Ready to hoop in Cali 🫡🆚 Stanford🕘 9PM ET📺 ACCN🔗 https://t.co/Ypqs6c7UWE pic.twitter.com/VKQKYTPTkY— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 8, 2025
Virginia Tech (6-8)
at
Stanford (9-5)
Maples Pavilion
9pm ACCN
TV | ACCN
Dave Feldman, PxP
Ben Braun, Analyst
RADIO | VT Sports Network
Zach Mackey, PxP
Mike Burnop, Analyst
VIDEO STREAM
@HokiesMBB ESPN.com and ESPN app
LIVE STATS
stats.hokiesports.com
First Times
This will be the Hokies first time ever playing at Stanford. It will also be the first time half the players have ever been to California.
Coming off a last second win over Miami, Virginia Tech will be going up against arguably the second best player in the ACC tonight. Maxime Raynaud, the Cardinals 7'1 Center is a one man wrecking crew. He is putting up 20.9 Pts, 11.4 Reb, and 1.6 Ast per game this season.
Outside of Raynaud, the Cardinals heavily rely on their starters, especially Guards Blakes and Sellers. This is really only a six man rotation so foul trouble is an Achilles heel for Stanford.
This season Stanford is 9-5 with losses coming against Clemson, Pitt, #10 Oregon, Gulf Coast University and Cal Poly. The only P4 win is over other ACC newcomer Cal, who is 0-3 in the ACC. It's tough to judge what kind of team this is. They don't have any really quality wins. Vegas expects Stanford to win. Spread is 8.5 which is more than just a home court nod.
They are a poor rebounding team, especially on the defensive end. The shooting inside is over 50% but pretty poor perimeter shooting. No other statistical categories stand out.
As for style of play, Coach Smith uses a motion zone offense. His primary setup is a 1-3-1. Defensively, he is much the same in terms of using a variety of zones. It should be interesting to see how Mike Youngs man-to-man on both ends up against zone on both ends.
Hokies Starting Five
Toibu Lawal
1 JR F 6-8 200
12.1 Pts, 5.8 Reb, 0.7 Ast
Mylyjael Poteat
34 SR F 6-9 260
10.9 Pts, 4.1 Reb, 1.1 Ast
Jaden Schutt
2 SO G 6-5 185
8.8 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 2.0 Ast
Tyler Johnson
10 FR G 6-5 215
5.6 Pts, 4.7 Reb, 1.1 Ast
Ben Hammond
11 FR G 5-11 170
5.0 Pts, 1.5 Reb, 2.2 Ast
Key Bench Players
Brandon Rechsteiner
7 SO G 6-1 185
7.2 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 3.4 Ast
Ben Burnham
13 SR F 6-7 200
6.9 Pts, 3.5 Reb, 1.0 Ast
Jaydon Young
3 SO G 6-4 205
6.5 Pts, 1.7 Reb, 1.3 Ast
Patrick Wessler
5 SO C 7-0 245
4.9 Pts, 2.9 Reb, 0.1 Ast
Rodney Brown
4 SO G 6-6 180
4.4 Pts, 1.9 Reb, 1.9 Ast
late night work at Maples 🏗️🏗️🚧 pic.twitter.com/1nVuUBOSqa— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 8, 2025
Cardinals Starting Five
Maxime Raynaud
42 SR F 7-1 235
20.9 Pts, 11.4 Reb, 1.6 Ast
Jaylen Blakes
21 SR G 6-1 208
14.6 Pts, 3.6 Reb, 5.2 Ast
Oziyah Sellers
4 JR G 6-5 185
13.8 Pts, 2.9 Reb, 0.8 Ast
Ryan Agarwal
11 SO G 6-6 190
7.1 Pts, 5.1 Reb, 2.0 Ast
Benny Gealer
5 JR G 6-1 160
6.9 Pts, 1.9 Reb, 1.7 Ast
Key Bench Player
Chisom Okpara
10 JR F 6-8 225
6.4 Pts, 2.4 Reb, 0.8 Ast
Comments
LET'S GO...
Hokies!
This is Stanford's first home ACC game ever and their crowd is a joke
FUCK...Hammond is out and Rechsteiner turns it over on first possession
Hammond apparently has a foot injury
Ah yeah, that must have been in the Miami game. He had that one crazy play where his shoe came off and initially things looked pretty serious but he got up and ran off the court.
Yep I think you are right even though he finished the game
And he turns the third possession over too
Three turnovers in four possessions. HARD TO WATCH
No idea how they are winning. Six turnovers now.
Nice!
Stanford does not look that good...
Kind of suspected it but not much to go on. The GCU and Cal Poly losses were the ones that jumped out at me
Neither team wants the ball
Oh my, how did the ACC become this bad at basketball?
It's almost unwatchable and we are winning
Yeah not sure both teams have scored on same possessions so far. Seems like there are twice as many turnovers as baskets
Hate being so negative when we are winning 16-4. If it had been stellar defense I would be excited.
You're just telling the truth. Smoke and mirrors. Burnham making 3 3's masks a lot of the issues so far.
