Parry Mccluer at James River, John Marshall vs TJ Richmond

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

Last night, John Marshall beat a very good  #10 ranked Thomas Jefferson of Richmond team by a score of 105-46  Frightening.

Parry Mccluer travels to Springwood today to take on James River in the first of their two contests this year.  The varsity game is at 3:30 pm.  Last night, Parry McCluer beat Bath County (who is terrible) by a score of 65-9, and James River beat a pretty good Alleghany team by a score of 60-28.

This Game is on NFHS

 

[Jason 299]

What exactly is John Marshall? I've heard they are a private school in public school clothing. 

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

42 minutes ago, Jason said:

What exactly is John Marshall? I've heard they are a private school in public school clothing. 

John Marshall is the Richmond All-Stars.  Basically, a school like Union (Big Stone-Appy, Surrounding Areas of about 7,000 people) and Radford (about 7,000 people) and they go and play a state title game against a school which has a feeder population as it relates to basketball of about 200,000.  

1.  Ricmond has open enrollment.  This means, if you can get your kid to any public school of your choosing, then that kid can go there, even if your kid is not in the feeder district for that given school.  

2.  Coaching at John Marshall.  It's either their Head Coach or Head Assistant Coach that coaches the primary Richmond AAU team.  This means, those coaches are with the very best of Richmond all summer long, and where do you think those kids will go to school knowing their AAU coach is also coaching at a certain High School?  This is what gives them the advantage.  They have it set up to where Richmond's best, their main AAU team pretty much ALL goes to John Marshall High School.  John Marshall is certainly a public school.

So, you have basically your 5 best High School Ballers out of feeders of 7,000 population (Union, Radford, East Rock, James River, Greensville County, Graham) and they play against the 5 best High School Ballers with a feeder population of about 200,000.  Obviously..........not exactly a fair fight.  It's exactly why Scotty V from Gate City raised a little bit of he** on the subject a couple of years back.  He wasn't blowing smoke.  It wasn't sour apples.  He was spot on and exactly right for doing so.  

[Elder statesman 22]

Complaining about teams like John Marshall and LCA being allowed to play true school teams will never get results.  If a team wants to make a stand simply refuse to play the game if matched against them in playoffs.  If that happens it will embarrass the vhsl.  Only way to get a change

imagine a scenario where Gate City with McClung refused to play that game against John Marshall.  Big news story

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

1 hour ago, Elder statesman said:

Complaining about teams like John Marshall and LCA being allowed to play true school teams will never get results.  If a team wants to make a stand simply refuse to play the game if matched against them in playoffs.  If that happens it will embarrass the vhsl.  Only way to get a change

imagine a scenario where Gate City with McClung refused to play that game against John Marshall.  Big news story

I agree with you.  Obviously, it would be tough to get results, but that doesn't mean you simply don't say Anything.  At least bring it to the attention of the VHSL.  The thing is, John Marshall is perfectly within the rules  They aren't doing anything illegal, and the VHSL has virtually no power to fix it.  It would require Richmond to fix it.  North Carolina has had the same problems in football with the City of Charlotte and their open enrollment, and whichever former NFL player is on one of the coaching staffs in Charlotte brings a flock of Charlotte's best to that given school.  It would definitely be awesome to see a team simply refuse to play, but the problem is, how many schools will do that?  That school is going into the game thinking, this is our one time magical year that the parents and players can celebrate, so as an AD, you know that AD isn't approaching those players and parents and telling them, "we aren't playing against John Marshall next week."   The only way it would work is if you had a team like Radford that made it to the championship game 4 or 5 times in a row, is use to being there and having been there and done that, and then they step up and make a statement.  But, for example, a team like James River this year who isn't a regular in state title games by any means?  They aren't about to set that game out if they make it.

Sadly, here is how it will be solved and it happens in Charlotte in football until it rotates to the next schools, and that is...when the AAU coach leaves John Marshall, the players stop coming and go elsewhere.  This thing seems to run its course in Charlotte as the successful Coach usually gets a bigger offer from another High School that will pay him much more in South Carolina or he moves on to coach college or retires, then the cycle stops and moves to another open enrollment school in the area that has some type of coaching connection to next level-college play.

Here is why a city like Richmond or Charlotte will not change it.  They argue that the academic advantage serves a purpose for kids who are incredibly dedicated and may be in a crappy district, so their parents get them to a better academic school in the city.  Richmond or Charlotte would argue that this creates competition among the schools academically, in that they will strive to be better academically.  Also, the most common and basic reason sighted for this open enrollment rule is working parents in the city.  Kid A might live in a certain district, but his parent or parents work across town and have to be at that job a certain time of day with grandparents living where that job is, so the kid is better served going to the school across town.  For these reasons given, it's very unlikely Charlotte or Richmond will change.  They are looking at this from the lens of the common student, academics, and parents jobs versus the very, very tiny fraction that play sports.

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

Halftime:  Parry McCluer 25, James River 18.  I usually don't go down the critiquing the officials thing, but poorly called game in favor of Jame River benefiting from calls.  3 calls there in the first half just no other way some of these calls in my opinion.  McCluer getting jobbed just a touch, not a lot, but just a touch  Only my opinion though, if someone else were to watch this, they may have a different take.

[Jason 299]

Thank you for the clarification. I didn't know what it was but remember Scotty going off about them. Just found the article. Sounds like Maggie Walker in Spring sports. 

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

End of the 3rd, James River 47, McCluer 43.

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

Final James River 63, Parry Mcluer 55.  Tight one down the stretch with James River doing just enough to keep the lead in the 4th quarter.  It got to 3 points with about 5 minutes left.  Very questionable officiating in this one.  McCluer came out on the wrong end of a whole bunch of calls.

