By MONTE DUTTON And away they go (Monte Dutton photo). Click here. ASHEVILLE, N.C. – A college basketball tournament has much in common with a living organism. Mostly new sets of fans file in and out, the Harrah’s Cherokee Center forever breathing with new life.Sitting at my seat, often cracking wise with colleague John Hooper, …
Tag: Monte Dutton
Slow starts back home
By MONTE DUTTON Gardner-Webb coach Jeremy Luther took his medicine in Johnson City (Monte Dutton photo). Click here. Being away on my great basketball road trip spared me an inglorious period back home.It was sorrowful in Johnson City, Tenn., too. (I can’t say those three words without thinking of “Wagon Wheel.”) I was moved by …
Free throws were few and far between for Blue Hose
By MONTE DUTTON Kaleb Scott works the paint (Monte Dutton photos). Click here. JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- It wasn’t the shot selection. That was excellent. It was inaccuracy at the free-throw line that ran Presbyterian College’s Hose out of the Hercules Tires Big South Basketball Championships.Shooting was where the rubber met the road. Or didn’t. …
Continue reading Free throws were few and far between for Blue Hose
Smith finds nothing but net at Wofford
By MONTE DUTTON The Terriers couldn't contain PJay Smith (Monte Dutton photos). Click here. A trip to Spartanburg is seldom easy for the Furman Paladins, whether it’s basketball, football or club rugby.As head men’s basketball coach Bob Richey said later, “We knew [Wofford wasn’t] going away.”The final 1.1 seconds of the Paladins’ 78-75 victory over …
Blue Hose to hit Big South tournament on a hot streak
By MONTE DUTTON (PC photo) Click here. At one time, Presbyterian lost seven of eight Big South men’s basketball games. How times have changed.Entering this week’s Hercules Tires Big South Championships in Johnson City, Tenn, and coming on the heels of Saturday’s 68-57 victory over Gardner-Webb (10-19, 5-11 Big South) at Templeton Center, PC (14-17, …
Continue reading Blue Hose to hit Big South tournament on a hot streak
Paladins dig a little deeper in The Well, 85-42
By MONTE DUTTON Tom House perfectly splashed The Well (Furman photo). Click here. Many years ago, a broadcaster who wasn’t occupied with play by play at the time was holding court on a baseball press row when he proclaimed, regarding a certain football team, that it was “the best 0-9-2 team in the country.”’A nearby …
Continue reading Paladins dig a little deeper in The Well, 85-42
It’s on to Florence for Red Devils
By MONTE DUTTON Bryanna Belton led the way (Monte Dutton photos). Click here. Clinton High knows what it’s up against as it attempts to nail down a state girls’ basketball championship.At home for the third straight time in the Class 2A playoffs, John Gardner’s Red Devils defeated Region 3 rival Fairfield Central (11-12) for the …
Red Devils run wide open in playoff debut
By MONTE DUTTON Bryanna Belton led four Clinton double-figures scorers (Monte Dutton photos). Click here. It’s not easy to win a state championship. Clinton, which opened the Class 2A girls’ basketball playoffs with a 67-29 victory over Liberty Monday night, could run up against an opponent that’s much taller, or one that just shoots the …
NASCAR used to be fun
By MONTE DUTTON (Photo by Harold Hinson/HHP for Chevy Racing) Click here. On Thursday night, I was watching the Daytona qualifying races on TV and thought about how they had changed since the early 1990s, when I started writing about them.They were in the daytime back then, and the stands were almost full. The stands …
What’ll we do with no football?
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. Football is over. It’s unconditional. High schools ended way back in December, and since Clinton won the state championship, it was a shame to see it end, but then there were the college playoffs and all the bowl games. I was in the hospital, waiting for emergency surgery and out …
Nightrider's Lament 