BOYS: Graham 53 Richlands 39 - FINAL
- Thread starter pizzzzza
- Start date
Final: Graham 53-39.
Darrin Martin with 34 points.
Richlands and Graham split the regular season series. Richlands wins the SEC and will be the 1 seed in the SEC tournament played at Graham.
Richlands finishes the season at 19-2
Darrin Martin with 34 points.
Richlands and Graham split the regular season series. Richlands wins the SEC and will be the 1 seed in the SEC tournament played at Graham.
Richlands finishes the season at 19-2
Last edited:
Graham finishes the regular season at 18-4 with losses to WV AA #1-Bluefield (twice), WV AAA Princeton, and Richlands.
Richlands and Graham in regular season doesn't matter much. Richlands gets a bye and will win it's first game. Graham will beat Marion and or Grayson or whoever they play in their first two games, so Graham has to play one more game than Richlands. The Conference title is held at Graham Middle School, so Graham and Richlands will play again. It's kind of a bad break for Richlands as they won the conference and they are the 1 seed, but will travel to Graham simply because it's hosted their this year. The bad break for Richlands is the following......if they lose at Graham, they travel to Gate City. This is why Richlands playing at Graham instead of playing at home makes a huge difference not just in the Graham game, but who and where they would have to play if they lose. Same for Graham, if they lose, they will travel to Gate City.
In Union and Gate City's conference, Gate City is the 1 seed and Union the 2 seed and Union will have to come to Gate City for the conference title. Union and Richlands are far and away better than any other team in their conference. The same is for Graham and Richlands. The winner of Graham and Richlands will host Union, and Union is right on part with Graham and Richlands. That will be a toss up game, but traveling to Gate City for either Graham or Richlands is a loss.......and a bad loss, (over 10 pts easily). The scenarios above are only that. They are scenarios and anything can happen, but it would be a huge upset for anytime in either conference to beat Gate City, Union, Graham, and Richlands. Still, anything thing can happen.
Look on the bright side though.....nobody above has to play Martinsville yet.
In Union and Gate City's conference, Gate City is the 1 seed and Union the 2 seed and Union will have to come to Gate City for the conference title. Union and Richlands are far and away better than any other team in their conference. The same is for Graham and Richlands. The winner of Graham and Richlands will host Union, and Union is right on part with Graham and Richlands. That will be a toss up game, but traveling to Gate City for either Graham or Richlands is a loss.......and a bad loss, (over 10 pts easily). The scenarios above are only that. They are scenarios and anything can happen, but it would be a huge upset for anytime in either conference to beat Gate City, Union, Graham, and Richlands. Still, anything thing can happen.
Look on the bright side though.....nobody above has to play Martinsville yet.
My understanding is that no matter what happens in the tournament Graham travels to Gate City. And Union travels to Richlands. I could certainly be wrong.
Will be a very good games. All of theses teams cause problems for each other.
Will be a very good games. All of theses teams cause problems for each other.
Richlands and Graham's conference 39 plays Union and Gate City's conference which is conference 40. Assuming all teams win over the next week as expected and conference 39 comes down to Graham and Richlands and conference 40 comes down to Union and Gate City. The winner of the final conference 39 game would host the loser of the conference 40 game and vice-versa. This means......if Gate City wins and Richlands wins, Graham travels to Gate City and Union travels to Richlands. If Graham wins and Gate City wins, then Graham would host Union and Richlands would travel to Gate City.
It's my understanding that the conferences get to decide where their tournaments are played. Conference 40 (Gate City and Union) automatically has its tournament at the regular season number one seeded team. This year, that is Gate City. But, Conference 39 (Graham and Richlands) evidently does not do it this way and they rotate. This is where Richlands (the number one seed in the regular season ahead of Graham) kind of gets the short end of the stick as they will likely face Graham in the conference final, and that would be at Graham. Both teams are very, very close and home court obviously matters with these two as it showed in the regular season.
The above is my understanding of how the seedings work and who travels where, etc. I could also be wrong. However, one thing I am not wrong about. All 4 of the teams you mentioned will Not cause problems for each other in my opinion only. 3 teams could cause problems for each other in Graham, Richlands, and Union. Gate City is 10-18 points better than all three of them. If any of these 3 teams beat Gate City, it would be a monumental upset.
Martinsville is still the team to beat in AA Virginia, but Gate City has closed the gap on them some this year as Martinsville is slightly not as good as last year, and Gate City is much better. What does that mean? I don't know because Martinsville beat em in the playoffs last year by around 30 or so points and they dominated the state title game against Greensville County by 32 points winning their 15th or 16th state title, so to say Martinsville is slightly down from where they were last year does not mean much. That may just mean they win the state title by only 10 points instead of 20 or 30. But, if any team can beat them or at least make it close or interesting in SWVA, it would be Gate City. They have legitimately 2 future Div 1 players. One is a junior who has small Div 1 offers to include Marshall, and one is a 6"5 sophomore who is a guard and will likely have pretty high Div 1 type offers before he's done and offers that are probably even more impressive than the current junior (McClung). McClung may win the AA state player of the year for this season. I just don't see any of 3 (Graham, Union, or Richlands) playing with them. Union has a fantastic team and is right there with Graham and Richlands and may be even a bit better than both of them. Gate City beat them by 13 and 14 points this year when they played twice.
