Will get to the writeup this afternoon but wanted to post early enough to remind people basketball season is here. I also get to spend time trying to figure out a way to watch since the YTTV crap hasn't ended.
BROADCAST INFORMATION
TV | ACCNX
Evan Hughes, PxP
Mack McCarthy, Analyst
RADIO | VT Sports Network
Zach Mackey, PxP
Mike Burnop, Analyst
VIDEO STREAM LIVE STATS
ESPN.com and ESPN app stats.hokiesports.com
LINE: VT -18.5
Who are we?
The Hokies come into this season after a second straight overhaul of the roster. The good news is this one was much more impactful to good basketball. Coach Frazier returned after stints in Illinois and WVU. He brought his recruiting chops to bear and is credited with bringing in. Avdalas and Dorn from the European circuit as well as Hansberry and Pasha from WVU and Delaware respectively. The other portal newcomer is Jailen Bedford from UNLV.
The biggest difference between this year and last years portal overhaul is the influx of scoring. Last year saw the Hokies lose about 86% of its scoring from the year before and the portal brought back about 40%.
This year the portal/graduation saw about 55% leave but that was replaced by about 85% if you count Avdalas and Dorn's pro production.
Hansberry last season averaged 9.8ppg and 6.5rpg.
Pasha put up 11.9 ppg, 4.2rpg, and 3.9apg.
Bedford put up 10.2ppg, 4.3rpg and 1.2apg.
Avdalas put up 8.8ppg, 1.7rpg and 1 apg as the reserve PG.
Dorn put up 9.5ppg and 4.6rpg.
As for the freshman, the only one I expect to be an early contributor is Forward Christian Gurdak. Gurdak will see more time tonight as the NCAA is requiring Dorn to sit out one game as part of his professional to College move.
As for the Hokies opponent tonight, Charleston Southern is coached by second year head coach Saah Nimley. The Buccaneers went 10-22 last season and lost nearly 90% of scoring from last years team. Power Forward Reis Jones is their highest scoring returner at 5.5ppg.
The Buccaneers do have a high scoring shooting guard returning from injury that sidelined him all of last season. A'lahn Sumler put up about 13 ppg in the second half of the 23-24 season so will be someone the Hokies need to be wary of.
Brycen Blaine is another incoming transfer that can shoot from outside. He hit almost 43% last season at Gulf Coast.
The projected point guard is Armari Carraway, who also shot over 40% from outside at the JUCO level.
Luke Williams put up 15.4 ppg and shot 38% from 3 at Division-II Maryville last season and will play heavy minutes.
Charleston Southern does have some height to counter our bigs with four players taller than 6'9, including 7 footer Devin Brafford. Brafford was a transfer from Siena.
Expect to see Charleston Southern in a 4 out-1 in offense focused on shooting threes and getting out in transition.
Defensively last season Nimley installed his philosophy of EDIG7. Every Day is Game 7. He ascribes tough, physical defense that is very high energy. He has smaller lineups in general so they are expected to use speed and lane interruption to create turnovers while making a heavy push to force opponents away from the perimeter.
Charleston Southern is projected to finish 7th out of 9 teams in the Big South so bottom line this is a team the Hokies SHOULD beat 99 times out of 100....but prove it.
Still not really sure who this team is. It appears Young is planning to start with Avdalas, Johnson, Lawal, Bedford and Hansberry. Others featuring into the rotation will be Hammond, Schutt, Pasha and Gurdak. Dorn will as well upon return.
In the Seton Hall scrimmage, Hammond was the predominant PG with Avdalas in a bit of a Point Forward role. Interested to see how Pasha is used as early on in his transfer window he was the assumed starter at the point.
Guess we will see or in my case hear as I will be stuck following along with the hokiesports.com broadcast if I can't find a stream.
Comments
Let's Go!
Hokies!
Oh hell yeah! Looking forward to a sunny day in Blacksburg and hoops tonight.
Excited for the season to start!
One note: I'm pretty sure this is on ACC Network Extra, not the channel.
Will the ACC Network post the condensed game on their youtube page later, like they do for football?
Not sure. Will keep an eye out
OP updated
I will be able to provide some updates in the first half.
I need to get to bed early, as I'm running a polling center tomorrow.
