I was checking out MaxPreps and the top 2 teams were from VA. Don't know if it's a typo or not.
1 John Marshall
2 Paul VI
3 Dyncanville
1 John Marshall
2 Paul VI
3 Dyncanville
John Marshall ranked #1
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Ty White will go down as the best public school basketball coach from VA when it’s all said and done. A lot of Class 2 posters complain about them being Class 2 but they’ve tried to play up and they’d win Class 3-6 easily most years.
Nope, not a typo. JM started the season ranked top 20. They beat two top 10 teams in a holiday tournament to bump them up to #1. Paul VI was preseason top 10 and have started undefeated.
When they beat DeMatha I was thinking Marshall must be really tough, then they beat Wheeler GA and Columbus FL (led by Carlos Boozer’s sons who are major recruits) I said these guys are for real. Just think, their second best player Steve Stinson transferred to play at Varina this year and they’re still whipping everyone in the area and state. Great for them and RPS.
Playoffs are going to be awful in C2
I think Paul VI lost in a holiday tournament in Florida (Columbus FL)
LOL it will be some great games that don't involved Jayem.
I saw your boys play Northside on Saturday in Floyd. Northside and Glass are both very good but I think a team like Northside who has excellent guard play and controls the pace could potentially pull the upset. They’re C3 and I don’t see anyone beating them. I don’t know if Radford will have the guard play to stay within 15 if they play for the state championship. They did a good job this past March of keeping it competitive and they had a much younger team.
I agree. Maybe Floyd, Ridgeview or Martinsville beats Radford in a thrilling upset, but it’s a collision course for Radford/John Marshall to meet again. Brunswick and Tee Jay are probably your 3rd best team in C2 but Marshall will beat them by 30+ each.
Yea Glass has great guard play as well but their lack of length concerns me come deep playoff time. They are going to be the most athletic and quikest team on most nights so they pressure you full court all night most games. But I'm curious to see what will happen when they run into a team like Varina or KF that will be just as athletic and quick but longer? But I will say this O'maundre Harris is the best PG in Class 4 this year! He may not be the highest recruited but the dude is outright unstoppable this year! He was 1st team All state last year and he's averaging something crazy like 27ppg, 7rpg, and 7apg right now!
Harris is legit! I liked about 4 guys that played for Glass, especially Harris and #4 Aidan Treacy. Legit hoopers and should’ve gave Northside their first L this year. Don’t get me wrong, size and length matters but I’m taking elite guard play and defensive minded teams any day. Glass will represent the West this year in the state championship. If Cashwell continues to get in shape, I see him giving bigger teams problems because he’s very physical and can score when he has to.
I wish Harris, Aidan Treacy, and Jason Knox all continued with their football careers. Knox and Harris played as freshmen but gave it up after that. Both could have been D2/FCS football guys.
KJ Wyche at Varina is the best guard in Class 4, hands down. I don't know who Glass has played but Kj dropped 30+ points against teams at tournament in Charlotte NC 2 weeks ago and dominated Class 5 basketball state champions Highland Springs with 30+ point performance last Friday, and he was on the bench for most of the 4th quarter.
Varina is good but doesn’t have that elite length this year that they had in Fatts Billups and Christian Carden and that tremendous post play from Amari Baylor. That’s a huge loss. King’s Fork is well coached but doesn’t have the horses that they’ve had the past 3 years. They’ve lost 4 D1 hoopers in the past 3 years. It’s anyone’s this year IMO.. I definitely think Varina and KF are the favorites but the talent gap has closed big time.
Wyche is tough. Hit huge shots last year as a sophomore. I think a lot of the Richmond area teams are scared of Varina. I’ve seen many Varina games in person since 2018 and they’ve intimidated all opponents but Maury in 2019 and Petersburg last year. As good as KF was last year, Varina definitely got in their head and KF didn’t want “no smoke” with those guys. Varina blew them out of the water. Stinson was a good pick up and I’m a fan of Derricott’s game. Varina is going to be a hard out.
Harris has done the same thing this season minus playing HSHS. Sounds like Wyche and Harris are the two best guards in class 4.
I can't say that yet because I know Kings Fork has a smoker down in tidewater. I don't know a lot about Glass or the competition they play. You can only measure how good a player is by the competition he plays against. I know tidewater is loaded with good teams and KF plays several of them like Maury. I Said KJ was the best guard in Class 4 because he not only scores a bunch, he is also the best defender on the team, and he is a floor general. If Glass is as talented as you say I am truly looking forward to them meeting Varina in the state tournament.
JM is elite but PVI came down to Richmond in the fall and beat JM handily(almost 20, 63-46). With that said, I’d like to see KJ Wyche v Damon Thompson on Jan 28… somebody call somebody and make that happen!
It won't happen just like it didn't happen last year, for some odd reason JM won't play Varina.
