HOKIES HOOPS CENTRAL: VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES (5-0) AT COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON (4-1) 330PM ESPN2
Competing for a 'ship in November 😤🆚 College of Charleston📍 TD Arena🏆 Shriners Children's Charleston Classic📺 ESPN2#StoneByStone 🦃🏀 pic.twitter.com/2vjaWNStfW— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) November 20, 2022
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
Sunday, Nov. 20 | 3:30 p.m. ET
TD Arena (Charleston, S.C.)
at College of Charleston
Series: VT leads 1-0
Game Notes: Virginia Tech (PDF)
TV Broadcast
ESPN2
Play-by-Play: Jay Alter
Analyst: Debbie Antonelli
Local Radio
Virginia Tech Sports Network
Play-by-Play: Zach Mackey
Analyst: Mike Burnop
Current Spread: Hokies -5.5
Over/Under: -110
Championship Sunday....
The Hokies (36th in AP Poll) will face their quasi first road game in the Championship of the Shriners Children's Charleston Classic with a matchup against College of Charleston. The Hokies are 1-0 against College of Charleston with a 98-87 victory on Dec. 15, 1954. The Hokies are coming off their worst offensive performance in a 61-59 win over Penn State Friday afternoon.
The Cougars are coached by Pat Kelsey, who began his college coaching career at Wake Forest as an assistant coach in 2004. College of Charleston is his second college head coaching job. He coached Winthrop from 2012-2021. He took over the College of Charleston position in 2021 and has a 21-16 overall record guiding the Cougars. He also previously was an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics. Last season the Cougars were 17-15.
The Cougars are 4-1 to start the season after wins over Chattanooga, Richmond, Davidson and Colorado State. Their lone loss was to #1 UNC 102-86. The Cougars come in averaging 85 points per game so the Hokies need to play stellar defense and can ill afford another drought from the perimeter that they had in the Penn State game.
The Cougars come into this season with a whole new roster flush with five transfers and five freshmen. The team is led by Australian Guard Reyne Smith (watch the crowd for the Aussie flags) and grad transfer Guard Dalton Bolon, who comes in from West Liberty where he was a three-time DII All-American. They are joined in double-digit scoring by grad transfer Guard Ryan Larson (Wofford) and grad transfer Guard Pat Robinson (West Liberty). This is an experienced well balanced offensive team with nine players averaging at least six points per game. Coach Kelsey recruits globally with a player from Australia, Croatia, and the NBA Academy in Africa. He also brought in two freshmen from the prestigious IMG Academy.
Defensively, Coach Kelsey utilizes the Pack Line Defense which is a man-to-man defense on the perimeter but has zone tendencies focused on preventing dribble penetration and reducing second chance opportunities. Coach Kelsey and staff utilize a statistic-based evaluation system that records data in ten defensive categories used in every practice and game.
Offensively, Coach Kelsey uses the 1-4 High Stack offense made famous by UCLA great John Wooden which utilizes high post screening action and the UCLA Cut from the top of the key to set up the high/low game. The bigs passing abilities are critical in making this offense work. They will be looking for guards on back door cuts, baseline cuts and perimeter swings to get open looks.
The Cougars Backcourt
Reyne Smith (#2, SO, G, 6-2, 180lbs) 13.8 Pts, 1.4 Reb, 0.8 Ast
Dalton Bolon (#3, SR, G, 6-4, 205lbs) 12.6 Pts, 3.8 Reb, 0.6 Ast
Pat Robinson III (#15, SR, G, 6-3, 195lbs) 10.4 Pts, 3.8 Reb, 0.4 Ast
Ryan Larson (#11, SR, G, 6-1, 175lbs) 10.0 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 3.2 Ast
Jaylon Scott (#21, SR, G, 6-5, 195lbs) 7.6 Pts, 5.2 Reb, 3.8 Ast
The Cougars Frontcourt
Ben Burnham (#25, SO, F, 6-7, 200lbs) 7.8 Pts, 2.8 Reb, 0.6 Ast
Raekwon Horton (#5, SO, F, 6-6, 200lbs) 7.6 Pts, 4.0 Reb, 0.4 Ast
Babacar Faye (#35, SO, F, 6-8, 175lbs) 7.0 Pts, 6.6 Reb, 0.8 Ast
Ante Brzovic (#10, SO, F, 6-10, 229lbs) 6.4 Pts, 2.0 Reb, 0.6 Ast
What to expect from College of Charleston?
