Virginia Tech (6-2)
at
South Carolina (5-2)
7pm
Colonial Life Arena
SEC Network
BROADCAST INFORMATION
TV | SEC NETWORK
Anish Shroff, PxP
Chris Spatola, Analyst
RADIO | VT Sports Network
Zach Mackey, PxP
Mike Burnop, Analyst
VIDEO STREAM LIVE STATS
ESPN.com and ESPN app stats.hokiesports.com
South Carolina -1.5
O/U 149.5
ESPN Analytics South Carolina 71.4%
GameCocks come into this one 5-2 with their losses similar to the Hokies, taking two L's at their Holiday Tournament. They lost 79-72 to Butler and 79-77 to Northwestern at the Greenbrier Tip-Off.
The five wins are over Southern Mississippi, Presbyterian, Radford, NC A&T, and Charleston Southern.
Their starting group has varied significantly game to game for the last two spots but steady starters are Meechie Johnson at the point, Mike Sharavjamts in the paint and Kobe Knox at shooting guard. The other two spots typically would have small forward Myles Stute but he missed the last two games due to a concussion in the loss to Northwestern. Their is a trio of forwards that have split the starts he missed and the fifth spot in the rotation.
The three consistent starters are all transfers in this season as are five others as just 8.6% of scoring returned from last season.
Meechie Johnson has a weird history. 2020-2022 he was with Ohio State, he transfered to South Carolina for 2022-2024. He transferred back to Ohio State for 2024-2025 and now is back at South Carolina for this season. He suffered an injury last season in December and misses the rest of the season.
The Gamecocks offensively are shooting 57% inside the perimeter and 32% outside. The paint scoring including free throws is about 52 ppg and perimeter accounts for 29 ppg. Their offense is characterized by constant ball movement, unselfishness, and "conceptually executed" set plays rather than strict, rigid sequences. He emphasizes a "pace" where players urgently cut, screen, drive, and pass to create good shots, making the offense effective and efficient. He gives his players alot of leeway to read opponents to decide how to approach the basket.
Something somewhat unique to this offense is expect to see a double 1-2 punch as the starting duo of Johnson/Sharavjamts alternate time on the floor with Ellis/Strong off the bench. Starters putting up 25.7ppg and bench duo putting up 21.5ppg.
Defensively expect to see a strong commitment to one-on-one defense and focused effort on defensive rebounding to limit second-chance points. Paris is almost as fluid defensively as he is offensively especially in transition defense. He will refularly assess and adjust his man-to-man coverage in game as weaknesses are identified. Expect to see a variety of different looks including a 1-3-1 zone for specific situations.
GameCocks Starters
Meechie Johnson
#5 SR G 6-2 172
14.4 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 3.4 Ast
Mike Sharavjamts
#55 SR F 6-8 180
11.3 Pts, 6.6 Reb, 2.7 Ast
Kobe Knox
#4 SR G 6-5 185
8.9 Pts, 2.7 Reb, 3.1 Ast
One of these 3 Start
Jordan Butler
#0 JR F 7-0 230
5.6 Pts, 3.6 Reb, 0.3 Ast
Nordin Kapic
#24 SR F 6-8 245
4.6 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 0.6 Ast
Hayden Assemian
#20 FR F 6-6 230
3.2 Pts, 4.2 Reb, 0.5 Ast
GameCocks Bench
Eli Ellis
#15 FR G 6-0 192
11.4 Pts, 3.3 Reb, 2.9 Ast
Elijah Strong
#31 JR F 6-8 225
10.1 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 1.3 Ast
Grant Polk
#13 FR G 6-6
5.3 Pts, 1.6 Reb, 0.3 Ast
Christ Essandoko
#2 JR C 7-0 285
1.2 Pts, 0.8 Reb, 0.3 Ast
Starter that may be out with Concussion
Myles Stute
#10 SR F 6-7 215
7.0 Pts, 3.6 Reb, 1.8 Ast
Hokies Starters
Neoklis Avdalas
#17 FR G 6-9 215
13.8 Pts, 3.3 Reb, 4.6 Ast
Amani Hansberry
#13 JR F 6-8 240
15.4 Pts, 7.3 Reb, 2.6 Ast
Jailen Bedford
#0 SR G 6-4 181
10.3 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 0.9 Ast
Tyler Johnson
#10 SO G 6-5 215
9.8 Pts, 6.4 Reb, 1.9 Ast
Ben Hammond
#3 SO G 5-11 170
8.4 Pts, 1.0 Reb, 4.3 Ast
Hokies Bench
Jaden Schutt
#2 JR G 6-5 185
10.3 Pts, 1.5 Reb, 0.5 Ast
Christian Gurdak
#32 FR C 6-10 260
3.9 Pts, 3.1 Reb, 0.1 Ast
Antonio Dorn
#77 FR C 7-0 230
3.0 Pts, 2.2 Reb, 0.7 Ast
Izaiah Pasha
#4 SO G 6-4 190
2.0 Pts, 0.5 Reb, 0.0 Ast
Status TBD (I pinged David Cunningham on X)
Toibu Lawal
#1 SR F 6-8 200
12.8 Pts, 10.3 Reb, 0.5 Ast
First order of business will be whether Lawal plays or not. Also keep an eye on Gamecocks on whether Myles Stute plays.
