Boys Pre-Tournament Assessment

You woke up this morning and you said, "Wha..who..what time is it?" and a little voice in your head said, "DISTRICT TOURNAMENT TIME BABY!" and that little voice was me running rampant through your house. Now that you're slightly creeped out, lets move on to some very unnecessary hype into the district tournament. Shall we?

Bottom of the bracket..

RURAL RETREAT (3-15, 2-8)

GOOD: Winning over Holston. Also, keeping their games close. It really shows the resiliency of the team to not give up despite their record.
BAD: Losing close games. They had it in them to win almost every game they played the season, but only came out with three. "We're better than last year!" is not a good enough excuse, you're better than this year too.
COULD: Heck, win the tournament. GW might not like the idea, but the Indians already beat the #2 team in the tournament, why not the #1?
SHOULD: Any hopes of a region C appearance is ditched unless they seriously win this tournament. They should focus on PH (whom they took to the wire in their last meeting) and then beat Chilhowie again. The rule is very similar to others you have heard throughout your life, take baseball for instance, "If you get a glove on it, you should catch it!" and "If you beat them once, well you should beat them twice."

PATRICK HENRY (11-11, 6-4)

GOOD: Closing out the season with three straight wins. I love it when teams play non-district games late in the year, especially before the tournament. Its a good way to get the last few kinks out and instill some confidence prior to the postseason.
BAD: Not much is bad, the Rebels are playing really good basketball right now. Maybe even one of the hottest teams in the district, except for the champs, who the Rebels had in their sights despite a 58-48 defeat.
COULD: Win the tournament. They have beaten RR twice (including ousting them at home on January 9) and have played the Warriors to the wire both times. A few good wins in this thing, and PH can grip a 7 or 8 seed in the regionals.
SHOULD: With two of the better athletes in the district on the court at any given time for the Rebels, PH should be able to handle RR and Chilhowie. PH may be the only team with what it takes to challenge GW at this point..

CHILHOWIE (10-11, 6-4)

GOOD: Winning two very important late season games over RR and Holston after losing to both teams previously
BAD: Losing to those teams previously.
COULD: Sigh.. win the tournament. They've already beaten PH twice and played well in their recent game with RR. Yet another district tournament championship between GW and Chilhowie could be on tap.
SHOULD: Be weary of PH and RR. An early exit from this tournament could mean no consideration for the regionals. D2 is pretty stout this year.


Top of the bracket...

NORTHWOOD (7-14, 2-8)

GOOD: Finally ending that gross eleven game losing streak and capping off the season by winning three of their last four. The three wins did wonders on their confidence too, ask Joey Russell about the Maroons' halftime against the Panthers on Feb 11.
BAD: Having an eleven game losing streak to start with. It is sometimes almost better to just lose than to lose as close as these kids have. Losing a lot of close games can destroy confidence in a teenage athlete faster than him forgetting to wear deodorant on a hot date.
COULD: Knock off Holston in the first round and score some brownie points with AD's across the land. In a perfect world, AD's would use HogoOnline's rankings to decide where to place teams in the regionals.. Oh, and like everyone else, NW could win the district tournament.
SHOULD: Knock off Holston in the first round and score some brownie points with AD's across the land.

HOLSTON (8-11, 4-6)

GOOD: Uh, well. You didn't finish last!
BAD: And.. you also didn't finish the season very well..at all. Losing six of the last eight is no way to end a season when you have a legit shot at making some noise in regionals. Tisk tisk.
COULD: Get it all together, beat NW and jump some spots in the regional seeding. Need I say it? Holston could win the tournament. Catching the theme here?
SHOULD: Watch film of their last three games and make notes of how not to play their next three.

GEORGE WYTHE (16-5, 10-0)

GOOD: It's all good in Wythetown once basketball season wraps up. The second week of Februrary in quaint little Wytheville means boys basketball players from neighborhoods far and wide get to bask in the glory of another district championship. Yes, district champs yet again.
BAD: Its hard to say many bad things about the Maroons, but their is definitely concern with how the offense and defense will matchup should the Maroons have a rematch with Radford.
COULD: Win the district tournament and get a #2 or #3 seed in the regionals.
SHOULD: Not worry about a rematch with Radford. It may not happen. Auburn, Giles, James River, and even PH or Chilhowie will have a lot of say over whether or not that his remotely possible.