Virginia Tech (11-14)
at
Boston College (10-15)
Conte Forum
9pm ACCN
let's handle business 🫡🆚 Boston College🕘 9PM📺 ACCN🔗 https://t.co/Ypqs6c8sMc pic.twitter.com/Qm3KaV5yLP— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) February 18, 2025
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Mike Burnop, Analyst
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Road House of Horrors
Not sure what it is about Conte Forum, the bad lighting, the sparse crowd or something else but it always seems to be a nightmare for the Hokies. Mike Young is 1-5 against BC and 50-51 against the rest of ghe conference. The Hokies are 4-14 at Conte Forum.
Coming off a loss to UVA at home where the Hokies lost by three with their best perimeter shooter sidelined in the 2nd half thanks to the flu.
Can the Hokies shake it off and beat a BC squad that is 2-12 in ACC play? The Eagles only ACC wins are against FSU and Miami. The only but there is they were both HOME wins. BC is sporadic in terms of results. Six ACC losses were by double-digits while the other six were one or two bucket games. The difference appears to be foul trouble and sending opponents to the line. In 10 of their last 17 games opponents went to the line TWENTY-FIVE times or more. Opponents have also shot over 45% from the floor in 12 of those 17 games. This is a bad defense.
They go 9 deep or more thanks to foul trouble. They have had first halves with the entire starting five on the bench for the last 5 minutes ....so tonight there will be miraculously no whistles.
Anyway, the Hokies should win this game but it's at BC where all bets are off.
Eagles Starting Five
Donald Hand
13 SO G 6-5 195
16.5 Pts, 6.5 Reb, 1.3 Ast
Chad Venning
32 SR F 6-10 280
13.1 Pts, 4.1 Reb, 0.8 Ast
Elijah Strong
31 SO F 6-8 225
9.4 Pts, 4.3 Reb, 1.0 Ast
Dion Brown
1 JR G 6-3 180
7.2 Pts, 3.7 Reb, 1.4 Ast
Joshua Beadle
7 JR G 6-3 170
6.8 Pts, 2.0 Reb, 2.4 Ast
Key Bench Players
Fred Payne
5 SO G 6-2 180
7.5 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 1.1 Ast
Roger McFarlane
3 SR G 6-5 205
5.0 Pts, 5.0 Reb, 0.7 Ast
Chas Kelley
00 JR G 6-5 180
4.2 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 2.0 Ast
Jayden Hastings
22 FR F 6-9 225
3.6 Pts, 3.1 Reb, 0.2 Ast
Comments
LET'S GO...
HOKIES!
I'm afraid this will happen. BC will hack and slap us with their hands, go over our backs for rebounds, and reach over our shoulders, between our legs, and around our waist for jump ball tie ups!
And because of, you know, Conte Forum, we won't be able to throw a 3 ball into the ocean. Look for a 3 for 23, three point shooting night!
I hope I'm wrong! Ready for some late night, mid-week, HOKIE basketball!!! Hope I can stay awake.
It's what has happened four of our last five times up there so unfortunately just grown to expect it.
Am I wrong for feeling like every 9 pm tip off is an insult to our program? I grew up going to University of Dayton games all the time as a kid because they were ALWAYS at 7 pm on a weeknight. Got to "stay up late" on a school night and go to bed around 9:45 when we would get home. Hard to build the next generation of fans when they can't watch the games.
You aren't wrong. Two teams on wrong side of standings going head to head isn't prime time.
Nevermind, we wouldn't be gaining any young fans if they could see THIS basketball. woof!
Pitt kid Austin just dunked and on leg follow through kicked ball like 30 rows up into stands
At least no Quinten Post. Saw him in my nightmares for 4/5 years.
Man, there must be 80-90 people in the stands....
This is always one of the problems playing there. No energy of any kind in the stands. It's like playing pick up ball at War Memorial
"Contested three" ...aka shooting foul not called
Giving up alot of offensive rebounds
BC getting away with ton of moving screens
Hokies in a 5 minute scoring drought
Seems like you can count on at least one 4-5 min scoring drought every game this year.
This happens so often... I thought it was part of the game plan!
Make it 6 minutes
Holy cow this ugly. Travels and hacked arms and contact all game and just ugly basketball
*yawn* Bedtime.... I dislike these 9pm tipoffs very very much
Just turned it on after getting the kids to bed and 6 points in 10 minutes is like grade school scoring.
