Virginia Tech Men's Basketball Stomped In Miami 52-76

Buzz Williams and company couldn't put it together in Coral Gables as they fell to the Hurricanes.

Miami head coach Jim Larranaga brought the pain on Wednesday [@CanesHoops]

This was new.

In a season that has been full of firsts for both Buzz Williams and his youthful team, Wednesday night against Miami checked another box off the list. By losing 52-76, this was now the first time that Virginia Tech has been blown out in back to back games.

It was nip and tuck in Coral Gables through the first twenty minutes. The Hokies and Hurricanes traded shots in the first half and Tech went into intermission down just three. That was the moment when things stopped going right for the men in maroon.

The second half proved to be a merciless onslaught at the hands of Jim "please add the accent mark" Larranaga and his Canes. The Miami defense clamped down on Tech's shooters, contesting every shot and forcing a number of mistakes.

We all know the deal by now. Tech has to hit their jumpers, rebound as well as possible on the defensive end and not shoot themselves in the foot, just in order to compete on a daily basis. If they only do two of those, it won't be particularly close. If they do one or less? Say hello to what happened against Miami and Clemson.

Statistically speaking, it was only a matter of time before Tech strung together two horrendous performances. The ACC doesn't hold many favorable matchups, and as I highlighted above, Williams' squad has to be practically perfect in order to have a chance down the stretch. In fact, it's a small miracle that the team has been able to bounce back from the bad losses as well as they had (West Virginia and Notre Dame, anyone?).

There's not much more to say about this game specifically. The Hokies didn't shoot well, and had to shoot a lot of threes (fine) and long range twos (not fine) for the majority of the night. In fact, other than a few nifty little Devin Wilson post ups the team wasn't able to take it to the hoop at all.

Tech came out quite aggressive on defense, trapping, pressing and hedging on ball screens a ton. While it went well at times, it also lead to a number of uncontested dunks for Hurricane big men due to late, or non-existent, rotations.

Though it lead to mixed results, I liked the strategy by Buzz and company. It caught Miami off guard right from the jump, and kept them on their toes for much of the first half. It ran out of gas later on, especially when their shots stopped falling, but it was a creative attempt to produce an advantage.

Pierson and I were talking last week about the curious case of Justin Bibbs. If you remember, Bibbs missed two weeks in January due to a concussion he suffered in practice. Pre-concussion, his numbers in conference play looked like this:

vs Syracuse: 22 points, 11 rebounds, 50% shooting in 39 minutes

at Florida State: 25 points, 3 rebounds, 47% shooting in 38 minutes

at Louisville: 15 points, 4 rebounds, 55% shooting in 30 minutes

That's nice, right? After those three performances he was thought to be far and away the best freshman on the team, and could quite possibly be considered the best overall player.

He then missed four games with a concussion, and made his next appearance in Winston Salem against Wake Forest. Since then, the freshman has averaged 8.4 points on 29.5% shooting in 23 minutes. If you take out his 19 points against Syracuse, his scoring numbers plummet even further.

Now, the natural question to ask is 'what happened?' Was the concussion really bad enough to impact his play this much, especially on the offensive end?

I'm not a doctor, so I'm not going to waste everyone's time pretending like I know what I'm talking about in the medical department (even though I thought it was a good decision for Buzz to sit him as long as he did). So instead of playing neurologist, can't we look at a much simpler explanation?

Can't it just be a combination of Bibbs hitting the freshman wall, totally plausible three quarters of the way through the season, and other offensive options emerging? Since UVA came to Blacksburg, Adam Smith has averaged 16 points and reached double digit shot attempts each time out. Malik Mรผller who has been an interesting topic of conversation recently, averaged 13 points in the same stretch.

Before Wednesday night, even Jalen Hudson had seen his minutes increase this month. If Hudson, Ahmed Hill, Bibbs, Smith and Wilson are splitting time at the three guard spots, someone will always see their minutes drop. If Bibbs is hitting that mythical wall, forcing shots and just generally playing below average basketball, Buzz doesn't have to keep running him out there.

In the big picture, it's a good thing for Tech. Don't get me wrong, none of the guys that I listed should be an ACC team's number one option right now. They're all limited in some way, be it size, athleticism or age. But their development is essential to the way the team both finishes down the stretch this season and heads into next year.

If a Bibbs funk means that Hudson, Hill and Mรผller come into the 2015-2016 season with a little more seasoned confidence, I'd chalk it up as a win. I know that Buzz and his staff would never see it that way, and that's fine. But just because they can't look forward to next year doesn't mean I won't.

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