Class 4 Boys Championship
- Thread starter VolNation85
- Start date
I would say Varina is the favorite, but if Glass can commit and make this game ugly-Varina certainly will-then they have a good shot. Varina will cause a lot of problems for Glass's offense, especially in the half-court. If the Hilltoppers can get out in transition and convert their opportunities and make Varina's offensive game ugly as well (King's Fork did a good job of this) then I think Glass can win a low scoring battle.
Rooting for the Hilltoppers. Great matchup, love watching EC Glass play.
EC Glass 53 Varina 49 is my prediction.
Rooting for the Hilltoppers. Great matchup, love watching EC Glass play.
EC Glass 53 Varina 49 is my prediction.
Gimme Glass. Jason Knox is the X Factor. Dre will be Dre, but If Knox can stay out of foul trouble and assert himself in the game early, Glass will have an even bigger shot to take it home. Glass has played a tough enough schedule and has seen enough adversity to where if they get down, they can come back. But if Glass jumps on them early, they will be in good shape. I expect a back and forth battle.
Give me Varina by at least 6. Varina has been here before, being the returning state Champs, playing a much more difficult schedule this year, and playing in front of the home crowd it is going to be hard to beat them. I'm not taking anything from Glass but their playoff competition has been mediocre compared to the competition that Varina has had to play in Eastern View and Kings Fork. I doubt Glass can apply the same pressure as KF applied to Varina all 4 quarters.
Me either, trying to guard him in the Siegel center is going to be much more difficult then guarding him at Highland Springs. IMO, Kings Fork was the only other team that matched up perfectly, athleticism wise, some of the KF kids play on the same AAU team as the Varina kids, as well as some of the coaches coached them, so they know them well. The strategy for other teams have been to double or triple team Wyche but that has not worked out too well. Highland Springs tried it their 2nd game and Miles Derricott went for 28 points. KF tried it and Jerome Conway went off for 11 straight points in the 4th quarter. I believe Varina will win, however it will be an entertaining game.
Harris and Wyche both will most likely get their usual 25-30+...It's going to come down to which teams role players step up the most. The team that gets the most help from their 2nd and 3rd best players will win the game. Definitely going to be entertaining!
I'm curious why you think Glass' playoff competition has been mediocre. What do you base that off of? Glass' Strength of Schedule is 8.4. Varina's is 5.8 according to MaxPreps. And Glass has played 4 teams ranked in the Top 25 in the state and beaten 3 of the 4 including Radford and PH who are playing in their class state championship. They also played Northside who is in the Class 3 championship and lost by 6. What's your support for Varina's "tough" schedule?
Last edited:
Yes sir I’ll be there for the Hampton girls game right up front. Should be a great game. I heard Glass has good guards too so the big court will be in there favor too
Glass might be on the small size, but they’ve guarded guys bigger than them all year and had no problem still winning the game.
Dre Harris will be harder to guard on a bigger court too. He is an excellent on ball defender.
I saw Varina had one primary big man #21 although he doesn’t have much of an impact. Does Glass have big man play?
They don't have big man play, but they have man that can play big men. So that will definitely play a factor in the game. Glass' tallest player is 6'4"
I would assume(not my original post) that he is referring to playing predominately 5/6A schools all year. I’m not sure how MaxPreps calculates strength of schedule but if it’s higher than Varina then they’ve been tested too. Can’t wait for this one.
I will say, Eastern View, Dinwiddie, Matoaca, Heritage and Kings Fork all in a row is a pretty tough gauntlet of games.
You didn't read my text fully because I stated playoff competition. All teams you mentioned above were not teams ECG played in the playoffs. And I don't read much into Maxpreps SOS points. I could be wrong but I believe Varina has had a tougher road to go through in beating Matoaca, Eastern View, Heritage, and Kings Fork. And as far as ECG regular season schedule how many tidewater or richmond area teams are on their resume. I believe just one in LC Bird, which they only beat by 4 points. I am not trying to slight EC Glass in any kind of way because anyone can be beat but I just feel Varina will be a little more prepared for the task at hand given the gauntlet they had to go through in the playoffs. I would have like to see how Glass would have faired against KF or EV.
That would makes sense that people would think that. Most people automatically assume bigger school= better team and that's not always true. Plus, Varina hasn't played predominately 5A/6A teams all year. They have only played two 5A teams in HSHS and LC Bird. Glass has played LC Bird and 6A Franklin County, and three other teams that are in the championship game this year. Seems like Glass has had the much tougher schedule and better competition this year.
I'll give Varina the edge in playoff competition because they played KF. I will agree that KF is better than any team that Glass played in the playoffs but that's one game. I'm not sold that EV, Matoaca, and Heritage are better than Handley or Tuscarora.
But who made tidewater or richmond the measuring stick for good basketball teams? Why does Glass have to play a team from those areas to get any respect? Why does only playoff schedule matter? How many teams has Varina played that are in the state championship game this year? The answer is 0. I would have liked to see how Varina would have faired against Northside, Radford, and PH-Roanoke.
I was counting Henrico and the 4 prep schools. Trinity, Steward, Benedictine and St. Frances Academy. I do agree that larger schools don’t equal better competition but that seems to be the argument why certain teams should move up to play bigger schools…
For sports like basketball and football I’ll give the nod to tidewater and Richmond idk why but they’ve got a track record of championships.
