Weekly Reports
May 18, 2011:
Welcome to another weekly report here on Teens for Tennessee. Today we will discuss NBA and NHL Playoffs and a review and schedule for the Vols this past week, and looking ahead to this week.
In the NBA Playoffs, we are down to the conference Finals, and four teams remain. In the East, Chicago, who beat the Hawks, has a 1-0 lead against the Miami Heat, who beat the Celtics. In the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder, who defeated the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 7, find themselves down 1-0 to the Dallas Mavericks, who swept the L.A. Lakers. My personal predictions would be Chicago and Dallas. Kevin Durant is a great player,and the Thunder is a great team, however I think Dallas has the veterans and the experience. In the East, Chicago had MVP Derrick Rose, and post player depth. Also, C.J. Watson, a former Vol, plays for the Bulls as backup to Rose.
In the NHL, We are also in the conference Finals. In the West, the Vancouver Canucks lead the San Jose Sharks 1-0, while in the East the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning are knotted up at one apiece. The Lightning are on a roll, and the Canucks have the best record in the NHL. I would not be surprised to see the two end up in the finals.
Let’s review what happened this past week in UT sports. In tennis, the men advanced past the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament beating Virginia Tech to get a spot in the round-of-16. In women’s tennis, the Lady Vols lost to Vanderbilt in the second round. The baseball team continued to lose (to Belmont), enough said. The softball team beat Georgia to win the SEC Championship, but ended up with a 14 seed.
To look ahead to this week, the softball team will be hosting a regional, playing Liberty on Friday in a four team double-elimination tournament. The tennis team will be playing at Stanford in the round-of-16.
This has been the Weekly Report for May 18, 2011. Come back next week for more on the world of sports.
Factoid of the Day: C.J. Watson is the only Vol currently in the NBA.
Griffin can be reached at teens4tn@gmail.com, or leave a comment. Enjoying teens4tn.com? Subscribe in the sidebar.
May 11, 2011:
by Griffin H.
Welcome to the latest edition of the Weekly Report. This week we will be taking a look at the NHL and NBA Playoffs, as well as the Tennessee basketball recruiting.
In the NHL Playoffs the West proved to be much tougher than the East in the conference semi-finals. In the East, the Tampa Bay Lightning swept the Washington Capitals, and the Boston Bruins swept the Philadelphia Flyers. The two will play each other for a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals. The first game of the series begins Saturday. In the West, the Vancouver Canucks eliminated the Nashville Predators :( 4-2, while the Detroit Red Wings forced a Game 7 with the San Jose Sharks. The winner will play Vancouver for a spot in the Finals.
In the NBA Playoffs the Dallas Mavericks surprised everybody by sweeping the LA Lakers. The Memphis Grizzlies and the Oklahoma City Thunder are tied up at 2 each. The Miami Heat lead the Boston Celtics 3-1 with a chance to put them away tonight, and the Atlanta Hawks trail the Chicago Bulls 3-2.
The Tennessee Men’s Basketball team has four current signees. The first is a point guard named Wes Washpun. Two other guards, Josh Richardson and Quinton Chievous, join Washpun. Also joining them, the latest edition, is a 6-foot-9 post player named Yemi Makanjuola who seems to be a great edition to the roster as another body in the post.
This has been the Weekly Report for the week of 5/11/11. Come back next week for more.
Factoid of the Day: Jarrod Shaw and Chris Walker are going to play for the Hartford Colonials in the United Football League.
Griffin can be reached at teens4tn@gmail.com, or leave a comment.
May 4, 2011:
by Griffin H.
Welcome to the first post in May, and also the weekly report this week. Today we will be talking about the NFL Draft, NHL Playoffs, and the NBA Playoffs.
Were there any Vols picked in the NFL Draft? No was the answer on Friday night. On Saturday, two Vols made guest appearances: TE Luke Stocker and WR Denarius Moore. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers drafted Stocker with their fourth-round pick, the 104th overall pick. Stocker doesn’t seem phased by the fall to the fourth round. He says, “Tampa seems thrilled to have me, and they had a pretty high grade on me.” The Oakland Raiders drafted Moore with their fifth-round pick, using the 148th overall pick.
In the NHL Playoffs, there are some surprises and not-so-surprises. In the East, the Tampa Bay Lighting have shocked the Washington Capitals, the one seed in the East, jumping out to a commanding 3-0 lead. Also in the East, we find the Boston Bruins leading the Philadelphia Flyers 2-0. In the West, the San Jose Sharks are attacking the Detroit Red Wings with a 2-0 lead, and the Vancouver Canucks, the overall one seed, struggle with the Nashville Predators, :), 2-1.
In the NBA playoffs, we find our teams in the middle of conference semifinals. The Miami Heat lead the Boston Celtics 2-0, and on the other side of the East the Atlanta Hawks find themselves a game up on the one seed Chicago Bulls 1-0. In the West, the Memphis Grizzlies and the Oklahoma City Thunder are all knotted up at 1 apiece, while the Dallas Mavericks lead the L.A. Lakers 1-0.
