swva_havok_fan

Yeah I looked it up after I sent it... my bad.

Yeah, have to remember that all 3 of Honaker's losses came to 2A teams. Ridgeview x2 and Marion.

They were co-champions with Honaker in girls basketball in 2020 weren't they?

Love ya man, but I have to disagree with your first two points. The sports editor for the BHC now is..... Brian Woodson. Who used to work for..... the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. Woodson covers the 3 Tennessee schools the paper covers about 90% of the time. However, when he does cover the Virginia side, he is 100% Tazewell county. Mostly Graham... but all Tazewell County. Hayes is the 1A guy and Gregory is the 2A/Abingdon guy. I don't see any bias at all and if there was, I think it'd be for the SWD based on who the editor is and where he came from. I think I saw someone mention earlier in the thread about the Kingsport paper. The Kingsport paper only covers one SWD team and that's Virginia High. Only other Virginia schools they cover is the M7 and the Cumberland. So that's obviously why you don't see much if any SWD players on their all-area team. I don't recall if there were any but if there were, it was probably only Stevie Thomas or maybe Patrick Poku as well.

Seems bigger than that... That surprises me.

Pike County Central and Betsy Layne at the 15th Region tournament this weekend had a similar ending. A couple of Pike Central players were shoved hard to the floor during that melee. Officials and coaches quickly got order there though. One Betsy Layne player left the bench and was ejected as well as the two Betsy Layne players who shoved. No one from Pike Central was tossed.

So, on Saturday, I decided to make the drive over to Pikeville to watch the 15th Region basketball tournament at Appalachian Wireless Arena. A couple of observations: The girls championship game between Lawrence County and Pikeville was very high level. Pikeville defeated Ridgeview during the season by close to 50 if I recall. Both of these teams would beat any team southwest Virginia or northeast Tennessee has to offer and it wouldn't be close. Folks in Kentucky love their hoops. I am not sure of what the capacity of Appalachian Wireless Arena is, but the Buck Van Huss Dome in Kingsport holds 4,200 and AWA is much larger. I'd guess it holds around 7,500. The arena was probably 75% full on Saturday. Around 6,000 people at a region high school basketball tournament is very impressive.

UVa-Wise has NFHS capability now. Enough folks complained about the Region 2D tournament not being streamed, so the Prior buckled down and got the stuff to make it happen, I reckon.

Yes that's accurate... same situation when Farragut travels to play us tonight in the sectional.

Maybe he don't like Union? Lol.

Something isn't right in that whole county... glad I left it 15 years ago...

A lot of folks have known this for some time, wasn't really a surprise.

Just saw that Williams scored 48 last night. Pretty impressive and a school record at that, so congratulations to him on a great performance.

Yeah, Gate City is like that as well for sure. When D-B played there a couple of weeks ago, I went to that end and sat before most of the Gate City crowd showed up. I ended up sitting in a sea of blue. They were nice and didn't treat me and my fiancee bad for cheering the visiting team though. At Union and Central and Ridgeview, the benches are on the home side... I have never really noticed if away fans sit on that side or not. I haven't at Ridgeview.

I'll take your word for it... Ridgeview has had some ugly fan incidents in the past for sure. The Grayson County football game from a few years back comes to mind.

I can respect that... we see it through different colored glasses. I'll be the first to admit, Ridgeview definitely has some whiny fans... some I'll even go as far to say as embarrassing.... but refs were still bad for both sides and everyone here is saying it was one sided. It wasn't. Like I replied in the other thread... I'm just old school... home side and visitor side. If Marion parents want to sit behind their bench, maybe the bench should be moved to the home side. Guess I need to get with the times.

Just the way Marion fans that were sitting on the Ridgeview side were acting I guess... I guess they do it to sit behind their bench, but I guess I'm old school, in that there's signs labeled home and visitor. Or at least if you're going to sit on the wrong side, at least don't taunt the other team's fans.

One big job, if rumors are true, may be coming open soon... Hope it's not true, but the rumors won't die, so there's that.

First of all, being there live last night... The refs were atrocious. For both sides. Not just Marion. Both sides. makes me glad I live on the Tennessee side now where for 51 weeks out of the year, refs are pretty fair. Arby's Classic week being the only exception. I know one personally. Guy with glasses and hair was Matt Kegley. He's a piece of work. Just a bad bad person. For Union fans, he's the moron at the Arby's who always says very demeaning things about you and your players when you're playing, so I would watch out if you guys ever get him. He used to ref JV games in Tennessee, and he was bad there as well. Guess he had to go to the other side of the line where he fits in with the other bad officials. As for the officiating, #24 for Marion was carrying the ball every time down the floor. Every single time. He only got whistled for it once. #2 was pulling on Robinette's jersey every single possession. Only got whistled for it once. Sure Ridgeview committed a lot of fouls as well. The jump ball in the 2nd OT was just... Wow. The play at the end of the first OT was just mind blowing. As for the Marion fans sitting on the Ridgeview side... Why? To me, that's ridiculous. And then taunting as well... Not classy. It's something you see at Gate City as well. There were plenty of seats open on the home side, why not sit over there? I don't find myself ever pulling for Union hardly, but I'm hoping that they win by 40 on Friday night.

I'm just glad it's Marion that's going to get that 40 point beat down on Friday night and not the Pack. Never thought I'd pull for Union in anything but after last night, I'm all in for one night at least.

Brandon

Where are the Region 1D and 2D tournaments this year? 1D is usually held at Wise if it's the Cumberland's turn. At SWCC if it's the Black Diamond's, but I have no clue if it's the Hogoheegee's turn who would host. I'm assuming Lebanon as their gym is actually one of the largest in the area for any school. I'm assuming 2D is either at Wise or Virginia High? Edit: Confirmed. 1D is at Lebanon, 2D is at Wise.

Marion beats Virginia High 58-57. Ridgeview should go to Marion now. Virginia High should go to Gate City which could be fun. They had some nasty intense matchups several years back if I recall.

Don't discount Battle yet. They are sneaky good. Not saying they will beat Graham, but I bet it's closer than you may think.

Tomorrow