Notre Dame welcomes the Hokies tonight as both teams are coming off frustrating losses. The Hokies couldn't finish out a relatively strong performance against Clemson, while the Irish was sent packing by Maryland. The Hokies have to shoot better from the free throw line as they shot a dismal 4-14 in the last game. They will need to focus there defensive efforts on Notre Dame's guards as the Irish run a three guard set that are all averaging double figures on the year. The Irish also have a fourth player in double figures in their center so challenges all around. The game is on ESPNU tonight. Lets hope the Hokies come prepared for a fight and can get out of South Bend with a win.
*Postgame*
The same glaring mistakes were there tonight as have been most of the season. Too many sloppy turnovers, no ability to work a set offense on a regular basis and defense that breaks down at key moments.
Raines received at least a one night reprieve from the JJ Doghouse and scored a career high 20 points and was relatively clean in regards to fouls while leading the Hokies in rebounds with six. It was nice to finally see someone taking the ball strong to the hoop to create points. Wilson also chipped in 20 points and Barksdale added a dozen of his own. The telling statistic for this game to show what impact the turnovers had was that Tech shot 52% from the field and still lost by seven. 17 turnovers led to 14 points for Notre Dame tonight and prevented the Hokies from shooting enough to win.
The Hokies let this one get away from them in the last five minutes of the first half though and never truly recovered. The Irish turned a 3 point game into a 15 point lead by halftime and the Hokies only got as close as 53-51 the rest of the way. Even that was short lived as Notre Dame hit two three's on their next to possessions to stretch their lead to eight again.
Tech shot better from the field, behind the arc and outrebounded the Irish but shot 60% from the free throw line and gave the ball away in key momentum building moments. Jarell Eddie was a non-factor again scoring only two points on 1 for 5 shooting, continuing a disappointing trend for the senior. Trevor Thompson only scored two points but it was arguably the highlight of the night as a power windmill dunk. Hopefully they can put it all together in a couple games the rest of the way.
Comments
Beyer is starting. This one could get real ugly.
Wow JJ really must want to get fired
Playing tough so far Tech 7- ND 6 with five mins gone
Where's Eddie?
Not doing much ad usual early in games
Nothing but Irish since 15-7 Irish lead at 12 min mark
Trevor Thompson with a massive dunk there but ND up 19-11
Raines and Wood on the floor early tonight as well. Raines with a nice drive and one. 21-14 now
So tired of Wilson wasting a good play on defense by missing free throws
Really bad end to the half between turnovers and wasted opportunities. ND39-Tech 24
Solid start to the second half Score now 44-37 ND.
Tech closes to 53-51. Wilson still struggling at the line.
Not enough to get it done. 70-63 is the final. Raines may have been reading the blogs as he busted out a career high 20 points matched by Devin Wilson with his own career high 20 points. Same bad mistakes. Turnovers, lack of offensive identity and breakdown on defense in key moments. Maybe we are seeing the end of Raines doghouse though.
Definitely the end of JJ.
Looks like Raines scored enough to keep his average to 4 points a game since JJ didn't play him for the last 3. He clearly needs to be playing major minutes.
Led the team in points and rebounds tonight and definitely created an element of the offense that isn't there with JVZ in the game. He even was hard after it on defense, causing at least three jump balls in the game while only drawing two fouls. JVZ had an off night on controlling the basketball losing six turnovers, a couple in key transitions that would have gotten Tech back in the game.