What's worse is the 6th point gave us the lead (after they had a 2:00 drought). We haven't scored since.
Might have to cut this one off. I'm obviously not helping by watching and these droughts are ridiculous.
Would be a complete blowout if BC could hit anything outside
Will we hit double digits before halftime??
This game is a race to 40. Nightmarish flashbacks of that infamous NC State game.
Was just about to bring that game up..
I never thought I would see a worse performance, but yet another record setting performance by a VT revenue sport team... and not the good records.
No, No... this is definitely not an NBA all-star game! /s
Almost 10 minutes and 13 misses before it ended
8th point scored at 6:04 left in the 1H
Approaching another 3 minute scoring drought
JV, absolute trash
Do we not have any have court sets or guaranteed scoring plays? What do we do all week to game plan
Well Fuck. This just sucks.
What a load of shit call. Lawal touched that outside cylinder
I watched BC take 5 steps and they called a foul on us rather than a travel. The officials have taken away at least 3 baskets during that drought that we actually made.
That was a trash call, the only reason that ball hit the rim again was because Lawal touched it!
Woof
Schutt must still be sick
I think the whole team might be sick
Lawal got mauled there..."all ball"
Sad. A week or so ago we were talking about maybe turning a corner and possibly .500 ACC record.
We followed with an uninspired loss to a meh UVA team at home and then this assault on team basketball tonight.
Hard to find much progress here.
At least one of the better players has the flu and these refs let BC play thug ball against us and pattycake for us against them.
Another brain dead inbounds play
11 friggin points in a half. That's insane. Holding them to 26 is great...but not when you see the other side of the scoreboard.
The problem now is that they will need to shoot like 60% to be able to get even in this game
CMY might just retire at halftime. He's probably questioning his life's choices at this point.
11 points in 20 minutes.
Same amount of points as turnovers.
Sad. Pathetic.
But in the bright side, we can't play any worse in the second half
Challenge accepted...
We're gonna win
It's almost a snow day I can feel it
Montgomery County has canceled school on forecast of snow... Lol, I remember growing up in New England unless there 5" or more we had school.
Roanoke cancelled schools already also.
We are once again committing basketball terrorism.
What timing for the ACC commercial saying the ACC is "THE premier basketball conference" during this high school game.
Scored more in 4 and a half than entire first half
And now nothing since
For such abig guy Poteat is such a pansy on offense
Is this score real... 37-23 with 12 min left?
Wtf Rech? we had a fresh shot clock and he hoists a 3 from 8 feet behind the line 2 seconds into the new clock. I hope he sits the next 8 min.
Unfortunately with Schutt out not likely to happen
Wessler, sheesh
That wasn't tired legs....
Looks like a baby deer every time he touches the ball.
What a bailout by ref there
We're shooting 24.4%. Geesh
Now below 24%'
And as mentioned below 16.7% from FT
WTaF
2 for 7 at free throw line so far
Sure are letting them put two hands on guys on the perimeter every possession
BC always gets away with a ton of crap at BC when they play us. Anybody else and they call fouls on BC.
BC averaging 20 personal fouls a game in ACC.... only 11 so far
They are playing us... Getting away with hacks, trips, hooks, three four step drives, etc.
You would think after 20 years, the dislike after being strong armed into taking Tech would have gone away.
What's our lowest scoring total all-time for an entire game...?
The way VT has played tonight, I think my 30 and up parks and rec adult team would keep it competitive with them
Had to turn it off.
Same.
Can't remember last time I did it
First time I have ever thought about writing a letter to Whit complaining about how the AD is operating.
I realize your referring to the athletic department, but I just imagine a letter starting:
Dear Mr. Babcock,
I'm writing you today because I have grave concerns that the VT athletic director is destroying VT athletics. He is out of his league and can't stop fucking everything up...
Our AD has gutted our basketball coach of the resources he needs to field a competitive team. Our teams don't even have enough money for the full amount of coaches allowed let along money to compete in CONFERENCE with other teams for NIL funds.
what an absolute dumpster fire.
Bruhhhhh. Shut it down for the season. Ugh.
I just saw on socials
36 points in a full game?!?
