3A

[DanvilleSportsHead]

I've seen Hopewell, George Wythe and John Marshall within the last 48 hrs and I'm sorry to say it but teams like Spotswood, Northside, William Byrd, (teams out west basically) don't stand a chance. I've been watching high school basketball around the state for a while, but I'm at a lost for words by the competition level around the 804 area. These kids can straight up ball! I doubt there's any team out west that has the players to match up with Johnny Hairston and Taylor from Hopewell , a Brandon Holley, Maliek White, or Maurice Coleman from Wythe, and a team 10 deep that can play with Marshall. Just being honest.

 

[HavocRun&Gun]

The teams from the East are certainly strong. There's no question about that. But the West heard the same thing last year and then Lord Botetourt lost to Marshall by 6 (I think) and Spotswood lost to Wythe by 4 after losing McCoy (its 2000 point scorer) heading into the 4th quarter. I'm not saying that a team from the west would necessarily win it- they didn't win it last year. I'm simply saying that your statement of them "not standing a chance" does not have history on its side. Same thing was said last year and both games were much closer than people expected.

 

[Teamva]

Havoc I agree with you. Those teams are definitely favorites to win it all. If my Blazers get that far they are not going to just let them win without a fight and I'm sure other teams are not going into the game thinking they are going to lose. Spotswood understands that those teams are hard to beat so that's why they are trying to play the Petersburg's and teams down that way to try to prepare. I'm sure they would play Wythe, Hopewell and JM if they can agree to. Maybe next year they may be on the schedule. And yes..Tucker would've helped a lot in the 4th.

 

[white&blue]

Well let's just have a 3 way tourney between Hopewell, George Wythe and John Marshall. No need to drag the west teams out to the slaughter that would surely happen! Hold it at the Siegel Center and charge $50 a ticket to see such talented squads go at it for all the marbles!

Seriously, every year, someone posts that this team or that cannot be beat. Seldom does it happen that way. That this area or that is the greatest thing since Naismith hung a basket on the side of a barn.

I am kinda' surprised to see this kind of post from someone from the Danville area. Last year, all the talk was that Bruton would run the table. No one would be within 20. But Dan River came out of "nowhere" to win it all.

Point is, you never know in high school basketball until it is over.

 

[cutnjump]

If anybody, outside of maybe Spotswood(and that is a stretch), William Fleming or Charlottesville, from west/south of Richmond makes a run in the state basketball playoffs in any of the upper divisions(3A, 4A, 5A or 6A) it will be a big surprise IMO. 1A and 2A are a different story. There is a large talent gap between the best teams from west/south of Richmond compared to the teams east/north of Richmond in my opinion. Dan River didn't come out of "nowhere" last year either. People that follow high school basketball closely had those guys on a collision course with Bruton from the beginning.
This post was edited on 1/30 8:25 AM by cutnjump

 

[DanvilleSportsHead]

I agree 100% cntjump. The teams out west such as N-side, PH, Fleming, Danville, etc are no where near the talent level teams like Wythe or Marshall have. The competion level is much better in the richmond area and those kids play the whole 32 minutes. I'm impressed with the talent in the 804.

 

[FsemiSnolesU]

In defense of the west, though, just last year Spotswood almost beat Wythe. Probably would have won that game had their leading scorer, 4 year starter, all state selection star PG not gotten hurt before the 4th quarter when the score was tight. John Marshall then breezed past Wythe in the final, but from what I understand, they're pretty much in a class of their own right now in that area. The west teams likely won't consistently have the same level of athletes and size that teams in the east have, but I can guarantee you there's plenty of fight in teams from the west. I'm no Spotswood fan, but the year they went to the state finals against Brunswick, they knocked off a pretty good Bruton team before getting "Stith'ed" in the finals.

More often than not, you'll see 3A dominated by teams like John Marshall and George Wythe, but you won't see them rolling over the west teams deep in the playoffs without a fight.