HOKIES HOOPS CENTRAL: Louisville (4-3) at Virginia Tech (5-3) 4PM ACCN
ACC Opener‼️🆚 Louisville🕓 4PM📺 ACCN🟠 Wear orange🤝 @shelormotormile #StoneByStone pic.twitter.com/inzvyKBA4u— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) December 3, 2023
Louisville (4-3)
At Virginia Tech (5-3)
December 3rd, 2023
Cassell Coliseum
4 p.m. ET
ACCN
Virginia Tech Sports Network
ACCN
Play-by-Play: Connor Onion
Analyst: Josh Pastner
Local Radio
Virginia Tech Sports Network
Play-by-Play: Zach Mackey
Analyst: Mike Burnop
Current Spread: Hokies -13.5
Over/Under: -147.5
ACC Opener
The Hokies start ACC play with Louisville coming to Cassell Coliseum. The Hokies return home for the first time in two weeks. The Louisville Cardinals squad comes in 4-3. This will be the 47th meeting between the Hokies and Louisville. The Hokies are 10-36 but come in winners of two in a row after last years win at Louisville 71-54, the Hokies first win there since 1990.
🟧 𝗢𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗢𝘂𝘁 🟧🔸 Wear orange tomorrow!🔸 Virginia529 Diaper Derby at halftime🔸 Bricks for Bacon in 2H🔸 Beat Louisville!#StoneByStone pic.twitter.com/gSaB7lwdiI— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) December 2, 2023
The Cardinals are coached by Kenny Payne, who is in his second season at Louisville. The Cardinals are 8-31 under Payne. They have already matched their season win total for last year. Louisville is his first head coaching job with assistant stops at Oregon, Kentucky and the New York Knicks. The Cardinals opened their season with a win over UMBC, then a loss to Chattanooga. They beat Coppin State before losing the first two games in their holiday tournament to Texas and Indiana. They escaped New Mexico State in Overtime and needed to come from behind to beat 2-7 Bellarmine.
Louisville signed the #6 recruiting class last season but lost the most impactful player, Trentyn Flowers, who opted to go pro in Australia. The remaining class led by center Dennis Evans added five new faces to the program. The Cardinals also added three transfers as Payne continued to overhaul the program. Amongst the newcomers, Skyy Clark from Illinois has had the most immediate impact but is joined by Tre White from USC in the starting five. Evans has started five of seven games but has had very little impact averaging about 9 mpg and less than two points per contest.
The Cardinals have five players averaging more than 20 mpg but only six average at least 10 mpg. Louisville does not appear to have any injuries coming into this game. The starting five are Clark, White, Michael James, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and either Evans or JJ Traynor as the fifth starter. Payne relies heavily on his starting five, who account for 72% of the teams minutes.
Louisville under Payne runs a variation of the Havoc defense, so expect to see a variety of press and trap situations from a man-to-man defensive base. Louisville so far this season though seems slow on getting in front of opposing teams, with opponents taking advantage of the Cardinals in the paint, shooting over 50%. Defensively they do contest the perimeter fairly well after a few lapses in their first couple games. Since the third game, they have held opponents under 30% in all five contests and under 18% in three games.
Offensively, the Cardinals rely on positionless motion basketball and Payne specifically said he does not want opponents to be able to predict what they will see which requires him to trust his players to make adjustments as needed with little input from the coaches. The starting guard duo drive the offense combining for over 30 points and ten rebounds. The team averages about 20 perimeter shots per game with four shooters shooting 30% or better but as a team they are averaging 28%.
They reach the free throw line at an incredible rate with three games over 30 attempts, topped by an insane 49 attempts in their overtime win over NMSU. 36 of their 90 points in that game came at the line. Opponents are getting to the line over 20 times though so that negates a possible huge advantage. Four of the six main contributors average over 2.6 fouls per contest.
Cardinals Backcourt
Skyy Clark
55 SO G 6-3 200
17.4 Pts, 2.9 Reb, 2.7 Ast
Tre White
22 SO G 6-7 210
14.9 Pts, 7.0 Reb, 1.3 Ast
Michael James
0 SO G 6-6 195
11.3 Pts, 5.7 Reb, 1.0 Ast
Ty-Laur Johnson
4 FR G 6-0 160
8.9 Pts, 1.1 Reb, 3.7 Ast
Curtis Williams
1 FR G 6-5 205
3.1 Pts, 1.0 Reb, 0.3 Ast
Cardinals Frontcourt
JJ Traynor
12 SR F 6-8 200
10.4 Pts, 4.6 Reb, 0.1 Ast
Brandon Huntley-Hatfield
5 JR F 6-10 235
6.1 Pts, 9.0 Reb, 1.1 Ast
Dennis Evans
11 FR C 7-1 215
1.6 Pts, 0.9 Reb, 0.0 Ast
What to expect from Louisville?
