Great City

Got to be outr worst three point shooting game of the year. Stillonly down by 7 End of third. Wings 50 GC. 43

Halftime. Wings. 35 GC. 31. Great effort so far by GC. Just missed a lot of 3s early, and Wings was on fire.

I'll be there. Will try to post some updates.

I have started to type my prediction a couple of times, but my thoughts on the game keep changing. I am still not sure what I want to predict. Wings should be the most talented team we play this year. They are going to score. I saw where they put up 95 points on a team out of Manhattan. I really worry about Mac getting in foul trouble in this one. We are going to need him to help break the press, and to penetrate and find an open man for a 3. Zac and Dean could do this against weaker competition, but we are going to need all 3 to try and stay in this game. If we shoot the ball like we have been, I think we can stay within 15 points. If we don't, this will end up being a 30+ points loss. The only prediction I feel half-way comfortable making is that I believe this is going to be an exciting game.

E.Z............I would suggest that you come to Bristol on Wednesday at 4:00 PM and watch 3-4 games. The quality of basketball you will see is pretty impressive. You will get to see Christ School out of NC, Sandy Creek out of Georgia, Wings Academy from NY, Blanche Ely from Florida, Washington Park from Wisconsin, and Tabernacle from the Bahamas. So far this year we have not been a great rebounding team. (I did not see the Knox Christian game. They had some tall kids, but we found a way around that.) We have also not had to deal with any full court pressure for any length of time. Not sure how much pressure Wings will apply. I did not find very much footage on youtube. What I did find showed Wings running either a 1-2-2 or 1-2-1-1 zone press. Looks like they also like to get the ball out quickly and get it down the court. They are also not afraid to shoot the 3. We have a bunch of new kids who have not gotten many varsity minutes. We lost 8 seniors last year. I expect Wings will be much deeper than we are. Like River said, we have to hope that we are on fire from behind the line, and we need to get them in some foul trouble. If nothing else, we are going to learn what we need to improve.

"The City" is in reference to the team Gate City will be playing in the Arby's. Not a reference to Gate City. We are playing Wings Academy from the Bronx, NY. By all means make the trip down from Radford and watch as much of the Arby's as you can. it is an impressive tournament. Not sure I would say we are a "dynastic program", but we have had a pretty decent basketball program for many years. We have been able to reload, when players graduate, for many years. (We graduated 8 seniors last year.)

I think Scotty will deepen the bench more when we face some weaker teams. Ervin 36 Mac 26 Dean 14 George 5 Compton 2 With Collier out, no senior scored tonight. 3 freshman and 1 sophomore scored 57 points. Impressive win.. Played this team last week and won by 7. Won by 33 tonight. Still kind of curious how we will handle full court pressure. Still worried about facing a team with a powerful post player, but....real impressed with what I see for a team having 4 games under it's belt. Looking forward to playing Wings Academy next week. They will definitely show us where we need to improve.

The good thing about having Dean is that when Mac penetrates, Dean's man has to either come off him to help with Mac (which leaves Dean wide open. His set shot is not an issue), or stay on Dean (which makes it too easy for Mac to penetrate._ Same can be said for Ervin. Defense has to help with Mac....leaving someone open..........or not help with Mac, and Mac scores 40+ a game.

Glad to see GC finally dropping Bluefield. Daniel Boone will be tough, but it will me a much better gate for us. Not sure Bluefield brings 100 fans when they come to GC

I was told that you have to assume that you will get 3 games at Arby's, and any "extra" games have to be benefit games. But......I am wrong a lot. Sure hope we can hang with Wings.......for a while.

The schedule I have says 6:00 PM. http://ballcharts.com/teams/schedule.php?team=GATECITYHSBLUEDEVILS

First game at The Arby's is against The Wings Academy out of the Bronx, NY. That team finished 22-4 last year. Was ranked 11th in the state of New York. Going to be a challenge to get in the winner's bracket.

