The Hokies play at Maryland In the Big Ten Challenge at 7:15 tonight on ESPN2. The ACC is 2-6 in the Challenge this year with 6 games left. Only NC State is favored over Nebraska (-6). The ACC is not having a good year. The Hokies are 1 pt dogs to Maryland, which is kind of disappointing given the Terps record:
They were only dominant agaist Quinnipiac and maybe Vermont, their only double digit wins. They played close games at home against GW and Richmond and just barely beat Hofstra. And they lost to George Mason! and Louisville. How can they be favored to beat the Hokies?
One factor is Qudus Wahab, a 6'11" Freshman. If Aluma and Mutts don't figure out a way to play against big men inside, we are going to struggle against Maryland.
#5 Ayala, Eric 205 G 6'5 32.7 MPG: 15.1 PPG: 4.7 RPG: 2.6 APG: 1.9 TOPG
#4 Russell, Fatts 165 G 5'11 30 MPG: 12.9 PPG: 4 RPG: 3.6 APG: 2.4 TOPG
#33 Wahab, Qudus 240 F 6'11 18.7 MPG: 10.7 PPG: 7.1 RPG: 0.4 APG: 0.9 TOPG
#24 Scott, Donta 230 F 6'8 31.6 MPG: 10.3 PPG: 7.6 RPG: 1.3 APG: 1.4 TOPG
#13 Hart, Hakim 205 G 6'8 26.1 MPG :6.6 PPG: 3.3 RPG: 2.7 APG: 1.1 TOPG
#10 Reese, Julian 230 F 6'9 19.7 MPG: 7.9 PPG: 4.4 RPG: 0.9 APG: 2.1 TOPG
#23 Martinez, Ian 185 G 6'3 18.7 MPG: 5.3 PPG: 2.6 RPG: 1.7 APG: 1.6 TOPG
Shelton Moss did a great job of previewing the next two games in his article: "A Marathon, Not a Sprint". I don't have much to add. If we don't have the typical result in our games of some career 30% 3 pt shooter going 7 for 10, we should be able to handle Maryland.
Season Averages:
Detailed Stats:
Based on the comments in the "Marathon" article, the Hokies have to watch the turnovers turning into fast breaks; and they have to deal with the big men inside. Wahab plays less than 19 minutes per game and still manages to accumulate 2 fouls per game; but his replacement Reese is 6' 9" and will still be the biggest man on the court when our starters are on the floor.
The good news, maybe, is that Maryland is not a good three-point shooting team, averaging only 28.5% on the season against a fairly weak schedule; but they do make 6 threes per game. And they have only allowed opponents to shoot 34.5% from three. Moss thinks Cattoor and Murphy should have good games against the Terps; and if Alleyne can stay hot, we should have a good night from beyond the arc. Stop their bigs and score a little in the paint and this should be a win.
LET'S GO HOKIES!
Comments
LET'S GO
HOKIES!
Who else is gonna be there tonight?
From what I hear, Mike Young and the entire VT basketball team. Not confirmed though; my source is a little shady. /s
I was going to ask the same thing. I'm going.
Maybe I'll see you there, just don't punch me in the chest again I've been sick I can't handle it this time
Would love to watch this game tonight (probably on the other monitor while gaming), but I've only watched Memphis and Xavier this year.
Should I:
(1) Watch tonight to try to break that watched game losing streak? or
(B) Don't watch tonight, so that the Hokies can win? or
(III) Some other option that I can't quite visualize right now?
Reply to this comment, and I'll abide by y'all's recommendation. (Not individually, that could be a bit too interesting, standard poll rules apply.)
check in about half way through first half...if winning...turn it off...then check back in about half way through second half...if winning...turn it off...watch all you want if losing...lol
I checked in, it was tied, so I kept watching. Not sure what I should do now (35-39).
whatever you did worked!
Maryland with the home court advantage and an early lead.
Hokies shooting is cold so far. Hoping they relax a bit, and it gets better.
Man Murphy is really struggling with his shot again. 3 misses and they weren't really close.
I've seen enough, put in Pedulla
Lately it's been Bede offense but without the Bede defense
Aluma man...what's is going on we really need him to get it together to have even a chance at .500 in ACC play.
He's still too soft and the scouting report is out on him.
Needs to play "harder" and showcase more of his skillset
I'm sure Storm is not as bad as he's looked in the last 3 games, but he isn't nearly as good as advertised.
He's going to have to step up if he expects to beat Maryland.
Idk if hes pushing to show hes worth the hype or what but its starting to annoy me,
He's playing against much better competition. He's hurting us on both ends of the court. I'd like to see more of Pedulla.
We'd be up double digits if we could finish on these second chance points
No doubt. How many layups can we miss?