Yeah feels like we should be winning by 25 and here we are
This is giving me "NC State game" vibes. You guys know the one 😂 At least this one isn't quite as bad though.
Brown will do some of the nicest-looking moves to get a good look and then follow it up with a hideous miss lol
Thought the same thing three times so far
and the really funny part is that he may be our best playmaker
Outside of Hammond I agree
Stats say Stanford only had 2 offensive rebounds but sure felt like a lot more
Getting worked now
Hot 2nd-half garbage
Yep patented scoring droughts. Just painful stretches to watch. This is why not stepping on their neck in the first half was such a big deal.
That foul on Brown was horseshit. The Stanford guy completely hooked Brown to go to basket
Lawal to the sky, X2
At least the announcers refrained from doing the La-WOW
They were pretty though
We still have our issues, but we look more cohesive tonight. Stanford 7 footer is an issue. Poteat is telling him to F off, but we'll see where this all goes.
Burnham and Lawal! Go guys!
Burnham keeping us in it!
Leaving them wide open outside to drain threes...where have I seen this movie before
Potent just told Renaud to pound sand
No Hokie within 15 feet of that shooter. Just the same song.
That'll probably do it
We play like a young team. Get sloppy when it gets tense.
It's okay, we'll have a whole new team next year
Free throws! Dang it!
WOW. the first 5 minutes I have watched this year and I have already thrown a remote after giving up 2 offensive rebounds AFTER full shot clock possessions while really needing a stop while trailing with under 2 min to play
Turn out the lights, the party's over.
Well, we still have our issues. We were up big and let them beat us by too much. We had extended periods of playing together better, but certain combinations aren't working. Did Poteat foul out? Why isnt he in down the stretch, he was able to muscle up on Rivaud.
Rechsteiner is just not that good. He misses way to many key shots.
This in my mind is their third worst loss this season.
1. Pitt
2. Jacksonville
3. Stanford
The second half was just a comedy of errors. Offensive rebounds leading to points and clock run. Leaving shooters wide open. Scoring droughts of 3 minutes twice. Really tired of the same issues happening every game when it matters.
Well that sucked
How does Mike Young do it? If he pulls a Tony Bennett in the off season I wouldn't be surprised. I would be missing chunks of hair, have no voice, and probably a drinking problem if I had his job and watched some of those stunningly bad on court decisions.
Not sure. It's not just that they are bad decisions....it's that they are the same bad decisions every game and Young can't seem to get them to sustain the positives for complete games very often. Had hoped the Miami comeback was a turning point but this Stanford team was worse than Miami in so many aspects but Hokies made them look cohesive in the second half.
Hokies had a 1 point lead with 7 minutes left and lost by 11. Another 20+ point swing game. Led by as many as 12, lost by 11
Things I haven't watched this year for $2,000, Alex.
I watched a bit of two games this year maybe.
It seems like the team can't play defense. The opposing team will get wide open looks for days.
Our offense revolves around passing the ball aimlessly until the shot clock strikes zero. Just before that happens, just launch something towards the rim.
That is the Mike Young system. It works when you have really hot shooters, but when you don't these are the results. I get that the NIL/funding situation for MBB is inexcusable and a large part of the blame, but also CMY I think deserves some blame too. Hired a .500 mid major coach, and we shouldn't be too surprised at the results.
Except it wasn't yesterday. The main focus for about 30 minutes was getting in the paint to score and it was working. It wasn't until the end that they fell back into slinging it around the perimeter.
The Hokies outscored Stanford in the paint 38-20 last night. Their one area that really was lopsided last night was free throw shooting. Stanford got a +10 attempt advantage which created a 12 point margin for made shots. There was not that significant of contact difference on either end last night.
The reason they lost though was the perimeter shooting. Stanford had 3 three pointers in the first half. They had 6 in the second. The Hokies had Burnham's four in the first half, after that they never made another but they only attempted 14 total which is about 9 off their average attempts.
The announcers made a point towards the end of the game that the officials were letting Stanford play rough. We don't do well in those situations and never have.
Meh- they have one of the better players in the ACC, and we couldn't guard him. At the end of the day we are playing pedestrian P4 players at best and our most athletic wing is horribly inconsistent and can't shoot from outside. The 2 freshman are promising, but if Burnham was one of the better players in his league last year, that league sucks. Also no doubt why Sheyer let Schutt go- he plays zero defense. This is not a good or particularly talented basketball team. The maddening piece is that Hammond will get NIL offers and we won't match in the offseason.
Not sure how Schutt is playing over Jaydon Young at this point. If they aren't getting him shots on offense, you are right, he is a net loss. He got two shots last night. Young at least plays defense.
And I was wondering why I haven't watched more VT basketball this season. Took me less than 5 minutes of 2nd half game time to remember why.
It's a Mike Young team. We hung in the first half because someone was red hot (brunham) from 3. At half time, the other team realizes who they can attack- everyone- on offense and we can't defend to save our lives. Stanford scored 20 more points the second half vs. what they did in the first. We can not get blown out if we hit 3's. If we don't, we get blown out. IIWII.