Heard that Nettleton won 66-51 if anyone wanted to know.

Raiders in da' house at 5-2!

It had to be tough on NP to have played Wynne to the buzzer the night before. So, good job on taking advantage of the situation.

I can definitely say that I didn't expect Nettleton to be in the top 4 at the halfway point.

Nettleton is very good this year. Some nights they play better than others, but
they have the ability to beat the the teams that they have lost too. Dont over
look the raiders.

Their top 5 are really good. As stated, they just don't have the gas to consistently keep up (or finish off) teams that are deep. Blytheville was short 4 players when we played at Nettleton and were still able to finish it off at the end.

About Blytheville's depth since you brought up being short 4 players. How deep are they really? When I've seen them this year it seems like they can only bring 1 or 2 guys off the bench without having a significant drop off in quality. What do you think Mike? Can they really go 8 or 9 deep and Hixon not get worried?

At the risk of making this a Blytheville thread, Mike, are you sold on this year's version of the Chickasaws yet?

I think we can legitimately go 8-9 deep in short bursts without a lot of worry. Hixson loves playing his bench though and almost always plays 12 players in every game.

We've had 3 consistent starters all year: Osagie, Cullins, Brooks. Howard seems to be fully back from his ankle/foot injury from football. So, that's now a top 4 of seniors. The other guard spot has been manned by Trey Woods, Jeramey Golden, Javis Williams, Darnell Humphrey and lately Dikembe Wells. That's 9 right there. And both George Merriweather and Larry Smith can handle some minutes in the post to give OJ a breather.

I don't think they could all play a ton of minutes and us be really comfortable, but in short outbursts, they are fine.

There are definitely some of those 12 that I wouldn't want in the game at the end of a close one. But, I've watched Hixson go with a couple of those in close games (probably to prepare them in case they have to be during state).

I wish I could have seen them Tuesday night. They are definitely coming together, but are in no way close to the two state title teams from this conference the past two years.

I do, however, think that we are still one of the favorites to win state, especially with the way OJ Cullins has been coming along.

OK, now that that's settled back to the Raiders. They must now go to Wynne,GT and Bly in the second half of the season. Three very tough road venues,but the Raiders could go 3-0 in those games. Two of which are on Tuesday nights.

The road win at NP on the back end of back-to-back nights is a big confidence booster. NP comes to our house on a Friday night and should be a big night. The Falcons will definitely be well rested by then provided all games go as scheduled.

As I said the Raiders and I'll include the Lady Raiders have a better than average chance to go 3-0 with those teams on the road. The OT road win at Batesville was a step in the right direction for the girls.

Speaking of Batesville, they come in between GT and BL for the Raiders. We can't overlook them. That's a nice little trap game, but it will be on a Friday so that will be an incentive to bring the crowd out.

Beebe girls are playing like dynamite right now, but no boys team has set themselves apart as yet. Boys wise having seen Wynne,Blytheville and Tech but not NP, I might have to give Tech the slight edge.

Boys wise Wynne is explosive and could go off at any minute on an offensive outburst. Blytheville's press is pretty good, but as Mike said, not like teams of the past. I can see them imploding at the end, but lately they seem to be putting it together. Two reasons: Hixson and Tyer. Bowlin keeps the Tech machine rolling. They nickel and dime you to death and then boom, they hit you with a run and where did it come from? The Raiders can beat you inside or out. When their outside shots are falling and that opens up the inside they are tough tough tough. And vice versa. They simply had a bad night against Tech and a great night against Wynne and poor judgements at the end cost them the Blytheville game. They didn't get outplayed, they got outlasted. IMHO.