Midseason Report Card: Upperman Lady Bees and Bees

With basketball season in full swing and district play ramping up, UCR’s Rusty Ellis and Michael Lindsay have graded each team’s performance to this point. Grades were decided upon using multiple factors including win-loss records, quality of wins and preseason expectations for each school.

Lady Bees: A

Overall Record: 16-2 (1-1)

Key Wins: Oakland, Providence Christian, Westmoreland, Greeneville

Reasoning: We only have one A+ on both sides, so the Lady Bees come in with a solid A. Dana McWilliams has her team playing great basketball right now with losses to two really good teams in White County and Alcoa. Their best basketball is likely still ahead of them, and there’s nothing at this point and time saying the Lady Bees can’t win another gold ball.

How to Improve: Do what you’ve done and win the district and region. When you win as much as Upperman does, the bar is set extremely high. The goal is championships every year, so if you want to improve on an already high grade, the best way to do so would be winning the best Class AAA district in the state and then following it up with another region championship.

Bees: A

Overall Record: 11-2 (2-0)

Key Wins: White County, Siegel, Huntland

Reasoning: The Bees are off to an excellent start this season with an 11-2 record, and they’re an easy A grade. They’ve got some good wins and they’ve continued winning despite A.J. Nash going down with an injury. Players like Hayden Petty, Jaxson Bush and Bronzden Chaffin have all been key contributors on a deep team for head coach Bobby McWilliams. The boys district tournament is going to be a gauntlet.

How to Improve: Win the district and earn a substate game. Give yourself a shot at going to Murfreesboro, and see what happens from there. Again, it’s really challenging to improve on an A, but there’s plenty of reason to believe the Bees have another gear they can reach with district play really heating up.