The Cardinals will look to Clark first, second and third and then move the ball primarily to White if Clark cant get the shot. In the games they have lost, the duo have still gotten their numbers but opponents limited the rest of the lineup from scoring.
Clark is also averaging 6.4 free throw attempts per game. Scarier yet he is second on the team in attempts behind White's 7.6 attempts. Four the five starters are averaging at least 4.6 FTA per game. There was one significant outlier against NMSU but they take the ball to the rim hard and create opportunities for themselves. The Hokies need to be prepared for the constant cuts to the rim.
Louisville just seems a step slow in their defense which leaves slashing off ball players open consistently under the basket. Opponents may struggle from the perimeter but so far Chattanooga and Texas are the only opponents that have shot better than 30% from outside on the season. Its difficult to judge if they are really stout or just have not faced a team that can shoot outside.
Rebounding is not a significant plus or minus. White and Huntley-Hatfield are the most consistent rebounders.
Expect to see a four-guard set for the majority of the contest. As stated earlier, starters average 72% of all minutes so foul trouble could have a significant impact on the Cardinals game plan.
Louisville struggled all game to put a smaller, less talented Bellarmine away. Foul trouble forced Louisville to go to its bench more than in any other game and they were extremely unproductive with the bench on the floor. Kenny Payne was also forced to deal with his reserve point guard not wanting to play because they didn't have the right tights he likes to wear.
Here's the full quote from Kenny Payne on Ty-Laur Johnson and his tights situation: pic.twitter.com/WnIX88d1Lz— Kent Spencer (@WHAS11Kent) November 30, 2023
The Hokies
Bacon's back‼️🥓Looking forward to a sold-out Cassell tomorrow 🏰🔊🔥 pic.twitter.com/KhDVORLcKB— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) December 2, 2023
The Hokies come home following two bad losses. Regardless of poor officiating, it is unlikely the Hokies would have won at Auburn. The biggest concern is that for the third time in three losses the Hokies allowed the opponents post player to dominate inside. Broome had 30 points and 15 rebounds to lead Auburn, Goldin played the biggest role in the blowout loss to FAU and even Mack for South Carolina had a big game. Can Mike Young find a lineup or rotation to counter this weakness going forward?
The Hokies again struggled to execute offensively and turned the ball over an alarming 21 times or about one in three possessions. Pedulla was especially careless with seven turnovers. Auburn turned the turnovers into 25 points. Starters are continuing to play too many minutes and they were visibly worn down against Auburn.
MJ Collins is tentatively expected to return against Louisville but other than being able to spread the workload, continues to be an overall loss on offense. His defense and turnovers created are important but essentially wiped out by his shooting.
Cattoor was the only Hokie to finish in double digits and even though the Hokies won the rebounding battle they only shot 27% on the night. The score could have been much worse but Auburn shot 13% from outside on 16 attempts.
The Hokies are back home against one of the weakest ACC teams so hopefully it's a recipe to get right.
In Closing
The Hokies face a press defense for the third game in a row which does not help the Hokies. Fortunately this will be the weakest version of the press they will go up against. Can the Hokies protect the ball and work it inside to open players underneath?
Has Coach Young and staff been able to assess the last couple games and schemed up ways to prevent that type of performance against athletic rosters?
Can the Hokies get Kidd back in the swing of things scoring wise? He struggled mightily in the last two games and needs a bounce back as the Hokies start ACC play. Is Mike Young able to rest the starters more throughout in this contest without putting the victory at risk.
Hokies should have the edge in this contest and fans have to hope they shook off the last couple games and come in focused on building an early lead and are able to force Louisville into risking open looks to pressure the ball. A win gives the Hokies some breathing space but an early conference loss to what might be the worst team in the ACC could be a strong sign of what to expect.
