The way these playoffs are shaping up, this could be “the end of the line” for a LONG RUN by the Dudley Panthers’ boys basketball team…
Dudley is the #5 team coming out of the Metro 4-A Conference and the Panthers have a regular season ending record of (10-12) overall and (4-6) from the Metro Conference…
The way we have seen the playoffs shaping up, this would keep the Dudley Panthers out of the playoffs for the first time in many years….
We went back and checked on Dudley by way of the MaxPreps records and going back to 2005-2006, Dudley has been in the playoffs every season and to my recollection, I never remember Dudley not being in the playoffs, going back to the early to mid-90’s…
I remember a game where Brendan Haywood missed some late free throws over at Grimsley one year and that gave Dudley an early exit and that must have been around 1997….Dudley had won the title the year before in 1996 on the NCHSAA 4-A level….Don’t remember all about 1999, but I do remember 2000 and they were headed toward the finals that year and then it seems like Dudley was in there in the playoffs, all of those years in 2000’s and then all the way on up until this year….
Could be some question marks back there around 98 and 99, but it does seem like the Dudley Panthers have been in the playoffs forever…
A bit of a tough go of things this year with the Panthers really trying to find themselves and then you add on the end of football season where Dudley was forced to forfeit games and they were not allowed to participate in the playoffs…..
Sort of a tough cloud to conquer hanging over the Dudley campus right now, but we feel Coach Brian Segraves is doing all he, can within his power, to get the ship righted and to make sure he steers the team back on course….Lots of talent to work with, just got to get everybody working together and have them all focused again and like most things, that is easier said than done….
But no Dudley in high school basketball playoffs and it looks like no chance to get in now with Metro 4-A Conference Tournament running out of days that would give a lower seeded team, like Dudley, a chance to come in and run the table, win the Conference Tournament and still qualify for the NCHSAA State Playoffs….
Looks like that LONG RUN is coming to end and we will see if there is still any life left in that Skip McCall microphone at Dudley and we do know that the Dudley girls are still in the hunt and they may be headed East this season and wouldn’t it be great to see a game with the Dudley girls vs. the Northwest Guilford girls for the NCHSAA 4-A State Title….
All you can do is dream on, on those cold days in February and who knows, sometimes those dreams do come true…..
The Dudley Panther boys have been living that dream for quite a few years and it has been a very good run/dream….
Don’t know about Dudley but I do know that we went undefeated with out the players that left for greener pastures.
GO PIRATES!
Yes, Page surprised me to be as strong as they were without the guys that left.
Grimsley has also played really well, even if they lost to Dudley recently.
Between the disappointment with the football situation and the basketball season, Dudley hopefully can recover next season and make the Little 4 a really competitive competition.
It is weird that I was thinking about this exact Dudley situation earlier this morning. I thought about how weird it was that Dudley was not even in the football playoffs even though they were one of the best 2 or 3 teams in the state without question. To follow that up with not even being in the picture for the basketball playoffs is beyond belief. This is not the Dudley that I have known since living in Greensboro since the early 90’s. Unfortunately I don’t think this problem will change in the near future with basketball. The private schools are raiding too many players out of the programs such as Dudley for them to weather 1 or 2 key losses anymore. The football program is the key piece to keeping specific type of players but without it the basketball program would lose out to the WES, and GDS type of schools. I know others will say that they are very young but that also leaves more opportunity to lose other players before next year.
@ Pirate Nation, you lost to very good guards…you were still left with 3…3 Division I players over 6’4. You don’t get to sulk b/c of that. Page should have gone undefeated, I expected nothing less. Stop acting like Page was the Underdog with 3 DI players. What other team in the conference has more than 1 DI player? Crickets! Those kids can flat out play! Now, you should be disappointed if this team does not reach the State 4-A Finals…
I agree with “Viking”. Most teams are extremely guard heavy and most only have 1-2 potential D1 players. Very few teams locally have any players over 6’5″ that can play the paint well. Page has multiple guards bigger than many teams centers. NW is good but they are guard heavy. SW and Page are the only 2 teams in the city that had players in the paint that could make a real difference. The private schools have all of the true bigs from what I have experienced this year.