UnionBears

Giving up home games to play GC in Wise was really, really bad. Giving up a state tournament game to play in Wise would be horrible. These kids and coaches deserve to play at home, please don't take it away from them.

You’d have to be a fool to play at Wise if Union is an option. I thought Goforth and the Wise ties were no longer with the school? Us giving up home games to play GC at Wise was bad enough.

The fact this game is at Union in BSG is huge, I think. We’ve not lost a home game to a VA school in two years. Hopefully we can stay out of foul trouble and hit a few more perimeter jumpers. What’s the skinny on JR?

If Ridgeview doesn't walk the dog in football and boy's basketball next season, it'll never happen.

I can’t find the game at Union but at Abingdon Osborne scored six points when the two played.

It won't be but honestly if Union beats GC by double digits, the entire first team should be Union kids. They've yet to play a district game within single digits. Reyshawn Anderson is Union's sixth man and would start for any other team in the league.

Union isn’t playing great and still beating everyone by double digits. It’s strange, not sure what it will take to get them back clicking. The potential is there, clearly. Everything is just odd. The team is the defending state champions, hasn’t lost a league game all year and the stands look like a pick up game at Carnes Gym. Very little buzz.

Can someone let the AOA officials know it is actually legal to dunk a basketball? A friend from Wise sent me a video of a dunk last night where the kid was assessed a technical foul for simply dunking the ball on a rebound. I've also seen Union be assessed a technical foul for dunking as well when the kid could either come down on top of a RV player or hold on for less than two seconds. Officials - Let the Kids Make Athletic Plays!

According to the paper, Abingdon shot under 30% for the game. It’s hard to lose when you play defense like that.

How will that be broken? I'd like to go see these games if this comes to fruition.

That may end up being very beneficial to Union down the road, some kids had to step up with Bunch out. The one thing Union always does is play defense and it helped tonight. The weakness of the M7 is starting to concern me though, Union has yet to play a league game within 15 points.

At this point I would favor Burton in the district. Campbell back scoring and honestly think they are better coached than the other contenders outside of Damron at Eastside.

Where are the A and AA tournaments this year? I've lost track due to COVID, I know last year had Graham won Union was going to Graham so does that mean it's the Mountain 7 hosting?

GC just hasn’t been able to score since Dean left 2 yrs ago. Union won the JV game in a blowout as well, GC may have upper hand next season with McMurray but long term it appears this rivalry has flipped. The Bears have won 4 in a row in the series.

Thoughts on this one? This is the one opponent that concerns me.

Union played poorly, think not playing for so long led to rust. Basketball is so bad here right now, the Union team last year would smoke this bunch. Abingdon just turns it over way too much to be highly successful right now. Union better be finding a bench, can’t play 6 kids only.

It never ends with Central boys bball. If an issue takes place around here, you can bet they are involved. Thankfully, nobody was hurt.

Central has now lost it's boys basketball coach and football coach in less than six months.

With the exception of Mack Shupe, no boys coach in any sport has ever has sustained success in Wise. These are the same people who ran off Jim Riggs, Al Stecker and Kevin Saunders, never forget that.

I agree, until someone does something with John Marshall they won't lose. Had they been AA the year GC won, they would've beat them too and that GC team had a NBA player and a D1 player on it. The same season JM won the AAA title by over 20 points. It's just sad and the VHSL turns a blind eye to it.

They are an unstoppable force. A recruited AAU team playing AA basketball, not sure when they lose state. What's scary and nobody talks about is their enrollment. Despite being in Richmond, they only reported just 496 kids last year after having right at 1,000 just 10 years ago. If you think its bad now, wait til they drop to single a ball.

Both have turned heads in the early going are either or both real contenders? I think Twin Springs has to be a favorite to play in the state tournament, Ridgeview I'm not as sold on with their schedule. To those that have seen these teams, what say you?

GC beat Volunteer just like Union did, I’m not ready to hand the Bears anything yet.

Union still hasn’t found its way. Very experienced team that doesn’t quit, they could easily be 1-5 but are 4-2. They’re 10-15 points better than Volunteer, I’d say they shot less than 50% from foul line today and probably not 15% from 3. They just don’t quit and are still down their PG, when he comes back they could be very good on D with Honeycutt, Bartee and Anderson on the floor together. Today was the best I’ve ever seen Reyshawn play. Obviously he hit the buzzer beater but his hustle play to save the ball with a perfect pass to Bunch on the previous possession was a tougher play. Maybe this will spark him?

Union needs to get their team healthy and play for a few weeks and figure out who they are. They rely too much on Bunch right now, when they are healthy they should be able to lock teams down. This could offset a sub par shooting game by Bunch, right now they can’t do that.