Comments
LET'S GO
I'd love for Young to try out a lineup of Kidd, Long, Young, Cattoor, and Pedulla; utilizing Poteat as Kidd's backup, Beran as Long's backup, Camden as Young's backup, Nickel as Cattoor's backup, and Rechsteiner as Pedulla's. (All assuming Collins is still out with injury, otherwise, move Nickel to Young, and Collins to Cattoor)
Long term I prefer Nickel in the starting five over Young. Young is a good perimeter punch but his defense is not where it needs to be yet to get starters minutes.
Game about to tip on the ACCN
Play by play guy just tried to say in serious comments that the Hokies could turn to Robbie Beran for inside scoring. Has he watched any film or even read a stats sheet?
Hokies again marking broad side of barn safe ...open looks but hitting zippy
Missing open shots.
Who drinks on a tie?
BOTH!!!
and me! cheers!
These guys are driving me to it. Their offense has been so bad. If they hadn't gotten to the rim so far they would be getting blown out.
We must have pissed of the BBall gods. They have smote our shooting in the past couple games.
Pedulla has become such a liability on both sides. He us unable to stay level-headed.
Cattoor with the fakeout to the 3pter then the spin cycle dunk by Kidd....beautiful
So many turnovers
I would love to see a Stat with teams season 3Pt% vs. when they play VT.
It's uncanny
Opponents have shot over 38% against Hokies in four of eight. Of those four, three were at least 6% better than their season average.
Thx..seems to consistent to simply be a coincidence
Why is Beran playing still?
That big from Florida gonna walk into a starting role as a true freshman next year if he can score 2ppg
Louisville shooting over 44% inside and out.
Hokies shooting 35% overall and 15% from outside
Still can't beat a press, Pedulla turnover, drink, cattor missed 3 drink
Collins missed shot, drink
How many shots within five feet have we missed?
Too many
Nine
Cattoor and Pedulla both may have to sit rest of half
Just start all the young guys the rest of the game
Nickel, Beran and Long 1 for 9. Can't win that way.
You can see how the Hokies are getting free under the hoop how that's a huge weakness but Young still isn't running plays to create it...it's just happening because Louisville is that bad on defense.
Nickel all time leading VHSL scorer is becoming the Boykin wears XXL gloves of VT Basketball
How can we not get a shot at the end of the half. CMY teams do not score with the ball when the shot clock is expiring. Do they not practice that?
They play hold the ball too long and regularly screws them up. Until they can show they can score at will they need to run the offense as normal rather than get cute.
Yeah. They seem to have two plays: dribble out the time and throw up a wild shot or dribble around and lose the ball without a shot.
Teams combined for 18 turnovers in the first half. Really sloppy on both sides.
Hokies came in 13 point favorites but still look lost on offense when the outside shots don't fall.
Cattoor and Kidd lead with 8 points each, followed by Collins 6. Nobody else with more than a bucket.
7:7 ATO margin for the Hokies vs 7:11 for Louisville. Need to exploit the turnovers.
Outrebounded 20-13.
Glenn is the only Cardinal in relative foul trouble. Pedulla is the only Hokie.
Need Kidd though to finish inside. Was 4-8 inside three feet.
good call
kidd 2 for 2 to start the 2nd half
Yeah Louisville allowed Bellarmine like 50 points in the lane or the free throw line. They just lost guys over and over and were late to defend.
Just like that...Kidd dunk
The problem must be the basket Lille shoots at this half. When we had it, we couldn't make an open shot. Now they can't.
Not a fan of the Kidd hook shot only because he should be able to back that guy down so it's a layup
I don't know if Beren could hit a shot standing on a ladder over top of the basket
Beran may actually be more of an offensive black hole than Collins
Aged poorly. Point still stands.
Collins is actually looking competent today. Hopefully it's not a one time thing.
Poteat with the slam
Pedulla with another unforced mistake
I do not recognize this Collins
Maybe they injected shooting abilities in his knee recovery
Nickel Long and Beran 3-15 from the floor
Insert Collins into this list and on a rotational basis game x game, this is the biggest problem outside of the overall athletic ability within this System based program.
At this point, replace Beran with Poteat. It's been said before, but why not give this a try? Could cause some mismatch problems to our favor.
The only reason I can grab onto about tonight's Collins is he got humbled by not starting and it put a fire under his ass.
Just need like three stops in a row to break this back and forth
I am loving collins play today
going to be a game of free throws here at the end
Hokies got lucky there that wasn't shooting
20 for Collins
Yay!
1 - 0 in the ACC.
Collins found the basket.
FAM!!!