McCallie’s Jr. Clay passes the ball to a teammate during a 66-37 McCallie victory over Howard at McCallie High School in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Thursday, December 11, 2014.There will be only one champion when the competition ends Tuesday in a deep and talented pool of boys’ teams competing in the Times Free Press Best of Preps Basketball Tournament at Chattanooga State.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be more than one winner.
The eight-team field taking the court Saturday in the Sports Spectrum-sponsored event includes three undefeated squads, two others with one loss and another with nine wins. Choosing a favorite to emerge as the champion is a popular debate, and though there are several options, coaches involved agree on one thing.
“I think it’s going to be the greatest field since I’ve been involved in it,” Baylor coach Austin Clark said. “There are so many good reasons to be in it – it’s in Chattanooga, we’re excited about playing, and we get to play teams we don’t usually get to play.”
Nearly every prep team will participate in some form of holiday tournament, but, as Tyner coach Keitha Booker noted, the better the competition the more it likely will help a team down the road when games really matter.
“Whether we win it or not, I think this tournament will help us tremendously, especially in our district tournament, where we’ve got a bunch of good teams,” said the 8-0 Rams’ coach. “We get a chance to see what we’re made of.”
Booker’s talented team is one of three pre-tournament favorites along with 7-0 Central and 9-1 McCallie. Central’s Pounders, who had a coming-out party in last year’s event, are eager to discover how they handle going from title hopeful to title favorite.
“When you get to this level – we’ve never been at the top – we’ve always been chasing somebody, so to be on the other end is an adjustment for us,” Central coach Rick Rogers said. “I know what it’s like to be the hunter; now we’re the team being hunted.
“We took the target off everybody else’s back and put it on ours.”
Hoping to join the contender party is 9-3 East Hamilton and 7-1 Arts & Sciences, while late-starting Marion County (3-0) is still trying to get in basketball shape after several of its players recently hit the court from the successful football team.
The smallest school in the field, CSAS, enters with little to lose and much to gain.
“They’re all good teams,” said coach Mark Dragoo, who begins play Saturday against Tyner. “If we get past the first game we have either East Hamilton or McCallie. East Hamilton won a tournament this past weekend. McCallie plays so many kids, so depth is always a challenge against them.
“We could sit back and pad our record, but a tournament like this will prepare us for the state tournament.”
Even the teams with losing records, Baylor and Ooltewah, are traditionally strong and could turn around their seasons over the next few days.
“We have a really young team that’s playing hard, and I’m proud of them,” said Clark, who is currently counting on five freshmen and sophomores among his top eight players. “They have their ups and downs. We’ve got to seek some consistency and it’s a process we have to go through, and this should help us.”
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22.