In early colonial days, North Carolina was at one time given rights over land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, i.e., the right to issue land grants, etc., but later, the land west of the Appalachians became Territory South of the Ohio, then the failed State of Franklin (8 counties in East Tennessee) then in 1796, Tennessee was admitted into the Union at the 16th State.
Today, that territory contains the top four-ranked men's basketball teams in the Premier Division of the NCAA. This weekend, #1 Memphis hosts #2 University of Tennessee (Knoxville-main campus). Just to the East, in the parent state of North Carolina, we find #3 and #4 University of North Carolina and Duke University, close neighbors. The following weekend, #4 Duke hosts #3 North Carolina. Duke won the first meeting at Chapel Hill.
Today, that territory contains the top four-ranked men's basketball teams in the Premier Division of the NCAA. This weekend, #1 Memphis hosts #2 University of Tennessee (Knoxville-main campus). Just to the East, in the parent state of North Carolina, we find #3 and #4 University of North Carolina and Duke University, close neighbors. The following weekend, #4 Duke hosts #3 North Carolina. Duke won the first meeting at Chapel Hill.
Other ranked teams from this area this week are:
#16 Vanderbilt, from Nashville, TN
and in women's basketball,
#2 North Carolina, and
#3 Tennessee.
A hotbed?
Yep.
~ at least for now ~
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Top teams make Tennessee a hotbed for hoops
[left-side headline, front page, The Tennessean]
* * * * * * * * *
The day after this blog was published, David Climer, sportswriter for the Nashville Tennessean wrote this article, which appears front page,top left. His article contains, in addition to what was in my blog, the following current superlatives in Tennessee basketball which I did not include in my blog:
1. Memphis, Tennessee and Vanderbilt are virtual locks for the NCAA tournament.
2. Austin Peay is #1 in the Ohio Valley Conference and is a likely tournament participant.
3. Belmont leads the Atlantic Sun Conference and is angling for its third straight NCAA tournament.
4. The 25th-ranked Lady Commodores are poised to make their ninth straight NCAA tournament appearance.
5. MTSU's ladies are 2nd in the Sun Belt, also expected to appear in the tourney.
6. TSU's men knocked off two conference champions recently and are being eyed for a tourney spot.
The State of Tennessee's number of entries in NCAA tournaments is expected to be in the double digits and may exceed 10% of the entire tournament.
But David didn't have a cute map.
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