2023 Arby's Classic

[creekerballer]

3 hours ago, MentorFan said:

It's been a bit, but Mentor (OH) is back at the Arby's Classic. They finished 2nd (twice) and 3rd over a three year stretch from 2010 to 2012. I believe they have had three appearances (2013, 2014, 2019) in between that run and this season. All three of those other appearances resulted in multiple losses, which is something that never happened during that great 2010-2012 run. 

The team they have this year is pretty solid. Definitely not as good as those earlier teams that played extremely well, but this is still a good team. They are ranked #8 in the very competitive Cleveland-area pre-season poll. They return four starters (including their top two leading scorers) from last season. Their top two players are committed to DII colleges. 

Mentor is playing Sullivan East first. I don't know anything about them. But if Mentor wins, they are going to play the winner of some very strong out of state teams. One won state in SC and the other was runner up in VA. My guess is they beat Sullivan East, lose in the second round, and then it will be 50/50 games after that. 

Glad Mentor is coming back. Always enjoyed watching them play. I’d say your prediction is right. Not sure what to make of Sullivan East, only time I saw them it was a game where they really outmatched their opponent. Score wise, they hung around with a good Bearden team from Knoxville who won the Arby’s a few years back and is currently undefeated, but also have had some close games against teams they probably should have beaten worse. They will have some athletes, got a couple who’ve got D1 interest in football, but I suspect Mentor is the better basketball team. George Wythe from Virginia looks like they don’t start their season until this week and Dorman from SC is already 8-0. Second game will definitely be tough. 

[TribalEmpire]

G-Dub will be no match for Mentor or Dorman.  Dorman will wax them probably as much if not worse than they beat Abingdon a couple years ago, and that Abingdon team was excellent and 3A.

Don't get me wrong, they're good for their classification and are the favorites to win it all in VHSL 1A this season, but Virginia 1A is just no match for anyone in this tournament other than the other local schools.  Never has been, never will be.  The only VHSL 1A school who ever had a hint of success in this tournament was Council back in 2001.

Just this past weekend, D-B waxed Virginia High, who is probably one of southwest Virginia's better 2A teams this year.  And this isn't one of D-B's better teams.

Edited December 11, 2023 by TribalEmpire

[TribalEmpire]

The out of area talent this year may be the best it's ever been.  I follow a lot of eastern Kentucky hoops as well, Harlan County is rolling so far.  Looking forward to seeing them.

[creekerballer]

45 minutes ago, TribalEmpire said:

G-Dub will be no match for Mentor or Dorman.  Dorman will wax them probably as much if not worse than they beat Abingdon a couple years ago, and that Abingdon team was excellent and 3A.

Don't get me wrong, they're good for their classification and are the favorites to win it all in VHSL 1A this season, but Virginia 1A is just no match for anyone in this tournament other than the other local schools.  Never has been, never will be.  The only VHSL 1A school who ever had a hint of success in this tournament was Council back in 2001.

Just this past weekend, D-B waxed Virginia High, who is probably one of southwest Virginia's better 2A teams this year.  And this isn't one of D-B's better teams.

I thought GW 2A this whole time, probably wouldn’t have mattered though. Dorman looks really good. 

[StarBright87]

39 minutes ago, TribalEmpire said:

G-Dub will be no match for Mentor or Dorman.  Dorman will wax them probably as much if not worse than they beat Abingdon a couple years ago, and that Abingdon team was excellent and 3A.

Don't get me wrong, they're good for their classification and are the favorites to win it all in VHSL 1A this season, but Virginia 1A is just no match for anyone in this tournament other than the other local schools.  Never has been, never will be.  The only VHSL 1A school who ever had a hint of success in this tournament was Council back in 2001.

Just this past weekend, D-B waxed Virginia High, who is probably one of southwest Virginia's better 2A teams this year.  And this isn't one of D-B's better teams.

TribalEmpire 2a in Virginia is the biggest waste of time ever, all you're doing is fighting to get throttle by 60 in the state championship game by John Marshall, John Marshall finished #1 in the nation last year, this season they were in the preseason top 10 but I did see someone out of Charlotte NC already beat them this year. Their coach Ty White got national coach of the year last season and he's big time in the AAU circuit so he recruits all these D1 players to John Marshall just to win a 2a title, just off of last year's team they had 6-8 kids going D1, they're sponsor by Adidas and they pay for them to travel everywhere to play other national rank teams and then they have to play there conference 2a games, you don't need 8 guys going D1 in 2a va on the same team all you need is 1, they beat Radford in the state championship game last year 91-34

[TribalEmpire]

3 minutes ago, StarBright87 said:

TribalEmpire 2a in Virginia is the biggest waste of time ever, all you're doing is fighting to get throttle by 60 in the state championship game by John Marshall, John Marshall finished #1 in the nation last year, this season they were in the preseason top 10 but I did see someone out of Charlotte NC already beat them this year. Their coach Ty White got national coach of the year last season and he's big time in the AAU circuit so he recruits all these D1 players to John Marshall just to win a 2a title, just off of last year's team they had 6-8 kids going D1, they're sponsor by Adidas and they pay for them to travel everywhere to play other national rank teams and then they have to play there conference 2a games, you don't need 8 guys going D1 in 2a va on the same team all you need is 1, they beat Radford in the state championship game last year 91-34

Oh yeah... I am aware of this for sure.  The team that beat John Marshall this year was actually last year's Arby's champion Myers Park.  John Marshall is going to be in Big Shots this year aren't they?

[StarBright87]

11 minutes ago, TribalEmpire said:

Oh yeah... I am aware of this for sure.  The team that beat John Marshall this year was actually last year's Arby's champion Myers Park.  John Marshall is going to be in Big Shots this year aren't they?

I'm not 100% sure they are but I hope so, I'd love to see them in person, last year we got beat in the quarterfinals by 4 to Floyd County and then Floyd County lost to Radford in the semi's in OT so we were a couple bounces last year from going up to Richmond getting beat like a drum. When we lost to Floyd County last year the kids came out the locker room red eyes from crying an I couldn't understand why because we already knew nobody has a chance in 2a, I didn't look at it from this point of view in talking to the kids afterwards they wanted John Marshall cause the kids from JM where going places and they wanted to later on in life to say that they played against such an such

[MentorFan]

Arby’s starts today. Predictions on the winners for day one?

[JayinTN]

On 12/11/2023 at 7:59 AM, TribalEmpire said:

The out of area talent this year may be the best it's ever been.  I follow a lot of eastern Kentucky hoops as well, Harlan County is rolling so far.  Looking forward to seeing them.

Trent Noah there star player he has several D1 offers committed to South Carolina 

[EHSTrack06]

Excited for this year

[creekerballer]

Well I missed some of Christmas weekend with the crud, but got over it in time to make the Arby’s. Looking forward to Oak Ridge and Harlan County tonight

[TribalEmpire]

3 hours ago, MentorFan said:

Arby’s starts today. Predictions on the winners for day one?

Tennessee High over Tabernacle Baptist 

Maryville over Daniel Boone (by a lot) 

Dorman over George Wythe (by a lot) 

Mentor over Sullivan East (by a lot) 

Oak Ridge over Harlan County (this will probably be the game of the day and maybe the entire tournament) 

Kell over Greeneville (though the Greene Devils have the recent history of being the one local team who can scrap and win a game or two, so who knows)