Looking Back At Virginia Tech Basketball's 63-65 Loss to Appalachian State

Recap of the Hokies men's basketball first loss of the season.

Buzz Williams sits down on the Hokies bench during a timeout in play. [Mark Umansky]

Hidden behind the smoke emitting from the dumpster fire that was Virginia Tech football's loss to Wake Forest, the Hokie hoops team had a disappointment of their own last Saturday. Virginia Tech basketball (2-1) lost its first game of the season 63-65 to Appalachian State.

Let's get a few things straight. The Mountaineers are not good. They lost to Ohio University and Furman by an average of 22.5 points. This is not an acceptable loss by any measure. That being said, a loss like this would be much more devastating to a team that had realistic preseason tournament expectations.

However, we knew early on there would be bumps in the road, and it was impossible to figure out which teams would provide the challenge. This is a young team, and young teams sometimes come out slow or just play a game where they miss shots that they often hit. Buzz Williams' crew did both of those things on Saturday.

Tech was down by twelve at the 9:16 mark in the first half and had to continuously battle back from there. Though it wasn't all bad, this game illustrated what could go wrong when this team's flaws are highlighted, the primary one being the rebounding problem.

Defensive rebounding percentage is pretty simple as far as advanced stats go. It's the percentage of rebounds a team grabs on the defensive end against the total number of rebounds available. Virginia Tech had 19 defensive rebounds, App State had 19 offensive rebounds. Rebounds are always subjective to the bounce of the ball, but a defensive rebounding rate of 50% is not a decent number. I know this team is small, but that can't be used as an excuse when they play another team that consistently played three guards.

Personally, I like to break down rebounding like this:

  • 25% defensive scheme. Where are people crashing from? How far away from the hoop are your big men? Etc.
  • 15% measurables and athleticism. Often times the big, athletic center is bound to come up with more rebounds than anyone else.
  • 60% effort. It may sound cliche, but often times grabbing a rebounds (especially an offensive rebound) is an effort play. It's who can get to the ball just a split second quicker, who can block out their man throughout the rebound.

Post-game, many of the comments made by both Buzz and the players revolved around effort. Buzz saying that his team didn't play hard enough from start to finish, Devin Wilson saying that the team simply came out flat and was outplayed. I wasn't able to watch the game live, but it's all I could think about while watching the ESPN3 broadcast. Tech was a little sleepy, not operating at 100 percent, and paid the price for it by getting out-rebounded 27 to 42.

A big part of the rebounding issue was foul trouble between the two centers. Buzz said after the first game of the year that Joey van Zegeren and Satchel Pierce had to play 40 minutes a night combined. While they did that against Appalachian State, it probably wasn't quite the split that Buzz hoped for.

JVZ was only able to stay on the floor for 18 minutes, and his lack of floor time is a huge concern for this team. You could argue that Tech still had a hard time grabbing boards even when he was out there, but I would say that van Zegeren's presence on defense allowed Tech the chance for rebounding opportunities. His length forced many missed shots near the hoop, and it was up to his teammates to close out the possession with a board.

Pierce is a little more developed than I feared before the season, but is still sometimes behind the play on defense and can be found in no-man's-land. While Pierce can hold his own, I wouldn't be comfortable playing him more than 12 minutes a game. That is enough for him to have some effective post touches on offense, allowing him to show his soft touch around the basket, but not enough to allow his slow feet and positioning to be exposed by the opposing team.

One positive thing that I noticed about van Zegeren over the last two games, which was also acknowledged by ESPN3 broadcaster Andrew Allegretta: Joey has gotten mean. I'm not saying that he's gotten a little tougher, I'm saying that he has a permanent scowl and looks to mix it up down low, at times to his disadvantage. Personally, I love it. Against Liberty you could see him drive the Flames' big men crazy as he bodied them up in the post.

Just think about where he was two years ago, a skinny post player off the bench who had trouble finishing around the rim. Now he's probably an average finisher, but he's not going to get pushed around by anyone. It's the kind of streak of toughness that this team will need, and hopefully it spreads to others.

If there's one last thing that we should all take from this game it's just that bad shooting nights are going to happen. Tech went 11-30 (36.7%) in the first half, missing open shots from just about everywhere on the floor. Malik Mueller had a horrible shooting night individually. He didn't hit a shot from the field and watched four of his six free throws rattle out for misses. The team shot 3-17 from deep, which is probably not going to happen again (though it does help explain why Buzz loves getting the ball into the paint).

This wasn't a good loss, but if the team can grow from it there are valuable lessons that can be learned. The team's next game is today in Cancun against Northern Iowa, and I'm excited to see how they recover from this recent setback.

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