Virginia Tech Men's Basketball Smokes Morgan State 83-63

In its first game after the Cancun Challenge, the Virginia Tech men's basketball team shot the lights out of the gym and crushed Morgan State 83-63 on Sunday afternoon.

Tech was trading blows with the Bears for most of the first half, and then Adam Smith happened. Sparked by a barrage of Smith three balls, he hit a trio of trifectas in the span of 71 seconds, the Hokies pulled away and never looked back.

Smith had 22 points, Devin Wilson had 11 assists (10 of which came in the first half) and the offense flowed all afternoon. While there were plenty of positives to take away from the performance, the best thing in my eyes was watching this team improve over the course of its three most recent games.

The Hokies knocked down shot after shot, and their ability to get open opportunities while also closing out on Morgan State was something that Buzz Williams highlighted post-game.

"We can't allow the ball to get to the paint, ball get's to the paint it's going to force rotation," Williams explained. "If it doesn't force rotation that means you're between the ball and the basket and that means that you should be able to contest those shots.

"One of our whiteboard stats is contested shots versus uncontested shots for both teams. So how many shots did they shoot that they would call practice shots, how many shots did we shoot that we would call practice shots and the numbers were really, really good for a long period of time. Probably as good as they've been."

This was the second game in a row that Smith set the hoop ablaze off the bench, and it will be interesting to see how sustainable his scoring prowess is going forward. He won't always get looks as open as he's been getting them, but as of now he gives the team a nice spark as a substitute.

Tech was overpowered on the offensive glass again (the Bears had 19 offensive rebounds but only 10 second chance points), and that's the biggest problem that needs fixing this season. While he didn't have an answer for giving up so many offensive boards, Williams did drop some interesting insight into his philosophy about his team looking for second chances offensively.

"We're not sending a lot of guys to the glass, because we're so small," Williams said. "We want to make sure that we're not giving up points in transition. A little San Antonio Spur-esq in that we want to be last in offensive rebounding and first in defensive transition.

"And we're pretty good in defensive transition. The answer is not for us to get more offensive rebounds, the answer is for them to not get as many."

I hope to do a statistical deep dive soon to help illustrate what this team does well that may not always show up in the box score, but that's something that I've started to notice. Outside of the Liberty game, we haven't seen a ton of Hokie opponents get easy buckets in transition. It may not amount to anything as the season goes along, but if Buzz's crew can make ACC opponents work for every shot they'll be a headache for everyone.

Paint touches, everyone's new favorite made-up stat, will continue to be a point of emphasis this season. At one point in time with five or so minutes to go in the game, Smith looked like he wanted to jack up another triple but was serenaded with "PAINT TOUCHES, PAINT TOUCHES!" from the coaching staff before he even caught the ball.

Channeling my inner Bud Foster, Will Johnston played his nuts off for 15 minutes today. He even played that fourth guard position (aka, the one that defends the power forward) and boxed out incredibly well. If I had to guess, he's not going to be a guy that we see a ton of come January, but I know that when we do the team will get a little grittier.

Both Satchel Pierce and Jalen Hudson didn't see a moment of action in the first half, and each ended the game with a career low in minutes played. I'm not particularly shocked that Pierce is seeing his minutes wane against certain teams. Like Liberty, the Bears frequently played small and tried to drag Tech's big man away from the basket. Pierce already isn't the fleetest of foot, and combine that with needing the center to protect the rim it just wasn't a great matchup for him.

I'm a little more interested in Hudson. Buzz fluctuates his rotation depending on the matchup, or based on other factors like effort in practice, but I would have thought that a game against a smaller team is right in the freshman's wheelhouse. I'm not going to speculate any further, but it will be interesting to see how much he plays Hudson against Penn State on Wednesday.

Cancun Challenge Review

The trip to Cancun was an experience that would sound familiar to many of us. Tech made some mistakes, got smashed on their first day in town and rallied back to have a memorable experience before they went home.

Playing two games in Mexico the Hokies were steamrolled in game one, losing 54-73 to Northern Iowa. All was not lost, though, as Buzz Williams and company came back in the consolation game and blew past Miami (OH) 78-63.

The excursion south of the border served to remind all of us both the strengths and the weaknesses of this team. The Panthers are a team with a rotation full of upperclassmen (their normal rotation consisted of four seniors, three juniors and a sophomore), and they moved the ball accordingly. Seniors Seth Tuttle and Marvin Singleton had success down low, both for themselves and for others as the found consistently open men around the three-point arc.

It's going to be a problem for Tech all year. Northern Iowa runs a three-guard system and is also undersized, yet they found success inside. I thought that Joey van Zegeren had a much better game defensively than you'd think. He boxed out his man consistently and took out the biggest rebounding threat on the opposing team (Tuttle), after he does that, it's often other people's job to go grab the loose ball. I don't think anything illustrates this problem more than the fact that Wilson grabbed the same number of defensive boards as Justin Bibbs, Ahmed Hill, Pierce and Hudson combined.

Offensively, it seemed like post touches were a priority and JVZ definitely made the most of his opportunities (7-10 from the field, 15 points in 25 minutes). He took what he could get despite physical defense from Tuttle (who could play at many ACC schools), but the Panthers ran a 2-3 zone that really limited everyone else on the floor. I thought that NIU came out with a very smart plan to close out quickly on Bibbs, which limited his chances to both catch-and-shoot and create, which lead to a relatively stagnant offense.

Miami is a lesser quality opponent than Northern Iowa, but still posed a unique challenge to the Hokies in the consolation game. They had a senior guard in Will Sullivan who's very dangerous coming off of screens (something that a few Tech players have struggled with this year), and a jittery point guard in Eric Washington who can wreck havoc in the lane.

Luckily for Buzz's bunch, Washington was suspended for the first half and without him the Redhawks could hardly breathe offensively. Tech didn't allow their opponent to get into the paint and dominated the half. With Washington back Miami actually outpaced the Hokies in the second half. It is, however, pretty hard to mount a comeback after scoring 17 points in 20 minutes of basketball, and could never overcome the deficit.

In a trend that would continue against Morgan State, the ball barely stopped moving for Tech and it lead to a ton of baskets, particularly for Bibbs and Smith. Hill wasn't credited with an assist, but got into the paint and was able to make some things happen offensively.

While the games against Miami and Morgan State were promising, it wasn't perfect and continues to be a work in progress (have you heard that before?). They turned the ball over a ton against the Redhawks (22 times) and though they had just five in the first half against the Bears, the Hokies ended with 19.

Sometimes when you're shooting at a blazing pace it can cover up mistakes, and Tech has been en fuego lately (18-26 from distance in their last three halves). Is it something that can hold up as conference play arrives? Probably not, but these numbers show the ability to knock down open shots. A team that can knock down open shots and defend at least possesses a friskiness that has been missing come ACC play over the past few years.

I know people want more than frisky, but right now it's a step in the right direction.