#1 team in the country duckin’ comp in there own backyard?
Marshall spanked Varina a few years back when Lacy was there in a closed summer scrimmage. Varina was better than Marshall even though Marshall had Zay Todd. Varina still had Tyrese Jenkins, Kenard Richardson, J Nelson and AJ Williams. Varina was STACKEEDD. That Maury/Varina game at Norview is still top 7 games of all time in my book.
I was at that game. Chippy on the court and in the stands. Great atmosphere.
Yesssir. Really the last old school feel type games I’ve seen. With the way the classifications are set up, it limits matchups like that now. Would love to see Single A, Double A, and Triple A again. Hard to argue that VA wasn’t one of the best states in America for high school ball when it was just those 3 classifications.
I haven't been to a high school basketball game in over 10 years (my alma mater is Class 4). For me, It's an out-of-control sloppy train wreck at all levels (this is what I saw when I watched the state title games when they were on free-to-air television) that is extremely frustrating to watch. Even when I did PA for one of the top smaller programs in the state, the style of play was pretty awful.
Just like many high school programs running spread offenses without spread talent, I see a lot of high school programs running extremely fast-paced offenses without the talent to do so.
JM would beat Varina by 20!! They’ve beat’n top 25 NATIONALLY ranked teams all season,including the #1 team in Georgia 7A by 12 today in the MLK classic. JM is in a completely different league from Varina and ANYONE ELSE in VA at any level. Just like HSHS in football,nobody locally is worth playing a game against. Exposure is more important for these kids future than beating local teams brains in.
I don't believe Varina could beat JM this year and they would probably lose by double digits. JM doesn't have many players from City of Richmond on their squad and they also have a couple of kids from out of state on their team so it's not fair to other public school teams to play them. However, I would like to see a match up between JM and Paul VI, I believe that game would be very entertaining.
I doubt it, HSHS has skill level players that can compete with anyone in the country but they don't have enough big size players on both sides of the line. Those players in the trenches make a big difference, I believe LCA was a major indication of that.
Yeah I was up there for that game and saw Woodside drop Gonzaga! I don’t think JM will lose at all this year, I was alluding to the fact that JM has a tournament in there own backyard with them and Varina in it and not playing each other….
Of course, I'm just joking. Those Cali squads would wholesale slaughter anyone in VA by 30+. Those programs have JV teams that would win going away. Different level of ball in some places.
I have to agree with you but only because VA does not really take private school football serious like other states like Cali and Florida do. I believe VA could build one helluva private school football team if they took it serious. Don't forget teams like St Francis and Dematha poached alot kids from NOVA. Just Imagine if VA took some of their best talent from NOVA, 804, and Tidewater and combined it at one private school, I believe they could compete with anyone in the country.
I would pay good money to see Paul VI versus John Marshall
Marshall would beat Varina by 20+ this year.
Varina isn’t as strong as they’ve been but still should be in the state championship conversation. While Region B is incredibly good in football, they’re very middle of the pack in basketball. @mbonape1 whats your boys looking like bro? @BleedingNavy your Generals play a tough schedule as the Central District is probably from top to bottom, the toughest district in the 804 for basketball. I think Hanover is a sleeper in 4B. My brother Coach Rob Rice will have those guys in state championship contention soon.
Varina isn’t as strong as they’ve been but still should be in the state championship conversation. While Region B is incredibly good in football, they’re very middle of the pack in basketball. @mbonape1 whats your boys looking like bro? @BleedingNavy your Generals play a tough schedule as the Central District is probably from top to bottom, the toughest district in the 804 for basketball. I think Hanover is a sleeper in 4B. My brother Coach Rob Rice will have those guys in state championship contention soon.
Dinwiddie is 9-5 and has had some close losses. They recently lost by 1 point to a 11-2 Hopewell team. Petersburg is decent and the Central District teams are beating up on each other right now. The surprising thing is Prince George's fall from grace. They are just a horrid basketball team. In fact, so was the football team. Thomas Dale basketball is struggling too. I agree with you on Hanover. By playoff time the Hawks should be very good. They lost to a very good Oscar Smith team by 1 point in late December. I still believe everything goes through Varina. I have a staff member who is a head coach for a Class 1 team and he gives me his opinion on the top teams. He is leaning towards Varina, King George, Matoaca, Courtland and Hanover in Region B. He appears to be very fond of Kings Fork and indicated Region C has excellent balance. @BoKnowsSports GW still has a punchers chance, but Glass seems to be the big dawg in D. Good luck to all of the teams.
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MaxPreps does separate rankings for the boarding school programs like Montverde and IMG, while ESPN mixes them all together. That said there are a number teams that are ahead of JM in the ESPN rankings that are behind them in the MaxPreps rankings, including Miami Columbus who they beat. I think they are being dinged for not playing as many ranked teams as some of the other programs.
