Busy day tomorrow; my older daughter's birthday and church. So you get a mash up of BBall info Sat night.
The Men play at Dayton at 2 PM on ESPN2. The Ladies host Radford in Cassell at 2 PM; the game is an ACCNx game. Both games could be feel good games for the Hokies.
The Men:
Dayton is 6-4 with wins at Miami and at Kansas; we have no common opponents.
Dayton has enough height to be a concern, if their big men are active.
#0 Elijah Weaver 6'6 G R-Jr. 25.9 MPG: 11.2 PPG: 1.7 RPG: 1.9 APG: 2.4 TOPG
All the picture show #11; but he is wearing #0 this year.
#15 DaRon Holmes II 6'10 F Fr. 27.2 MPG: 10.4 PPG: 5.1 RPG: 0.9 APG: 0.7 TOPG
#2 Toumani Camara 6'8 F So. 25.4 MPG: 10 PPG: 6.4 RPG: 1.9 APG: 2.3 TOPG
#11 Malachi Smith 6'0 G Fr. 26.6 MPG: 9.8 PPG: 4 RPG: 4.4 APG: 1.8 TOPG
#4 Koby Brea 6'6 G R-Fr. 20.3 MPG: 7.6 PPG: 2.8 RPG: 0.6 APG: 0.8 TOPG
#24 Kobe Elvis 6'2 G R-Fr. 19.4 MPG: 6.6 PPG: 2 RPG: 1.3 APG: 1.2 TOPG
#22 Mustapha Amzil 6'9 F R-Fr. 20.5 MPG: 6.5 PPG: 3.6 RPG: 0.4 APG: 1.1 TOPG
Another number change.
#23 R.J. Blakney 6'6 F/G R-Fr. 18 MPG: 5 PPG: 2.8 RPG: 0.9 APG: 1.3 TOPG
Eight players average 18-27 min per game; and two more play 9+ min per game. They make 6+ three's per game on 32.5% shooting; and they average 48.1% shooting overall. Four starters average over 50% shooting. Defense is going to be important in this game. If we can keep Dayton from getting easy and open shots, we should be able to hold them below their season average. If we do that, this should be a win; unless our shooters decide to take the afternoon off.
Average Stats:
Detailed Stats:
It concerns me that Dayton was able to beat Miami in Miami; they clearly can get hot and beat an ACC team on the road. The Hokies need to play with enthusiasm from the opening tip until the end of the fourth quarter if we want to win this game.
The Ladies
Radford is 4-4 with losses to Pitt, WVU, Marshall and American.
The Hokies should have a height advantage against Radford's starters, I think. It's hard to tell without a lot more research than I have done who will start against the Hokies. Ten different players have started a game for Radford this year. In their last game, the starters were Birkhead, Marshall, McClean, LaLonde and Christ,
#: 3 Bridget Birkhead ,5'11, Sr., Guard MPG 28.7, PPG 9.2, RPG 2.7, APG 2.3, TO: 2
#: 22 Ashley Tudor ,5'11, So., Guard MPG 20.3, PPG 8.3, RPG 4.6, APG 1.4, TO: 2.9
#: 1 Destinee Marshall ,5'5, So., Guard MPG 19.6, PPG 7.6, RPG 1.6, APG 2, TO: 1.9
#: 12 Bryonna McClean ,5'9, Sr., Guard MPG 24.3, PPG 6.7, RPG 4.6, APG 1.9, TO: 1.4
#: 0 Rachel LaLonde ,6'1, Jr., Forward MPG 22.5, PPG 6.4, RPG 5.5, APG 1.5, TO: 1.5
#: 24 Kyanna Morgan ,5'10, So., Guard MPG 17.6, PPG 5.9, RPG 3.1, APG 1.8, TO: 2
#: 50 Jackie Christ ,6'3, Jr., Center MPG 16.6, PPG 5, RPG 2.1, APG 0.4, TO: 1.9
#: 23 Carmen Williams ,5'11, Fr., Guard MPG 13.6, PPG 4.9, RPG 1, APG 0.8, TO: 0.6
#: 5 Danielle Montelbano ,5'8, So., Guard MPG 16.3, PPG 4.4, RPG 1.1, APG 1.4, TO: 2
Nothing in Radford's record indicates that they can play a competitive game against a team with ACC talent. If we take this game seriously and play with energy, this could be a day to see a lot of the bench play some minutes.
Only Marshall is a really good three point shooter; and she is short enough that any of our players should be able to guard her effectively. Radford does not have a player averaging double digit scoring on the season.