I’m going to root for Glass. They deserve the respect and they’ll get it from me today.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion but, all I know is that, the schools tied with the 2nd most VHSL state championships in football are from Staunton, Va and Salem, Va and the school with the 3rd most state championships is from Lynchburg, Va. The western part of the state has a track record of championships as well. It's human nature to be biased towards the things we are familiar with but the facts don't lie. I just wish people would judge sports more objectively instead of subjectively.
I don't see where ECG played PH either. And it seems like you are looking pass the 5A teams Varina beat in the tournament down in Charlotte NC. They had to forfeit those games which hurt their SOS. Also Varina played St Francis from Baltimore MD which were better than any team ECG played all year. Also I didn't say richmond or tidewater was the measuring stick because their are really good ballers throughout the entire state but it would have been good to see ECG play some teams in the east that would have matched them athletically.
Analytics over eye test arguments are great sports convos. Some would say if the west played Hampton/Phoebus teams or, Hermitage and LC Birds throughout the season would they fair the same? From a college football analogy it’s like JMU schedule vs VT
I could be wrong on the PH game. Losing or winning a game doesn't hurt or help your SOS. The opponents wins and losses help or hurt your SOS more than anything. Out of curiosity, why did Varina have to forfeit those games?
Do you assume they haven't played teams that were able to match their athleticism just because they only played 1 team from the East?
I think it is tough to compare strength of schedule at this point in the season still-there has been so little cross-bracketing pitting west vs east teams, most of those games are the state championship games. That being said, I do think the "west" has faired extremely well this year so far, which does loads for EC Glass's experience.
Let's take Eastern View for example. They lost by 22 to a very good Class 5 Albemarle team this year that went 22-5. Albemarle went 2-2 against Western Albemarle (who Glass handled pretty easily) and Albemarle didn't even make it out of the first round in 5D.
Patrick Henry is 30-2 and both of their losses are to their rival William Fleming. They beat Highland Springs by 11 (Varina beat them twice).
Skyline is a great example of this in Class 3. I'll admit I had little faith that they would fare well at all in the state tournament once they played the "east" teams, but they beat Lake Taylor and almost beat Hopewell. I think Northside will beat Hopewell.
This all being said, I do think Varina has the edge in strength of schedule overall and in the playoffs, but my point is I don't think it's by much. And there is no way to tell, the best way is to see how the game goes tonight. If Northside, Patrick Henry and EC Glass all win state titles then I think the respect will come...rooting for all three of them as a 434 guy myself.
Let's take Eastern View for example. They lost by 22 to a very good Class 5 Albemarle team this year that went 22-5. Albemarle went 2-2 against Western Albemarle (who Glass handled pretty easily) and Albemarle didn't even make it out of the first round in 5D.
Patrick Henry is 30-2 and both of their losses are to their rival William Fleming. They beat Highland Springs by 11 (Varina beat them twice).
Skyline is a great example of this in Class 3. I'll admit I had little faith that they would fare well at all in the state tournament once they played the "east" teams, but they beat Lake Taylor and almost beat Hopewell. I think Northside will beat Hopewell.
This all being said, I do think Varina has the edge in strength of schedule overall and in the playoffs, but my point is I don't think it's by much. And there is no way to tell, the best way is to see how the game goes tonight. If Northside, Patrick Henry and EC Glass all win state titles then I think the respect will come...rooting for all three of them as a 434 guy myself.
I didn't know I would ruffle this many feathers based off a statement because now you have shifted from basketball to football. So let us
I agree with a lot of points you made, and I will repeat it again that Virginia has ballers all over the state from east to west, north to south. The only thing I will say about all of those teams in the west as far as the playoffs go is that they all got to play near their home towns in the playoffs and did not have to travel and play in hostile environments. I would like to see how PH, Glass, and Northside would have faired having to play those teams at neutral sites in richmond, Suffolk, or Hopewell. HSHS had to play in Roanoke, KF had to play in Richmond, and Hopewell had to play out West.
Varina had to forfeit those 2 games because I believe one their players was deemed an ineligible transfer and he played in that tournament. Steve Stinson I believe is his name and he is a senior who played his freshman season at Trinity Episcopal and played his sophomore and junior year at John Marshall. He has always lived in Varina school district and still does but opted to play for those 2 schools. He played middle school ball in Varina and wanted to finish his senior year out at Varina but from what I hear JM was bitter he left and put a halt to his plans. Steve is a 6'4 guard/forward who can flat out dominate offensively and defensively. I believe he already he already had a few D1 offers before this season so hopefully he gets show his talents at the next level.
This is a valid point, the way the brackets were seeded this year had those teams hosting, it'll flip back next year. Glass did have the advantage of playing right next to home because it won Region 4D, but didn't Varina also have all home games in regionals and get to play in Richmond for states? All I'm saying is it looks like both teams haven't really had to travel far due to being Region champs and high seeds.
Defensive first quarter. You can tell Varina has been here and Glass has not. Hilltoppers struggling to get into it offensively, Varina's big dude is killing them. Still, their defense has kept them in it.
Harris show! Picked up the offensive load big time. Steal and bucket at the buzzer killed Glass momentum. Varina up 26-22 at the half.
Glass is turning the ball over too much, but Harris has settled in. He has a pretty midrange shot!
He is playing his absolute heart out tonight! This is it!
Great officiating overall until the end. Glass got screwed on that foul called on the rebound BAD.
What a battle! Congratulations to Varina! Super proud of my Toppers tonight! Played their hearts out and never quit!
