Buzz Williams and Hokies Digest UVA Heartbreak, Prepare for Pitt

Virginia Tech has an opportunity to snap its 7-game losing streak tonight.

Buzz Williams looks on as Ahmed Hill looks for an open pass in the second half. [Mark Umansky]

Examined in a vacuum, the Hokies' sixth straight loss to an ACC foe might seem just the same as the previous five.

Once again, Buzz Williams' mismatched bunch of transfers, freshmen and misfits weren't good enough to beat a team from the strongest conference in college basketball.

That's not an entirely unfair statement, even if it lacks a bit of nuance.

Because even though the Hokies lost 50-47 against UVA at home, Williams proved with the scheme he developed for the game that he isn't giving up on this season just because he doesn't have his recruits in Blacksburg just yet.

Through some intense study of Tony Bennett's vaunted "pack-line" defense and the Cavaliers' incredibly efficient offense, Williams was able to craft together a gameplan that even his limited roster was able to execute.

"I have the utmost respect for (Bennett), for his dad and the defense they created and I've studied for it a lot. And I think that our preparation for our staff and by our guys was really good," Williams said during an ACC teleconference Monday. "I just think that our carryover into the game, the execution level was better than it has been."

Attacking the second-best team in the whole country in opponent field goal percentage allowed is a challenge for any coach, and Williams was working without his leading scorer once more in Justin Bibbs, making his efforts against the Hoos particularly impressive.

The Hokies shot a little over 45 percent from the field against UVA, very close to their season average of 46.3 percent per game, but accomplishing that against the Cavs is a testament to Williams' planning and the team's execution. Bennett's group normally allows teams to shoot just 34.1 percent per game.

"I felt like we were taking shots that we knew had scoring momentum on that particular possession in and of itself," Williams said. "It's like we knew 'that's a good one, take that one,' and I feel like our guys executed that better than normal."

In particular, it would seem that Williams drilled his team that settling for midrange jumpers was unacceptable. The Hokies put a focus on taking shots at the hoop, from three-point range, or not at all.

Of Tech's 42 total field goal attempts, only eight were two-point jumpers. The Hokies instead jacked 19 three-pointers (a tick up from their season average of about 17.5 per game) and tried 13 layups and two dunks.

Even though the team undoubtedly had more trouble getting to the paint as the game wore on and UVA's defense tightened, there's no doubt it was an effective strategy.

Given their obvious size issues, it makes plenty of sense for the Hokies to embrace a strategy that rewards plenty of outside shooting and slashing to the rim. While the lack of an offensive rebounding threat can hurt the team at times, it's clear that Williams is ready to exploit his unconventional lineup to make other teams uncomfortable.

"They were so spread out they weren't offensive rebounding that much, but their spacing was good and obviously that was their game plan, to shoot a lot of threes," Bennett said after the game Sunday.

Williams isn't shy about the fact that they've chosen to abandon the offensive glass.

"We don't send anybody to the glass, because in some ways we're Spur-like. We're going to be last in offensive rebounding, but we want to be first in transition defense," Williams said. "We're going to be last in offensive rebounding, but we want to be first in transition defense."

The Hokies were certainly good in transition Sunday, allowing just three points on the fast break, but Williams knows that the Hoos aren't the biggest threat to get out and run.

"I know (UVA) doesn't look to score a lot in transition offense," Williams said. "But we've got to take perfect shots because we can't get beat on one pass or less shots in transition."

Even without scoring in transition, the Hoos are still plenty deadly on offense. They're 24th in the country in field goal percentage, averaging a 48.1 percent mark per game, yet the Hokies' pressure forced them into shooting just 34.7 percent from the floor Sunday.

Part of that stemmed from Williams mixing a healthy amount of zone into his team's defensive gameplan, an element the Cavs haven't been confronted with very frequently.

"We haven't seen a ton of zone this year and they mixed it up," Bennett said. "When we were struggling to shoot the way that we were, that makes the zone that much more effective."

But for all his scouting of the Cavaliers, Williams also notes that some zone will be a necessity for this team given their lack of depth.

"We don't have enough guys to play man for 40 minutes," Williams said. "Frankly, we're not good enough to play man for 40 minutes. We've got to change the rhythm and change the pace. So we try to do that as best we can."

Williams also placed a premium on keeping the Hoos on the perimeter, another gambit that largely paid off. Of the Cavs' 49 total attempts, a total of 31 were jumpers (18 came from deep and 13 came from inside the arc) leaving just 18 attempts at the hoop.

The Hokies jumped out to a big lead in the first 10 minutes of the second half, and a big reason for that was the way they kept the Hoos out of the paint. Incredibly, UVA's first shot attempt at the rim came after more than nine minutes had elapsed in the half, and it didn't even go in.

"They were jamming the lane, we weren't making shots," Bennett said. "Even when we got to the lane we were struggling."

