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State tournament home court discussion

pizzzzza

VaPreps Hall of Famer
Nov 9, 2001
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First, I want to say that I know it's been a strange and unusual season due to obvious reasons.

I didn't even pay close attention to regular season due to it being so unpredictable and starting so late.

I'm very happy that the teams - those that chose to even participate - even played during the season with the risks involved.

The schedules were shortened - no fans were allowed at the games except for a few - but fortunately the season was able to be played, somewhat.

What I wanted to discuss is the hosting of higher seeds/different regions for the games.

I don't know all the ins and outs of how things work tournament time - if it's pre-determined or what - referee situation - court availability - other factors I'm not even aware of.

What is everyone's opinion on this?

Do you think it's an advantage to be the home team during this very unusual state tournament?

Or does it not matter - the game has to be played somewhere, sometime regardless - and most times the better team will anyway.

I don't have a dog in this race, but wonder if there was any effort to have neutral sites for any post-season games - or was that just not possible/feasible/realistic?

A few teams have had to travel a LOT to play their games, and some have not - which also means playing on a court that host team practiced/played all season.

I've been able to keep up with most of the basketball games during the state tournament.

I feel bad for the teams that got 'cancelled" DURING the state tournament due to Covid issues - but want everyone to be safe during this horrible time in our country's history.

Once again, I'm very thankful the kids got even the chance to play....trust me!

Just curious on your thoughts....
 
All the gym’s in the State VA I don’t get it . No team should be allowed to play for State Championship on there own floor . I’m guessing Vhsl is hurting for money and right now can’t afford to pay for a neutral venue . I know it want be fans and students there but it’s definitely nice advantage to play at home for the championship and don’t have to get on a bus and take a long trip .
 
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I have had some of those same concerns but I have just accepted it as being the only thing the VHSL could do since the normal VCU setting was out of the question for this year. So maybe the thinking was that it would be better to have one team traveling instead of both teams for any given game.

You might also be able to draw a parallel to what some of the colleges are doing.....they have two teams play a series, both on the home court of one of the teams. For example, last weekend Hofstra came down from Long Island and played two games at JMU, whereas normally they would meet once on each court.

So is that fair? Probably not but again all things considered I think it is the best they could do on both levels. For the same reason, March Madness will be played entirely in the Indianapolis area as opposed to scattering games all over the country.

Actually I do think the lack of fans has had an impact and lessened the home court advantages, because there have been more home court losses here these past few days than we might have expected. Mathews and King William each lost doubleheaders on their own floor, Parry McCluer won at Burton, the Spotswood girls won at Wilson, so I think it has all worked out as well as could be expected.

My sincere hope, as I just posted on a football thread, is that by the time the next school year rolls around, we can be back to something resembling normal scheduling.
 
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I have had some of those same concerns but I have just accepted it as being the only thing the VHSL could do since the normal VCU setting was out of the question for this year. So maybe the thinking was that it would be better to have one team traveling instead of both teams for any given game.

You might also be able to draw a parallel to what some of the colleges are doing.....they have two teams play a series, both on the home court of one of the teams. For example, last weekend Hofstra came down from Long Island and played two games at JMU, whereas normally they would meet once on each court.

So is that fair? Probably not but again all things considered I think it is the best they could do on both levels. For the same reason, March Madness will be played entirely in the Indianapolis area as opposed to scattering games all over the country.

Actually I do think the lack of fans has had an impact and lessened the home court advantages, because there have been more home court losses here these past few days than we might have expected. Mathews and King William each lost doubleheaders on their own floor, Parry McCluer won at Burton, the Spotswood girls won at Wilson, so I think it has all worked out as well as could be expected.

My sincere hope, as I just posted on a football thread, is that by the time the next school year rolls around, we can be back to something resembling normal scheduling.
I don't know if the girls from Luray can win the state, but after traveling to King William and now on to Gate City, they will log a lot of miles for an undefeated team.
 
I think that they could have easily found a neutral gym in the middle between the two participating schools since the size of the gym isn't an issue right now due to spectator limits. Luray to Gate City, Hopewell to Abingdon, those seem a bit extreme when they could have found something in the middle since any HS gym would have worked.

But I also can understand why the VHSL would want to limit the moving parts as much as possible. Like everything else nowadays, there are no easy answers.
 
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I don't know if the girls from Luray can win the state, but after traveling to King William and now on to Gate City, they will log a lot of miles for an undefeated team.
240mi round trip to King William
606mi round trip to Gate City
To have a team travel 303mi one way to play the state championship on the opposing team’s home court is just ludicrous to me.
 
If I'm not mistaken the original intent was the play all state games on neutral courts. But, with potential difficulties in securing neutral venues in these times, I'm guessing the VHSL decided with the # of fans set at 25 a home court advantage in such an instance would not be as great
 
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240mi round trip to King William
606mi round trip to Gate City
To have a team travel 303mi one way to play the state championship on the opposing team’s home court is just ludicrous to me.
GC is about 700 miles round trip from Richmond. I understand the neutral site issue but it's not as if they're walking into packed stadiums. No one considers this ideal or the most fair way to play it out but the idea of neutral sites were a logistic nightmare. It just happens this was a Region D host year.

tbh, I don't believe some of you would have the same outrage if the roles were reversed.
 
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To be fair, for years the teams from far SWVA have had to travel to Richmond to play.
 
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GC is about 700 miles round trip from Richmond. I understand the neutral site issue but it's not as if they're walking into packed stadiums. No one considers this ideal or the most fair way to play it out but the idea of neutral sites were a logistic nightmare. It just happens this was a Region D host year.

tbh, I don't believe some of you would have the same outrage if the roles were reversed.
To be fair, for years the teams from far SWVA have had to travel to Richmond to play.

This... we've had to travel 10 hours round trip to Richmond for years and not whined about it. Not going to hurt the East to travel to the far west of the state for once. Get over it.
 
Not even the same comparison. The issue is getting to play on your home court. Not how long you have to travel.
So now the issue is home court? Pretty sure earlier it was the travel.
With 25 fans in the stands, it's not much of a home court advantage.
 
Hopewell won at Abingdon
Luray won at Gate City
Louisa won at Pulaski County
Smithfield won at Handley
Princess Anne won at Patrick Henry
Green Run probably going to win at Stone Bridge

Doesn't seem to be an issue.
 
Since all these home teams are in such a generous and giving mood this Saturday evening, may I put in a request that Honaker and Union each do their part tomorrow so that the Valley can have two more state champions???
 
Since all these home teams are in such a generous and giving mood this Saturday evening, may I put in a request that Honaker and Union each do their part tomorrow so that the Valley can have two more state champions???

Honaker is really really good. They probably would've competed for the 2A title this season. Boyd and McNulty are a deadly duo. I would bet the farm that Honaker wins this game. Now saying that, watch the big Red come down here and get a chip. Lol.
 
Riverheads played mainly 2A and 3A competition, so they might be battle-tested. They even beat one 3-A team (Fort Defiance) on its own floor. I think I am correct that they did not even play any other 1-A teams until the playoffs.
 
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