Thoughts on the Pizza Hut Tournament Pairings/Seedings as Tourney Time draws near

Just a piece from yesterday in our comment box that I came up with and just like a piece of pizza, sometimes these posts/pieces are better on the second day, or as you digest them the second time around….Good stuff coming up and nothing like a James DuBose Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza, or the $10.00 deal with any pizza your choice with your toppings for just $10.00…..

Pizza Hut Tournament Talk…..
Boys you should see 1)GDS, 2)NEG, 3)Page, 4)Smith…..Middle of the pack Northern(5) and possibly NWG(6)…..Let’s go Grimsley(7) and then Ragsdale(8)….You could see any of those top 3-4 teams in the finals and GDS is very deep, but so is NEG and Page is extremely quick and Smith is not as deep, but they do have Tracy Gathings and Drew Williams and the outside shooting of Adrian Wimbush…..GDS and NEG would make a great final and remember Page was in the finals last year and NWG upset #1 GDS in Round One and then Northern knocked off #2 NEG, also in Round One….Northern and PAGE ended up in the Championship Game and NWG and Ragsdale played for third place…..

On the girls end we shoud see something with Page, GDS, and Smith up there at the top and then Northern and Northwest in the middle of the pack and Ragsdale, Grimsley and NEG in the lower tier…..You could see any of those Top Three teams going at it in the finals and Northern could make a run….NWG has always played well in this tournament…..They have been right up there at or near the Pizza Hut finals for the past 5-6 years….GDS has the best depth with this year’s squad that we have ever seen…..Thorpe, Rogers, Wilkerson, Hairston, Milton and more form a real solid nucleus for the Bengals….Ragsdale, Grimsley and NEG are building and it is still gonna take those programs a few more years to get back there near the top….If Smith can get more steady guard play, then they have a chance…..Greer, Lynn, Phillips and more have all there before and Brandi Robinson has been the top Smith girls scorer in many of their recent games…Smith can be there, but GDS looks like they are ready to make their deepest run ever in this tournament….The Lady Bengals just don’t have the experience of playing in the later rounds of the Pizza Hut….They must get to Round Two to have a chance to appreciate Round Three…….Page has the key(Kea), but will she see single coverage at any time in the tournament…. Time to play find the open man/woman, cause somebody is going to have to be open….

Should be a lot of fun and GDS boys and NEG boys should be your favorites with Page and Smith standing ready in the wings to take over and for the girls, Page, GDS and Smith have the best shot at the title and we’ll see if NG and NWG have anything to say about these bold or not so bold predictions….

15 thoughts on “Thoughts on the Pizza Hut Tournament Pairings/Seedings as Tourney Time draws near

  1. So Western Guilford Girls, SW Guilford Girls, and Dudley Girls are not even in the Little Four? Those are the top 3 of the Guilford County Public School Teams. Page? They lost (and lost easily) to the 4th best team in the Northwest 1A/2A conference. GDS girls should win this easily.

  2. Bengals boys and girls make mincemeat of both brackets. It’s good that our girls have finally gotten to the elite level as the boys make their return after many years of dominance. We will bring lots of fans this year as we have in the past.
    Good luck to all teams and participants.
    DF

  3. I wouldn’t discount the Smith girls, they have a good team with a good coaching staff. I hope the committee will be fair to all the teams. NW will probably be paired to play NE. NG will get paired to play Ragsdale, and Page will probably get Grimsely which will leave Smith to play GDS girls. This will keep Smith or GDS out of the championship game. Everybody know the committee wants a NW and NG championship game just look back at the pairing from last year.

  4. Unfortunately basketball has given a voice to people like “dale fulton” again. I was just beginning to like this site again until reading a post from that nut. The GDS teams are strong this year but please let them prove it on the court not from the writings of a loose nut.

  5. The Little 4 is not like it use to be. Attendance is down, all of the local teams are not in it for what ever reason. Maybe the Little Four needs to expand like the Glaxo in Raleigh. I don’t know how true this is but, I heard one reason that Dudley doesnt play no more is because of the other opportunities they have received during the same time as the Little Four in which was presenting Coach Price and his staff an opportunity to put his kids in front of college coaches that don’t attend the Little Four. If that is indeed the case, I don’t fault Coach Price one bit. I have never had a dog in this fight, but I would love to see the Little Four like it was back in the 90’s.