Average Stats:
Detailed Stats:
Unless either team has a let-down, this should be a good day for Hokie Basketball. Let's go 1-0 twice.
LET'S GO HOKIES
Comments
LET'S GO....
HOKIES!
By the way, I just want to point out again that I am not a "Hoops Wiz". I just put these up because no one else is. I am perfectly willing to turn this over to someone more qualified. Where are you Lt. Rob? I'll even create the table and graphics for someone, if we can get somebody who knows more about the x's and o's of BBall than I do. What you are getting from me are my guesses based on what I can see in the data. I'm happy to do this; but I can't believe there is not someone more qualified.
Thank you for taking the time to put these up!
Sorry, been swamped starting two new digital businesses, coaching my daughters Odyssey of the Mind team and helping my son with Cub Scouts. Also had a "promotion" (read: ton of more work, no raise and a massive amount of meetings) essentially forced on me as part of a re-organization of my office.
This team has also been pretty hard to stomach. The lack of ability to drive or create their own shot outside of Aluma and being paper thin on defense has just not been something to draw me back to the keyboard much. I will try to set aside some time over the next couple weeks to get my head around this team and offer some insight.
I honestly thought Joe had basketball covered with a couple of the new writers but it looks like they may have moved on.
As for today, the defense wasnt terrible, the fouls got ugly for both teams. The offense though was dreadful. This is not a team that is going to win relying on the 3pter, but they also lack the physicality, especially at the guard positions to drive to the basket. Shooting less than 40% from the floor, and less than 30% from the arc which accounted for 22 of your 55 shots (40% of your total shots) is not a recipe for success. This was the game where we should have seen more big play inside, yet N'Guessan was the only big off the bench. The Hokies were the slower AND smaller team on the floor and it showed. Outside of Blakney, Dayton did all their scoring inside for the most part but the Hokies didnt follow suit. Young's inability this year to utilize his bench also has played a role, as the starters were very sluggish to start the game, yet Young didnt really go to his bench to find a spark.
The Hokies scored 6 points in 12+ minutes to start the game. Honestly they are lucky the game was even close after that terrible start. During that stretch the Hokies missed 13 shots and committed 6 turnovers on 22 possessions. After this start, the gap of 9-10 points essentially stayed stable the majority of the rest of the game. Dayton was better at creating shooting fouls going to the line 21 times to the Hokies 14 attempts. They also played better interior defense, to the point the Hokies fell into their season pattern of lob it around the arc and jack up a prayer. Sorry to say it but its going to be a long season if this style of play continues.
I know one thing, thank God Xavier was missing 4 contributors when we played them. Watched the Cincy game last night and that Xavier squad would have taken us to the woodshed a couple times over. Jeeze Louize.
Holy moving screens. Are they not a foul in Ohio?
Done with Murphy
Would be nice to see some of that amazing mike young offense the announcers were talking about
Not sure why Murphy doesn't get a quicker hook when it's clear he's struggling getting the ball up the court and starting the offense. Pedulla has proven more adept I think at handling than murphy
Boys. We are very bad
5 guys hit the floor. Not a foul called. WTF - how does that happen?
We cannot play against a physical team. Thats the bottom line.
We just looks- slow? Wondering more and more if we were one of the Covid beneficiaries last year (like Indiana in football). I don't have a keen enough eye and recall to tell, but don't think it's just a we miss Bede/Radford thing
I know it's early in the season so I'm not going to say we aren't good, but we aren't nearly as good as I thought we would be. Pretty disappointing TBH.
This is embarrassing.
Alleyne keeps leaving their hottest shooter. Killing us.
I tuned in 5 minutes ago to the Men's game... We just look bad. Aluma getting too fancy, Storm looking to jettison the ball at every chance, shitty defense, and horrible movement away from the ball.
Looks like the ball is not moving on offense and the players aren't moving either. Too much dribbling and just standing. And our bigs are shooting too many 3's. Can't shoot 25% and win many games.
Dayton has 12 freshmen on the team and we look completely outmatched...
We suck butt
10 games into the year, and we still look lost as a veteran team... and now we're getting controlled against a team with 12 freshmen out of 16 total players. Not exactly a good sign for the coaching this year; I really hope we can get this turned around this year.
I was as big a Tyrece Radford fan as you'll find but even I didn't think he was the sole lynchpin that would completely unravel this team's offensive ability if he left.
Just confusing how a team that was so good last year and had for the most part 4/5 returning starters is this completely lost.
I'm not sure he was the lynchpin, but had he been on the roster this season we would have had someone who could slash, break the defense down and finish at the rim with regularity. As it stands we don't have anyone who can do that.
