Its a rebuilding year for the basketball program. Considering last nights performance (bad) along with showing potential(good)- what do you feel the Hokies need to do to save face /avoid embarassment/show up/make some plays/ against the looming powerhouse of Syracuse on Jan7?
Admittedly overlooking remaining n.c. schedule.Its the (official) conf. opener and it will get some attention- especially if the HOKIES can manage to give them a game.
GO HOKIES!!!
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Ok I've got to get this off my chest. I from Richmond and pull for VCU anytime they're playing except obviously when they play VT, and wanted this to be a great game for the Program. James Johnson had 11 days to prepare and we looked like a middle school team out there. Oh and please don't give me the excuse of "rebuilding year" or "were Soooo young" that was an embarrassment. I don't care if we're playing the Miami Heat, you don't get beat by 30 when you have almost 2 weeks to prepare for a game.
I mean it's like the only thing we could do was throw up random 3's and pray they went in. VCU went on a 32-0 run, this is the same VCU team that FSU beat by 20 on a neutral court. VCU barely beat UvA and we get demolished? I expected to lose but was hoping that we could pull it off, especially with all that time to prepare for the "havoc" defense that VCU plays. Just plain bad basketball
It was so frustrating watching us struggle to get rebounds against VCU when they always seem to struggle (I too follow the Rams fairly closely) on the boards. I was disappointed in JVZ's play and really missed having Raines. Still haven't heard why he wasn't playing Saturday.
Can I go on record and say that Cadarian Raines is easily the most frustrating player on our roster? Constantly in JJ's doghouse, barely getting more points than fouls most games, and not exactly putting in inspired play, at least that's what it looks like.
I agree that Raines not being on the court (for whatever the reason) is certainly frustrating, but as far as fouls to points, JVZ seems to struggle much more than Raines in this area. I'm sure experience could be a factor in this with JVZ only being a sophomore and Raines being a senior, but here are their stat lines per game below.
JVZ:
Raines:
JVZ in 11 games has 31PFs (2.82 fouls/game), 49pts (4.45 points/game) giving him 1.58 points per foul.
Raines in 9 games has 24PFs (2.67 fouls/game), 47pts (5.22 points/game) giving him 1.96 points per foul.
I met JVZ earlier this semester, and tried to have a conversation with him. He told me he was Will Johnson and was a complete dick.
Reminds me of seeing Nick Acree outside of Deets trying to pick up girls by saying, "So do y'all know who Nick Acree is?" I tried not to bust out laughing when clearly these ladies had never heard of "Nick Acree".
I acree. pathetic. who is he?
Anyone who knows me at all, knows that I strongly dislike JVZ, regardless of how bad he is a basketball
yall are crazy. JVZ is a good guy, he lived next to me his redshirt year and is a good friend of mine.
Well I have my reasons, and they aren't worth going into over the internet
I can attest to HDubya's reasons, but they're not reasons worth posting on this site. As for JVZ's basketball ability, he doesn't have much of an offensive game and he is flat out soft on the glass.
I may get jumped for saying this but to me Raines has been a liability on offense. He has no offensive arsenal other then that horrible jump hook that if we are lucky goes in 20% of the time. Also, when he gets the ball in the post, he has already made up his mind that hes going to shoot no matter what and won't kick for a better shot. When i watched the Michigan State game, MSU was basically letting Raines get position and take his same ole jump hook post move. I know I would. This is not just this season but most of his time here at Tech. No player offensively has made me cringe more since Cheick Diakite.
not jumped ... just downvoted ... JK ~ Merry Christmas!
VT has no had a reliabe offensive talent play from the block since the little donut. But even he would like to step back and try to shoot 3's. I always felt if Allen was a bit taller, and had a more stable head on his shoulders, then he could have been an All-ACC performer. He always got in his own way with his antics, but the guy had a ton of nimble moves and up and unders, and arms that touched the floor.
Playing PG in the ACC isn't what it used to be. With that said, I am sure some of the best PGs in the league have been shown up as freshmen. Maybe not the way we were but then again many of those (best PGs) kids were top tier national level recruits. Each of these kids utilized that set of freshman year embarrassments to practice like crazy that summer and develop an ACC level handle. Most teams try not to give a freshman PG responsibility or ease him or her into it. Despite AAU, camps, exceptional practice, etc. most freshman just aren't ready.
Not ready to withstand the pressure and not ready to run an offense. This game was unfortunate because now it will serve as a template for every other team.
Everybody wants to blame someone. Not having ACC level PGs is the old regime's making visited upon JJ. Frankly the Rankin kid who hasn't played this year unless he had an awesome developmental summer didn't have very good PG skills either. Everyone wants to complain about the ballhog from last year. That kid worked hard to develop a pretty good handle. I think he relied upon athleticism too much and that if he had been a bit better he would be playing in the NBA right now.... but the bottom line is with him and Rankin and Brown around it was enough to get us through. Now we got freshman and its gonna get rough.
Noone can make PGs, except the kids themselves. Hard work and experience. No scheme can help you if you can't bring the ball up the court. You can't develop that skill in 11 days. I do think we end up with our "relative best" ball handler doing alot of dribbling. No idea who that is but it probably isn't the PGs we currently have. Not a thing you plan on doing because 99% of basketball teams have PGs who can handle decently, so you don't plan for aberrational failure.
Totally embarrassing. I quit watching with 8 mins left in the first half. Obviously I'm glad I didn't
waste my time.
It was a deer in the headlight performance...nuf said. Its over. Looking forward. GO HOKIES.
After seeing this VT team have a great comeback against Miami on the road that resulted in a big OT win, I know this team has the heart to compete. I think they may have a few surprises in store for us (as opposed to some early opinions of this team getting steamrolled every game) when ACC play really gets underway.
As for our game against Syracuse, we have to find a way to at least be equal in rebounding without giving up the bad fouls on the offensive end of the floor for over the back calls.
We also will need at least one player to step up that can consistently take the ball to the basket to create the open looks on the outside, be it Emelogu or Eddie.
Last we have to be able to contain Tyler Ennis without giving up bad hand check fouls. If we can get him to turn the ball over a few times, we might be competitive although I anticipate another VCU/Michigan State type game. We will be competitive very early and then they will punch us in the mouth and we wont have an answer.
This is where we miss Green the most- driving to the basket.
Its like using the run to set up the pass in football.
If its ineffective (which is was- I don't remember one drive that went in.
ALL were either blocked or missed without a rebound. ZER0 or few 2nd opportunities.)
Taking 3s wont work without any interior threat. Raines would've helped here.
I am not a huge Bball fan but even I could tell alot of the mistakes were carelessness or basic-
that's much worse than going up against a team who is playing lights out.
Basic mistakes are easy to correct and maybe no more 2 week breaks mid season might help too.
I don't think our team practiced how to beat a full court trap. They would get the ball to Devin Wilson, he would dribble toward the sideline, get trapped, and then everyone else would stand around watching him struggle to get rid of the ball. This basically sums up the entire first half.
JJ doesn't have what it takes to be a head coach in the ACC. We're going to be a laughingstock until we get someone better.
Merry Christmas!