Last edited:
Martinsville is not as good this year as they were the last 2 years. But they still play good hard D and will be a tough out. If the Dogs finish as the #1 seed out of Conf 38 I think they will be on the same side of the region bracket as the Richlands-Union winner. Will be a interesting regional to see who finishes 2nd to Gate City. Also don't sleep on Dan River, they're still pretty good.
GC doesn't play much defense which allows some teams to play with them when the games should be 30 pt blowouts at halftime. Any team with athletes that plays solid defense will give GC fits.
The region is gonna be very interesting to say the least. I think Union comes out in 2nd place.... But I wouldn't put money on it. I expect Martinsville and DR to give SWVA all they can handle and then some.
The region is gonna be very interesting to say the least. I think Union comes out in 2nd place.... But I wouldn't put money on it. I expect Martinsville and DR to give SWVA all they can handle and then some.
So you're saying that Richlands and Graham aren't that strong? Or that GC and Union are just that much better than both of them? Sounds like the Dogs or DR or whoever comes out of this side of the bracket may be up poop creek without a paddle when it comes to playing the boys from Scott Co or Big Stone.
I was saying I think Union will end up 2nd among the group of Graham, Richlands, Union, and GC. I really have no clue how any of those teams will pair up against DR or MHS.
Ryan4VT
VaPreps Varsity
That's not right about the seedings. In C39, the regular season winner is guaranteed the 1 seed in regionals.
Richlands won the regular season title. Because of that, no matter what Richlands does in this tournament, they will host the 2nd team from C40 on Feb 21st at 8pm.
Richlands won the regular season title. Because of that, no matter what Richlands does in this tournament, they will host the 2nd team from C40 on Feb 21st at 8pm.
Ryan4VT
VaPreps Varsity
This. I'd be shocked beyond all belief if Union and Graham didn't make the conference finals.
Well, that solves it then. Assuming Union and Graham finish at least second in their tournaments, both travel. Graham at Gate City and Union at Richlands. I am not sure of the conference tournaments? Why play them if the regular season number one seed is automatically the one seed in the regionals? What if Graham beats Richlands by 20 points again? What if Union goes to Gate City and hammers them by 20? In summary, it seems pretty clear that the conference tournaments are simply done to decide who is the 2 seed in the regionals. If I were Richlands Coach, I simply would not show up for the conference tournament. Why risk an injury for a game this late that does not matter. Same with Gate City. Why play? I know, there is the sportsmanship thing and all that, but from a tactical perspective, why play and risk injury if you are already declared the number one seed in the regional regardless of what you do in the conference tournament?
Last edited:
Ryan4VT
VaPreps Varsity
Union @ Richlands ***
Yep, that's all they're for. They are solely there to see who the second team with be in regionals.
I think so, but home court is already decided prior to the regionals, so why play a conference tournament if you are the 1 seed like Richlands in their conference and Gate City in their conference? It just makes no sense to me to risk injury if you are already the 1 seed. Incredibly, Conference 39 either seems to rotate their tournament, or they have it at the number 2 seeds place. It's at Graham this year. I know this, it's not at the number one seed Richlands, so that's also weird. It would be interesting if any regular season team that has already locked down the number one seed just simply said, "we aren't playing." Imagine Gate City, the regular season number one seed of Conference 40, and the host of the conference tournament saying..."use our gym, but we ain't playin."
I think Conference 40 is smart in that.....they have their tournament at the regular season number 1 seeds place. Why? That's an incentive to show for the number one seed in Gate City because you are making some money and getting paid some gate fees. But, for conference 39 to not automatically have their tournament at the regular season number one seeds place is beyond my understanding. This truly gives the 1 seed in Richlands at least a push to say, "we aren't coming to Graham to play in a tournament that does not matter as we won the regular season one seed." I am sure that will not happen this year, but I could see this being an issue somewhere in the state of Va at some time in the future if other conferences do it like Conference 39. Where does Graham play their games? At their middle school like Gate City, or at their High School?
Ryan4VT
VaPreps Varsity
C39 is rotated. It was at Virginia High last year (except the final, they moved it to Tazewell since it was Richlands and Graham). Richlands hosted the first year. Just so happens it's Graham's year and they are the 2 seed.
They, like Richlands and GC, play in the middle school.
They, like Richlands and GC, play in the middle school.