It also helped that the team's limited big man rotation provided competent interior defense. Satchel Pierce and Christian Beyer got the lion's share of the work, earning 20 and 13 minutes respectively, and they effectively contained UVA's sizable frontcourt.

The 6'8" Anthony Gill finished with eight points, combined to his season average of 11 per game, while seven footer Mike Tobey was never a real factor, finishing with four points and two rebounds.

Pierce's defensive effort was particularly solid, coming up with two blocks as he takes more and more of the load inside.

"He's definitely starting to get it," said guard Devin Wilson on Sunday. "He grew up a lot in the last hour or so and in the last couple games as well. He played really well today, we've just got to come out with the win."

But as Williams himself freely admits, there are precious few positives to take away from the Hokies' play rebounding-wise. Once more the team was soundly out-rebounded, losing to the Hoos 33-20 on the glass.

That's hardly new for Tech, a team ranked an astounding 329th in the nation with a rebounding margin of -5.1, but Williams notes that it was offensive rebounds and the ensuing second chance points that really hurt the team.

"Not saying that we're going to be perfect, but it's not the rebounding margin that's hurting us with defensive rebounds, it's the offensive rebounds," Williams said Sunday.

The head Hokie astutely noted that UVA scored nine of their 50 points came on second chances courtesy of the Hokies, a particularly efficient number considering they had nine offensive rebounds, hardly a massive total. That means he'll be putting a focus on reducing second shot attempts going forward.

"Somehow, whether it's man or zone or kind of a hybrid zone, or trick you into thinking we're going to play zone, but if we can just hold them to one shot, if we can force them into missing it, that would really help our numbers," Williams said.

Williams hasn't had much time to make those adjustments. The team plays Pittsburgh tonight to close out its recent homestand.

The Panthers haven't had a stellar year thus far, coming into the game with a 13-7 record after back-to-back losses to Louisville and Duke, but Williams still holds a healthy respect for Jamie Dixon's program after their years of Big East clashes in his Marquette days.

"I don't think that anybody will ever be as good as what he's done at Pitt," Williams said Monday. "He's done it in a variety of ways, not only strategically, but also with a variety of rosters."

While Dixon's team this season looks very different from the ones Williams was facing the Big East's heyday, he notes that Dixon's style remains largely unchanged.

"I know they're going to run more set plays than any team we've played thus far," Williams said. "When we were in the Big East, they ran more set plays than any other team we saw, and the prep for that is larger than normal."

The team's only had two days to pack in that extra preparation, and Williams stresses that he's trying to stay conscious of asking too much from his young team mentally as well as physically.

"With such a quick turnaround the question becomes how much can they retain mentally, specific to Pitt and specific to us and how we would like to attack Pitt," Williams said. "And the thing with our roster and the makeup of our roster today, we really need to make sure we're protective of the emotional level coming off (Sunday)."

But Dixon is also confronted with a quick turnaround, and he'll be trying to figure out ways to handle Williams' ever-changing defenses and lineups with a limited amount of time as well.

"It seems they've started different lineups and had a lot of different people in there, and you don't see that with a lot of teams," Dixon said on the ACC teleconference Monday. "But with a two day turnaround, there's not a lot of time for preparation. I know they're going to change defenses, they're going to run a lot of different sets, they've got a lot of different people that can score the ball, they're not dependent on one guy."

Dixon's taken note of Tech's tendency to try and stretch the floor with shooters, and the Panthers could be the rare team that doesn't mind seeing a smaller lineup. The tallest player on Pitt's roster is 6'9", so they'll likely be willing to match Tech with their own smaller shooters.

"They do spread it out on the floor, they don't go inside a lot, but a lot of teams are doing that now, they're spreading it out and trying to put four skill guys on the floor at all times," Dixon said.

But unlike the Hokies, Dixon is unhappy with the results when his team's switched to zone, and he'll likely be pushing to man up on Tech whenever possible.

"We've always been a man-to-man team and we're playing more zone and we don't feel like it's been as effective," Dixon said. "We're trying to find what our best rotation, our best defense is."

Williams finds himself in the same boat as he still tries to pick up his first ACC win.

While being home in Blacksburg certainly helps, the Panthers won't be pushovers. Williams has to hope his team responds to the disappointment of the UVA game by trying to prove it was no fluke, rather than accepting their fate in the conference cellar.

"It is for sure baptism by fire and I guess you can get better or you can get bitter, so we'll see what happens," Williams said Sunday.

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Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

Wiley, Brown, Russell, Drakeford, Gray, Banks, Prioleau, Charleton, Midget, Bird, McCadam, Pile, Hall, Green, Fuller, Williams, Hamilton, Rouse, Flowers, Harris, Chancellor, Carmichael, Hosley, Fuller, Exum, Jarrett

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

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