Today's beginning of the ACC Tournament matches the Hokies against the only ACC opponent that they actually beat this season. Tech won both matchups against the Hurricanes, winning in December 61-60 in overtime and again in February 52-45. These two games were like watching a contest of "I can do anything worse than you", with Tech shooting the highest shooting percentage at 37% from the field in the second contest. Miami shot 35% and 26% respectively in the two contest's. They shot a dreadful 27% and 20% from behind the arc in these two games as well.
The big statistic that kept Miami in these two games was offensive rebounds and second chance points. Miami had 15 offensive rebounds in both contests. These led to 17 of their 60 points in the first game and 12 of their 45 points in the second game. Tech will need to find a way to limit these opportunities to be able to put this game away early.
Coach Larranaga has had a long weekend to get his team prepared to play the Hokies and Miami is coming in having won four of their last six games. They closed out the season with a win over Wake Forest that secured them the 10 seed in the tournament. The key in my opinion will be forcing Miami to take shots outside the paint. If Miami is able to work it down low, than it could be a long night for the O&M. Miami failed to capitalize on a lot of opportunities in the low post in the previous games.
Tech got a big performance from Jarell Eddie in the first game, as he scored 24 points on 9-for-23 shooting. In the second game it was Devin Wilson and C.J. Barksdale that led the way for the Hokies. Lets hope Eddie can come up with another big game to extend the Hokies season and his career at Virginia Tech by at least one more game.
I expect that JJ will continue to employ the 2-3 Zone Defense tonight, trying to force Miami to rely on their three point shooting, hoping to slow the game and get out with a win. Good luck today Hokies!
Television here:
ESPN2
WatchESPN
Comments
UPDATE: After seeing this write up in the Washington Post it appears the Hokies go into this game with eight active players available:
the way they played the last few games I wonder if everyone involved isn't just ready for the season to end.
I would really love to see the ball handler look toward the basket after a pick. Defenses seem to double the ball handler and leave the pick man open many times. JVZ could pick up quite a few dunks if he gets the ball on the way back to the hoop after the pick.
Yep, spot on. This was what I expected to see the entire second half of the Maryland game and it was open but never happened.
We've seen and discussed exactly this many times. When Wilson goes around a pic another guy is there usually and he is so focused there he misses the Pick and Roll option. I hope he gets better at seeing all options for next year.
Probably not the right place to bring this up. But does it irritate anyone else when the camera follows the shooter down the court after a made basket when the other team is trying to bring the ball up the court. This is especially irksome when the inbounds pass is contested or there is a full court press.
It bothers me when the controller loses the flow of the game, regardless of sport. It leaves you with a disconnected feeling for a few seconds. That or when they fail to get back from a commercial break in conjunction with game play and you miss something.
Looks like we will have 8 players for today
Jarrell Eddie brought his big boy pants today. 3-3 on 3FGs so far.
Score please? I'm working.
VT 15 Miami 7
15-7 VT 12 min left in 1st half
Right now its 3's for everyone
Need more out of JVZ. Kid is soft defensively.
VT 19 Miami 17 7:20 to go in 1st
Holy crap, that was a 12-2 Miami run. Rats!!
O&M nation, I live in Turkey, any chance y'all know of a link to the game/ESPN2?
Its supposed to be on GameCast so you should be able to connect to that through the ESPN website.
2,000 TURKEY LEGS...I UPVOTED YOUR FIRST THREE POSTS ON THIS THREAD OUT OF SUPPORT FOR YOU. LTREPETER2000 HAS POSTED GREAT FORUM TOPICS OVER THE LAST MONTH OR SO AND REALLY IS A GREAT CONTRIBUTOR TO TKP COMMUNITY.
Thanks. Its easy to talk Hokies with Hokies.
Lmao ok. Settle down.
WHAT?!
TheACC official website is showing it. Thanks guys!
Thank you! I did not know about this. Now watching from France. Go Hokies!
27-27 All 2:00 to go first half. Boys hanging tough.
32-31 lead at the half. Nicely done although I would have liked to see them put their foot on Miami's throat after that early run.
VT 32 Miami 31 at the half
Hard to believe JVZ and Raines combined for 0 rebounds in the first half.
Is Raines playing? I thought he was doubtful (ankle).
Been in, has a bucket and a foul. Not sure how many minutes. Unfortunately stuck where I have to watch the written play by play.
Big Key: 0 Turnovers in the half by Tech
That's huge. Did they do that once this year prior to today?
Not sure but I doubt it. Don't worry, Trevor Thompson appears to be trying to make up for it all in the start of the second half. Had two turnovers already almost back to back here.
49-44 Miami with 8:30 to play. Too many missed shots by Tech over the last five minutes.
even when we are in a game, we still manage to look bad. I wish JJ would play Raines so we would have an inside player. Thompson just isnt strong enough yet.
Nice to see someone actually try and get out and make something happen. Our offense is as stagnant as the west virginia gene pool. Long jump shot after long jump shot
...not cool
52-51 Tech with 3 minutes to go. Hopefully the boys play tough down this last stretch and can close this out.
aaaaah! what happened?
Apparently a ton of fouls and we can't hit them.
Oh boy, this is definitely a game between two bad teams. Hopefully we can be the better bad team...worse bad team...I don't know but LETS WIN THIS!!!!
What was that offensive possession with a minute left???? NO ONE moved. Wilson dribbled around and then jacked up a bad 3.
53-52 Miami with 17 seconds left. Going to go down to the last shot here as we have the ball. Need a big basket.
Gamecast is paused with 11 seconds to go. We are losing this game by the missed free throws.
COME ON
missed the 2nd too
More missed free throws? Crap. Losing to Miami on missed free points. If gamecast is right, we shot 8-15 on free throws or 53%.
37% on the season... Gonna need to work on that in the offseason.
sigh...
Ouch Totally blew it there.
we missed our 2 FTs and they made their 2 FTs. They had fouls to give.
Miami only had 4 fouls
We are 8-15 from the FT line. FTs have killed us all season and they destroyed us this game too.
All season and multiple games lost by the difference. Gamecast is crapping out, Miami apparently hit 2 free throws but didn't even list them attempting them.
Gamecast has been terrible this last minute of the game. Didn't list JVZ missing two free throws either,.
Four point game listed with 3 seconds to go. I am turning it off. So much for the trifecta against Miami. Johnson should make them shoot free throws before they get back on the bus to Blacksburg.
Well, that's that. Now we see what happens next with the administration. At least it wasn't a blowout loss but still stings more this way to know we probably should have found a way to win.
Now we find out if Whit is going to pull the trigger. I expect we know in the next week.
I anticipate once the ACC tournament is over, there will be an announcement one way or another.
You think we lose any recruits if JJ is replaced...
There is so much that goes into that question I am not sure. I would lean towards No if we trust Whit to bring in a ACC Caliber head coach. If JJ was the primary reason they were coming to Tech maybe. Other points that impact the three incoming recruits:
Who is the replacement? Do they run a similar style of basketball? Can we even claim that JJ has a defined style yet?
Were they recruited by an assistant coach? Did they stay on staff with JJ gone?
Does the kid have better offers waiting in the wings?
All in all I think the three right now will likely stay with Tech.
I say by Friday we will know the decision.
Yep. That about sums it ALL up.