HOKIES HOOPS CENTRAL: NC STATE (12-4) AT VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES (11-4) 730PM RSN
Rise to the challengeℹ️: https://t.co/kzXtxoH4jy🤝: @BburgFirstMain pic.twitter.com/INsyRiYORo— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 7, 2023
NC State (12-4, 2-3 ACC)
vs. Virginia Tech (11-4, 1-3 ACC)
January 7, 2023
Cassell Coliseum
7:30 p.m. ET
RSN
Virginia Tech Sports Network
TV Broadcast
RSN
Play-by-Play: Evan Lepler
Analyst: Brian Oliver
Local Radio
Virginia Tech Sports Network
Play-by-Play: Zach Mackey
Analyst: Mike Burnop
Current Spread: Hokies -5.5
Over/Under: -144
Will they or won't they....
Stay together.Another opportunity comes knocking on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/NUNsXzRFu8— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 5, 2023
The Hokies are in Cassell again tonight facing a possible fourth straight ACC loss after a really poor shooting performance inside the perimeter against Clemson. The task is coupled with NC State riding high after a thrashing of #16 Duke 84-60 where the Blue Devils missed their first 13 shots from the floor. Tech comes in winning four of the last five contests between these schools but still trails overall 41-19.
The Wolfpack are coached by Brad Keatts. He began his college coaching career at Southwestern Michigan as an assistant coach in 1996. NC State is his second college head coaching job, taking over the job in 2017. He has a 102-72 overall (45-53 in ACC) record guiding the Wolfpack.
The Wolfpack come into this contest winners of their last four of their last five games with a 16 point loss to Clemson. They are 12-4 on the season. They have started 2-3 in the ACC, having beaten Duke and Louisville with losses to Pitt, Miami and Clemson.
The Wolfpack are a team that heavily relies on its starting five, in a four guard single forward set. The regular rotation of seven players includes five transfers in Jarkel Joiner (Ole Miss), Casey Morsell (UVA), D.J. Burns (Winthrop), Jack Clark (LaSalle), and Duhsan Mahoric (Utah).
This team is led by guards Terquavion Smith and Jarkel Joiner, who combine for 34 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists. If Cattoor is not available this duo is going to wear the Hokies out. Against Duke they had 45 points, 9 assists and 9 rebounds.
Defensively, Keatts approaches the game with this statement "Don't let your opponent breathe". The Wolfpack utilize an aggressive 2-3 Zone defense that attempts to protect the perimeter and force turnovers on the outside. Keatts has the Wolfpack using the entire floor to play defense, regularly employing a full court defensive scheme. They will switch to man to man in certain circumstances. Regardless of which style they are employing, NC State so far this season has done a very good job defensively. This was supposed to be a facet of the game where they might struggle, but it just hasn't been the case. They have been greatly improved defensively compared to last season. Keatts has the team buying in to executing the basics.
Offensively, Coach Keatts wants to go fast on both ends of the floor to keep opponents off balance. His teams utilize a 4 out 1 in approach, constantly looking for an open perimeter look. The perimeter shots represent 41% of the Wolfpack's total shots. NC State shoot 52% from inside the arc and also are shooting 35% from outside. Expect to see a ton of passes to a big at the top of the lane, who then reads and reacts to what the defense is doing in terms of finding a pass or developing a shot.
The Wolfpack Backcourt
Terquavion Smith 0 SO G 6-4 160 18.4 Pts, 3.6 Reb, 4.9 Ast
Jarkel Joiner 1 SR G 6-1 180 16.0 Pts, 4.2 Reb, 3.8 Ast
Casey Morsell 14 SR G 6-3 196 13.1 Pts, 4.8 Reb, 0.9 Ast
Jack Clark 5 SR G 6-8 182 9.1 Pts, 7.3 Reb, 1.8 Ast
LJ Thomas 4 FR G 6-2 205 3.4 Pts, 2.4 Reb, 1.0 Ast
The Wolfpack Frontcourt
D.J. Burns 30 SR F 6-9 260 9.7 Pts, 4.5 Reb, 1.1 Ast
Dusan Mahorcic 11 SR F 6-10 230 8.7 Pts, 6.6 Reb, 1.2 Ast
What to expect from NC State?