Fuckin hell. We suck. Just absurd levels of dogshit, and if we at all cares about basketball Mike Young is a dead man walking. But we don't, so he isn't.
I really don't think it was a Mike Young. It looked to me as if the refs prevented the guys from doing anything and they just lost all heart early.
I thought for a minute we were gonna match that 24pt. game NC State had against us a few years back.
At least we won that one. It wasn't so bad to watch in person because of the nc state agony all around.
I am sad to say that I watched the whole game. We looked absolutely gassed from the first minute. Is the whole team sick? We just got plain out hustled on both ends. Weak passing, lots of slapping hands everywhere getting take aways and not a single screen set by our team that worked as it should have. We play like that for the last few games and we will tumble below that cutoff line for the ACCT. I get the feeling there was something happening in the background with this team and chemistry that we have no idea about.
There is flu in the locker room so who knows how they all feel.
They got discouraged when we make a shot and the refs waived it off again and again in the first half.
We never win there. Ever. Call it what you want, we never win up there in front of their 4 fans. What a tough atmosphere.
Yeah I was gonna say. 9pm start time and it's at BC? Automatic L. Like clockwork
Checked the box score this morning did someone leave the game on pause? Where the rest of the points?
Winning in Conte Forum, at Heinz Field, at the Carrier Dome and anywhere vs. Louisville men's hoops is simply a bridge too far for VT athletics. It's simply too much for VT athletics to handle the past 40 years. BC was 2-12 in the ACC and there were 6 fans there, and we got blown out. We lost to Pitt in Heinz the week after they lost to youngstown state. It took a historically bad season from louisville to squeak one out against them after 30 years. Its simply too much for VT. Last night the prime fucking example losing to a total shit BC team in front of nobody. Literally no other ACC program has any regular issues with any of the above. Nobody has trouble beating Pitt in Heinz. Syracuse loses games at the dome every year. Tony Bennett never had a problem with Louisville. this list goes fucking on. Maybe the next AD can help cross these impossible bridges.
ESPN's game recap had this nugget -
When obscure not-good stats like this start popping up my interest in the program goes from negligible to non-existent. If Pry is on the hot-seat right now then CMY is riding shotgun with him.
I won a decent chunk of change last night. Why? Conte Forum, and I know VT hoops. We would lose there with the dream team suiting up in Orange and Maroon. Mentally fucking weak.
Its not just VT hoops - its all VT. I dont know if its the travel distance, just being in Boston, or what but our school routinely finds ways to lose, and lose big, in Chestnut Hill.
yes, across multiple coaches, years, teams, players, sports. Mental toughness is the issue. BC is 3-12 in the ACC, and they killed us- pssst. they aren't good. It's mental weakness.
Mike Young should not be at risk. He had to replace 80% of his roster and about 92% of scoring from last year thanks to having his NIL taken away. He also isn't getting the budget that the majority of other ACC programs in terms of assistant coaches and staff. Last time I checked 12 ACC teams have the full five assistant coaches. Young has three. Every aspect of the program is operating below the majority of ACC programs due to money.
The replacements are clear downgrades or left before the season started outside Lawal due to NIL. Schutt has been ok. Burnham has flashes but then has complete duds like last night. Serven has been a complete non-factor.
Rodney Brown disappeared after getting up to almost starter minutes, not sure what happened there. I am guessing Brown has an injury they aren't addressing in public. Late December to early January he had a six game stretch playing about 25 minutes per game but then dropped to about 12 and then 4 minutes in the UVA win and has not played since that game.
Johnson and Hammond are doing great as freshman. Hammond is only playing because of losing Hysier Miller and Jordan Ivy-Curry. Ivy-Curry is putting up 13.9ppg as the third option at UCF. He got a bigger bag from UCF.
Whit's seat should be scalding for what he did to basketball for menial results in football more so because of the football side.
I still have this suspicion that somehow his seat is quite comfortable.
I don't disagree with you unfortunately
Amen- here is a Whit re-cap. Good: Hired Kenny Brooks, Hired Buzz Williams, Women hoops makes a final four. Lucky: Dresser and D'Amour work for pennies and COLA raises as extensions. Bad: Everything else. Extended the worst apparel deal in the P4, lost Kenny Brooks over assistant money, did not get a call back from Buzz Williams, Hired Justin Fuente, extended Justin Fuente. Stripped mens hoops of resources, has not won anything significant in terms of team championships.
