HOKIES HOOPS CENTRAL: South Carolina (1-0) vs Virginia Tech (1-0) 930PM ACCN
Friday night hoops in the Queen City 🌙🦃 vs. South Carolina🕤 9:30 p.m. ET📺 ACCN#StoneByStone pic.twitter.com/9dR6RhjuPo— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) November 10, 2023
South Carolina (1-0)
vs. Virginia Tech (1-0)
November 10, 2023
Spectrum Center, Charlotte, NC
930 p.m. ET
ACC Network
Virginia Tech Sports Network
ACCN
Play-by-Play: Doug Sherman
Analyst: Cory Alexander
Local Radio
Virginia Tech Sports Network
Play-by-Play: Zach Mackey
Analyst: Mike Burnop
Current Spread: Hokies -5.5
Over/Under: -141
Queen City Takeover 👑We're on our way @HokiesWBB 🦃🔥 pic.twitter.com/Ajd42AtW2k— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) November 9, 2023
Turkeys vs Chickens....
The Hokies are at the Hall of Fame Series in Charlotte, NC. They face the South Carolina Gamecocks squad that comes in 1-0 after an 11-21 season last year. The Hokies are 13-18 against South Carolina all time with the last meeting in 1997, a 74-73 loss where the Gamecocks went 35-47 from the free throw line (sounds like last night against Iowa.)
The Gamecocks are coached by Lamont Paris, who is in his second season at South Carolina. The Gamecocks are 12-21 under Paris, who is now 99-93 as a Head coach with five years as a head coach at Chattanooga.
The big changes in the roster saw GG Jackson drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies, Chico Carter Jr. transferred to Depaul, Hayden Brown (Graduated), Tre-Vaughn Minnot transferred to Portland State, Javon Benson left the program, Ford Cooper transferred to Hampton, and Daniel Hankins-Sanford transferred to UMass. They had four players transfer in. Ta'Lon Cooper from Minnesota, Myles Stute from Vanderbilt, B.J. Mack from Wofford, and Stephen Clark from The Citadel. All four will play prominent roles this season.
Defensively, South Carolinas focus is half court man-to-man. He emphasizes responsibility and positioning to protect the lane to the point that even though its man-to-man it has many similar tendencies to the Pack-Line, especially focused on denying the baseline. Defenders are taught to position themselves to not allow any baseline penetration, relying on help defense to close an adjusted drives to the center of the lane. The key weakness of this defense is if a team can find open shooters on the perimeter AND hit those shots, the integrity of this defense begins to fall apart.
Offensively, the Gamecocks run a very slow paced, efficient offense. They utilize heavy screens on the perimeter to open up outside shots or lane penetration. Expect to see a ton of passing and long possessions to get clean looks. They will alternate between 3 guard and 4 guard sets, primarily because the roster is extremely guard heavy.
Gamecocks Backcourt
PG: Ta'Lon Cooper (6-4, 200, Gr.)
Game 1: 15 pt, 3 ast, 7 reb
2022-23 stats: 9.8 PPG, 6.3 APG, 4.0 RPG, 37.8 3PT% (Minnesota)
SG: Meechie Johnson (6-2, 184, Jr.)
Game 1: 15 pt, 3 ast, 5 reb
2022-23 stats: 12.7 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 3.4 APG
Stephen Clark (6-8, 208, Gr.)
Game 1: 4 pt, 2 ast, 2 reb
2022-23 stats: 16.3 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 2.8 APG, 1.8 BPG (The Citadel)
Jacobi Wright (6-2, 185, Jr.)
Game 1: 9 pt, 2 ast, 3 reb
2022-23 stats: 7.3 PPG, 2.1 RPG, 1.8 APG, 35.0 3PT%
Zachary Davis (6-7, 194, So.)
Game 1: 4 pt, 8 reb
2022-23 stats: 2.2 PPG, 2.2 RPG, 0.7 APG, 0.7 SPG
Morris Ugusuk (6-4, 160, Fr.)
Game 1: 5 pt, 3 ast, 1 reb
International Signing via Finland
Gamecocks Frontcourt
SF: Myles Stute (6-6, 209, Sr.)
Game 1: 10 pt, 1 ast, 6 reb
2022-23 stats: 8.4 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 0.6 APG, 36.1 3PT% (Vanderbilt)
PF: B.J. Mack (6-8, 270, Gr.)
Game 1: 13 pt, 1 ast, 3 reb
2022-23 stats: 16.6 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 1.4 APG (Wofford)
C: Josh Gray (7-0, 265, Sr.)
Game 1: 3 pt, 6 reb
2022-23 stats: 4.3 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 0.5 APG
What to expect from South Carolinas?
The Gamecocks come in still looking to gel after significant turnover. Their starting lineup consists of four transfers. They cruised to an easy win in their first game against SC Upstate, which isn't surprising considering Upstate is historically in the bottom 30 of RPI rankings (currently 330th). The transfers accounted for 42 of the Gamecocks 83 points.