Man if we could make some lay ups
Love fest for Maryland tonight for a guy who had it all and killed himself with cocaine.
You could say they're a little Biased.
Yeaaaaaaaaaaah!
I know you were trying to be funny but as a huge fan of Bias as a kid I'm not feeling your comment. His death is tragic and I think we've all made a mistake that we got away with.
I wasnt joking.
Our bigs showing the 1s, 2s, and 3s how to shoot the trey!
Are these announcers Maryland fans? We have the lead and I would think we were down by 20
Yes.
That's twice Aluma gave him the inside angle to the rim. WTF. I would rather he shut that off and then have a double team on the outside angle
But he rings the bell going up strong on the MD big
Please put Pedulla back in. Too much wasted dribbling by Murphy leading to turnovers.
Cattoor running the point. Pedulla was trying to do too much.
MY's out-of-timeout offensive plays are pretty solid over the course of his tenure here.
Maddox is really intriguing, i would like to see more of him
How are we winning😂
Seems like we should be down 10 the way our offense played. The fact that we are up 2 is a testament to our defense.
Aluma and storm liabilities rn
Storm looking lost tonight.
The media timeout couldn't have come at a better time. Our offense has gone completely off the rails.
Not sure what the coaches did in the media timeout but we are still very lost
Why are we so bad inside the paint
I get the feeling watching that we are not finishing through the contact and instead avoiding the contact inside
And bad at the line this year.
Ready for CMY to read the game and get Maddox and Pedulla in now.
Get Murphy off the court. He threw up another brick and played terrible defense on the break. It's in his head at this point.
Wow the ESPN announcers are literally wearing Maryland jerseys. Just wow.
They're honoring Len Bias at the game. It's nothing to get mad about.
I'm pretty sure the crew calling the game is supposed to be un-Biased.
My excitement about Storm has.....dissipated.
Storm does a lot of the same unnecessary movement that doesn't accomplish anything. Like watching Stephen Curry if he wasn't good lol.
Storm is not what I thought he was going to be so far...
We are bad. Maryland ain't anything special. With their poor shooting and turnovers we should have run away with this game
At least we have football!
As bad as Storm has been lately, this isn't all on him. The offense is dreadful again with no movement or organization, which is on coaching (+ bad individual play too)
This team was so overhyped
Is it too soon to say that we expected more from Mike "offensive guru" Young *ducks*
Seriously though, the offense is really bad. Defense is fine. I expected issues with depth, but the starters should not be this bad. I remember when we had good ball movement and good offense even just last year. Idk what happened.
kinda seems like at various times during the game he's giving the players a lot of freedom to run the offense and read the defense/situation and decide for themselves on what to run. but they're not syncing up / playing fast / recognizing opportunities. I think maybe Murphy is holding that back to some degree, but Cattoor and Alleyne and the forwards are just as guilty of inconsistent effort off the ball.
when the players are running a specified play, like an inbound play, they execute crisply and very efficiently
I think Murphy is struggling with a little lack of confidence. He seemed to find it a couple of times. There was a sequence of plays on the offensive end where he found Allyene for a clean three that he buried and I think he found Aluma for a play down low either right before or right after.
It looks like he has to trust his instincts a bit more, especially as teams try to speed us up. The step up in competition has increased the speed and physicality of the game and he is still adjusting.
Man we are badddd this year
We are soft. Plain and simple. If you can't finish at the rim then nobody jeeds to help on defense and there is no movement or open shots
our offense looks.... really bad
And Aluma has become a shell of himself. 10 misses from point blank.
he has been having some stretches where he looks particularly stiff, tentative and weak in the post. I think he has back spasms or something some other back injury affecting his game
Aluma usually starts the season hot and starts to slow down in production when the 2nd half of the schedule hits. He's already seemingly at that point 8 games in....
Our offense has simply disappeared after our first 5 games. It's absolutely atrocious. If we don't get our O back in line this will be a long season. 3 points in the first 8 minutes of the second half. Scary
And yet we are only down 3...... it's just a matter of learning to finish in close. That will force help defense and create open shots
Tnis shouldn't be a game. MD is bad. That's why we are down by three. They certainty aren't beating us. We can't make layups. Not one here and there, but constantly.
Refs are calling literally nothing on Maryland down low when we drive. It's starting to get insane
Because we're going up soft and not drawing enough contact
Refs have been fine in my opinion. The physical nature of the game is favoring Maryland, but it's only bc we are soft
I can rest easy with that, very true
I take it back literally only calling fouls on us down low
all these point blank missed shots... feels like the fatigue from the Thanksgiving games is still hanging around.
I would love to know how many missed layups we have in the last 3 games
Now we can't rebound
Quite a few tough calls on out of bounds...