Additionally, the loss of Chester Frazier seems to be a huge loss as well.
Kinda describes the entire team right now.
We barely made the tournament and the acc was dreadful. Then we lose Radford and some depth and here we are. I just thought the other guys would actually develop and improve
Down 7 with that horrible play isn't awful. Just have to keep sending the ball Inside in the second half.
Why we are not playing inside out is beyond me.
Need paint touches!
If it weren't for the fact that we often look like we're playing with a greased up watermelon whenever we take it inside, I would agree with you.
There is a lot of contact going on inside. 2 of Daytons threes came on fast breaks after very questionable non calls. Mutts got hammered on one, and the other was where half the players on the floor hit the ground under our basket . When contact isn't called, it leads to turnovers.
I mean, this is college basketball... where the worst officiating in all of sports exists. We simply need to be more physical than we are, or at least be able to weather the physicality storm.
My comment wasn't directed solely at this game. Most of our players have trouble keeping a handle on the ball when driving to the bucket. I've seen our guys lose the handle with pretty much no contact (just the threat of it) and of course all hope is lot when we're getting mauled.
Mike Young's squad is terrible, and unless Rodney Rice and Patrick Wessler are the next MJ & Dirk, they're going to be worse next year.
Rice is promising for the future. I don't think the other recruits will make a big impact. But yeah on paper we should be much better this year than next...
Not even remotely interested in playing defense in the paint.
We. Are. So. Bad...
The way we are getting pushed around when they do their press is going to cause a fight. Players getting frustrated.
Only saving grace is most of the ACC looks really bad this year too
The verdict is in... Storm Murphy is not an ACC caliber guard.
right now he ain't even an A-10 caliber guard.
Ladies are looking good, though. Up 64-35 in the 4th quarter.
I don't think I've ever seen a team with the same players regress THIS much from one year to the next. I mean, as a veteran ACC team, we can't handle a team that is remotely physical or handle a simple full-court press.
COACH THESE PLAYERS MIKE
Our team does know that we aren't wearing the white jerseys today right? 🤦♂️
This team looks like a good mid major team. We can win consistently against that level but put us against top 50 type teams with actual athletes and we will struggle. The poor recruiting is killing us and i question how much some of these guys are developing
When the coach sells his team as talented and ready to challenge for top tier of. ACC and beyond and then puts a product like this on the floor, fans tend to get a little salty. That's where I am.
So Pedulla should definitely start at point the rest of the year please
Defensively head and shoulders above Murphy
FIFY
Offensively too.
I hope Alleyne turns it on the last seven minutes. So far he's not having a good day.
Everyone beating the dead horse that Murphy is killing us (Yes he has been terrible vs good teams) should look at Alleyne's shooting numbers vs good teams this year too
Wish it didn't take 30 minutes for the team to wake up.
Just throwing this out there- we were down by like 15 when I turned this on. I quickly did a shot of fireball and drank a beer (it's been a long day.....). Maybe another fireball?
make it a double!!!
What is it with VT basketball and seemingly always allowing an opposing player to have lights out shooting days?
Ah Virginia Tech athletics...it'll get after ya fandom!
Probably bad defense
Start Pedulla and Maddox over Murphy and Alleyne. Mix things up and try something new
Do sometbing... This ain't working
Murphy can take his cringing ass dance and go far away from Blacksburg as possible
Maddox should spell alleyne more when he's having cold shooting nights. Had so many chances to tie it up late just to have alleyne jack up a difficult forced runner.
Pedulla should start with Murphy giving him rest minutes. We look wobbly and I'm just waiting to have the ball stolen when Murphy is at point
Agreed. I'd rather see freshmen making freshmen mistakes than watch veterans make freshmen mistakes *and* shoot air balls. Murphy is coming around in the half-court game but has not made any improvements in handling press/pressure bringing the ball up.
This feels like last year where Carter D. Came over from KSU but it became pretty clear early on he wasn't a net positive to the rest of the team. I think there is a role on this team for Murphy, but more as a two guard who gets maybe 15-20 minutes a game with more of them off the ball where he can run around and get open looks, rather than try and create for other players
Diarra was pretty clearly playing out of position imo, should've never been a point. Murphy is fine at the 1 imo but I agree Pedulla should start over him and play more minutes.
We also need to play faster. #336+ in the country is not going to cut it for anyone not coached by Chris Beard or Tony Bennett. Our ball movement should also outpace any press team we play, this will help Murphy in particular.
