Top 2A Basketball teams for 2019/2020
- Thread starter badtobone
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George Mason moves to 3A next season. East Rock graduates everybody but the freshman I think. Your prediction may need a re-think
the freshman kid will make everyone around him better. All of this is just what I see. What I do know that Gate City will be back, Radford, Graham, Martinsville, Dan River, will field teams due their coaches.Robert E Lee has history of being strong come playoff time.
I wish VHSL would use the format of seeding teams once they get to quarterfinals of region champiions and runner-ups.
I think that Radford and Gate City were the best teams in 2A. I just wish they would have been playing against each other in the Finals.
I wish VHSL would use the format of seeding teams once they get to quarterfinals of region champiions and runner-ups.
I think that Radford and Gate City were the best teams in 2A. I just wish they would have been playing against each other in the Finals.
And neither would have beaten Radford this year, so.....
Didn't Martinsville, who didn't even make the state final, defeat the 4A champ? Didn't Radford beat the 3A champ?
2A basketball is not just gonna be taken over by someone dropping down. Radford was 1A and came up and won a state title, size isn't always the defining factor.
I remember when Martinsville, Greensville, RELee, et al, dropped to 2A. They were supposed to rule 2A. Never happened. TJ and JM might have a good run but 2A is strong in the commonwealth.
Graham is 2-3 years from being a real threat to win it all. 2 freshmen got significant playing time in Graves and Meadows. Lot of talent on the jv squad also. Losing Drew Baker and Cam Allen is a huge loss for Graham. None of the younger kids will be ready to fill those roles yet next season, but the following 2 years look very promising. Lots of young talent.
Graham will be in the hunt again next year for region D, but Im looking forward to the next 2 seasons after that for Graham to be really good. That is. of course if all stay healthy and Meadows keeps playing basketball. He is being recruited very hard for football already.
Graham will be in the hunt again next year for region D, but Im looking forward to the next 2 seasons after that for Graham to be really good. That is. of course if all stay healthy and Meadows keeps playing basketball. He is being recruited very hard for football already.
GC will do good in SWVA as will Union and Wise Central. Graham will be tough again as usual. But saying GC will make it back might be a stretch. I certainly wont count on it.
I guess so.
Hell why not just go ahead and split the title and give it to both schools? Since they're gonna dominate 2A, just let them play inn the title game and let the little nobodies like Radford, Martinsville, Graham, Dan River, East Rock, RE Lee, etc... battle for third.
2A basketball is very, very good. Expecting to just show up and dominate these schools is naive. Like I mentioned, ask Northside (3A champs) or GW (4A) about playing 2A schools.
I think the M7, and Region D in general, should be a total toss up next season. Union was super young and had little depth but return a lot of talent and some of the youngsters have excelled at the lower levels. Wise is in same boat, and both Graham and GC lose some serious talent so it could be anyone being top dog. GC still has some talent in the ranks, as does Graham, so both should be considered favorites but I don't think anyone in Region D has a big shot at a state title.
And no question Radford was a special team that I'm guessing could have won classes 1-4 and probably competed at 5-6.
Ask Phoebus in football how it has panned out with them dropping down in class. They haven't won a chip since being in 3A..2A has a very good brand in basketball.
I've got no qualms with how you approached the issue, it's the condescending tone of another poster that rubbed me wrong. You seem to view it a little more objectively. They both seem to have great programs. But 2A schools have some impressive scalps in recent years, Martinsville plays a brutal schedule, Radford isn't afraid to schedule huge games, GC has played in the Arby's against some elite talent, etc...
I agree that the three schools you mention played and beat tough people! I'm alot out of the loop on much of what I once did but I do know if you beat Martinsville Gate and East Rock back to back to back and go 30-0 all while beating the 3A champ in Northside you have a great team that can compete at any level!
In my opinion, John Marshall is the favorite for Class 2 next year. Lot of good teams capable of winning it and being there, but the Justices at that level with their talent could be scary... going to be hard for anyone to handle the 6-foot-10 Roosevelt Wheeler (2020 prospect ranked in the Top 100 nationally).
