TVC-Ohio POY???

[Jake Roberts]

Just so you know, Alexander has played a straight up man all season long. They play straight up man no matter who they face, no matter how much smaller they may be than the other team. Any time you want to see the proof, the camera doesn't lie. I'll take whoever Alex puts up for it with that straight up in your face man D they play. By the way 93, that is a great thing you did with the new site. I love it. Are you gonna try to keep it up for all the sports?

It's very obvious that Dixon deserves this award and you do nothing, but strengthen that argument by nt being able to name anyone else that deserves it. If you really thing somebody from Alexander deserves the award, give us a name, any name. If you can't name one person on that team that deserves the award, then it makes it pretty obvious that noone does.

Its obvious noone from Alexander deserves it and obvious the Dixon girl does. Well lets see if I can find a name or 2 for you. Daugherty held your obvious choice to 7pts the first meeting, Radekin held your obvious choice to 4pts the second. Grinstead and Guthrie guard the post players and give up alot of height every game while both play with bad injuries. The Els girl may be the best defender on the team. Those girls have only givin up an average of 30.83 pts a game and thats 7.71 pts a quarter in the TVC OHIO. This is a man to man D they play and thats why I wouldn't put just one name up because they all are good enough to be put up. It looks like to me the only obvious thing in the TVC OHIO POY award is its up for grabs. Good luck to all the girls that are nominated.

You're still not telling me who deserves the award. You're basically just naming everyone on your favorite team. Are you saying Dixon would not start if she attended Alexander? Are all those girls better than her? Again, tell me who deserves the award ahead of Dixon without naming everyone on your team.

[ervbaseball13]

I didn't say she wouldn't start if she was at Alex or if any of those girls are better than her. I was giving everyone an idea of what Coach Guthrie has to choose from. He has all the stats and will decide which one of the girls to put up for the award. That girl will get my vote. With Dixon having 4 games where she had a total of 14pts, 2 against Alex and 2 against Athens really levels the playin field for this award. It opens the door for the Alexander nominee, Athens Lein along with whoever else is nominated. If she has 1 or 2 bad games or is hurt for those 4 games then I'm on the hands down or obvious ban wagon too. Her having those 4 games just opened the door for one of the other girls to slip in and snag it. I have watched that group from Vinton play since they was in 7th grade so by no means and I hating on Dixon or Vinton. She is a very deserving but so are ALL the other girls that will be nominated. Good luck to ALL the players nominated.

[300]

I will have to agree with ervbaseball13 on this one somewhat. There are a lot of things that go into being player of the year besides just what you read in the paper. Every coach will look at offensive and defensive statistics, rebounds, minutes played, leadership qualities, work ethic, etc. of who he or she nominates. I am confident in the coaches to make the right decision on whoever they decide to vote for when the time comes. I wish good luck to everyone who is nominated and I will support their decision entirely.

[hawkeyepierce]

I didn't say she wouldn't start if she was at Alex or if any of those girls are better than her. I was giving everyone an idea of what Coach Guthrie has to choose from. He has all the stats and will decide which one of the girls to put up for the award. That girl will get my vote. With Dixon having 4 games where she had a total of 14pts, 2 against Alex and 2 against Athens really levels the playin field for this award. It opens the door for the Alexander nominee, Athens Lein along with whoever else is nominated. If she has 1 or 2 bad games or is hurt for those 4 games then I'm on the hands down or obvious ban wagon too. Her having those 4 games just opened the door for one of the other girls to slip in and snag it. I have watched that group from Vinton play since they was in 7th grade so by no means and I hating on Dixon or Vinton. She is a very deserving but so are ALL the other girls that will be nominated. Good luck to ALL the players nominated.

Dixon scored those totals against Athens and Alexander because she faced "junk" defenses. Now we can argue what is and what is not a junk defense; however, you would have to agree with me that those kind of strategies are designed for one thing, stop a specific player. And that is what they done, this might be a non-issue if the Vikings would have won those games, but they didn't, you stop Dixon, you stop the Vikings. But since Vinton County did not win those games only goes to prove how valuable she is to her team. The Vikings are to play tonight at four o'clock against Athens at Alexander, come and watch Coach Horsely employ a true box and one for 32 minutes and at the end of it tell me again she is not deserving.