As a team the Cougars are averaging nearly ten more shots per game than their opponents, helping them score nearly 85 points per contest. This is driven primarily by incredible offensive rebounding at nearly 15 rebounds per game.
Coach Kelsey emphasizes an extremely fast paced offense looking to wear the opposing defenses down to help close out high scoring games with a win. The offense is centered more on speed and utilizing bigs in the high post passing game. The guards on this roster do the majority of the scoring.
Perimeter shooting accounts for nearly 45% of the Cougars total attempts. They come in averaging over 30 attempts per game from outside although they are only shooting 31%.
College of Charleston focuses on defensive rebounds where they average nearly 24 per contest. Chattanooga was the only team to outrebound the Cougars so far this season. They outrebounded UNC by 5 rebounds in that loss.
The Cougars struggle with fouls which was the major factor in their loss to UNC. The Tar Heels went to the line 38 times. Two other opponents have had at least 26 attempts from the line. This is a significant impact area, especially for the limited experience on the bench. There are five players averaging more than 2.5 personal fouls per game. Senior forward Charles Lampten struggles the most here, significantly limiting his playing time.
The Hokies
The Hokies need to focus on taking the ball inside. The entire team should be able to get to the rim or the line in this contest. An early focus inside will take key players off the floor for the Cougars and open up the perimeter shooting.
The Hokies face an arguably the best rebounding team they have faced all season. Keeping the Cougars off the offensive glass will significantly hamper their performance. Charleston averages nearly 16 second chance points per game. Reduce that to below 10 and it goes a long way to victory.
Pedulla, Cattoor and Maddox will have their hands against these guards. The balanced scoring across four guards means they can't just focus on any one player. This will be a game of contest the hot hand with your best counter.
Basile and Mutts in the high post will create the offense in the contest. It will force College of Charleston defenders into decision points on lane defense or staying with their man. Pedulla and Cattoor are the two that get the open looks in this situation if the defense collapses in. Otherwise Mutts and the other bigs need to be able to go to the rim.
Expect a lot of time at the line unless the officials continue their Pro Wrestling stance on lane defense. It wasn't only the Hokies against Penn State that was a Royal Rumble, the Cougars got away with extremely physical lane play against Colorado State, where they were only called for a season low 16 personal fouls and only 9 free throw attempts for Colorado State.
Highlight of the ODU game
Hokies win without the three....
Game 5 🎥⏪ • Penn State➤ Gritty win against a solid Penn State squad➤ 40 points in the paint (ties season high)➤ Held PSU 21 points below its season average➤ Sets up true road game against CofC for the 🏆 pic.twitter.com/MTGhQZFKVZ— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) November 19, 2022
In Closing
The Hokies are going to have to earn this one. They will have the home crowd against them, questionable officiating and an experienced starting five opponent. If they want this championship, they cannot afford a breakdown in rebounding or perimeter shooting. Either of these areas will likely determine the final result.
College of Charleston prefers high scoring, close games decided on who executes better in the final two minutes of play. The Hokies will not be the best team the Cougars have faced. The Cougars have also won in overtime and three of their five games were decided in those final minutes.
This Hokies should be the more talented team on the floor but this will be countered by the team that wants it more. Charleston obviously is motivated to win the Championship on their home floor in front of a heavy contingent of their own fans.