Got to agree...........with all the hype surrounding this team, and the pressure that comes with that, last night was a pretty good showing in front of a packed house. The Good: Defensive hustle. Defense will be improved this year. Speaking of defense, we really did not do much (if any) full court man-to-man last night. It was mostly pick up your man at half court. Not sure if Scotty is doing this to help keep Mac & Zack out of foul trouble, or if it will be more a season long strategy. Potential on the bench. A lot of people forget that GC lost 8 seniors last year. Bench is pretty much entirely brand new. These kids should get some playing time early in the year and be a real asset toward the end of the year. Like RiverRat pointed out.........those kids on the bench will get after you on defense. Our schedule. During the first three weeks of the season, GC will "get" to play Knox Christian, Wings Academy out of the Bronx, NY, and another quality opponent at Arby's. Those games will definitely show us what we need to work on, and will hopefully keep the kids "grounded". The freshman Dean is the real deal. Once he gets some more varsity games under his belt, people will hear more about him. Possibly the best pure shooter ever at GC. Only problem.........might not be enough shots to go around with Mac & Zack on the team. We handled THS press extremely well for it being our first game. Mac's decision making. Last year the potential for Mac to get a little out of control was always present. Last night he seemed to make more "mature" decisions. Needs some work: Rebounding. Rebounding. Rebounding. We gave up WAY too many offensive rebounds. A decent rebounding night would have easily eliminated 14-16 points. Too many bad passes and missed, short shots last night........but that should improve as the season gets longer. Would love to see us have more kids scoring. Hopefully more kids will get involved on the offensive side during the second half of some games early in the year. There will be games where 1-2 of the "big three" will have off nights. Would be real handy to have some offensive confidence in some kids when that happens. Can't change: Still wish we had a 6'11' exchange student from Croatia to stick in the middle. Lack of a true big man may hurt us at some point. I can easily see teams pounding us in the middle, and getting Zach and others in foul trouble. Expectations. Lots of pressure on this team already. Next year will be worse. Just got to take it game by game and try to improve each week. How do kids jump so high these days? When I was in high school many moons ago, it was impressive if a local team had one kid who could dunk in warm-ups. Last night GC had 5-7 kids dunking in warm-ups. Mac drove into the lane early in the game for what I assumed would be a finger roll......and then bam! Dunk.

Congrats Richlands!

EZ.......I think how far GC advances in the playoffs does DEPEND on the play of the "new" kids. Mac, Zac, and Collier will form a great nucleus to build a team around, but the younger kids will have to step up for GC to make it to Richmond. We can't depend on those 3 to carry the entire load. Kids have to rest. Kids get in foul trouble. Kids have off nights. Kids get sick. I copied the info below from Mac's Mom's FB page. Just sharing. Prep Hoops VHSL Rankings: Point Guards 5-1 (All Classes) #5 Mac McClung | Gate City | 2018 Mac McClung #5 Gate City is officially on the map, and they can thank McClung for that. Sure they have a top 10 kid in our 2019 class in Zac Ervin, but the buzz that McClung creates through his play is unreal. The 6’1″ pasty point guard has mixtape handles, a motor that never stops and he has bounce that will shut the gym down in transition. His ball handling always keeps defenders on their heels, and his athleticism allows him to contort his body to finish in traffic in a number of ways. He’s tough, skilled and fun to watch, which are just a few of the reasons he picked up offers from Miami (OH), Kent State, Radford, Air Force, Wofford and more this summer. Prep Hoops VHSL Rankings: Wings 10-6 (All Classes) #6 Zac Ervin | Gate City | 2019 Zac Ervin He’s a young cat that isn’t in one of VA’s biggest basketball markets, but Ervin has all of the tools to be a very good player at the division one level. The 6’5†wing can play inside-out, shoots it well from deep off the catch and is a big time rebounder at his position. His versatility is vastly underrated, as he can play and guard multiple positions, and he takes advantage of mismatches whether he’s bullying a small guard or taking a slower big off the dribble. He has the frame and skill set to be a dominant wing on both ends, and his athleticism continues to come along which will make him more intriguing to high major coaches.

I would like to be able to predict an upset, but just do not see it happening.

Stats from KTN: First Downs Battle 6 GC 22 Rushing Yds Battle 55 GC 258 Passing Yds Battle 139 GC 90 Total Yds Battle 194 GC 348 Offensive Plays Battle 30 GC 75 Had several out hurt and Collier was sick, but like Larry said, a "W" is what that really matters. Hats off to Battle. I believe they showed the most sportsmanship of any team we have played, and they easily played well enough to win.

We were lucky to pull this one out. Maybe the worst we have played all year. Oh well...........a win is a win. Got to get some kids healthy (had 7 on the sidelines not dressed out tonight), and get ready for Wise Central next week.

I heard Collier may not play. If that is true, GC will be a different team. Just when the offense gets going, Collier may be out.........again.

We have also got to improve kick coverage. Seems like we always have issues covering kicks.

Current weather forecast shows 0% chance of rain with cool temps. Should be perfect football weather.

Yeah..............and the VHSL is never wrong. :) (kidding)

Yeah............I expect if GC has any drop off in basketball from last year, it will be slight. Looking forward to seeing Dean at the varsity level. Might be the best pure shooter ever at GC. We are still missing a big man in the middle. That hurts. Looking forward to seeing the "new' Blue Devils on Friday. Not looking forward to the final score. Honestly, I expect Richlands to be able to name the score. Just have to hope for an injury free game, and look for players to hustle until the final whistle.

Collier is out. We are a couple of years away from starting to really compete again. Three wins this year will be good. Four are possible. Got to keep players healthy, and improve each week. Players are working hard, and practicing hard. They seem to have bought into the new philosophies.

Not sure GC will get any of those players. Was told today that those kids would have to establish a residence in Scott County before they could come to GC and play sports. (I believe they could still come to school. Just not play sports.) Apparently it hinges on where you first enter the 9th grade. If you start 9th grade in one of the Sullivan County schools, you can't then transfer to GC and play sports. If you start 9th grade at GC, you can attend school and play sports no matter where you live.