goofoti32

Cusano graduated

1. Radford 2. Gate City 3. GW 4. Richlands 5. Graham 6. Lebanon 7. Eastside 8. Union 9. Chilhowie 10. Honaker 11. Abingdon 12. Burton 13. Castlewood 14. Va High 15.Hurley 16. Fort Chiswell 17. Lee 18. Marion 19. Grayson 20. Wise Central

Hurley will have a say in 47 for sure.

Lost one starter from last year. The Helton kid belongs in the discussion of the best shooters in the area.

Ridgeview and Battle both lost a ton from last year-not sure what either team has in the system to replace. Va High only had a couple of seniors last year, and I would expect them to bring in a few recruits/transfers before the season starts. Don't know much about Lee other than their stud last year was a senior and they have a new coach now.

I would say Ball's future is in football, but Phillips has been on several visits to smaller schools.

Union lost quite a bit from last year-surprised to see them listed as top 3 but they do have a dynamic duo in Slagle and Mitchell. Graham will be strong again this year. Timmons will have VA High on the rebound shortly, as I imagine he will bring several recruits. Honaker also with a couple of 6'4 recruits and bringing back 3 or 4 starters from a team that went undefeated in the regular season.

You referred to him as "not a strong guard" in terms of D1 talent, which I generally disagreed with due to my own assessment of him having seen him on multiple occasions over the past few years, not to mention his multiple D1 offers as junior. Perhaps you are in Richmond where there is a lot more high quality talent-but I feel like his ceiling is that of a mid-major starting guard--which in our area is pretty lofty. After a bit of back and forth, we are probably pretty close in our opinions of the kid as a player, but even if not reasonable minds can always disagree

In what objective respect does he "not project well?" He's not projecting as a high level ACC level player but that's mostly due to him being only about 6' and not having top line quickness. Kid can windmill at 6' and has a frame that can put on some muscle so the athleticism is certainly D1 level. At our level he can finish at the rim with but I would agree that he will likely have trouble translating that to the college level. His midrange game is top line due to the elevation he gets on his jumper if he puts the effort in to become a quality shooter he can be a pretty good guard at the mid-major college level just off of shooting the ball. The physical tools are certainly there- If people are talking about him being in the ESPN 100 then they definitely need to be given a reality check-but for our area he is the very definition of elite and is certain to get a full ride to a D1 school which would make him the strongest guard in the area.

McClung not a strong guard? LOL-you need a better informant.

And they took the 3B from Lebanon too.

On the boys side, doesn't Ridgeview lose their entire starting 5 to graduation? Battle also graduates a ton, top 3 scorers I believe. Lee loses their best player as well. Central should be on the rise, as they won't lose anyone of note from this year. Lebanon only had one senior this year-so they will return a lot from a team that finished third. Union and GC look like the two teams most able to absorb their senior departures, and in GC's case they can always reach across state lines to reload. I would predict on the boys side Gate City Union Lebanon Central Ridgeview Battle Lee

Graham handles the ball well and is well-coached, I thought it was a good move not to press. Pressing GC is probably an even taller task...I would be shocked if Richlands came with anything other than token pressure.

Having seen both teams on the surface it would appear that Union has the huge advantage, but Graham is well coached and I think they have a pretty large advantage when it comes to tactics. Home court won't matter much here, as the kids from Union will play better in a hostile environment (that is not Gate City). I see Graham playing a lot of zone-they have size inside that can bother Barnette. Union can struggle to score at times, especially if they can't get easy buckets on turnovers. Defensively I think Graham will be ok, the problem is that you have to score to win. Union has the athletes to really smother you in the halfcourt if you don't have an elite athlete like McClung to break them down, and I think Graham depends a lot on Workman penetration to score and that may not be available against Union's length and athleticism. I'll take Union in a low scoring affair.

GC defense nowhere near it's usual level this year, and that will play a factor in this game. The shots will be there for Richlands, the question will be if they can make enough of them. I think they need to hit at least 9 threes to win the game, and that could be a challenge GC offense a three headed monster, and with Richlands being exclusively a zone team Barnes will probably get plenty of looks, which will in turn open up driving lanes. I will be curious to see what happens if the game gets really up and down. GC only goes about 7 deep, but they excel in transition. Richlands is built for a war of attrition-if there are a lot of fouls called then a high paced game with lots of attacking could favor their depth.

This one will come down to 3 point shooting. Both teams have a lot of firepower.

Even with a loss to Lebanon GC would still have tiebreaker over Union based on H2H and Lebanon cannot improve upon 3rd. I think boys seedings are set in stone at 1.GC 2.Union 3.Lebanon 4.Battle 5.Ridgeview 6.Lee 7.Central

GC and Lebanon game is meaningless on the boys side-don't know about the girls side.

Not sure what makes Eastside overrated-Cusano one of the best players in the area and they play extremely hard.

Barry Reed

Did they play again? I saw a score from the Wise tourney where Tigers only won by a few.

Didn't Lebanon almost beat Honaker? Why is winning a close game a bad thing?

From my understanding it was offered to three different people before finally Fred...

They will have to send rings to a lot more schools than just Honaker. Battle, Dobyns-Bennett, Tazewell, and a couple Sullivan schools and everywhere else they recruited from.

Which is crazy, because if any team should be able to grind it out it should be a team with two skilled big men. Lebanon had the same problem last year when they had Robinette-they were a run and gun team and couldn't figure out how to play in the halfcourt.