This has been the Weekly Report for the week of 5/4/11.
Factoid of the Day: Tennnessee had 9 players drafted in the 2000 NFL draft.
Griffin can be reached at teens4tn@gmail.com, or leave a comment
April 27, 2011:
by Griffin H.
Welcome to this week’s edition of the weekly report. Today we will cover the NHL Playoffs, the NBA Playoffs, look ahead to the NFL Draft, a brief walk around UT campus, and finally we are looking ahead to Fan Friday!
First, the NHL Playoffs. My team, the Nashville Predators, have Game 1 against the Vancouver Canucks tomorrow and the Detroit Red Wings and the San Jose Sharks will battle for the other spot in the Western Conference Finals. In the East, the Washington Capitals, as well as the Philadelphia Flyers have advanced to the 2nd round with the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadians tied up at three a piece and the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning are also tied at three.
Up next on our list of topics is the NBA Playoffs. Chicago and Boston are the only teams to advance to the conference semi-finals right now. In the East, the Miami Heat have the upper hand over the Philadelphia 76er’s 3-1, and the Atlanta Hawks are up on the Orlando Magic 3-2. In the West, the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder have 3-1 leads over the San Antonio Spurs, and the Denver Nuggets. The Los Angeles Lakers have a 3-2 lead over the New Orleans Hornets, and the Dallas Mavericks lead the Portland Trailblazers 3-2.
The final stop for our pro sports is the NFL Draft. This will not be much of a breakdown, just who I think will be the #1 pick this year. First, let’s look at the first 3 teams picking:
- Carolina Panthers
- Denver Broncos
- Buffalo Bills
- The Lady Vols tennis team have five all-SEC players, tying an all-time record
- Meanwhile, the basketball team cancelled their trip to Italy for many reasons including scheduling difficulties, and head coach Cuonzo Martin agreed to help Matt Painter in China this summer.
- And we end our stroll with the baseball game with MTSU cancelled due to weather.
April 20, 2011:
by Griffin H.
Welcome to the first edition of my weekly reports where I will talk a little about everything in sports. Mostly UT related, but I might throw in some grab bag things as well. Our list today consists of: The Dooley Rule, a look at Tennessee softball and baseball, NBA Playoffs, and the NHL Playoffs.
First off, let us begin by discussing the “Dooley Rule.” This is not the official name, but it will be called the Dooley Rule by most. As many of you remember in the North Carolina bowl game this past season, too many players were on the field for North Carolina, but they were still able to spike the ball to stop the clock and kick the field goal to send the game into overtime. Many fans, including myself, were not satisfied with the ending of regulation of that game and that was mainly due to those final seconds. To take a quote from the NCAA’s website, “Another new football rule that will be enforced is a 10-second rundown of the game clock if a team commits a foul that stops the clock in the final minute of both halves.” If this rule had already been in place last season, North Carolina would have been called for Illegal Participation, and the clock would have been run down 10 seconds, ending the game. It would have helped to have this rule four months ago, but I’ll take it. At least we have confidence when this scenario comes up again.
This brings us to our next topic, Tennessee Baseball. I know what your thinking, ‘who follows Tennessee baseball?’ right? Well I am not a big baseball guy, but I would much rather watch Tennessee baseball than the MLB. I do not follow baseball like I do football and basketball, but it isn’t fair to leave it completely out of the equation. The Vols are 21-15, the fourth best record in the SEC East, but their 4-11 SEC record puts them in 5th place behind Georgia and in front of Kentucky. The Vols are playing Western Carolina tonight, and will play Georgia on Friday.
The Lady Vols softball team, on the other hand, are having no trouble holding their own in the SEC. They are currently leading the SEC East, and are only second to Alabama in the SEC. The Lady Vols are 39-6, and 15-4 in the SEC. The Lady Vols are ranked fourth in the nation, tied with Georgia. The Lady Vols will play Mississippi State tomorrow night.
Finally, it’s time to talk about the pros. Let’s start with the NBA playoffs, that started this week. The Bulls, Heat, or Celtics could come out of the East, while the Lakers aren’t doing so hot with the New Orleans Hornets in the West. More on this as we get closer to the finals.
Our final topic is the NHL Playoffs. To be more specific, the Nashville Predators. I am a big Preds fan, and I naturally want them to win it all. They are currently in a series with the Anaheim Ducks. They lead 2-1, and play tonight at 8:30. Should they win the series, they can expect to play the Vancouver Canucks, who seem to be handling the Chicago Blackhawks.
This ends the Weekly Report, bringing you a recap in the sports world every week. Who knows what we will be talking about next week. Griffin can be reached at teens4tn@gmail.com, or leave a comment.
