reggie plays the game a little more within the flow of his team’s concept than PJ does. He has more experienced teammates beside him than Hairston does, and he isn’t afraid to get his teammates involved before he begins looking for his own offense. He clearly makes an outward effort to do this. For this reason, some people call him “passive” but I just call it good basketball. He’s not a chucker. He’s the kind of guy who you look at the box score at the end of the game and you see he had 25 points and you’re like “whoa! that was a quiet 25!” (exactly as the OP said).

    Hairston is just the opposite. He’s more of a volume shooter, and takes more shots than Reggie does. He forced up a couple bad ones tonight. I’m not knocking him though, because Dudley’s team this year is young and they need PJ to take a lot of shots whereas Kinston has better weapons alongside Bullock. But even given the fact that they need PJ to shoot the rock a lot, he still took a few shots tonight that were head scratchers.

    Reggie is a very smart player and he’s very mature on the court. He was directing Kinston in their sets a fair amount and was very smooth in his game. He didn’t force things and he knows when to attack and when to avoid forcing the issue. He had a couple very nice steals tonight too, doing a nice job of deny defense when he was one pass away and getting a couple different deflections on the defensive end. Was also very impressed at how hard Reggie crashed the boards on both ends

    Hairston needs to work on his handle a little bit. It’s definitely a little loose and he had a few silly turnovers because of it. He also forced a few passes for some errant turnovers. Again, part of this goes back to how perhaps PJ feels he has to make a play on every possession for them to have a chance against Kinston’s caliber. Not criticizing him, just reporting what I thought.

    I do think that Hairston has more raw athleticism and leaping ability than Bullock does. He had a near highlight dunk where he left the ground a long ways from the basket and nearly threw down a 1 handed tomahawk dunk in traffic. He also had a couple of goaltending calls against him but they were still very impressive plays on help defense. One was a clear goaltend on a floater that Bullock shot, and the other one looked like a bang/bang call from where I was at.

    I love both kid’s games. My favorite moment of the night was when Hairston went down with an injury that looked at first like it might be bad (turned out PJ just had the wind knocked out of him). As he was down, both teams went to a huddle with their coaches while a trainer attended to PJ on the court until he was able to get up and walk off the court. I noticed that Reggie made the effort to go over and give him a little tap and say something to him before heading back to the Kinston huddle. You could tell he was concerned about his friend.

    Pretty cool seeing Roy and Wanda out there watching as well as the whole UNC team, and Coach Rob. One time I looked up in the stands and as Dudley started to come back in the final minutes, John Henson was getting into it! Also noticed Ed Davis clapping after Hairston made a deep 3 one time. Maybe Ed likes PJ so much he’ll stick around 2 more years and get to play with him!! haha.

  6. While Bullock and Hairston are both outstanding players, I think their styles are very different. People tend to group them together because they are both deadly shooters, but that’s really about all they’ve got in common (and that similarity is HUGE! They are both great shooters and we could use them both right now).

    As far as their shooting goes, I have seen them both play a handful of times and I would say that Bullock is a “better” (i.e. more consistent) shooter but I would also say that when Hairston gets hot, he’s more dangerous. Hairston is streakier, in other words. While I would personally feel more comfortable with Bullock shooting a 3 if I really needed someone to make one, I do think that Hairston has more range and he showed off that range tonight both in warm ups and in the actual game. He hit one in the game from the “100 year celebration” logo. My estimate would be that it was a 26 foot shot, nothin’ but net.

    Reggie plays the game a little more within the flow of his team’s concept than PJ does. He has more experienced teammates beside him than Hairston does, and he isn’t afraid to get his teammates involved before he begins looking for his own offense. He clearly makes an outward effort to do this. For this reason, some people call him “passive” but I just call it good basketball. He’s not a chucker. He’s the kind of guy who you look at the box score at the end of the game and you see he had 25 points and you’re like “whoa! that was a quiet 25!” (exactly as the OP said).

    Hairston is just the opposite. He’s more of a volume shooter, and takes more shots than Reggie does. He forced up a couple bad ones tonight. I’m not knocking him though, because Dudley’s team this year is young and they need PJ to take a lot of shots whereas Kinston has better weapons alongside Bullock. But even given the fact that they need PJ to shoot the rock a lot, he still took a few shots tonight that were head scratchers.

    Reggie is a very smart player and he’s very mature on the court. He was directing Kinston in their sets a fair amount and was very smooth in his game. He didn’t force things and he knows when to attack and when to avoid forcing the issue. He had a couple very nice steals tonight too, doing a nice job of deny defense when he was one pass away and getting a couple different deflections on the defensive end. Was also very impressed at how hard Reggie crashed the boards on both ends

    Hairston needs to work on his handle a little bit. It’s definitely a little loose and he had a few silly turnovers because of it. He also forced a few passes for some errant turnovers. Again, part of this goes back to how perhaps PJ feels he has to make a play on every possession for them to have a chance against Kinston’s caliber. Not criticizing him, just reporting what I thought.