There really is not much to draw from the first game, much like the Hokies, as South Carolina simply dominated in almost every statistical category. They shot better than 50% both inside and out, going 12-22 from behind the arc. The only small surprise was that their starting guards outrebounded the forwards. Not sure if it was just long kickouts on missed shots or just positioning.
The Hokies
The Hokies got to see quite a few new faces, most impressive though was the freshman guard duo of Rechsteiner and Young. The duo combined for 20 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds. Another strong debut was Tyler Nickel with 12 points, 7 rebounds and 1 assist.
The Hokies started Collins, Cattoor, Pedulla, Beran and Kidd. Kidd put on a strong showing with a 14/11 Double-Double while Pedulla also added a Double-Double going the point/assist route.
Season-Opening Double-Doubles ⛽️🔥🦃 @PedullaSean (15p, 10a)🦃 @lynnkidd20 (14p, 11r)First Tech duo to have double-doubles in a season opener since 2007 vs. Elon (Jeff Allen and Deron Washington)#StoneByStone pic.twitter.com/D3RMx4gAHQ— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) November 7, 2023
Long coming off the bench still managed more minutes than Beran, so it will be interesting to see if that trend continues.
The biggest surprise for me was how well the Hokies rebounded. Last season there were numerous games against "outsized, overmatched opponents" that the Hokies got absolutely dominated on the boards.
Highlight of the Night
A 🅿️roblem 📈📈📈 @PedullaSean#StoneByStone pic.twitter.com/rrhOJGlyQO— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) November 9, 2023
In Closing
The Hokies need to demonstrate they can operate effectively against P5 competition. This game will most likely come down to which guard set has the edge. The Hokies should have the advantage here, especially with Pedulla. Having seen how well the freshman guards played also gives you confidence the Hokies can sustain during substitutions or foul trouble.
Always nice to see 5 checking in
Great game, Kenny has built something special in Blacksburg. Great things ahead 👏🏽🦃— Justin Robinson (@5Alive_) November 10, 2023
Comments
Thanks for putting this up as always!
I mentioned before but Kidd was almost unrecognizable, he looks super lean. I'm expecting big things from him this year.
I was also pretty impressed with Long. He played a little out of control but I think he's a great energy guy and does a little of everything.
Kind of glad this wasn't available during the game. Wow just really awful first half and just unable to get stops late.
Am I reading this right? Only two comments on the game. Our late game strategy sucks, hold for a 3 down 2 with 15 seconds left? Unforgivable and it's a gripe I've had with Mike Young for a while. If you're down 4 or less with 15+ seconds to go you always go to rack, get a quick 2 see if you can get fouled then get back on defense. I hate holding for the final shot even in a tie game. Go to the lane and get points, get fouled.
Other notes our defense was mostly not good. Offense is too slow and seems to me like we only score because we have a team of scorers. Like it seems we often score in spite of our offensive system not because of it. I want to see Mike Young make some adjustments. It seems like he'll have us play the same way regardless of outcome, not recruit physical bigs or guys who can drive the rim. I'm not out on him yet but this lack of philosophical change even when we lose is disappointing to me
TKP was down last night
Fire the OC!!!!
Sounds like Coach Young need to get Brent Davis down there drawing up the plays.
My biggest problem with Young is his lack of trust in his bench leading to overusage. Cattoor played all 40 minutes and in the last five got beat on drives four times. Pedulla played 38 minutes and again was visibly tired in the final crucial minutes. SCAR used substitutions to keep Cooper and Johnson fresh towards the end.
My other issue with the first half was guys shooting from behind the NBA line which was a major contributor to the 14% shooting from three in the first half.
Once again the Hokies got bullied on the boards too which has unfortunately been a consistent factor for MY teams year over year. I was hoping their performance against Coppin State was not an outlier.
Not a great week for hokie sports
That was a frustrating game to watch. I hope this isn't a foreshadow to what's about to come. If so, this team will underwhelm and get gashed by half the ACC if not more.
Stute was 7/11 and 5/6 from 3. Most frustrating thing to watch was him to just keep draining every 3 he put up when they needed it.
Found it interesting B Rech never spelled Pedulla. But with what felt like 100000 tv timeouts I guess he had plenty of time to recover
Rechsteiner did come in and play point for a couple minutes in the second half.
Man I completely missed it! Thanks for letting me know. Looking at the box score it was only 2 minutes so I must have blinked!
I think if we hadn't attempted all of our 3s from NBA range, we win this game.
It was disappointing we had a off night on shooting while our opponents were on fire. For once in a blue moon I had no complaints about TV Teddy. It looks liked the officials called things both ways. Disappointing loss, but we weren't beaten badly. Moving on to next game.