Fast paced contest with an in your face defensive approach. NC State makes you earn every foot of the floor and shortens the time to run a set offense. This is especially troublesome for the Hokies as they have struggled recently with set play execution and having less time to do so likely leads to quite a few lost possessions or last second heaves.
NC State struggles with bigger rosters that can employ two forwards underneath that match up against a smaller guard. In losses though NC State has gotten worn down as they rely on a short bench to play this high energy style of play.
The Wolfpack have scored 70 points or more in 14 out of 16 games and are 12-2 in those contests. They are 0-2 when they fail to reach 70 points. Fouls are usually pretty even at 17 against and 16 for. NC State shoots 70% from the line as a team.
Perimeter shooting is a major part of the Wolfpack strategy. It is better to risk a forward having a good day inside than play off the perimeter.
The Hokies
Will they or wont they again? Rice and Cattoor both experienced injury setbacks according to Coach Young so I do not expect either will play. This obviously plays a tremendous role in what Hokies team is on the floor.
The Hokies continue to struggle running set plays with the absence of Cattoor. This game should focus on finding the open man down low as the Hokies should have a significant size advantage underneath regardless of which rotation of players is on the floor. This is the perfect opportunity to get Poteat into double-digit scoring.
That said, it also means a forward defensively will need to match up with a guard and stretch to the perimeter. This would be a good game for Coach Young to take a page from Coach Brooks and employ a 2-3 zone rather than being constantly in man-to-man.
This is not a deep opponent so while the Hokies bench is shortened by injuries they still have enough to stay fresh. If they get the Wolfpack in foul trouble they need to press that advantage which they failed to do late against Clemson with PJ Hall, who scored several late critical baskets in that loss playing with four fouls.
Lowlight of the Clemson game
Maddox second half disappearing act.
In Closing
The Hokies are still at home and again have a near capacity crowd so cant blame the environment. They must find a way to score inside. The recent lack of scoring in the paint is doubly hard to look at considering they have gotten more than 10 offensive rebounds in their last two contests.
Don't let the pace lead to mistakes, better to be slow and methodical than taking unnecessary risks forcing the ball. This is especially true of Pedulla and Mutts. They need to slow down and play their normal style regardless of Cattoor's absence.
Play a stretch zone or consistently in the shooter's face perimeter defense. The three pointers are critical for NC State's success so limiting this is a major part of getting the desired result.
Hokies again are in a close contest but break the streak. 72-69 win on a late play from Pedulla.
This is a two Popcorn Decision. Broken Record time but its really hard to know which Hokies team we will see with the factors of timing, location, and injuries.
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Comments
LET'S GO!!!!
HOKIES!!!
I'm going to the game tonight, anyone have suggestions on how long it takes to get into Cassell? After seeing the shitshow of getting into Lane this past season, I wanted to see if the same issues were happening for basketball.
Super easy. Staff moves people quickly through
Thanks - was hoping it was better.
I'll be there. Last game I attended in person was the buzzer beater loss to Miami.
But my Beard is longer now than it was then.
Beards are jinx proof. We will win.
It's Kevin Keatts, and Clark and Mahorcic are injured and not playing. Also they do not play a 2-3 zone, ever.
DJ Burns might be my favorite player in the ACC this year. Strong Zach Randolph vibes.
TV Broadcast
RSN
ACCnetwork - No game tonight
ESPN2 - 2 repeats of The Last Dance
ESPNU - App State at JMU
And yet VT/NC State is on regional networks being broadcast by a virtually bankrupt company. The ACC TV package is such a joke
Swofford. The gift that keeps on giving
Not being on the ACCN tonight is a total embarrassment for the network.
Yup.