The oddsmakers have the over/under at 110 points which is surprisingly low so they expect a much more defensive minded game than any Charleston has played this season. This would definitely work in the Hokies favor.
Hokies return to form on the perimeter and wear down the Cougars at the line. 81-73 win for W #6 and a trophy to bring home. Pedulla wins MVP.
🏆👀👀👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/2S95IapkmB— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) November 20, 2022
Comments
Let's Go!
HOKIES!
Gametime...Get Poppin for that Chip
Basile might have a hard time vs some acc bigs
Rough start so far, hope we find our groove
Not a good start offensively or defensively
can't hit a shot any more
Letting them get easy position in the lane
Slow start offensively and we are playing good defense either.
My brother went to CofC. We have to win. My Dad would be crushed if his favorite son didn't win!
Pedulla just took an elbow to the head there but the ticky tack calls are there again.
Letting CoC set pace on both ends is not the recipe to win
These refs are going to make sure we don't win.
Everyone was so excited we have a bunch of tall guys for once. But our big men besides Mutts at 6'7" don't impress me, even vs Charleston
Also an atrocious charge call, per usual. 90% of charges should be blocks
That's the worst charge call I have seen ever.
Yeah I coached basketball for 9 years and have watched it for 50 years and never have seen anyone get a charge call with their feet off the floor. And yeah if I were coaching I would have had at least a technical on that one. Ridiculous.
Wow now that's some absolute bullshit
What a BS call
That has got to be the worst call by any ref this season so far
Guy clearly jumps up with pedulla. Playing 8 on 5 right now
Hopefully that tech lights a fire.
Getting run out of the gym
Getting killed on the boards. Getting all the open looks they want on the perimeter. Getting the ball way down low in the paint with zero resistance. VT did not come to play
Meanwhile...we can't buy a basket. Followed by severe over the back.
Looks like CoC ready the script of being physical with us...but early instead of in the 2H.
When we miss our 3s we are in deep deep trouble vs anyone. The centers are no good IMO and our guards are too small to attack the rim. We're basically just Mutts and 4 traffic cones if we're missing jumpers
Well this is embarrassing. Can't get a three to drop to save our lives.
Man I sure to love watching Cattoor play ball
Flexing after a tear drop layup is weak.
We can't buy a rebound
I have a feeling this is a good weekend to be number 0.
Having no one under offensive glass when we shoot this poorly is ridiculous
We're using the Buzz theory of when the shot goes up we vacate the lane and head back for defense.
Nice dime by Cattoor!
Took my dog on a short walk and came back to the note that we were on a 10-2 run
Heading back outside
Hey, we figured out to get the ball to go through the ring
Once again, I do not understand what constitutes a foul in basketball
No one does really.
This entire tournament is making me want to go read the rulebook. I obviously don't understand basketball
Pedulla clearly in positionand outside cylinder...of course it's a block
He had both feet on the ground.
Just because you're outside the cylinder doesn't mean it's a charge... yes the earlier call was absolutely awful though
That's why I also stated in position. IE both feet down and arms straight up.
Offensive player went shoulder first into his chest.
Compared to the call on the other end earlier, this was a text book charge. Pedulla got the shaft twice, and now has three fouls.
No one underneath to rebound again
As poorly as we've played we haven't played as poorly as the officials.
Getting every foul call against us rn
It's like Basile is never ready to receive a pass....or dribble
Have we checked for Saran wrap over the rim?
Welp. Can't get any worse than that and we're only down by 5.
Could be a lot worse, but their 3s aren't falling either
We need:
1. Some 3s to fall.
2. To defend the paint better.
3. Bench points. 0 bench points is poor. This is supposed to be our year of great depth but i don't see it. Hopefully Rice is healthy soon.
I counted 13 of our shots taken without a Hokie within 10 feet of rim. No chance at offensive rebounds on over half our possessions
CMY is really good with in-game adjustments. I expect him to really begin to work the ball inside and get that CoC defense sagging a bit. That will hopefully open things up outside.
