I’d say it’s because High Point has three players who absolutely carry their team, and all three are high caliber players. Richmond has two phenomenal players and many really strong role players who are consistent but aren’t dominant or quite worthy over the other contending players. I wasn’t at regionals, as mentioned, so it’s very possible more guys deserve mention (I don’t mean to say they don’t have other good players, of course), but from our two games against them, it’s not that Richmond isn’t a good enough team to deserve more players, it’s just that I think after their top two, it’s mostly role players. Also, I’d note that High Point underperformed at Regionals. They were in bid-earning range most of the season, and just a few spots out at the end. They were a good team carried by three players, so the caliber of play of those three is worthy of all-region.
It also just much harder to tell on teams like Davidson, Richmond, or even UNCA because there is less of a gap. Like I mentioned in mine, should some guys from UR or Davidson play on other teams, I firmly believe that a lot would be getting more mentions. That goes the other way too. Obviously, I think there should be more Spidermonkeys on there, but I’m guessing this is why there aren’t.
Yeah, I think Andrew made the point I was going to make really well. All-region teams are about who the biggest studs in the region are, not who plays on the best teams.
I would argue the most impressive regionals performances came from Henry Babcock, Zach Norrbom and Hunter Scaggs. Those were my notes in the recap. How much that should weigh in on your decisions is up to you. I’d say Hunter Scaggs deserves far more attention than he has received certainly considering his overall performance this year, but definitely considering that he was playing at least every 3 out of 4 points for UNC Asheville all weekend and continually showed up throughout the season on offense and defense. I’d argue for 2nd team for him if not first. It’s always a treat to cover the most competitive regionals in the country. Keep it up.