With Radford losing the Morton kid, I would say John Marshall should be the favorite on paper.....as for them dominating 2A, I won’t go that far. The top teams 2A has produced the last few years have been super talented.
Over the last several years Ive thought 3A champions and state tournament participants were more impressive than those in 4A and 5A. So the class difference doesn’t always tell paint an accurate picture
Over the last several years Ive thought 3A champions and state tournament participants were more impressive than those in 4A and 5A. So the class difference doesn’t always tell paint an accurate picture
JM might win it next year. I’m not much on the transitive theory...BUT, they did not win their division this year and the team that did (Northside) lost to the 2A champ.
When was the last time a team dropped divisions and went on to win a title their first year in that division? 2010?
When was the last time a team dropped divisions and went on to win a title their first year in that division? 2010?
Umm... try Norcom. They won the Class 4 crown in 2014-15, beating King's Fork 52-40 in the title game. The very next year, the Greyhounds edged Hopewell 67-65 in overtime on the buzzer-beater from Travis Fields (who's now playing at Radford University) to claim the Class 3 crown for 2015-16.
like I said months ago there isn't enough evidence to make hard and fast decisions one way or the other. Both teams are going to play their usual teams next year and the 2A folks probably won't even see them until play off time. They will remain in the Colonial District with 5A schools and will play in tournaments and Invitationals with the Tidewater schools.
BTW: I love the chatter; the C3 board is dead by comparison. I would love it if the eastern and western teams would play each other more often (maybe during Christmas).
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That doesn't exactly help your claim, if you have a tougher time winning 3A as opposed to 4A, what does that say about 4A? I know teams change and players graduate, but simply dropping a classification in itself doesn't make someone a favorite. Having a legit 6'10 player who can work inside out does, but the kids in 2A aren't exactly scrubs. I know you have to tout the recruiting services, but you have a kid who wasn't a 5*, top 100 recruit who came from a 2A school who is starting on a Big East bubble team as a freshman, one going to Radford and another going to a top 25 ranked Wofford program.
Is it not even remotely possible that to some extent, players at smaller programs aren't placed as highly in the recruiting system because it's often for less exposure, in less populated areas? This isn't about Wheeler in particular at all, just a general statement that often bigger schools seem to get the benefit of the exposure and the recruiting cycle by being closer to the bigger cities and larger schools that get to select from a much larger talent pool? Social media and the proliferation of technology has certainly made the gap smaller and allowed smaller school athletes more exposure and more eyes on their talent, and basketball has the AAU system that allows for exposure (even if it is one of the most corrupt institutions in sports) but it is still an uphill battle for a kid who was simply born in a smaller area to gain exposure compared to a kid who lives 15 minutes from DC or Richmond.
If you're judging the actual teams and saying hey, this team at JM has a lot of talent and with teams like Radford losing elite talent, you should consider this team as one of the handful of favorites, that sounds reasonable and I doubt many people would disagree. But handwaving 2A basketball would be a big mistake for any school dropping down. JM, with a top 200 recruit, didn't win the 3A title but the school that did, Northside, fell to a team that until pretty recently was a 1A school.
Most of us here aren't trying to downplay either program that is moving down, it's simply trying to stick up for a division that in recent years has been very, very good. A school is gonna win 2A because they're extremely talented and can play their best basketball at the right time, not because they are a bigger school.
the travel makes that very tough, with education budgets being so restricted and the general distance, it's tough to see those games. It would certainly be a great opportunity for both sides to see the competition a little more and be familiar with the sytles, but traveling 10+ hours for an exhibition tourney or an early season tourney can be financially difficult. But I agree in theory it's a great idea.
The biggest problem for JM will be their kids leaving for private schools. They lost their best player this year to a private school and could conceivably lose another great one in the next 6 months. I hope it doesn't happen because I am a believer in staying home and playing with your boys, but it's just the reality of scholastic basketball right now. The AAU culture has decimated school basketball in a lot of places. It is even getting bad in girls basketball. That is why a McClung or QMR is refreshing. They chose to bloom where they were planted and had special careers.
guess you are right.