Murphy is a liability on both ends. We don't have anyone who will get physical inside. We don't have anyone who can drive to the hoop. We settle for contested threes early and often. We still have not figured out how to make a team pay for pressing. I have gone from hoping for a great seed in tournaments and making some noise to hoping we can beat UVA in a down year.
This is really frustrating to watch. When teams press we seem content to break that press and simply slow down. I know that is part of what CMY wants to do, but (to your point) you really do have to make those teams pay when they press.
I thought we'd really have a chance this year. Murphy would be an upgrade over Bede and we were returning most of the other starters. Unfortunately, Murphy is way worse at defense and cannot handle any kind of press. So whatever 3pt shooting he had in the mid majors is irrelevant. He's a big step backwards.
The offense overall is worse too. Less ball movement (probably because it takes 8-10 sec to get into the front court) and we aren't making the extra pass for the easy shot. CMY is going to have to coach them up.
No he needs to make a line up change. If he doesn't he's a bad coach
What's that thing about "x's and o's" and "jimmy's and joe's"? He has recruited some non-tournament level classes, so we are seeing some non-tournament level play. There need to be some adjustments in the x's and o's and the rotations, etc. but at the end of the day, i'm not confident in what he has assembled right now.
He needs to coach them too. Alleyene and Cattoor have regressed from an efficiency standpoint (shot selection imo). The ball movement that defines this offense is missing. We're playing way slower than we were with dribble happy Wabissa Bede at point. It makes sense for Mike Young's offense to be around #240-260 in the country tempo wise, not 100 spots higher than that in Chris Beard/UVA levels of slow.
That's fair, but still need a personnel adjustment
In terms of Alleyne and Cattoor, due to the inability of the offense to create space, both are forced into more closely contested shots, having a significant impact on the efficiency differential.
Not really a turnover machine but the ones he does commit are head scratchers
I'd like some writer in one of the media sessions to ask CMY why he isn't using his bench this season. Most of the starters are playing heavy minutes. The guys off the bench he does use, don't really play meaningful minutes. Some guys aren't playing at all. It's very Greenberg-esque. I get why some of the starters should play heavy minutes (personally I think anything over 35 is pushing it) but for example, Alleyne stunk the joint out today yet practically played the entire game. Why? And that's just one example from throughout the season
Def would like to see them start Pedulla and Maddox, at least for a couple games. Aluma is also still exhausted late and not playing very good defense. I don't know why Ojiako isn't getting more minutes. Next season he'll be in year 4 without ever being in the rotation.
Also don't think it's in our best interest for Mutts to ever shoot 4 three pointers in a game.
Nobody on this team brings the toughness or intensity that Bede and Radford brought last season (and outside of Pedulla no one handles the ball as well either). Everyone gave Bede crap for the box score but point is the one position where you don't really have to be able to score as long as you're creating opportunities for other guys to score. Storm is doing neither so far
Had the same thought about ojaiko until I started watching him when he was in. Pretty much lost on defense every time he's in. Backdoor cuts, drives to the lane, it's usually open and he's facing the opposite way.
Good points on toughness and intensity. Also we need athletes that can get to the basket. I know people hate on Buzz now, but look his recruits & players that helped us be successful, like Justin Robinson or Nickeil. Also guys like Clarke and Radford. Those guys could all get to the basket and finish through contact. Hill and Bibbs were shooters, but good athletes too and valuable in other ways besides shooting. You need athletes and drivers to win at this level and we don't really have that right now. Who on our roster can actually drive to the basket and score in traffic? Good ball movement and getting solid three point looks is nice and can help you win some games and stay in the game against better teams, but it's really really hard to have success without any players who can take a defender on 1v1 and get a bucket to end a shooting drought. On a good day, Alleyne can maybe do that, but he has been poor against quality opponents so far this season.
I like Mike Young and I like our players right now, but I fell in love with the Buzz style and I miss having those kind of guys. idk if i'll ever love a VT team (basketball or football) as much as I loved the 18-19 basketball team. Very nice roster construction there and if we don't have Robinson injury in ACC play or Clarke suspension right before the season, that team could legitimately have made the final 4 imo.
it makes me feel a little dirty, but I'm very glad I am not alone in this (though the 04, 06, and 07 football teams come close)
My solution is to just go through life a little dirty all the time.
Wax runs out. Dirt sticks.
Hey, look how fast we became a football school again.
I didn't get to watch this one but our MBB twitter account turning off replies is so soft considering what our fanbase usually does to opposing twitters.
Just checked again - they eventually turn the replies back on
Well I went to the WBB game and was happy to see that after a half a game, the girls decided to get serious and destroyed the Radford Highlanders in the second half.