Mens Basketball: Morgan State (1-5) vs Virginia Tech (3-2) 3PM ESPN3

Television/Internet
ESPN3 - Andrew Allegretta & Mack McCarthy
Radio
Virginia Tech IMG Sports Network - Bill Roth & Mike Burnop
Also available on: Digital: Hokies Xtra & TuneIn

This is apparently the final game of the Cancun Challenge. The Hokies face Morgan State coming off a 78-63 over Miami(OH) on Wednesday night. Morgan State comes in after beating Liberty 51-50 by hitting a shot with 3 seconds remaining. That was the Bears first win on the season. Hopefully the coaching staff uses their win over Liberty to keep these young Hokies on edge for this opponent as it could be a quiet day in Cassell if the crowd is still dealing with a double dose of Thanksgiving/LoLUVA beating hangover.

Morgan State is lead by Senior Guard Blake Bozeman (#22), who comes in averaging 12.8 PPG, 3.2 RPG, and 2.3 APG on the season in the early going. Two other Bears play over 30 mpg so far, Junior Forward Cedric Blossom (#34) and Junior Guard Donte Pretlow (#1). These two combine for 17 PPG, 10 RPG, and 5 APG. Pretlow plays the point guard position in their offense primarily. Expect a steady rotation of about 7 other players as they range from 23 MPG to 6 MPG. The Bears have three games decided by one possession so far this season but also were blown out by 15 or more in two of their losses so its difficult to know what to expect. They prefer to play a very up-tempo style of basketball on both ends of the floor so dont be surprised if this game is an extremely high scoring affair.

The Hokies have three players averaging in double digits thus far, with Bibbs, Smith and JVZ. Bibbs and Smith both had their averages buoyed by their high scoring affair against Miami(OH). I hope that we see much of the same offensive performance today, especially early on driving the lane to create fouls and free throws, getting our dominance in the paint established to open up the outside shots in the second half.

If this game goes as I expect, the Hokies should be able to pull away early, establish a double digit lead by the end of the first half and maintain that lead in the second half. The only change to this would be if Morgan State came in and changed their style of play to really slow the pace of the game. This could cause Tech problems in getting their shooters established on the outside. In the games that Morgan State has been really blown out, they were awful on the defensive boards, giving up more than 20 offensive rebounds in those two games, so the Tech big men could be the key to winning this game going away. Tech this season has a significant advantage when it comes to Points per Possession, with Tech at 1.03 so far and Morgan State at 0.86 PPP. Hopefully this remains the case.

Tech 77 - Morgan State 65

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