{"id":430422,"date":"2018-03-19T10:34:17","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T16:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/?p=430422"},"modified":"2018-03-19T10:34:17","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T16:34:17","slug":"listen-ums-wrights-napp-on-state-tournaments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/listen-ums-wrights-napp-on-state-tournaments\/","title":{"rendered":"LISTEN: UMS Wright’s Napp on state tournaments"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Scott McInnerney
\nWNSP Reporter<\/p>\n

MOBILE, AL \u2013 The Alabama State Finals for basketball are finished, and out of the seven classes, no schools from the Mobile area came away with a title.<\/p>\n

The closest a Mobile school came to winning a state championship is St. Luke\u2019s, who fell to Lanett in the Class 2A Finals 41-38. The school closest to Mobile with a state championship this year is Carver-Montgomery High School.<\/p>\n

\u201cBirmingham and Huntsville have a higher level of skill in their players than typically us in the South do,\u201d said UMS Wright basketball coach Michael Napp. \u201cThat\u2019s part of culture differences. That\u2019s part of where emphasis lies in families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mobile schools came away with two state titles in football last year, and schools in the area have at least one state title in five of the last six years. However, McGill-Toolen\u2019s state title in 2016 was the first time a Mobile school won in basketball since 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the schools up North, those kids play basketball a lot more months out of the year than our kids do, Napp said. \u201cThey are developing their skill throughout the year. You don\u2019t see many kids on the basketball team that are in other sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGill has made it to the state championship game in Class 7A in two of the last three years, including the victory in 2016 over Central High School.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish kids in Mobile played basketball longer,\u201d Napp said. \u201cIn Mobile, typically, they give that sport up.<\/p>\n

“Mountain Brook has one kid that plays football. McGill has five, and they played in the Class 7A Finals. The better players who are getting college scholarships are in the northern part of the state. They are single-mindedly playing basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more, you can listen to the full interview below and tune in to Sports Drive weekday afternoons from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.<\/p>\n\nhttp:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/UMS-Coach.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott McInnerney WNSP Reporter MOBILE, AL \u2013 The Alabama State Finals for basketball are finished, and out of the seven classes, no schools from […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4489,"featured_media":430427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,149,118,150,117,176],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-430422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured-news","8":"category-high-school","9":"category-hs-basketball","10":"category-local-sports","11":"category-news","12":"category-top"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Michael-Napp.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":430428,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430422\/revisions\/430428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}