BUZZKETBALL CENTRAL: Pitt Panthers (8-7, 0-2) at Virginia Tech Hokies (11-4, 0-2) Noon ACC Network (WatchESPN)

#BeatPITT pic.twitter.com/GNxM8DGmLW— Hokies Basketball 🦃 (@Hokie_Hoops) January 6, 2018

GAME INFORMATION
Date/Time: Jan. 6, 2018 / Noon
Opponent: University of Pittsburgh
Site: Blacksburg, Virginia (Carilion Clinic Court at Cassell Coliseum)
Radio: Virginia Tech IMG Sports Network
Talent: Jon Laaser and Mike Burnop
TV: ACC Network
Talent: Tim Brando & Mike Gminski
Live Stats: HokieSports.com
Game Notes: Virginia Tech
SIRI 119 (Internet 962)

LETS GO. #Hokies🦃#BeatUVA pic.twitter.com/OCWeHa1GKd— Hokies Basketball 🦃 (@Hokie_Hoops) January 4, 2018

Another Nooner

For those of you that were with us til the super ridiculous end, welcome to another day in the ACC!! The Hokies are home again after starting out their ACC campaign with two ugly losses. It's not that they lost but how totally uninspired their play was in a rivalry game at home. All of that aside, these Hokies need to find a way to focus and come away with a win against a team that could arguably be the worst in the ACC this season.

The Pitt Panthers come in having also lost their first two ACC contests to #15 Miami by 14 and Louisville by 26. They have struggled to an 8-7 record so far, opening the season with losses to Navy and Montana. They then managed a win against UC Santa Barbara before losing two more in a row to Penn State and Oklahoma State. After those two losses they managed to string together four wins in a row against Lehigh, High Point, Duquesne, and Mt St Mary's in OT. . Their next loss came against #18 West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl. They closed out their OOC schedule with three wins over McNeese, Delaware State, and Towson. This is a team struggling to find any success against a major opponent. Pitt leads the all-time series 7-6 but Tech is surprisingly 4-1 against the Panthers inside Cassell.

The Panthers are coached by Kevin Stallings, who has a 472-304 record as a head coach. He is 24-24 as the coach at Pitt. Prior to Pitt he spent 17 seasons as the Head Coach at Vanderbilt and was Head Coach at Illinois State prior to that. This second season for Stallings is not going well so he is likely on the hot seat as this season progresses. That said, he has been missing a key piece of his team for several games and probably has the youngest line up of any team in the ACC, with seven freshmen on the roster and five of those seeing significant minutes.

Stallings defensively subscribes his defense to a ten point process, starting with stop all penetrations, then keep the ball out of the post. His players are expected to eliminate all dumb and lazy fouls but not allow any uncontested shots. He does have his team focus on boxing out, get the rebound and finish the play. He expects defenders to have High hands on all closeouts and jump to the ball on every ball movement. They are expected to get into the gaps- show the dribbler that they cannot come here. The slower the defender the closer to the ball they need to be so they can help and recover- try to eliminate the help part of help and recover by getting far enough into the gap that the dribbler should not want to go there, but if they do, the defender should not have to move to help, he should already be there. The defender should only have to move in one direction and that is to recover, as he should not have to move to help by playing proper position. Last, the Panthers should not allow the offense to feed the post from above the foul line.

Stallings sets four goals for his team on defense for every game.

Team defensive goals
1. Less than 16 team fouls
2. Allow less than 10 offensive rebounds
3. Have a +5 rebounding margin
4. Allow less than 40% shooting

Similarly on offense, the Panthers have a standard set of requirements to follow. Proper shot distribution or allocation should allow them to get quality shots. They are expected to limit turnovers, bad passes and fumbling of the ball. Stallings expects his team to follow the 3 pass rule except for layups and green light shooters. It is critical that they work hard on proper spacing and setting screens with their back to the basket. The Panthers are expect to be constantly on the move, cutting across the lane to make it difficult for them to guard.

Post players are to be able to use the Swiveling technique so that they maintain contact with the defensive player while using their body to screen the ball and get to the basket. Perimeter shooters should get low, show their hands and be ready to step into the shot. Ultimately their team goal is to get the ball to the players with the best chance to score. Stallings is another coach that ascribes to a Zone offense and expects his teams to be ready with both a set and a freelance offense depending on the opponents defensive posture.

What does that mean for the Hokies?

The Hokies need to find their confidence. If they are going to do it, than this is about the best opponent in the
ACC that they could be facing. This Pitt team is allowing opponents to take 8 more shots per contest.

The Hokies are going to have to find a way to deal with another bigger opponent, as Pitt regularly rotates three bigs across two spots but they are being outrebounded, especially in conference play. Finding those extra possessions or preventing Pitt from getting a second chance could be a critical aspect of this contest.

A focus, an identity, something that resembles effort and desire. It has just been a downward slope since this team lost to Kentucky. It is really surprising that a Buzz led team seems to have lost its swagger, but perhaps that has to do with the change in the attitude of the coach as much as the players. There is a significant difference in his approach this season. The hair, the clothing, the lack of movement on the sideline. When was the last time we saw Buzz bounce?