Recap for those who missed it:
-Pedulla had a great offensive 2nd Half but is still playing way too many minutes and his defense is meh.
-long, frustrating cold stretches on offense where we settle for jumpshots
-once again, a no-name with a career 7 PPG average and <40% 3Pt shooter drops 20+ and shoots 80% from 3 against us.
Kinda the same formula we've seen many times before.
Kidd does look much improved but other than him, there is no significant inside Offensive presence.
I'm liking Poteat down low as well. I'll take 9 points a night every day.
Poteat was strong on both ends. Beran got lost defensively way too much.
Guards appeared to expect help that never came.
Another night where I wish Young would show some flexibility defensively and utilize a 2-3 zone to reduce the iso bucket opportunities. SCAR had way to many baskets in second half where they gave up easy layins. Also need a little edge on knowing when it's better to foul than give up the bucket. Part of that though is Young not trusting his bench.
I think they are going to need to work up more strategies to get the ball inside to Kidd and Poteat. They both had a good game. Kidd not backing down to South Carolinas big was great.
Desperately need to find an inside game either by slashing behind picks or passing for paint touches. When Scar needed buckets late, they got them by going to the rim, we needed one and fucked around the arc and blew it.
And this is where losing Rice was a big kick in the nuts. Collins has not shown he can do it. Pedulla/Cattoor are sporadic on results. Kind of hoping Nickel or Long show they can but the play as it appeared to have been drawn up was perimeter focused in a two point game which just really doesn't pass the common sense test.
In the 1H we were down 10 and MY put Poteat in. He "single-handedly" either got the tough basket or drawed a foul and made his FT's to quickly bring the game within 5. CMY then took him out while the inside game was working. We then went back to trying to drain 3's. We went something like 2-14 in the 1H. That clearly wasn't working. To me, we should have kept with the inside game and rotate Kidd and Poteat for chunk minutes to force the USCe D to collapse and respect it in the 2H.
I think LT Rob said it earlier about CMY not making game time adjustments. If he does, it's short lived and not long enough. And sometimes, not at all.
I also think his rapid fire subbing didn't allow for any of the 5 on the floor to get in a groove.
I've really like Mike Young but somethings have got to change. I'm glad we have basketball players and shooters on the team as opposed to just athletes, but I look at his teams and they are soft.
They defensive rebound like they expect the other team to offensive rebound like we do (not at all). If you don't practice offensive reboubding, then how are practicing defensive rebounding? On defense it looks like we are trying so hard to play good team defense that there's no mentality of "I'm not going to get beat." Too many times last night when we had momentum or had cut it to a one score game, we were beat by a straight line drive to the basket or a slow closeout. We play defense like we would want the other team to play us. Which brings me to...
It is clear how to beat a MY offense. Pressure the ball, fight over screens, contest passes, and in general play solid man to man defense, Don't help. Our offense needs room to operate and crisp cuts and passes. Take this away and you don't get open shoots and paint touches. Like on defense, our offense is so concerned with operating the scheme, there's no mentality that sometimes you just need to beat your man and go get a bucket. We see this at every end of game situation.
Like others have said above the bench needs to be used more. Maybe this means we get more effort throughout the game. Also, sometimes we need to throw a different look at a team, in particular on defensive. How many times did USC score out of a timeout last night? It seemed like every time.
Yep playing inside the scheme on both ends is a very limiting factor and is so consistent with Young that it means opposing teams don't need to get creative to make things work. Even if he just threw a zone once or twice on defense a half it at least forces the other team to have to be wary of a change. Offensively we have not seen much attempts at pick and roll which I was really hoping to see with Long and Nickel involved.
^^This^^
While I have very much appreciated much of the CMY experiment, it has certainly left a lot to be desired as well.
We are regularly outclassed from an athletic standpoint, which serves to put a ton of physical pressure on the team throughout the course of a season.
We rely so much on the outside shot (and its really fun to watch when those shots are falling!) that we have little to no room for adjustments on that side of the ball when things aren't working.
We are such a soft team. At every level. But it shows up most on the boards.
And I don't know what in the hell Corey Alexander was talking about last night early in the game when he said "defense was Mike Young's calling card." His tenure at VT would indicate the exact opposite.
At the end of the day, CMY is who/what he is. A fantastic ambassador of VT athletics. A superb individual. But a coach who, at the end of the day, is a G5 coach working at a P5 school. And if we are all honest, being a regular Bubble Team is probably where VT belongs in the grand scheme of things.
Going to be a LONGGG basketball season,
Mike young constructed a roster built for Wofford. This is the ACC.
Losing Rice ended our season before it even started.
If Young was really starting Collins over Rice that's a fireable offense.
Remember when we won the ACC for the first time with MY?
I was at this game and the two games preceding in Charlotte's Spectrum Center. Hokie fans I believe were the largest presence of the 6 teams. It was fun despite the loss. Hopefully they can learn from such a competitive and close game.