The really bad, with the exception of one negative article has run a clean department and is operating in the black so the BOV is happy with him.
I don't blame him on the apparel deal, he tried to shop around. Nobody else was even offering to match the crappy deal from Nike.
If his job is to be an accountant and that's what matters, no wonder we don't win in sports. I thought he was athletic director, not CFO.
Somebody in another thread mentioned that OSU's AD runs a deficit despite already having a massive budget. The reason is because they're committed to winning sports games. Meanwhile, Whit is skimping all over the place to squirrel away money for, what exactly......?
Lets save a lot of money and hire an accountant for 75K a year and fire Whit. If it's all about running in the black and nothing else, dumping Whits 7 figure salary is a great start.
Maybe we can use that money to rent a serviceable left tackle for a season or two. Who says no?
Not quite 7 figures... $911,737
Add Robie to the Lucky list
Don't forget his take on weights for S&C...
To defend whit on that one, the next 4-5 star player that commits to a school because the bar bells look better will be the first.
It's a complete embarrassment what Whit has done to MBB. Buzz had us inches away from an Elite 8 and Whit failed to hold on to him, or build on any of the momentum from Buzz's tenure. Despite Whit's mismanagement, Mike Young got us an ACC champs banner to hang in the rafters. ACC champs and we still have to operate with a skeleton coaching staff. What a joke.
I guess the good news with college hoops is that all the AD has to do is turn the money spigot back on. You can fill out your coaching staff and completely turn the roster over in a single offseason these days. Not that there's any reason to expect Whit to do that.
"Buzz had us inches away from an Elite 8 and Whit failed to hold on to him, or build on any of the momentum from Buzz's tenure"... I have a very legit source on this one... Buzz has done his own contracts since he went to Marquette. As you can probably guess, they are as weird as he is. Weird incentives, demands on support staff that are very specific, a recruting jet, etc. Whit had most of the nonsense worked out and agreed to - which was the hard part- as a holdover from Buzz's deal here. Buzz came back to Whit with a 2 mil per year raise for him and a huge bump for Wolfe and Roccafort to stay. I'm told Whit basically laughed at it.Buzz was also the biggest ride or die Nike guy ever... UNTIL as a sweetner for the deal, aTm boosters had adidas make buzz an offer he could not refuse. Did Whit try to keep him? yes... was he in the ballpark and did we have any pull with Nike? nope
For what has happened to VT in general, and especially the fact that we suck in all revenue sports at this junction in the overall grand scheme, basically making us an undesirable right when we need to be peaking in order to get a P2 seat, everyone associated with the school should be on the hot seat. From every member of the BoV to Whit to Sands, what has happened has been borderline criminal incompetence.
But nothing will happen because VT thinks its a small time backwoods school that should feel fortunate that it ever got its time in the sun in the ACC to begin with.
Brown has a foot injury
Baseball scored 27 runs in 6 innings (2/3 of a game). Extrapolate that to a full game (9 innings), you get 36 runs. I found that interesting.
To be fair, they still did the traditional Hokie thing and lost game 2 to that same team they put 27 runs on
Extra punch in the gut on this game came from my phone.
It sent me a memory of 7 years ago with all the pics and videos from us upsetting Duke 64-63 in 2018. Every seat was full, students rushed the court.
.....then there was last night
And the hits keep coming....my nine year old came home and asked about the game. I told him they scored 36 points and he went "What? My team scored 36 points in it's last game and we only play four 6 minute quarters."
I know CMY doesn't deserve all the blame for the terrible year, but he isn't exactly innocent either....we could have a senior-heavy roster of Darius Maddox, Joe Bamisile, David N'Guessan, Darren Buchanan Jr, and Jalen Haynes all playing for us this year, but he simply couldn't hold on to them. Mainly because he basically refused to play most of those guys as freshmen (see: Ryan Jones Jr). All those guys are now averaging double-digits at other schools.
And those guys all left before the alleged draining of the NIL money for basketball (something btw that I have yet to see a single scrap of evidence or even a source for, yet everyone has adopted it as law for some reason?).
In my view, CMY is a good X's and O's guy and a good dude, but not cut out for the modern environment of college basketball. If you don't let new guys on the team contribute in a way that feels meaningful to them, they will transfer nowadays, NIL money or not.