I have to be honest... I'm pretty exhausted of constantly chasing games on all sorts of obscure networks and channels only to bump into the wall of corporate greed whereby things are either ridiculously expensive or non-existent (here's to you YTTV and ESPN/DISNEY/ABC).
I plan on getting on youtube. Saturday I was able to find an account that was streaming their fubo account and got to watch most of the football game uninterrupted
And I was once again relegated to the radio. Reruns of Chicago PD, I think, on my CW station. Better than Judge Judy?
Same. And I'm bummed that streameast was taken down. Still looking for good alternatives.
Its still up.
V3
gostreameast
Link
Those are three random words that one could theoretically put a period between.
Not seeing any college basketball on that hypothetical place
Crap, you're right. I just assumed it was there.
Anyone find it? Its insane that paying $70/month for yttv doesnt get me all VT stuff
I'm on Hulu live and it's on. I haven't had too many issues finding games on here.
Well yes. Disney owns espn and Hulu, they're holding everyone else hostage to extort them mid sports season.
Honestly should be an anti-trust situation
Sportsurge.net
That's still running? It had disappeared a few years back. Good to know it's up and running again.
Can't stop the signal
I'm watching right on watchespn.com. included on my fios. Same as the CW network.
Thanks dude
All good bro...
Agreed. Although because of the corporate pissing match, im watching Food Network instead of the basketball game or MNF. I discovered Jesse Palmer is hosting the Holiday Baking Championships which I did not have on my bingo card.
Take away Hansberry and we're shooting 75%.
Hansberry 0-3 from range to start.
Lawal throwing it down with gusto.
Bedford, Lawal, Johnson, Hansberry, Avdalas starting, all but Johnson with a basket so far.
3pt D has holes.
Schutt, Hammond, and Gurdak first off the bench
Immediate impact. Avdalas with the block, Gurdak with the rebound, then Gurdak pulling down an offensive rebound seconds later and drawing the foul.
2 rebounds in less than a minute.
Hansberry finally finds the distance.
Still not the guy I want shooting a ton of 3s. In his two years between Illinois and WVU he is a career 29% shooter from perimeter. Inside perimeter, career 52%. Please do that.
CSU is 4 of 6 from range; 2 of 5 from inside.
Hokies are 1 of 7 from range (1-6 are Hansberry) and 4 of 7 from inside.
13:09 in the 1st, down 5.
I am furious at the fact I cant watch this
And the VT app doesnt even work to listen to the audio. What a joke.
Don't be
Gurdak with the fastbreak hoop and harm
Does anyone know what's the deal with Pasha? He was one of the transfers I was most excited about. Hasn't seen the floor yet.
Ask and ye shall receive
Unless he is hurt, knowing Young it's about defense. I am the same as you. Thought he was for sure going to start when he committed.
I like what I'm seeing from Gurdak early on. It's also obvious the game has slowed down for Hammond. Amani thinking he's Steph curry isn't helping. Would love to see more physicality in the paint. We can push these guys around. Will be interested to see how long it will take this team to mesh.
Gurdak looks solid rebounding around the basket and immediately going back up instead of putting it on the floor.
Like what I'm seeing from Gurdak. Seeking contact and finishing. Good presence on D.
Need to stop rushing 3s. Killing possessions, often after good defensive play, and giving too many opportunities back. Doesn't help that Charleston can't miss from range right now
I don't know. Most of them have been wide open. Have to stop going under the screens. Giving them way too easy of looks.
I know they have dedicated stats people to look these things up, but it's impressive how quickly they were able to pull out that first freshman with a double double since Justin Bibbs. I doubt they had that one in the chamber.
I warned that Blaine could be a threat from range, which he has certainly demonstrated, going 4-6 from range, but 0-4 from inside the arc.
Gurdak has done the most with the least amount of time, 6 points in 7 minutes, 4 rebounds, and a steal
All 9 Hokies who have played have scored, led by Gurdak and Bedford.
I'd like to see them move the ball a little more. Way too much dribbling.
Yeah, guys are holding the ball when passes are wide open.
Either these guys are having the time of their lives shooting these threes, or we have really bad defense. Not loving what I'm seeing from the team so far...
Couple whiffs on d, but they're draining them with hands in their face at a statistically unlikely rate. Meanwhile, we've had a bunch of rim outs, even on the not shitty shots. Would expect both to regress to the mean.
Six for eleven from line.
Want to scream
The two teams are a combined 8 of 15.