Panthers Backcourt

Jared Wilson-Frame, #0, 6'5, 220 lbs Junior is leading the Panther's attack from the perimeter. He is a transfer from Towson. He is putting up 12.4 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 1.1 APG. He is taking almost seven perimeter shots and is only making them at 29% but this is the Hokies and this is the guy that have "best games of their season" against the Hokies. He shoots 76% from the free throw line. The struggles at the free throw line is a team trend.

Freshman Marcus Carr, #5, 6'1, 185 lbs is averaging 10.9 PPG, 2.8 RPG, and 4 APG while shooting almost 48% from the inside, 46% from outside and 91% from the line as well. Expect to see Carr running the show even though he is a freshman. He will be familiar to at least one Hokie, as he and Alexander-Walker regularly faced off in Canada.

Freshman Shamiel Stevenson, #23, 6'6, 230 Lbs, is another Canadian as Pitt was busy recruiting above the border. He comes in averaging 10.3 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 1.3 APG, and 1.2 SPG. Stevenson is the Clarke of the Panthers, spending more time inside than most other guards, using his big body to help in rebounding, while also shooting 58% inside. His perimeter shots are only going in 30% of the time and his free throw shooting is a 65% affair.

Freshman Parker Stewart, #1, 6'5, 190 Lbs, is the only starter not in double figures, averaging 7.1 PPG, 2.5 RPG, and 1 APG. Parker, much like Stevenson, is finding his success inside rather than the perimeter, shooting 47% inside while managing 33% from the perimeter. He does hit 81% of this free throws.

Senior Jonathan Milligan, #2, 6'2, 170 Lbs is averaging 6.5 PPG, 1.4 RPG, and 1.7 APG. He is the defensive grit and usually is focused on the opponent's primary ball handler. He is shooting 63% inside but only 23% outside. He is hitting 76% of his free throws.

Panthers Frontcourt

Senior Ryan Luther, #4, 6'9, 215 Lbs is leading the team in scoring while averaging a double-double at 12.7 PPG, 10.1 RPG, 2.8 APG, and 1.6 SPG while shooting 48% from inside, 39% from the perimeter but only 65% from the line. The entire offense for the Panther's revolves around Luther this season. Now the good news for the Hokies, Luther isn't able to play as he will miss his sixth consecutive game, which explains much of their struggles against their first two ACC opponents.

In his absence, the Panther's rely on a combination of two bigs. The first is Freshman Terrell Brown #21, 6'10, 240 Lbs. He is averaging 2.8 PPG and 2.3 RPG while shooting 55% from inside and 53% from the line.

The second is Sophomore Kene Chukwuka, #15, 6'9, 215 Lbs, who is averaging 2.4 PPG, 2.1 RPG, and 1 APG while shooting 80% inside and a mind boggling 29% from the line.

What to expect from the Panthers?

This is a team that is still very much in flux, especially with the injury to Ryan Luther. They are regularly playing five freshmen, so performance varies very much from game to game. The playing time and statistics reflect this turmoil as well.

Even as Pitt struggles, the Panthers should not be regarded lightly, especially on the defensive end. They rarely foul and hold opponents to 33% shooting from the perimeter and 46% inside.

Pitt does struggle to create turnovers but the Hokies seem to find a way to make every team seem good at it. So far this season they are only managing to force 11 turnovers per contest.

Pitt has struggled from the perimeter all season, shooting only 33% but even more so since reaching the ACC slate, where they have only managed 22% the last two contests.

The Hokies

The Hokies just need to find a way to score consistently in this contest. Inside, outside, from the line, it doesn't matter, just find a way to get the ball through the rim. With the absence of Luther, Blackshear should be able to excel against the inexperienced bigs that remain. It should be a double-double type game for Kerry.
The Hokies need to be prepared to face a multitude of defensive fronts. It would not be at all a surprise to see Stallings send his squad out to play a slow, methodical 2-3 zone considering the Hokies struggles the last month.

Highlight of the Virginia Game

It ended

In Closing

The Hokies don't need to be pretty, but they must be effective to win this contest. This is a major pivot point in the season. If they are not able to pull themselves together to win this contest at home against a team missing its biggest star and struggling to find an identity than the next few contests could be ugly. Two road games followed by two ranked opponents.

Hokies win 78-65

Around the ACC
Florida State upset North Carolina 81-80
Georgia Tech surprised Miami 64-54
Clemson beat Boston College 74-70
Wake Forest beat Syracuse 73-67
Notre Dame crushed NC State 88-58

Records:
Duke, Clemson and UVA are 13-1
Miami and Florida State are 12-2
UNC, Notre Dame and Syracuse are 12-3
Louisville is 11-3
Virginia Tech is 11-4
Boston College and NC State are 10-5
Pitt is 8-7
Wake Forest is 8-6
Georgia Tech is 7-7