  6. It appears that the Little 4 is used only as a fund raising event. This tournament should be expanded to include all the area teams with pre-games at home gyms to set the seeding or expand the tournament to include outside teams to make the tournament worth visiting by college scouts/coaches. This area has enough quality boys and girls teams that can bring in top tier regional teams to play but there needs to be a commitment to the private schools such as Thomasville Prep, Quality Education, GDS, etc.. and public schools such as Dudley, NW, Smith, Reynolds, Page, etc.. If this tournament could tap into bring real fans from High Point, Winston Salem and areas such as Rockingham, Alamance and Randolph Co, then you would see the stands filling up for each and every game. There are few match ups in this years tournament that people want to see. The boys and the girls only have 2-3 teams worth see from what I have been reading. Many of the “good” players have left for private schools and many of the best remaining schools in the area are not a part of the tournament. Does anyone know if the committee is even listening or considering such changes? These same points have been expressed for at least the past 5 years that I have been watching the tournament. Hello – is anyone listening – committee ?????

  7. First of all, Dudley left the Little 4 because they wanted to. I have heard the reasons but do not know for sure so I will not print something that I do not know to be true. Second, this tourament was designed to help fund 8 of our local high schools. I think the Litttle 4 committee has done a great job giving money to our loal schools. If they do decide to ake it bigger I do not think they should give money to out of county teams. GDS sells far more tickets than any other school which is understandable and these ticket sales helps the other schools in the tournament.

  8. I was halfway agreeing with you until you mentioned QEA and Thomasville Prep as potential schools in the field. You want actual schools in the tournament, not basketball factories

  9. This is a serious question. If Thomasville Prep and QEA are only basketball factories, how are these kids getting into college. I do not think anyone will mistaken QEA or a Thomasville Prep for a GDS or Wesleyan when it comes to a quality education that will get you into the Duke’s or Wake Forest’s of the college world. However, parents are obviously putting their kids into these schools and it does not appear from the outside that these kids are having problems that I am aware of getting into the various schools that may be recruiting them. Quincy left QEA and attending WestChester his senior and now he is at Baylor which is considered a good educational school.

    Does anyone understand how these colleges view these schools and if this hurts and/or actually helps the kids that attend these schools? My guess would be that these kids attend these schools because their schedule looks more like an AAU tournament playing in front of more scouts and coachs attending events and higher level competition than their regular high school peers.

    Adam – it would be great if you could find and/or write a piece on this subject during the basketball season.

  10. @brodsky, the only way your going to get a good tournament is to bring in these type of schools, such as a Word of God, Kinston, Gonzaga out of D.C., Wheeler out of Georiga, Oak Hill, Norman out of LasVegas with the #1 player in the country, etc. And they are only giving each school I think $1,500 dollars. I know a lot of these big time tournaments pay for the teams to participate, even some of them take care of lodgeing and meals, and the $1,500 goes to the school, not the atletic department in which I think it should go only to the athletic department and not the entire school. If you get a chance, go pull up the teams that are playing in the Christmas tournaments such as The City of Palms, Beach Ball Classic, Upward Classic, Glaxo, Chic-Fila. All of these tournaments have great teams and have great turn outs do to the big time names and schools that attends. At the end of the day its about putting these kids in college, and also in the Little Four how many of these schools already play each other after or prior to the tournament. I know the coaches get tired of playing each other,especially if they are in the same conference such as Page, Smith, and Grimsley. And just think if Dudley was playing, that would be four schools from the same conference that would possibly being playing each other 4 times a year, maybe even 5 depending on what happened in the playoffs. That is just entirely too much. They really need to think about revamping this thing and I promise you that would bring more money to the city and help these student athletes out, even if you had to have two different divisions.

  11. Just basing my opinion largely off the New York Times article on QEA. That could be off-based. As far as T-ville Prep, what constitutes them as even being good other than the girls? That school itself I don’t think even exists, but then again maybe I am wrong

  12. If you took away the reclass rule, these schools wouldn’t even exist. Who in the world would send their kid to Thomasville Prep? I would slap the S.#! out of anyone in my family that would be that desperate.

  13. That is part of the issue I have with these schools getting all this credit for being good basketball programs. How do they differ from AAU teams? I would not send my kid to one, but I have no problem with their existance. I just don’t think they should get all this hype as a great high school program or great high school team, or at least not any more than the Lady Gaters or Lady Phoenix or other AAU teams.

  14. This is some BS, nobody gives credit to page. Page is one of the top teams in the area and you guys know it. I’m pulling for page to win the title AGAIN this year in the little four tournament, AND win the conference

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