Good things happen when you are capable of playing offense. Nice couple possessions
Anybody know what they are chanting when Storm has the ball?
I think "balding"
Saw him fixing his hair earlier, wonder if it was a coincidence or getting to him. Dumb chant tho he's, he's like borderline receding
he's always messing with his hair.. I think he needs a fresh look .. Cattoor style fade or something just so he can focus on playing basketball and not worrying about keeping his hair in place
I've been trying to figure that out all night.
Now that we are moving the ball better we are getting better looks. Murphy had a nice pass to Alleyne on his 3 pointer.
I don't know they seem to be calling every foul on us down low when Maryland is on defense....
These refs have been very one sided.
That last one on mutts is concerning
Mutts is frustrated - he has been called for some tough ones.
seems to be a bit of a trend across the ACC-B1G challenge. At least for B1G home games.
This the ball movement we been looking for
Where's this been all game? Boys decided to wait until under 5 in the game to start playing.
Past few minutes have been polar opposite to the game before then. We're playing well, moving the ball, playing kinda tough, storm making good plays
keep driving the post and get that 5th foul on Wahab. He's already playing tentative because of foul trouble.
And he's tired. Aluma blew by him on the baseline.
BS fouls on Storm and Mutts. Late call once he saw Mutts got the ball.
Spicy pork rinds. Thats when the tide shifted. You're welcome my friends.
Great defense keeps you in games until shots fall. Rebounding has also been strong!! Don't can't count that Storm fellow out.
Really on alleyne?
They just won't let us play D. Another BS foul on Storm.
Officials are starting to affect the game in last few minutes with tickets tack fouls that have not been called all game
these paint foul calls are super ticky tacky for maroon
Storm really gotta improve his handles...or stop dribbling so much
We obviously worked on the press break this week.
Passes directly behind the pressure, instead of those cross court lobs. Much more effective as I explained in a game thread a few games ago. I'm the basketball analyst now.
Storm Murphy looks like a point guard that belongs at Wofford
I'm sorry, but these fouls are unbelievable. MD's last 8 points have been from the stripe all on BS calls.
Good on them for capitalizing. Keve had a chance...clank.
FREE THROWS. THEIR CALLED FREEEEE THROWS
Aluma not ideal in late game free throws.
Storm has to shoot that shot there, put Cattoor in a bad spot.
We also are really suffering from not having a player that can drive hard to the bucket and draw a foul. We need Seth Allen back!
Mutts tackled shooting and no foul
Mutts with a huge layup.
That was a horrendous shot by Maryland.
And of course no foul
Now it's time to make free throws.
Scrappy hard fought win! Let's go boys!!
Maryland is not good; I am so glad we squeezed that out
Not sure how we won but fam!
LETS GO HOKIES!!! Big win after a tough few games. Lots to work on but great to come away with a W
Ugly win FAM!
Yay winning is fun
That's way you win!!!
Hokies!!!
Non conference road win. Thats a big positive!!
Happy for the win, but Storm....woof
Stole it. Run to the bus and get out of there. Back to the Burg!
Hey fam! Pre season ranked Maryland win. I'll take it. Storm has to get his confidence back
How the hell did we win that, lol?
Defense, rebounding and a couple of timely 3 balls. (Oh yeah a few bonehead plays by Md didn't hurt)
Held up our end of the ACC/Big10 challenge
FAM!
Glad to get the win given how they played. Room for growth. #GoHokies
Road wins are hard, decent opponent on an emotional Len Bias night??? I'll take it.
defense was on point with great effort all game... offense was... up and down
Radford is missed. He's barely utilized at A&M. Sigh.
With Radford, this would not have been a close game. I really like Maddox and would like to see him get more PT. Glad someone woke Aluma up.
I think it was less about waking Aluma up and more about Wahab having 4 fouls and being tired. But either way, Aluma took advantage. Really wish he would be more assertive in the post.
Exactly. Once Waheb got the 4th foul, the game was probably over. He won some battles, but Aluma, who smartly played cautious defensively, won the war.
I'm okay with him seeing him getting more time when he stops being a black hole with the ball and killing the offensive flow.
Same with Ojiako. Has he not taken a shot when he got the ball this year?
You can bet opposing scouting reports are noting this and both will start seeing defenses cheat on them when they get the ball.
Big John has made some nice baskets. He is working pretty exclusively around the rim.
Wake Forest is going to be more of the same for Aluma. Their starting center is 7'1" and his back up is 6'10" Khadim Sy. And they have a 7'1" freshman who plays 8-10 min/game.
Khadim Sy? The basketball version of Tyrell Smith.
Good to see Sy staying busy playing for Wake while he decides whether or not to transfer
Sy should be almost done. He played for us in 2016, I think. That makes this his 6th year.