I have hope. They will be shooting at the end of the court where they had fast starts the first two games. Let's hope that continues and go 8 for 9 on threes.
Going to have to beat these refs Jesus bro
So, based on the start to the second half, we'll be in foul trouble in just a few minutes.
I was not aware we were allowed to the free throw line
WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE REFS CALLING
The refs are trying it out...see how it feels. Didn't feel too good because they came right down and called an off the ball foul on us again
Why is the officiating of this game so lopsided?
Been the whole tournament, not just Hokies games.
CoC opponents have averaged over 22 ft attempts per game up to now but Hokies only have 2 attempts through 22 minutes
Win or lose, these refs are what make basketball hard to watch. They have lost control of the game, the violence level is extremely elevated, its like a street fight with this kind of officiating.
Catoor trying his best Curry out on the fast break for the lead!!
Basile is so sloppy with the ball
Basile has to quit catching or bumbling balls at his knees
He's gonna get his pocket picked all year in the acc if he keeps showing how sloppy he is with the ball in his hands
Mutts has to take his man to the rim there
We are drawing contact on every shot and not getting any call
Hokies just called for the guy not being able to stand up.
It's been a very long time since I watched a basketball game and went "these refs are making a lot of sense with their calls."
Hunter gets his legs swept out from underneath him and no call. These refs are gonna get someone killed
That's an out of control player. No charge.
Poteat was inside the restricted area, by rule it has to be a block.
I thought if the player was out of control it didn't matter?
If the player is no longer the ball carrier the the restricted area no longer applies. That should have been an offensive player control foul
Almost out of shot clock, better call a foul
How the fuck is that offensive foul
Fuck these refs.
WTAF!!!??? These officials
Horsesh*t call
Lol what
"You see the push off."
I really don't.
I saw zero fucking arm extension
We'd likely be up by 10-15 if not for these officials.
Lol he literally swatted off the rim, the fuck they complaining about
Yeah it was still on the rim
Mutts MAULED and no foul call
These refs are literal dogshit, their coach is on somethin about that obvious goaltend, and we're STILL winning.
LFG
HOKIES!
No and1 on that last basket doesn't even make these officials Not Top 10 unfortunately
Basile just giving way too much buffer
Should probably not just let the take uncontested threes
And now A CoC player who sucks at 3s is going to bomb 3s on us!
Had to blink five times seeing one go our way
Missed the first one, got the second one. Bout time they called the charge
I get it, it's only a foul of CoC does it twice in a row.
Finally got an offense foul call.
Announcers are super excited when CoC does anything really
Basile gets dragged down going for the rebound, no call.
I'm watching a comedy special.
All game long
Basile is going to be a huge liability on D when we hit ACC play.
He's already a huge liability.
See, that last 3.
They are wearing out Basille. Over the back, reaching in, etc.
You forgot ripping his arm off!
How could I? It's still laying on the floor.
Basile needs to sit down. Not remotely interested in playing defense
Basile is a fucking liability get him out
He needs to play strong. He's big enough. Just take over.
Basile has to come off the floor. Hurting us on both ends
Came here to say the same thing. He's been too slow defensively and careless at times with the ball in hand.
Basille is ass.
If we lose to these refs I'm going to be pissed.
Just zero urgency with the ball late and it's going to cost them the game
Second day in a row they just aren't mentally there when the game needs to be closed out. They were lucky to win on Friday, it's not looking good tonight
Can the person serial downvoting please stop. It's annoying me now.
Refs are now useless, this game needs police to make some arrests, particularly the muggings that Basile is getting.
Gut check time!
My biggest Mike Young criticism is that he is obsessed with mid-majors. Basile, previously Storm Murphy, etc. They're just not quite ACC starters
obsessed? Or best available?
Catoor is going to impregnate someone like this.
Cattoor!