    I do think that Hairston has more raw athleticism and leaping ability than Bullock does. He had a near highlight dunk where he left the ground a long ways from the basket and nearly threw down a 1 handed tomahawk dunk in traffic. He also had a couple of goaltending calls against him but they were still very impressive plays on help defense. One was a clear goaltend on a floater that Bullock shot, and the other one looked like a bang/bang call from where I was at.

  7. The previus post is not my post. It’s a post i read on the carolina board. I just wanted to paste so some of you could see on person opinion about the difference between PJ and Bullock.

  8. do you think PJ would play tonite if they werent playing to stay in first place ? A lost to western would give both teams a 5-1 conf record..

  9. Sorry for the duplicate post!!

    Yes i think the fact that first place is on the line is the key to PJ trying to give it a go tonight. I know i’m just a barbershop Coach but if i was the Coach i would sit PJ tonight and probably even the game against Grimsley. Even with a loss to WG you still would play them again later in the season with a healthly team. Grimsley was a tough game but you are already beat Grimsley as well. But i’m sure the Dr’s have giving PJ and his family and the Dudley Coach staff the pros and cons about giving it a go tonight.

  10. We got the duplicate deal squared away and we no longer have to deal with the double-team trap.

    Maybe if PJ plays some in stretches tonight it will loosen up that akle if it is not in too bad of shape and it is always good to hear it pop after you have been in ice bucket for a couple of days and the swelling has gone down some and that ankle has gotten real tight…

    Play a bit more versus Grimsley on Friday and by then you should have a good gauge for where this thing is going.

    Dudley on the road to Virginia on Saturday for the SlamFest game and hopefully by then it will be full steam ahead….If you are WG and Grimsley, you know you would rather beat Dudley with PJ at full-strength so it can all be too legit to quit….Or does it even matter when the battle is for #1 in the conference?????

  11. Was PJ competing on that last play or was he in the game because of his scoring average? I’ve been to a couple of Dudley games this season and was wondering why is PJ out on the court in the 4th Quarter of games when they are winning by 30 plus points. I keep reading how young this team is, why want Coach Price play some of his bench warmers to give them some game experience. I knew this would come back to bite them one day, hopefully he isn’t rushed back to early to play against western. Is he chasing the states scoring record or does Coach Price like to stick it to everyone? Im sure this won’t be the last time you look out and see him on the court in a blow out or while winning by 30 plus points. I can only think of all the banners we should have if he taught team ball and not market individual players and their stats. That the difference between Dudley and Kinston.

  12. Dudley titles under Coach Price in 1996, 2005, 2006 and they were there in 2000 and 2004, so they have done pretty good for themselves….

    PJ was competing on the last play, because he was trying to block the Oak Hill guy’s shot and with the lead at 20-plus, what is Oak Hill doing going to the basket with 5 seconds left in the game.

    In a way PJ was just trying to protect his team’s honor as Oak Hill was trying to run it up on the Panthers….You are right though, PJ did not have to be out there that late in the contest, but that is not our call, it is the coach’s call…..

    In situations like this, there will always be a lot of second-guessing. Let’s just hope PJ’s ankle is OK and he can keep on enjoying playing the game…..

  13. BBALL FAN,

    PJ was hurt in a attempt to block a shot! Let’s not knock a kid for still being competitive in a blowout loss. It’s easy to say he should not have been in the game which he probably should have been out of but the fact remains he was in the game still playing defense. People often speak of how many titles Dudley should have but if you look back at the 15 years they may just as many as any in the State. Not saying they do but i’m sure they are close. 6 title games, 3 Championships.

  14. I think hell play more in the grimsley game because i think dudley thinks that grimsley is the only team in the conference that can beat them. im not trying to knock western but they just dont match up well with dudley

  15. BBFan,

    Pj was competing on the last play. Actually he was going for the second block in the last 3 sec. He blocked the shot of the 7 footer, Oakhill rebounded and tried to put it in the basket…He went up to block that shot and came down wrong.

    The boys were definitley tired. Page Friday, Sell out game w GW-Va Sat, and Oak Hill on Mon.

    Actually since the lost in VA, Coach Price has been giving those guys on the bench a lot more playing time. The big guy is really trying to step it up especially on defense.

  16. If you look at the Dudley offense you will notice that they are designed to have PJ take most of the shots. It is not a matter of others not being able to score, but mostly they do not have the opportunity to score. If one player in high school ball takes 20 to 25 shots per game, that leave less than 10 shots per game for all the other players. No doubt that PJ is an excellent shooter and should be the focus of the offense, but in order for the Dudley team to move to the “next level” as a team they must be more inclusive and balanced in their offense.

    As far as his injury is concerned, I hope that he is able to play, but if there is a chance that it could prolong his problem he should probably have limited time in the game. Kids play wiht injuries all the time, and depending on the severity of the problem and how well it is attended to, some are able to be more effective than others. What we don’t want to see is someone get injured for the season because of trying to play in one game while not 100%. I hope that PJ has a great game regardless of how much he plays, but the game should not be dependent upon him alone. And if he does have a great game, I hope that it is attributed to good medical care and personal determination, and not a superhuman effort from a kid who is just as human as all of us.

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