mhsalum

I'm thinking that the MHS QB threw only 4 passes Friday night. that hasn't been their normal M.O. this year. pretty sure the whole crowd just sort of glossed over this game and it showed. but even while pretty much going through the motions for a lot of that game, it was still a 4 score game. grundy had right at 100 yards of total offense until that late scamper. it's fairly simple in my mind, if they come out flat and play uninspired like they did Friday, then they may very well get beaten by 35. if they show up the way they have in the bigger games this season, graham still may win, but it certainly won't be a runaway --- and the dogs have all the tools to disappoint some swva folks. and yes, it goes without saying that basketball is kind of a big deal here!

in fairness......the various recruiting services list Darius George as a 6'6 shooting guard or wing. he began his freshman season as a 6' guard, so I guess this growth spurt doesn't just automatically make him a true post player. the other young man does play more as a true post player, but he's not a banger as of yet really either.

lee's 6'7 guys were both there last year and they were a borderline top 10 caliber team for most of the year. from what I've seen, the senior (Marshall commit) falls in love with the perimeter too much (thanks aau). he could dominate at the 2A level if he'd stay on the block more. the other guy is a junior this year and from the game I saw, he's just not nearly as polished. two 6'7s is still hard to match up with on this level. also, morton-robertson at radford is just a sophomore. he did play JV as an 8th grader though.

back to football for a minute, and more specifically, the power points. not trying to single out graham really, but let me get this straight. the G-men sit at an average of 24.00 points at the moment. they'll play Bland tonight and get 18 for the win, moved up to 20 for the classification points and rewarded 8 more points for bland's 4 wins. that's 28 points, 4 more than their current average, even before rider points are added in. so their average will go up fairly significantly (at least for this late in the season) for a win over a 1A team that recently lost by 4 scores to narrows and 3 scores to grayson. that makes perfect sense vh$l

6' as a sophomore guard is a decent size. He doesn't need to be 6'3 or 6'4 to play college basketball. And along those lines - is he a redshirted sophomore? How about Ervin? That guy certainly didn't look like he was 14 years old to me.

State title number 15 for the Dogs. Holding back to back opponents at the final four under 40 points is pretty darn impressive.

With all due respect to Gate City, I really don't think (for multiple reasons) that the first game in Wise was a good indication of what kind of team MHS has. The Devils just plain ran into a buzz saw today.

Hoping Martinsville can pull this one out ... and bring another state title home!

Also, this is the unbelievable 25th trip to the final 4 for the Bulldogs.

Three of Martinsville's regular season opponents (5 games total) are still alive in their respective final 4s. Radford in 1A, Northside in 3A and GW in 4A.

I've got a good video of the half time entertainment last week at Bluestone. They played "Watch me whip, watch me Nae Nae" and invited folks to come out on the court to dance. One kid in particular stole the show!

Reread the post. He was saying that 2 of Bluestone's losses came to a team with the #9 player. He was referring to Keldon Johnson of Park View-South Hill. Johnson set the freshman scoring record for the state of Va just last year.

Yea, GC was knocked out of the playoffs by MHS 2 years ago at Floyd County.

Yea. Mason beat Martinsville for the state championship in soccer last spring. Their soccer program is ridiculously strong.

Maybe poor choice of words. I thought maybe my assessment may have just been an off night for Bluestone. But yours matched exactly what I saw. As for Mason's schedule. Jefferson, Stuart and Riverside won like 13 games between the 3 of them all season. Just because they're D5 doesn't make them good. MHS played fellow Piedmont District member D6 Franklin County twice. But they played 4 or 5 smaller schools that were better than the Eagles. Like I said, 28-0 is impressive regardless of the opponent. But if they had played some teams like Northside and GW-Danville, I have to wonder if they'd still be undefeated.

Just some ramblings and opinions here..... Oddly enough, Bearcat Bob and I have the same assessment of Bluestone. I saw them against Greensville last week. They certainly aren't a state tournament caliber team. Greensville got hosed on that tip-in that the refs counted after the buzzer, although I guess if Greensville isn't so careless with the ball (backcourt violation), it would've been them that took the last shot. I also agree with him that Bluestone never ran an offensive set and that the 5'8 PG is probably their best player. What I do wonder about is George Mason. Who has Mason played? The wins they were hanging their hat on were the 3 against Madison County. Then Madison County can't even beat this mediocre Bluestone team we're talking about?? Mason did squeeze by Bruton by 5 points. That appears to be a good win, albeit a little too close for comfort. In the end, their impressive record of 27 or 28-0 is kind of hard to argue with. Martinsville laid a bit of an egg against Gate City and was fortunate to leave the gym with the W. Gate is certainly a great team, but I can't help but feel like the Dogs underestimated their opponent. That didn't happen Saturday in a convincing win over a Dan River team that the guys are a lot more familiar with. Things should get interesting along those lines, though, because it would appear that MHS and Gate could very well meet again in the state semis. I think it will be Mason versus Dan River in the other semi.

MHS has it squared away already. I can't speak for DR. They do play the earlier game so they could possibly hit the road as soon as it's over and drive back again on Saturday. Then again, DR is another 45 minutes further away from Wise than M'ville is, so staying over night is probably the best decision if they want to play well and have any legs under them on Saturday.

Nope. The word I got is that no matter who the opponent is....win, lose or draw on Friday, MHS will play again at Wise on Saturday.

Through 24 games, Martinsville is allowing only 42.4 points a game. Only 5 opponents reached the 50 point plateau, with one of those (Northside) scoring 60.

No. A team will actually lose both games at Wise and still advance to the state tournament. All this weekend does is sort the teams in the east and the west into the top 4 seeds.

Yes. They did it 2 years ago as well. And if things go well tonight at the Doghouse, they'll be driving to UVA-Wise later this week.

My dad and PDfan are driving all the way from M'ville, so that little 2 1/2 hour jaunt from Blacksburg is nothing!!

I noticed that Gate and MHS have a common opponent played at the same venue. Gate City beat Floyd 66-58 at Floyd. MHS won 75-38 at Floyd. Graham and MHS also have a common opponent played at the same venue. The G-Men beat Giles 70-60 at Giles. MHS won 91-38 at Giles. (Graham did beat them by 20+ in Bluefield) Union and MHS don't have any common opponents.

You really don't see it all that often. Unless it is said by some of us folks that are a little older. It's also on the front cover of every MHS yearbook. Anyways, MA = Martinsville, VA = Virginia, HI = High School. MAVAHI

It's not Martinsville's offense that I'd be the most concerned with. It's their defense. If their D is turned up, it's going to be a long night for whomever they play. In retrospect, I think that's a large part of why Graham had them on the ropes last year. Graham had really good guards out front who weren't all that rattled by the pressure (along with the fact that Martinsville had probably their worst shooting performance of the year). I also think that the kids will remember their trip to SWVA last year and won't let anyone hang around with them this time around. I really believe that the only way Mavahi falls to anyone out west is if a kid goes off for 30 on 8 or 9 threes (what happened at Radford) or if their aggressive style leads to foul trouble.