Basille is ass on defense. They are isolating and attacking him and he has no ability to stop it.
Aaaaannnnnd Basile torched again. Our centers are not good. Basile plays like a spot up shooter, plays careless on offense, and is a cone on defense. And Poteat and Kidd have shown nothing positive except maybe rebounding
CoC just needs to find Basile here.
Barrels right through poteat. No way poteat should be covering there.
Not sure why he's on the floor in this situation.
I assume size. MY maybe worried about getting beat by an offensive rebound. As soon as he was caught out on Robinson they should have been calling for a switch.
There was a screen and a switch. Then he couldn't get a switch back off of him.
Same as last season, very poor defense early in the year. CMY definitely has some work to do on that end of the court. The sad thing is we should have won this game by 10-15+
What a joke. That's a charge. Refs get the win here. 🤷🏽♂️
It would have been if we were on offense. In reality it was a good no call.
Gotta run a solid play
Sorry but players like Poteat have no place in the modern game. Everyone on the internet loves that we have big men, but you NEED to be able to switch onto guards in 2022. Mike Young's archaic views on big men continue to baffle me
Congrats CoC on winning your Super Bowl!
Defense is very lacking...we got lots to work on
CoC should just foul
Welp. The last 5 minutes show why VT will miss Keve Aluma. Basile and Poteat can't make up for his play, and it showed there.
Absolute choke job to lose that one. Team needs to stew on that because they simply were not good enough tonight, and really, they've played a few absolute shit bomb games this week.
Just couldn't overcome 8 on 5
That was my worry when I saw we were playing Charleston in the Charleston Classic. The refs were absolutely horrible the entire series. I think all three games should be submitted to the NCAA for the express reason to get those sorry ass refs fired.
Agreed. Hate blaming refs, but def since the 2H of PSU, they just decided to let street ball happen and the other teams were willing to play like it. We seem to still get stuck with pretty flimsy calls. Trash tournament with trash refs
CMY is really going to have to figure out what to do with his Bigs. HUGE liability today.
Is it really the weekend if the Hokies don't let ya down at least once though?
Bad loss
I will never understand this sport
Haha... I was just thinking the same thing. I have no idea what a foul is.
That's a really bad loss on the resume as well. Might knock us down a seed or 2 in March
Ehhhh tbd. That might be a tournament team come march. Not a great loss, but not awful at this point.
I've learned getting upset about losses in November isn't worth it. What we do coming up is far far more important, our next 5 game stretch is no cupcake
Charleston played well, but they only win this game with those god awful refs. Can't take this loss very seriously.
Unfortunately, there's no 'ref screw jobs' column on the March resume
Yeah but it's OOC, neutral site, early season tournament. This won't hurt that bad. Better to lose-close-early like this than mid season to lower tier ACC teams.
How do they determine whether it's a neutral site game? We played on their home court, wouldn't that be a road game?
Tournament.
I get it but that is disingenous. This was a home game for Charleston, and IMO should be counted as such
Or you shouldn't be entered into the tournament you're hosting...
might be trivial, but feels like a double standard
I'm saying I think those "neutral" site early season tournaments don't hurt you as much as a straight up road game would.
doesn't matter if it was a Tournament or not, those ref's definitely treated them as a home team for all three of their games.
Serious work needed on the defense before we get to ACC play that was bad defense down the stretch there.
Not sure why Maddox shot there he had time to get it further forward but oh well. Refs were shit all game but our defending has to improve no excuses for how basile played in particular.
Not sure why Maddox was even an option there. Has to be Pedulla or Cattoor
Because Clemson, but I am with you in that I would much rather have seen Cattoor make a midfield shot. He has how many already on his resume?
Bullshit call to have Poteat in there; bullsit screw jobs by the refs all game
I don't usually complain about officiating but this was one of the most lopsided officiated games I have ever seen.