Gurdak helped the stats there at the end.
The average FT% in college ball is 70% with the absolute top FT shooting teams making around 80%. 6/11 is 55%. We're talking about a one or two point difference thus far. You can't expect us to shoot near 100% every game??
Typically it's big men driving that stat down, not up. Not great when it's your guards/wings shooting 50%.
In our defense, that rim was not our friend in the first half. Expect better going the other way.
Sure I can want us to hit 100%.
They shot 55% against Seton Hall in the scrimmage. In that one they missed 13. They lost by 2.
Its basic basketball and it may not cost them tonight but it will down the road.
Blaine getting his 3rd foul as the half ends. Hafemeister and Jones also have 3. They account for 25 of CSOs 38.
Additionally, I love having a 7-footer who loves contact and can hit their FTs. Gurdak is 4-4
Calling it now, Gurdak is our MVP this season.
Think Hansberry would like his name in the running.
Gonna have to shoot better than 1-20 in first halves. Glad he switched on in the second, but he was a big reason it was close through halftime.
Gurdak leads Hokies at the half with 8 points and 5 boards on 11 minutes.
Stats at the half:
Hokies have a 4 point lead despite shooting 15.4% from range and missing 5 FT out of 13 AND a disturbing 8/15 3pt allowed.
9 of 10 have scored.
Good steals adjusted ATO margin at 7:1, but 7 assists on 42 points when it's almost all inside is not sufficient.
20 points in the paint is good. 12 2nd chance points is great.
Switching off to watch the Cowboys here folks...will check back in here for score updates a bit when I can.
If Neo and Tobi can consistently get on the same page with movement, that could be a lethal combo.
I think I was on to something with the difference in rims. That shot was dogshit and went in.
Anything happen at halftime?
We switched ends and it immediately paid off.
Was trying to see if anything happened in line with the stuff on the Franklin topic about tweets
All smoke, no flame, unless he's the Hokie bird and is waiting till final whistle to unmask.
I would be fine with this reveal methodology
Hansberry trying to do a bit too much. Pressing a bit
Hokies shooting the 3 much better 4-5 80% and only 5 TO's for the game. That alone is a massive improvement.
North rim vs south rim.
40 rebounds to 24 in favor of the Hokies.
Maybe because I've been playing a lot of Oblivion lately, but I think Lawal might be at least half Argonian.
Double Double for Lawal.
Started 8-13 from the line (61.5%), now we're 16-21 (76.2%)
Just tuned in and got excited to see the score and then looked up Charleston Southern to see they are preseason ranked #328. That is really something.
3 players now in double figures, Lawal with 15, Bedford with 13, Hansberry with 13.
Hansberry with the double double
Daggone, if Hansberry heats up earlier, he'd have 20 by now.
Can they score 3 points a minute to hit 100?
It would be nice.
Avdalas leads all with 8 assists.
What i find refreshing this year is depth we have never had so many players contributing we will need it as the season progresses
Avdalas needs 2 points and 2 assists to give us 3 x double doubles
Need 12 points in 5 minutes.
My wife has the UNC game on the other TV and the announcers are talking about how Jayden Young was a key contributor for the Hokies. Called him a leader. They are off just a bit.
Thats comical
No double double for Neo. Pulled out with 2 minutes to go. 2 points and 1 assist short.
Still, not a bad debut for the 5* recruit.
Need 5 more points for the century mark
La-WOW
Need 5 points in 67 seconds.
Need 2 with 33 to go
Didn't happen. 98-67 final score.
Young telling them not to shoot. Too bad Hammond missed those freebies
Final stats:
3 players with double figures in scoring
2 players with 10 or more rebounds
7 players with at least 8 points
Steals-Adjusted ATO Margin of 19:1
6 blocks
6 steals
32% from range
70% from the line
42 points in the paint
25 second chance points
29 points from the bench
18 offensive rebounds. That happened exactly ZERO times last season. Best was 15.
Improve the perimeter shooting and it's a clean sweep.
Not just perimeter shooting. There were a lot of sloppy shots/put back attempts from inside the paint. Just my impression from watching the 2nd half. Seemed rushed/hurried.
May the girls do as well tomorrow.
Winning is fun
Its a whole lot more enjoyable than what we've grown accustomed to on the gridiron
Everyone in the ACC showed up tonight except for BC