That's crazy. It's even on up here in New England on NESN+.
As usual...On YES yankees network here in NJ.
Saves me the frustration of trying to watch while trying to get the kids in bed.
NCSU is both parts physical (especially down low) and fast. A terrible combination for this VT team. We could grind out a close loss or this could get ugly very quick. Neither would surprise me at this point. I would honestly be more surprised in a win of any sort against this NCSU squad.
Yeah...NCSU ML is paying out at 3:1. At least I'll make some money if I'm pissed about losing
Keys to victory:
#1 Outscore the opponent
#2 Cut down on the turnovers. Ten or less is usually good. In our four losses we've average 13 per game. We've been in double digits the last five games.
#3 Make layups. Our inside the paint percentage was terrible against clemson. 27% I think.
#4 Have game and situational awareness. Know when to push it. Know when to slow down. Know who their hot hand is, and know who our hot hand is. And if somebody on the other team gets in foul trouble... go at them!
Just be more physical, especially down low.
yeah, that too!
Oh good, another night where nothing but reruns on the ACC network and the game blacked out in my area
So every ACCNX game is just blacked out for Hulu users in VA?
Yeah, they're usually on MASN, which isn't available on Hulu.
*Or I guess I should say MASN in my area of VA.
Very frustrating. Being able to watch things is difficult these days. I need 9 streaming services and a VPN.
OBX too.
If you have the watch espn app, you can get on after the game ends and watch the replay.
Gonna be a late night for me
And with that, I'm going radio silent until after I watch it
Awesome another game we can't watch..
Early foul for Basile..... can we not repeat the same losing formula.
Once again....an opponent that can't miss from 3.
3 early turnovers. not good.
State dictating the pace early. VT needs to figure out how to make this a half court game.
Mutts needs to get to work. Maddux still freezing cold.
Maddox looks like he's not getting his feet set. He looks like he is moving to one side or the other when he shoots. Not being squared up well.
Kidd having a game though....
I think State is ok with letting Kidd get whatever he wants.
Then let's get him off the bench and keep feeding him.! 4 for 4 and he's sitting?
Thank God the big boy can't seem to dribble tonight.
Mutts seems afraid to even shoot now. Immediately passes out.
Guess no one got the memo that the Pack shoot alot from outside
Basile just getting backed down over and over.
we keep jacking up three's and missing (0-7) it's going to be a long night.
Not many fouls getting called tonight. Let's get poteat bullying inside.
I second that emotion. We've had three layups and two dunks. Need to get going inside.
No made threes and Kidd ain't it. Last offensive possession was sloppy as hell too
edit: it turns out Kidd needs to be out there on the floor way more
Kidd has 10 of our 15 points.
Yeah, Kidd is the least of my worries tonight.
12 of our 22 points. 6 of 7 he finally missed one.
This is gonna sound bad but I didn't notice him till he started making mistakes. My bad.
At least we hit a three
See. When Maddox is set and squared up, He's mostly good.
Wtf happened to mutts? Not even 1 attempt?
Maybe he's in his own head cause of the bad game he had the other night?
They are instantly doubling him too. He's gotta pass out quicker.
For the love of God stop taking dribbles in the paint, Mutts!!
Every sequence going the wrong way.
Way too hesitant
Ugh. Maddox.
Not a good half. Pedulla just can't get anything to finish inside. Maddux looks lost. I can't understand how we are not just feeding the one hot hand we have over and over.
Jesus. We look like absolute shit this game. Everything is going poorly. This is going to be our first blowout loss of the season. Unfortunately, I don't see a single thing we're doing well enough to lean on to have a chance.
More beer, please.
FIFY
What has happened to our offense? We run no sets. It's all just spread, one on one, pickup basketball, with bad shot after bad shot. This is infuriating
I'm not watching, but I'm keeping up on the ESPN app (may tune in after halftime)... But this is exactly what I suspected.
