At the beginning of the season, I predicted a finishing order of Staunton, Riverheads, Stuarts Draft, Wilson, Buffalo Gap and Fort Defiance. Now that each team has anywhere from 7 to 10 games under their belts and district action starts Tuesday, it may be time for me to re-evaluate and also ask the rest of you what you think. As you will see I have a little movement in mine but not a great deal. So here we go........
Staunton: We are getting very little publicity about the Storm, which makes it hard to judge how good they may be. I see that they were beaten badly by Martinsville at the Rock the Ribbon this weekend, so that alone might be reason to question them. But I go back to their one-point loss at Waynesboro, and nobody else in the Doah has given the Giants that good a game. So for now I will keep Staunton in my number one slot but it is not by much.
Riverheads: The Gladiators have been a well-balanced, senior-dominated team thus far and they have a 6-1 record going into a busy week. So there would be plenty of reason to put them in the number one slot, but they play a deliberate offense in which they are averaging only around 54 points per game, although granted they are defensively solid, giving up only 43 per game. But after seeing two of them taking a hard fall Saturday and knowing that there are only 10 on the roster, I do have some concerns about their health and depth, and worry that there is little margin for error with this team. Having said all of that I stand by my original prediction that this has the potential to be the best Riverheads team in years, one that could go very far again come playoff time.
Buffalo Gap: Although I have not seen them play, I am elevating the Bison two spots in my thinking. I think they are something like 8-2 but the level of competition is suspect. Still because of a less-than-stellar impression of the three teams below them, I now think the Bison will give both Staunton and Riverheads all they can handle at the top of the heap. I believe the Gap plays Stuarts Draft in its district opener so we may learn a lot about both teams pretty early in the game.
Stuarts Draft: I am dropping the Cougars one spot from my pre-season poll because they have just not shown the high-powered offense that they have had in the past. They have yet to hit the century mark themselves, but half of their opponents have. They gave up a whopping 117 points to somebody early in the season. So either they don't have the shooters they have had in the past or something is not yet clicking for them. Still they will be an annoying team to play no matter how the games turn out.
Fort Defiance: I have elevated the Indians out of my basement, mainly based on them giving Waynesboro two very good games, losing each time by only five points. Other than that I just don't know much about them.
Wilson: I dropped the Hornets from fourth to the basement, mainly because they have only one win and of the four Shenandoah teams that have challenged Waynesboro, they lost by the widest margin. I will find out first-hand what they have to offer when Riverheads goes there on Tuesday. I am a little concerned about that one because of the possible injury situation that I mentioned above and even if RHS is 100% healthy that night, it will be their third game in four days and fatigue could be an issue. By the way, unless the moderator has changed it, Wilson's overall record is showing as being 1-6-1 on the Shenandoah District website, and as we all know, you cannot have a basketball game that ends in a tie, so what is up with that?
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!! (or continue I guess I should say.)
Staunton: We are getting very little publicity about the Storm, which makes it hard to judge how good they may be. I see that they were beaten badly by Martinsville at the Rock the Ribbon this weekend, so that alone might be reason to question them. But I go back to their one-point loss at Waynesboro, and nobody else in the Doah has given the Giants that good a game. So for now I will keep Staunton in my number one slot but it is not by much.
Riverheads: The Gladiators have been a well-balanced, senior-dominated team thus far and they have a 6-1 record going into a busy week. So there would be plenty of reason to put them in the number one slot, but they play a deliberate offense in which they are averaging only around 54 points per game, although granted they are defensively solid, giving up only 43 per game. But after seeing two of them taking a hard fall Saturday and knowing that there are only 10 on the roster, I do have some concerns about their health and depth, and worry that there is little margin for error with this team. Having said all of that I stand by my original prediction that this has the potential to be the best Riverheads team in years, one that could go very far again come playoff time.
Buffalo Gap: Although I have not seen them play, I am elevating the Bison two spots in my thinking. I think they are something like 8-2 but the level of competition is suspect. Still because of a less-than-stellar impression of the three teams below them, I now think the Bison will give both Staunton and Riverheads all they can handle at the top of the heap. I believe the Gap plays Stuarts Draft in its district opener so we may learn a lot about both teams pretty early in the game.
Stuarts Draft: I am dropping the Cougars one spot from my pre-season poll because they have just not shown the high-powered offense that they have had in the past. They have yet to hit the century mark themselves, but half of their opponents have. They gave up a whopping 117 points to somebody early in the season. So either they don't have the shooters they have had in the past or something is not yet clicking for them. Still they will be an annoying team to play no matter how the games turn out.
Fort Defiance: I have elevated the Indians out of my basement, mainly based on them giving Waynesboro two very good games, losing each time by only five points. Other than that I just don't know much about them.
Wilson: I dropped the Hornets from fourth to the basement, mainly because they have only one win and of the four Shenandoah teams that have challenged Waynesboro, they lost by the widest margin. I will find out first-hand what they have to offer when Riverheads goes there on Tuesday. I am a little concerned about that one because of the possible injury situation that I mentioned above and even if RHS is 100% healthy that night, it will be their third game in four days and fatigue could be an issue. By the way, unless the moderator has changed it, Wilson's overall record is showing as being 1-6-1 on the Shenandoah District website, and as we all know, you cannot have a basketball game that ends in a tie, so what is up with that?
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!! (or continue I guess I should say.)
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