[BigWinners 1,643]

Graham adds an impressive win at Martinsville. Graves had 40!  They seem to be clicking at right time and could be a tough out in 2D tourney. 

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

I read where that's was Mahave's worst loss of the season.

[pdfan 101]

Who's Mahave? Graham jumped on the Dogs early and Martinsville had no answer for Graves. He was unconscious today and was hitting from everywhere. He was like 16-18 from the foul line. And just as hot as he was, Martinsville was that cold. When Graves got T'd up in the first half and then the coach got one, the Dogs went to the foul line and missed 5 straight free throws. Just one of those days but the G-Men deserved this win. Can't remember the last time an opposing player dropped 40 on the Dogs at the Doghouse.

[BigWinners 1,643]

Science Hill beat Union 70-61

[swva_havok_fan 1,261]

On 2/5/2022 at 8:47 PM, BigWinners said:

Science Hill beat Union 70-61

I felt sorry for Union having to go into Topper Nation the night after they got absolutely embarrassed by D-B.  We were up by 40+ in that game at one point.

Cutlip was not a happy camper Friday night, I figured he'd take it out on Union.  Glad the Bears made it respectable though.

[BigWinners 1,643]

4 hours ago, swva_havok_fan said:

I felt sorry for Union having to go into Topper Nation the night after they got absolutely embarrassed by D-B.  We were up by 40+ in that game at one point.

Cutlip was not a happy camper Friday night, I figured he'd take it out on Union.  Glad the Bears made it respectable though.

SH hasn't lost since December before the DB loss, they were playing great ball but musta just totally fell apart and DB just mowed them down.

 

Union got within a bucket late in the fourth but SH hit their FTs and sealed it. It was anyone's game til very end.

[swva_havok_fan 1,261]

1 hour ago, BigWinners said:

SH hasn't lost since December before the DB loss, they were playing great ball but musta just totally fell apart and DB just mowed them down.

 

Union got within a bucket late in the fourth but SH hit their FTs and sealed it. It was anyone's game til very end.

D-B is one of the three best teams east of Knoxville along with Greeneville and Morristown East.  They played their best game of the season Friday night though.

They're a threat for Murfreesboro.  Problem is Section 1-4A has five superb teams in D-B, East, Oak Ridge, Farragut and Bearden.  Only two of those can go to Murfreesboro.

I would have Union locked to at least the semifinal.  I think they can beat the C team they host on their floor whether that be James River, Radford, Floyd or whoever.

[BigWinners 1,643]

4 hours ago, swva_havok_fan said:

D-B is one of the three best teams east of Knoxville along with Greeneville and Morristown East.  They played their best game of the season Friday night though.

They're a threat for Murfreesboro.  Problem is Section 1-4A has five superb teams in D-B, East, Oak Ridge, Farragut and Bearden.  Only two of those can go to Murfreesboro.

I would have Union locked to at least the semifinal.  I think they can beat the C team they host on their floor whether that be James River, Radford, Floyd or whoever.

I dunno bout all that semifinal talk, Bears aren't playing their best ball right now. Only up two at half v. Battle and still haven't developed any depth.  Still gonna win 2D and that isn't a cakewalk with a much improved Graham team and a couple teams like RV or GC that could potentially trip Union up. But it's my understanding that Union claims second straight M7 title with a win tonight.

[UnionBears 2]

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.

[BigWinners 1,643]

10 hours ago, UnionBears said:

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.

Basketball at Union hasn't been a big draw really ever, but hopefully when the postseason rolls around the stands will fill up. They should, the town should go support the kids.

[goose111874 967]

On 2/8/2022 at 8:08 AM, UnionBears said:

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.

You can blame than on nfhs and covid.  Its to easy to sit home and watch and not worry about someone coughing on you and putting you in the hospital

[1inStripes 932]

9 hours ago, goose111874 said:

You can blame than on nfhs and covid.  Its to easy to sit home and watch and not worry about someone coughing on you and putting you in the hospital

I saw the wife of a Mountain 7 coach commenting online on a recent night about the lack of attendance at Mountain games after seeing a Facebook Live video from a Cumberland game.   Attendance at quite a few Cumberland games has been excellent.  RC has been packed almost every night. I am leaving as soon as my girls are let out of school and heading straight to Valley Creek tomorrow as I expect it to be extremely crowded.  Watching almost everyone in the Mountain 7 has been disappointing online as seats are open everywhere.  Castlewood, who has the biggest gym in the district, is the only one you typically see much bleacher space in the Cumberland for district matchups.

[Elder statesman 22]

My theory for the mountain 7 drop in attendance is simply the fact that most of the teams are at the stage AFTER their best run.  Most teams are rebuilding.   You have Gate city post Mcclung/Ervin/Dean era.  Wise isn’t close to what they were with McCamis/Hayes. Abingdon team doesn’t have 1 starter from last years state final team.  Even district leader Union isn’t the team they were last year.  Losing Rasnake and Cusano hurt a lot.  Ridgeview started out well against weak competition but not really strong now without Gabe Brown.  Battle and Lee are still Battle and Lee.  All schools lose the fan following once they drop in talent.  

[BandanaVTDavis4321 1,717]

I agree the Bears aren't quite what they were last year, but they are still dam@ good. Imo, I give GC, Graham, VH, close to zero chances of beating them. I know zero is a strong word and obviously, the chances are better than zero, but I just don't see it. I still believe that in the Region tournament, the Bears will rise to the occasion and win by an average of 18-20 points over any combo of the teams mentioned above.

And even if it's James River, at state level, Union WILL be in the game.  Unions half court defense is light-years ahead of the region regarding discipline, covering up on shooters. Sure, teams sometimes get open looks on them,  but Union makes far less of those mistakes compared to Graham, GC, and VHigh.