At the end of the day we have a mid-major type of team/system that can really catch fire at the right time, but isn't consistent against major competition. It is what it is. However, at least we are having conversations about what seed we are looking at in March as opposed to how we are going to fight our way in... At least we are right now.
For those of you who can't get the game on tv....you're probably better off. Hokies down by 14 at the half. It hasn't been very pretty.
I still belive though.....I always will.
Getting out-rebounded 20-12 and 6-1 on the offensive boards.
Six turnovers. couple of lazy passes.
They've had four steals to our zero.
They've out-scored us 11-0 on points off turnovers.
And 8-2 on second chance points.
We need to do some serious soul searching to turn this around. (I hope we do)
Again, most of that has to do with physicality. We are a very finesse team.
I cant believe how many good bounces they've had on their misses right back to one of their guys on the outside.
Frustrating.
It's like Cattoors injury applied a basketball memory wipe to everyone else.
My biggest problem though is it doesn't look like they game planned anything defensively.
All the things everyone knows State does well the Hokies don't seem to be trying to counter.
My only issue with this whole Cattoor thing is that we were beginning to look really bad even with him. This seems to be a trend with CMY and Co.
Stacking up 3 fouls quickly against them. That could turn out to be huge if we keep it up. These guys look like Mike lit a 🔥 under their asses.
Let's ride.
Cattoor looked hesitant at timeout celebrating there keeping the injured arm angled away
Mutts with a quick 5 points including 3 at the line on a 3 pt foul.
Not sure what more Maddox could do to get a whistle there.
Every time mutts dribbles more than once in the is paint, he turns it over
Pedulla out of control again and again.
He looks like he's pressing too hard.
Another short shot of theirs bounces 20 feet out straight to one of their guys. At least he missed that second chance.
Once again leading scorer (this time Kidd) invisible I the 2H. Hasn't even taken a shot.
I don't think he's even been in.....
12 points (of our 22) in the 1H. And sit him the 2H?
Need to get them in the air and draw another couple fouls to get in the bonus early.
Take the shot and get fouled
Basile totally mugged there while on D. No call.
And there's #7 for them. In the bonus now.
Gotta keep taking it to them in the paint if the refs are calling them in our favor.
1, 14, and 23 all have 3 fouls. Need to go at them.
Basile can't hit the broad side of a barn tonight, and they keep feeding him open looks. Refs haven't been great but when you're this cold from deep this is what happens
Gotta keep attacking with Pedula. Make them defend for 12 minutes without fouling.
3 fouls each on Gantt, morsell, and joiner.
Put Kidd in and he immediately scores.
His only attempt of the 2H.
Need to run Big Baby's fat ass of the the floor
Maddux.....that's not the shot we need there. Low percentage 2 and your cold as ice....
Open 15 footer that he clanks off the bottom of the front rim?
MUTTS!
Nice poteat. 9 fouls on NC state now.
Can't keep letting Burns dribble. Drop a double on him as soon as he takes a dribble
That's a Sportscenter dunk by mutts for sure.
Mutts takes second paint dribble, turnover. For the 5th time tonight, 500th of last 3 years. Ugh
Gotta drive on on Gantt, morsell, and joiner- all in foul trouble. And joiner is Killin us. Gotta get him on the bench.
There's #10. And 4 on burns.
That's 4 on Tubs?
2 missed freebies
At least Maddux did the right thing and ran at joiner there.
Every time Maddox takes an ugly mid range I want to break something
You must break a lot of things.
Down 5, and we have 2 missed free throws, then 2 empty trips. Can't keep doing that
Nice feed mutts.
Fuckin balls keep bouncing back out 15 feet to them
How many times has Pedulla taken an elbow in the ear/face on screens tonight?
Too many.
I'm going to go ahead and say it... If Basile isn't hitting threes he has zero value being on the floor.
Apparently CMY's instruction the latter portion of this 2nd half has been "Be great on offense and defense...but not at the same time."
Foul Gant during the 1 and 1s so we can steal a couple possessions.
Can't get a damn bounce to go our way today.