We get spoiled in the east with all the schools in RVa area and Tidewater within 100 miles of each other. We sometimes forget how spread out the west is.
Your argument is fair. But with Radford and Gate City graduating its best players - along with the track record of John Marshall always being in the state hunt every year - it's hard to imagine them being below anyone with the talent they regularly have. In addition to Wheeler, the Justices bring back one of the top guards in Elijah Seward.
East Rock will be a top contender, provided they bring back Tyler Nickel and Tyce McNair. Radford won't fall off too much with Cam Cormany and P.J. Prioleau back. Likewise for Gate City with Bradley Dean leading the way.
Who's to say thought that John Marshall wouldn't have beaten Northside if they outlast Phoebus in OT in that State Semifinal game? This Radford team obviously was really good in beating Northside, but losing Quinton Morton-Robertson is a huge blow, plus Miles Jones meant an awful heck of a lot too.
Let's not kid ourselves. John Marshall beat Landstown (the Class 6 State Champ) by double-figures in the VaPreps Classic in late January. They could easily win the state title in any division, any year. The fact that they are dropping down to Class 2 is going to make it tough on the traditional powers to beat them, even though it is indeed far from a given.
I think that's reasonable and fair as well. In what my limited knowledge is on the two new 2A teams, most recently JM, has been poached at times talent wise from prep schools. Out west, that doesn't seem to happen as much. There was some talk of McClung potentially going to a prep school but in reality that wasn't necessary. When teams can play together for years, like Radford consistently has, GC had, Martinsville seems to have, without having their best players potentially leaving, that's an issue that comes with being in a bigger environment and with more people trying to recruit players.
I've talked a big game about Radford but this year was really special, a talent like QMR doesn't come around every often and to have such a great cast (both both Cormandy and PJ can play even if I think he has a brighter future in football) with a coach who has shown he can really have his team ready in the state tournament. To not slip up once, while playing schools like Northside, Graham, etc...plus the Region C teams before the state tourney, this is unlikely to happen again where the 2A team could play with any team in the VHSL state classification. Not ness. win, but even the 5-6A schools, I think the Bobcats would have not been blown out and could be competitve. I think we all, myself included, probably need to acknowledge that this year was a little different.
But even saying that, Martsinville plays in a brutal district against bigger schools and has shown they can beat 3-4A schools, they knocked of GW this season alone, GC or Graham likely won't ever get the opportunity and in most years that's a blessing as players of the caliber they've had don't come around often but GC gave Radford a closer game than East Rock did and another poster from Radford noted that their regular season game w Graham was competitive until a late run.
it was just the (possibly just perceived in my mind) tone of a couple people who seemed to just equate them dropping with being the best. 2A is a quality division, esp in basketball where at the end of the day, you've got 10-12 kids playing so depth isn't quite the factor as in football.
Yeah it's a much larger state than people seem to realize and despite what the VHSL may have thought at times in the past, the state doesn't end in Roanoke lol.
For instance, in the Mountain 7 alone, the closest conference game is a 20 minute ride except when Battle plays Abingdon, I'm not sure the distance there but it's close as opposed to Lee High (Jonesville), who has to travel 80 miles for a conference game with Abingdon. The travel can be brutal, so I can't imagine seeing 400-500 mile trips for games when some schools are facing serious economic issues.
Greensville County has as much talent at anyone at the 2A level for the next 2 years and that includes John Marshall. They lost 1 starter and return 7 of it's 8 guys in the rotation and they are super talented and athletic. This team is similar to Gate City during Mac's junior year or Radford during Q's junior year. They were/are one year away.
well since they are in the same region now - they may play each other and we then will see first hand.
I'm a Tee Jay guy but Jay Em' will run through 90 percent of their competition by 25. They will simply reload, they will have 1 or 2 new faces, Wheeler will not leave and they will keep their cycle going. Isiah Todd only left to be closer to a trainer,he was the number 13 player in the nation and they still continued to win. Kids simply want to play for Coach White, he may be one of the most influential basketball coaches in Virginia if he wasn't the Frank Mason's and Mac Mcclung's wouldn't have played for Team Loaded.