Same
Yup. As others have said. Not a great showing from the bigs not named Mutts at the end there. Turnovers and defense was real bad
Hopefully Maddox and Cattor can bail out CMY in March again
Man their coach is really going overboard with this.
It's a win on your home court, man. Mike Young didn't even go this hard when we won the ACC.
He is trying to be Top fiddle in a town where he is currently third.
I feel like we are always the team to help another team into some historic moment or huge feat for them. It's always us. Regardless of sport.
Also Cattor the most consistent scorer tonight why not let him shoot the shot instead of Maddox who was ice cold from distance all night
You know what good on them. They earned that win.
They earned it by having the refs on their side all game, sure
Don't be a sore loser, they attacked our pathetic interior defense and came out on top. We didn't deserve a win today
I'm a sore loser because of the terrible officiating. I do think COc is a good team and could finish high for a mid major but we got odd jobbed all game. Could we have made better decisions, sure. But they were constantly rewarded for being the home team
I also legged you because I realize I'm six gin and tonics deep and would not normally be this angry but am all in my feels rn
Its a good story to be sure. It sucks that it was against us. We need to root for them to have a great year so this loss doesn't hurt us come March.
Basile wasn't great defensively at the end...but I don't know who we had who could've defended better against Brzovic
Kidd was getting schooled earlier in the 2nd half.
If he had trouble against Brzovic, shit is gonna get ugly in conference play
Defensively, we might be in real trouble come ACC play with the way we played this week
Coming out of feast week tournament with one loss isn't bad. Definitely should've won, but playing an away game in an atmosphere like that will help come ACC season. If Charleston keeps playing like this, that could be one of the next mid-major programs to be a March special.
Hopefully so, but you have to figure with the way these things normally play out when we lose to teams we should beat, CoC will probably go .500
Right, with non biased refs from any other conference in this game they get blow out
They are expected to go toe-to-toe with Towson to win the CAA. So it's more likely they make the NCAA tournament than go .500, but it would be VT's luck come tournament bubble time for CoC to crap the bed the rest of the season.
It's the difference between a bubble team and top 4-5 seed line. We can still get there for sure, but we have too much talent to be losing these games
Got a lot to improve on on both sides of the ball. Defense broke down at the end for the third game in a row. The offense is definitely operating far below what it could be, we just have way to much talent to only score 75 vs Charleston
Well, we got our "bad loss" in November that the committee will weigh against other double digit seeds. Smh. Get some turkey, and get back to work.
College of Charleston opponents outside this Tourney averaged 27.25 Free throw attempts per game. In this Tournament they got 17 in game 1, 9 in game 2 and the Hokies only attempted 5 today. The style of basketball was consistent in all their games. Pretty obvious where the issue was but the numbers make it glaring.
Loss might not look as bad depending how Charleston does the rest of the way. They look feisty and could have good chance at being a tournament team come March. What it does though take away margin for error in the remaining OOC schedule. We've got a fairly weak OOC schedule and if you don't want to be on the bubble in March, I think coming out of OOC with 1 loss would be great. 2 or 3 losses in OOC could be very tough. The ACC is looking like its not gonna be good again this year so if you're looking at a situation where its only 5ish teams getting bids, we can't afford many blemishes
Sucks we lost, hard to play 8 on 5, but also our game needs refinement.
A lot of talk about March in here for a team that had to win 4 in 4 nights last year, then lost a tremendous player in Aluma... I think we are going to have our struggles in the ACC more than people realize
Doesn't mean we can't get right, but there's work to do
Had we been hitting our 3 ball , it shoulda have gotten us past the horrid officiating.
Props to CoC, between their play and some major home cookin, they got a big W. Was there some kind of recent bad news or event in Charleston that they needed a feel good story? Cause those refs were going to do everything in their power to make sure they won that bitch
It's their tournament. They've never been in the finals before.
As was pointed out, they didn't just start getting the calls in the finals....they got the calls to help them get to the finals too