They go at our guys that are in foul trouble.
We go away from their guys that are in foul trouble.
I don't know the analytics, but this looks like the worst rebounding VT team I've ever seen.
We don't get good position much when on defense, so opp offensive rebounding is high. And when we are on offense, we run the other way as soon as someone shoots, so our offensive rebounding is poor. Add on top of that poor shooting and our point production is flushed down the shitter.
There could be a lot more effort on the boards.
Wtf. How no foul on the elbow there.?
Headed for the exits!
Waaaay too much hero ball by Pedulla.
Anyone notice NCSU got ten fouls with over 5min and didn't get called for another one until 1:03...and we drove the lane every time?
Yup.
And in the meantime they called 7 on us.
refs weren't the issue in this one. 2/14 on threes and nobody looked confident all night long.
Just more commenting on how we aggressive and fast...and they were racking up fouls. Then it suddenly stopped.
def a bit strange
Ref's were definitely an issue unless the air play explained a lot of things I didn't see from the seats. For the first time, I thought the refs were going to get lynched in the first half and the last 10 minutes. They were abysmal.
Waited too long to show urgency
I love CMY, but this will be the second consecutive season when the team looks like $h1t for half of the season only to be forced to make a miracle run in March to keep playing.
This team looks absolutely lost and disinterested in anything related to "hustle".
Basile with two huge mistakes back to back....zero situational awareness
Fucking Basile. What are you doing?
They just said on the broadcast that Rice was playing the part of Smith on the scout team yesterday and "tore up the Hokies first team". Seriously?!
I heard that too.
Unreal
Guess we're gonna save him for March and hope he can bail out this staff like Maddox and Cattoor did last year
I need one of these beat writers to actually ask some real questions about this to see if its true. If he can roast people in practice, he can play in an actual game. Maybe not a full load, but he can contribute. So if he's actually doing that, what the fuck is this training staff doing not clearing him?
JFC Basile
Fucking Aye Basille
I'm perfectly content trading Basie's 3's for whatever the other guys can offer. SMH
No free bacon
Maddox is only allowed to have one good half a game apparently
Maddox is only allowed to have one good half a
gamemonth apparentlyThis is just a bad basketball team folks. There's no two ways about it. CMY and Co. seem to be completely lost.
I don't know what is worse:
I just feel like we are stuck in the mud and the rest of the ACC we have played is gaming for the Ws. Mbball is just getting too damn ugly and frustrating to watch.
The coaching is bad but also they need to recruit better players. Why oh why are we wasting scholarships on Camden and Basile
We have beaten ourselves in these past 4 losses more than anything else. Games we SHOULD have won. I watched all of them and nowhere did I feel the better team won (maybe Clemson is the only exception). We are missing on the same set of cylinders each game. Missed open 3's, missed FT's, missed layups, turnovers, and a few really bone-fucking-head moments.
Welp if the season wasn't a complete washout before, it is now.
Basile 1-8, 4 pts, 3 reb, 4 fouls.
Kidd 7-8, 14 pts, 5 reb, 2 fouls.
E$PN doesn't have the minutes played available on their box score right now, but I'm guessing Kidd had less minutes.
Sorry, but Basile is not getting it done. And he totally threw it away on our third straight steal with a chance to tie it with like a minute left.
I say give Kidd a bigger role.
Edit: as I suspected, Basile had 22 min to Kidds 14. And Camden had 14 minutes with 0 points, 1 reb., and 1 foul.
Basile is not an acc starting center, but neither is Kidd. I prefer an athletic big like Kidd who just stays inside and gets high percentage looks. But Kidd is even worse than Basile on defense, and that's saying something
I don't know...I just feel like overall Kidd is providing more value. I watched Basile get backed down one on one multiple times tonight for scores inside, on top of no offense. I'm certainly no bball expert though.
I'm fine if we start Kidd instead but it won't make us much better imo
Leg. And fair enough.....I just don't know what we have to lose at this point cause Basile sure ain't the answer.