Dixon stats

14.63 average
95 assists
66 rebounds
25 steals

39.8 % from the arc, (no shot is uncontested)
80.7 % from the free-throw line.

[Ironman92]

I've only watched VC and Athens......Tori Dixon was by far the best player as both teams played games at Jackson. Jackson is all 5'8 and under and Dixon killed us.....Lein is what 6'1? She had a good game but nowhere near as dominant as Dixon.

[Pol pot]

If tori wins POY, she is well deserving. The only thing I will dispute in this entire thread is that Alexander played a "junk" defense. Coach Guthrie can not even spell "zone" or "junk". What he employs and his players execute is in your face, pressure defense, and he does so with good athletes who are quicker and more aggressive than any girls team in the area. Alex's ability to hold Tori down was simply they were better athletes.

As for the voting, you never know. This time last year this thread was all about W. Smith and she didn't win it. Look at Volleyball, who would have thought that POY voting would have went that way?

[ervbaseball13]

I agree totally with you Pol Pot on the D that Coach Guthrie has his girls run. I said it before and say it again they play straight up man to man as they have all season long and the tape to prove it. Coach Horsely ran in your words Hawk a true box and one on the Daugherty girl the first game against Alex. So I have seen that D run and Daugherty left the game early with an ankle injury but not before she scored 8pts against that junk D. The Dixon girl like I said before is on an a more level playing field now due to those 4 games . Dixon is very deserving of the award along with the rest of the young ladies that will be put up for it. Good luck to both Athens and Vinton tonight and yes I will be there to support the TVC teams playing tonight.

[Orange and Brown]

I like the Dixon girl and if I had a vote ( thank god I don't have that kind of power!) I would vote for her. I do not think it is right to say that alex was throwing a "junk" defense at her. Alex plays the same D against every team they play and it isn't a "junk" Defense!

[hawkeyepierce]

With all due respect, I will once again try to explain this phenomenon called "face-guarding" and the difference in straight Man-to-Man defense.

First, straight Man-to-Man is a on ball pressure, (that is whoever has the ball faces constant pressure), help defense. Now, the other four defensive players act accordingly to where the ball is in relationship to their man. If the ball is to one side of the court, not at the mid-line (an invisible line through the middle of the court from basket to basket), there is ON BALL pressure by the defender who guarding the offensive player with the ball, defenders that are ONE PASS away are in deny defense, that is the defender is trying to deny the pass coming back to their man. A defender who might be more than one pass away should be at the MID-LINE IN HELP defense. Again, that depends on the defender relationship to the ball and the man in which they are guarding. Now, nobody does this better than Denton Guthrie's Alexander team. I know that, but lets not be confuse with the following defense.

Coach Guthrie also runs a sagging Man-to-Man defense against better players that they may face. In the late 80's it was called the Micheal Jordan tactic. It is as follows. Against a great player a SAGGING MAN-TO-MAN defense allows a teams BEST DEFENDER to COMPLETELY DENY the star player the ball and limit their offensive touches, THIS IS CALLED FACE-GUARDING. Face-guarding because the defender is looking at the player NO MATTER WHERE THE BALL IS, THEY ARE NOT IN HELP DEFENSE, THEIR JOB IS NOT TO ALLOW THE OTHER TEAM "STAR" TO GET THE BALL. The other four defenders play off their man, SAGGING, to keep them in front of them, because there may be no help defense if they were to get beat off the dribble. If their player pull up for a shot, the defender aggressively close out (contesting a shot with a hand up) and box out. This defense is akin to a Box-and-one. The point of this defense is not to let "Micheal Jordan" beat you.

However, a true Box-and-One is a ZONE defense with one defender (usually the best defender) FACE-GUARDING the other team's star player. The other four play a two-two zone, two players at the elbows of the key and two players on each block guarding areas on the floor, ZONE defense. This defense is usually employed by teams that might not be as athletic as their opponent and/or because they are bigger than their opponent.

These are the kind of defenses that Tori Dixon has faced all year. Whether it was a face-guarding Man-to-Man or a true Box-and-One, she has not been played straight up on. And as I have said before, we could argue whether not that these kind of defenses is called a "junk" defenses, some coaches call it "junk" and there are some who do not. However, do not miss the point that there different subtleties that might go unnoticed doing the course of a game.

