Keith Rawls Jr. has admired his father’s basketball state championship ring countless times. He has held it, tried it on and several times heard his dad describe the feeling of winning a state championship.
Now Tyner’s senior guard wants a ring of his own and hopes this week ends with his own championship experience.
“The best advice he gave me was that we’re going to play in front of a lot more people but to remember the game is the same,” said Rawls Jr., one of the top reserves for the Rams. “I take a lot of pride in my job coming off the bench. I go into the game thinking I’m going to get my points but I won’t let you get yours.
“All I’ve dreamed of since I can remember was winning a state championship. Now we’ve got our chance.”
Rawls’ father played on Brainerd’s first state championship team in 1984. The younger Rawls and his Tyner teammates open the Class AA portion of the boys’ state tournament today against ninth-ranked Marshall County at 6 p.m. EDT at Middle Tennessee State University’s Murphy Center.
The 5-foot-9 Rawls, who averages 8.6 points, knows his job is to bring a spark of energy on both ends of the court when he gets into the game. His quickness and determination make him one of the Rams’ top defenders, according to coach Gerald Harris, and typically he is assigned to the opponents’ top scorer. Today that means guarding Marshall County’s Kedren Johnson, the state’s top junior prospect.
“We’ll have to try some different things against Johnson because everybody who has played him talks about his ability to score in bunches,” said Harris, who played against Rawls Sr. in high school and in college. Harris played at Tyner and MTSU, and Rawls Sr. played at Austin Peay after Brainerd and Hiwassee
“I told our kids that Johnson is going to have to be great for them to have success, so I think our guys will take that as a challenge,” Harris said. “Keith is one of those rare individuals that can give anybody problems because of his quickness, and he’s just a real hard-nosed competitive kid. When he comes into the game, there’s no letdown for us.
“He can score if that’s what we need, he’s a great rebounder for his size because his vertical (jump) is unreal, and he just has a knack for finding the ball. He’ll be ready to play. It’s always special for a kid to know they’re experiencing some of the same things their father did.”
Arts & Sciences (27-7) vs. Harriman (21-10)
Today, 11 a.m. EDT
* Players to watch: The Blue Devils are led by junior guards Dimitrique Inman (14 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 4.2 apg) and Darius Gallaher (10.6 ppg, 3 apg). Likewise CSAS’s top two scorers are junior guards, Alex Stallion (18 ppg, 6 apg, 4 spg) and Sharif Cobb (15 ppg, 3 apg, 2 spg), but the Patriots also have a scoring threat in 6-foot-6 sophomore Jackson Lenoir (12 ppg, 8 rpg). He will be matched up against Harriman’s 6-4, 265 post Shaquille Love, who was an all-region offensive tackle in football. Although Love has not been a scoring threat this season (averaging 3.9 points and making just 25 percent of his free throws), he sets interior picks to open the lane for other scoring options and he has 25 blocked shots.
* Tipoff tidbits: Harriman won the 1995 state championship but has not been to the state tournament since. The Blue Devils have made 48.8 percent of their 2-point field-goal attempts but only 27 percent of their 3-pointers and have shot just 58 percent from the free-throw line as a team. Eight of the Blue Devils’ losses came to Class A opponents. CSAS, which does not start a senior, lost just twice to Class A foes, to Friendship Christian in December and to Grace Academy in the district tournament final. The Patriots, who have won 17 of their last 18 games, avenged that loss in the region title game.
* Up next: The winner of this game will play the winner between top-ranked Clarksville Academy (33-2) and Wayne County (20-10) in a Friday semifinal at 11 a.m.
Grace Academy (22-7) vs. Oliver Springs (22-10)
Today, 4:15 p.m. EDT
* Players to watch: Grace Academy’s Brandon Herman is the program’s first Mr. Basketball finalist (27.4 ppg), and with more than 2,400 career points, he also is the school’s career scoring leader. Oliver Springs is led by seniors who average double-figure scoring and more than six rebounds each — Wesley Rather (17 ppg), Lucas Tarver (11 ppg) and 6-foot-7 Tyler Harper (10 ppg).
* Tipoff tidbits: Oliver Springs, which is in the state tournament for the first time since 1999, has won nine straight games coming in. Each team is seeking its first state championship. Six of Grace’s losses came to state tournament qualifiers — three to CSAS, two to McCallie and one to Tyner — and only one of those was by more than eight points. The Golden Eagles’ other loss was to Baylor by three.
* Up next: The winner of this game will play the winner between second-ranked Humboldt (23-5) and Westwood (23-7) in a semifinal Friday at 12:45 p.m.
Tyner (24-6) vs. Marshall County (26-5)
Today, 6
* Players to watch: All eyes will be on Marshall County junior Kedren Johnson (22.8 ppg, 8 rpg) who is one of the state’s top scorers and its top-rated junior prospect. He already has offers from Memphis, Louisville, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Alabama and scored 44 points in the Tigers’ region final. Tyner’s 6-foot-9 Michael Bradley has signed with Connecticut and 6-4 guard Thomas Cooper has signed with North Carolina A&T. Cooper returned to play in the final minutes of the state sectional, his first game action since breaking his left foot in December. Reggie Gilmore, a 6-6 senior, is another college prospect for Tyner, and junior point guard Travis Jones is a college football prospect.
* Tipoff tidbits: Marshall County has allowed just 48 points per game, while Tyner has scored 70-plus points 14 times. The Rams, who have won seven straight games coming in, are in the tournament for the first time in 11 years and haven’t gotten to the title game since 1990, when they were runners-up. The last southeastern Tennessee team to advance to the state title game in Class AA was Sweetwater in 1995.
* Up next: The winner of this game will play the winner between top-ranked, two-time defending champion Fulton and Bolivar Central.