I can't remember the last time I saw Basile producing down in the paint. He's basically a screener who used to be able to shoot the 3.
There is probably something the staff is seeing in practice to give them more confidence with Basile over Kidd, but damn Basile is like a cotton ball out there against ACC bigs.
The first 39 minutes, especially the first 20 were awful, then Maddox almost won it on his own (thanks Basile and Pedulla for the 2 killer turnovers in the last 30 seconds)
- Mutts is not himself, he looks out of it. Even stood still and didn't even attempt a box out and let his man get the rebound
- Pedulla is a solid player but has to do way too much on offense so makes too many mistakes
- Maddox yet another terrible shooting performance until that crazy final minute
- Basile was PATHETIC. Said it before and ill say it again, he is not an ACC starting center. Killed us today. You won't find many acc starting bigs shooting 1-8 from the field
- John "cardio" Camden (because all he does on the court is run around accumulating zero stats) was useless again. Even shot an airball as a spot up shooter... I don't know what on earth this staff sees in him
- Kidd is completely lost on defense, he gets schooled by any competent big. But he did his job well on offense
- Collins will be good
Obviously missing Cattoor and Rice hurts, but Mike Young and co have gotten their roster constriction all wrong imo, especially for forwards/centers. This is year 4, we should be taking steps forward, not backwards.
I think there might be something behind this. Maybe Mutts knows the team is smoke & mirrors when they can shoot well, so he doesn't run himself ragged given how many minutes he plays. I used to think he was pulling the old LeBron, cruising for 36 min until taking over the game in the 4th. But now I am starting to wonder if it is more of a "Why bother" factor
Agree on all points, especially roster... how does a coach who has run 3 guards his entire career come into a season with 5, two being freshman and no true backup PG?
I sit up close and the eye test says our opponents are just more talented, Quicker, more athletic, able to make plays off the dribble, finish in traffic etc. And NCSU was missing two guys that combined for 18/ 15 btw.
Agree on the opponents being more talented. NC State ran an ugly offense with so much isolation and hero ball. But because they actually have ACC talent, it kind of worked. And they have ACC level athletes, so they killed on the boards and played good defense
Can anyone imagine how sour things would be if we hadn't gone on that run and won the ACCT last season? That bought some goodwill, but the basketball product right now is just not good at all. But it's unfortunately becoming a typical CMY team.
No kidding. If not for the heroism by Maddox in that Clemson game we might be talking about CMY's seat getting a little warm.
If Maddox doesn't make that crazy shot vs Clemson last March, people are starting to call for Mike Young's job. This is year 4 and we're taking steps backward. Year 3 was worse than Year 2 aside from that run in the ACCT. And Year 4 looks worse than Year 3.
Progress gives me confidence. Like when Year 2 was so so much better than rebuild Year 1. But taking steps back and recruiting/playing guys like Basile and Camden loses my confidence
Yeah, but he did. So what's the point in the useless thought exercise? There's this sentiment I keep seeing pop up that's just wrong. It wasn't a fluke we won the ACC last year. Yeah, we started out poorly early in the season and dug a deep hole that required getting an autobid, but the turnaround was real. From January on, both from the eye test and analytically, we were one of the best teams in the conference. There were adjustments (largely getting more PT for Maddox and Pedulla). It was a good team that was worthy of their accomplishments. And it was Mike Young being a big part of that. He's a good coach. People need to stop acting like we're some bum team that just got lucky. I don't know why people want to be so miserable and pessimistic all the time.
I'm not trying to minimize the ACCT win last season. We won it, it wasn't a fluke. But that level of play so far is the exception of the CMY era, not the norm. We would not have even made the NCAA tournament last year if it weren't for winning the whole ACCT. We caught fire and had an amazing run last season, and that in itself is awesome and should be celebrated. But we also shouldn't gloss over the issues we've seen with the team for a few seasons now.
Man, I'm honestly kind of glad the game was blacked out in my area and I couldn't watch it. I'm tired of this team losing games that they shouldn't.
