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#MarchToMacon: What we learned from AAAAAA championship

Tadric Jackson
9, Mar 2014

#MarchToMacon: What we learned from AAAAAA championship

The seven kings of Georgia have been crowned as Tift County beat Wheeler 63-49 on Saturday night in a very loud Macon Centreplex. The win was convincing. The win was also historic. Our HoopSeen.com team breaks down the storylines from the AAAAAA state championship.

State title or bust. From the time Tadric Jackson enrolled at Tift County High School the pressure to win a state championship fell squarely on his shoulders. Lofty expectations for a freshman but Jackson never worried about them. However, the Blue Devils struggled in getting to the finals because a metro Atlanta team stood in their way. This year, while still playing a national schedule, Tift County finally got its state title as Jackson delivered a Danny Manning like performance carrying all of South Georgia on his back to do it. - Robert Alfonso, Jr.

Defensive mentality developed in the summer. After losing at home in the state playoffs last season, Tift County knew changes needed to be made. This is when they hired assistant coach Chris Wade. The former college coach was instructed to improve the Blue Devils defense. This season opponents are only scoring 55 points a game against Tift County. Last season, they were scoring 58 points a game. While the marginal number is small the mindset grew. All the Tift County players brought into being a better defensive team and it showed at Columbus State in team camp. - RA

Wheeler was handcuffed. Jaylen Brown and Avery Patterson fouled out long before the game was even close to being over. The two scorers for the Wildcats could never really find a rhythm in the game. That was a telling part of the game. Tift County did a good job of earning the whistles, too. The Blue Devils took several offensive charges and made it very difficult for the Wildcats to score. Patterson finished with five points. He's been the team's most deadly three-point shooter all post-season long. He didn't make a three all game. - JY

History. Tift County did something that hasn't been done since 1998. The Blue Devils are the first non Atlanta area team to win the biggest state championship since Savannah won it. Tift County won it in 1996. Marietta, Berkmar, Wheeler, South Gwinnett, Norcross and Milton have all won it. Tift County joins an elite fraternity of champions in this stretch. - Justin Young

Legend status. The last time I've seen a player held in such high regard by a community like Tadric Jackson was Louis Williams and South Gwinnett. There could be a street named after the lefty in Tifton in the next year. He's a cult hero in South Georgia and will forever be linked in Georgia high school hoops lore as the pied piper for the Blue Devils. Fun to watch that storyline play out. - JY


Justin Young
Editor-in-Chief

Justin Young has been the editor-in-chief of HoopSeen.com since 2013. He manages the day-to-day operations on the site and in conjunction with our national and regional events. He was the national basketball editor for Rivals.com and a contributing editor at Yahoo! Sports. Young has been earned numerous awards for his work in sports journalism, including the Georgia Press Association Columnist of the Year. His Justin Young Basketball recruiting service has been in existence since 2002 and worked with over 300 schools from all levels. He is the director of HoopSeen Elite Preview camps and our national Preview camp series. 

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