[Pol pot]

I still fail to see how you call Man to Man "Junk", there is no one way to play Man. Call it what you will but Coach Guthrie plays man to man. You even say so yourself, but then you try and "explain" yourself.

Man to Man is Man to Man.

[hawkeyepierce]

Man to Man is Man to Man.

No it is not, there are different kinds of Man-to-Man defenses. Just as there are different species of dogs, flavors of ice cream, and wait for it...

wait for it...

basketball defensive philosophies.

[IMK01]

Especially after the tournament game last night, my vote (if I had one) would go to Tori Dixon. That girl can flat out play ball and I've seen her play since she was in 5th/6th grade. Kudos to her for staying at Vinton County while some of her teammates transferred to Oak Hill. I admire her for sticking with her school.

[mhs95_06]

Especially after the tournament game last night, my vote (if I had one) would go to Tori Dixon. That girl can flat out play ball and I've seen her play since she was in 5th/6th grade. Kudos to her for staying at Vinton County while some of her teammates transferred to Oak Hill. I admire her for sticking with her school.

Is performance last night legit for considering league POY since it was not a league game? Are there still league games left? If not don't they vote once league play is done, and just not announce it until later?

[IMK01]

Tori played well all season and has been a top-notch player her entire high school career. That's what I was basing my "opinion" on, not just last night.

[Apollo]

Especially after the tournament game last night, my vote (if I had one) would go to Tori Dixon. That girl can flat out play ball and I've seen her play since she was in 5th/6th grade. Kudos to her for staying at Vinton County while some of her teammates transferred to Oak Hill. I admire her for sticking with her school.

You are going to have to enlighten me. I only know of one teammate who transferred to Oak Hill.

[IMK01]

Oh, sorry - my bad. I thought there were 2 girls who switched schools. However, I am not from Vinton County, so maybe I spoke out of turn?

[mhs95_06]

Tori played well all season and has been a top-notch player her entire high school career. That's what I was basing my "opinion" on, not just last night.

But isn't the award the 2009-2010 league player of the year? Shouldn't only this season's league games be considered?

[Apollo]

Oh, sorry - my bad. I thought there were 2 girls who switched schools. However, I am not from Vinton County, so maybe I spoke out of turn?

I assumed you were from V.C. because of your stating you have watched her since she was in the 5th or 6th grade. I can't imagine someone traveling too far to watch elementary kids play ball!

[93Bulldog]

If I had a vote I would seriously consider MORGAN GRINSTEAD from Alexander ... If the Spartans hadn't just flat out dominated every team in the Ohio, I would think different ... but they did. GRINSTEAD has been their facilitator all year. She doesn't always lead them in scoring and she's not real flashy - but Alexander would not have won all their league games without her. She is always handling the ball, she is super clutch from the free-throw line and she did have a few really, really good games during league play ... the 1st VC game in McArthur she darn near had a triple double. She can pass, shoot three's, score in the paint, she runs their offense well and she can play defense ...

In a year where there is no real clear cut favorite for the award, another coach can always just look at the best teams most valuable player and IMO, its Grinstead.

[ervbaseball13]

This is a Player of the Year award not Player of the Career award. The Dixon girl has had a great career at Vinton and a good senior season. This award is based on the 12 TVC OHIO games you play and for 4 of those 12 games she scored a total of 14 pts. You can say all you want about the D she faced being this or that but simply put she had one girl to beat in the box and one Athens played her and the man Alex played. The Daugherty girl the first, the Radekin in the second for Alex and whoever Athens put on her and she couldn't get the job done. If you think she is the best player in the the league whats that say for the girls that stopped her in those 4 games? Like I said, if its 1 or 2 games not all 4 I'm right there with all you sayin its Dixons but with the 4 of the 12 league games she was shut down, this award is up for grabs. If you write down all the stats from the young ladies that will be put up for the award and not put a name with it, her season stats would not blow the others out of the water because those 4 games leveled the playin field and would make it hard for anyone to decide who wins the award. All these young ladies are very deserving of the award especially the Dixon girl. If the coaches vote for what these young ladies have done this year and not think back to what someone has done in the past its a toss up. Good luck to all the young ladies put up for this award, WHOEVER WINS IT WILL BE VERY WELL DESERVING.