These injuries have revealed a problem that our team has which luckily (or unluckily depending on how you look at it) hasn't come to the surface in previous seasons. Mike Young seems to struggle to put together deep teams. Perhaps it's a result of coaching at Wofford for so long and getting used to having 3-4 good players he could rely on? I don't know if we need to recruit better or more evenly, but something has to change.
Think about it--next year we definitely lose Basile and Mutts and possibly Cattoor as well. We have two guards coming in for the class of 2023. That's like 25-35 ppg we're losing right there, and I have zero idea who fills those shoes. It feels like we're just constantly a revolving door of like 3-4 starting quality players and 2-3 freshman/transfers who wouldn't see much playing time on better teams. Maybe I'm not being completely fair and I know we got gutted by Alleyne and N'Guessan transferring out, but our roster just always feels so lopsided in a way that it didn't under Buzz. Is it really impossible to recruit a decent/promising big, a three-and-D guy, and a good guard most years? Go look at the past rosters. We seemed to always have 5-6 quality players and 2-3 serviceable bench guys back then.
They recruited Wessler (Quality Big), Rice (High Quality Guard), Buchanan (3-D Wing that was DC Gatorade POY) and MJ Collins who we have seen already is a big part of their plan. Due to the transfers the coaching staff decided to redshirt Wessler who is rumored to have already added 25-30 pounds to his 7 foot frame, Buchanan and its looking more and more like Rice due to injury will join them.
2023 has the second PG we need in Rechsteiner and a promising shooting guard in Jaydon Young. I also expect that we will again see Young pull in two or three Portal guys.
Is it frustrating the weaknesses a couple of these portal guys have had, sure, but I think the staff thought they were getting more from Camden and some semblance of defensive IQ from Basile. Obviously not the case but they had to make those decisions about Redshirts prior to seeing either in a real game situation.
I'm definitely not trying to complain about the '22 class and actually think that was the first great class we've had in terms of balance. The '21, '20, and '19 classes all got completely decimated though in terms of attrition and weren't balanced to begin with which hurts us even more. Out of the 9 guys we recruited in those classes, only 3 are still on the team, and there was only one non-transfer big in those classes (Ojiako, who never panned out). That's terrible!
I'm really hoping Wessler can begin to contribute next year, at least in a solid backup role. I just find it very disappointing that he and Ojiako are the only two bigs that CMY has recruited to VT in 4 years. I get that we're not a basketball blue-blood and don't have our pick from 4/5* bigs, but we were really bailed out by Aluma for the past 3 years and now our recruiting failures are starting to show. Personally I wonder if some of it has to do with CMY's pretty poor record of giving meaningful minutes to most freshmen. MJ Collins has been an exception this year, but in his case it feels more like he has just been pressed into service based on how thin our roster is.
The good: Maddox seems to have his touch back (in that last minute anyways)
The bad: Basile is not clutch...among other bad things from the rest of the team
Just got home. The last minute was the most fun of the game, they made it interesting and I wasn't expecting that.
Lowkey Hokie already said most of what I was going to say. Offense was "let Pedulla go careening into the lane like a scared jackrabbit and make a haphazard pass that might find a teammate."
That said, even when we did have open shots, we weren't hitting them. Multiple blown layups, too.
Also, too many offensive rebounds given up.
Had an obnoxious NCSU fan sitting directly in front of me, who fortunately did not enjoy the end of the game and was quieter than I expected upon leaving.
Cattoor coming back will help, but this team is a mess.
Why do we never get any mike young press conference quotes? Does he not do them?
For the first 38 minutes of the game I winced every time Maddox was passed the ball outside the arc. He would stand, take a dribble and wait for the defense to close out and then either have to dribble penetrate, take a contested 3 or pass out. I would turn to people sitting with me and say he needs to play like Cattoor, just catch and shoot.
Finally in the last minute, he finally started just catching and shooting. He needs to remember that for the first 38 minutes of the game.