Lawal clearly a huge impact to the fluidity of the Hokies offense as was painfully clear in the Battle4Atlantis.
Size wise it appears to be a pretty equal matchup outside of Neo towering over Johnson. We really need Neo to take advantage of that matchup early although wont be surprised to see Knox or Strong to switch on Neo when in the game.
The Hokies have to be prepared for the scoring punch off the bench and limit the impact. Bench accounts for almost 35 ppg.
This will come down to who plays/doesnt and who executes the little things right. Unfortunately I dont think that will be yhe Hokies after this last week.
Comments
Let's Go.
Hokies!
Appears Lawal is out again so not a good start. Stute also appears to be out for SCar
Slow start but 3 straight buckets and good defense has hokies up 6-1 at the first MTO. And two free throws coming for Bedford
It seems the announcers are full participants in the SEC circle jerk tonight.
BAM
Who are these guys?
Three straight games of Johnson getting in dumb early foul trouble.
No foul call on the SC player landing on our player but ref calls foot on line on us. Total bullshit.
I'll drink, but what is with these announcers?
SEC Network homers
This game is how the Hokies should have played St Marys
I like the fact that we are out rebounding by a large margin, but we aren't capitalizing on it as much as we should.
Still aren't falling into a double digit hole which we would if we surrendered
Feels like we should have a bigger lead with the large edge in rebounds. Like we've dominated but are only up 4
We were up 23-13 and then went zero for a stretch
We are good at blowing early 1H leads.
Yep. If it were the other way around, we would be down by 8-10
Who knew working for offensive rebounds would actually be a positive thing?
Throws Hammond 5 feet ...play on
Brain dead 35 foot foul on Pasha
Feels like we should be up 15. We're clearly the better team but letting them hang around.
We consistently fail to capitilize at opportune times. I feel like when we get a nice lead we then take a deep breathe and proceed to lose it. This is something I've noticed with CMY every season. But, I can't speak about last season as I watched 2 total games and slivers of maybe 2 others before stopping.
We didn't give up all of our lead. That's a plus. I said if SC scores in the last 11 seconds then we lose. If they miss, we will win. Thats good mojo.
Liked Dorn's play. I think Dorn and Gurdack should rotate with Hansberry on the floor. Drive in and dish to the bigs. Easy 2.
How was that a tie up? SCar guy took Dorn to floor and then he wrapped his arms around Dorn on floor
And a BS foul on Neo. Total block. Great hustle.
Game changing BS foul on Neo right there. Couldn't have been a cleaner block
Puts him on the bench for 5 1/2 minutes
Their big walked twice on the perimeter but nope
Five of our guys with 2 or more fouls.
Two of their guys with 2
Think that ball was still in hand when shot clock went off
I REALLY want the announcers to lose their bets tonight.
I dont even know what that last call was. Shoulder into Hansberry's chest while set
Fucking called Hansberry for the block so he has 3 now. These whistles are bullshit
they called it on Hansberry... but he didn't do nothing! smh
We're going to have to get some separation over the next few minutes so the refs can't affect the outcome late.
Ref's are slanting to the SEC but our failure to make them pay when we make a stop or fail to hit a wide open 3 is why we aren't up by double digits. We should be but aren't. I'm afraid it will bite us in the ass.
I take it back. The last 3 fouls are total bullshit.
...and now Dorn with 3...gtfo
Let them get away with a four second moving screen at top that leads to a 3
The announcer is just beside himself after a call didn't go South Carolina's way for the first time all night.
Complaining when their guy climbs the back of a 7 footer and pulls him to the floor for his....2nd foul
Another moving screen leads to points
Going to foul us out of the game. The whistle disparity is ridiculous.
18-11. Gtfo
19-11
Hansberry and Johnson with 4 each now
The ball doesn't move on Offense other than Avdalis and Hansberry.
South Carolina is an ass team that any Tourney team should beat by 15+.
The team that I saw against Providence has evaporated
With a healthy Lawal, we do beat them by 15
How the fuck did we let them take the lead.
The refs literally blowing their whistle any time they can and we don't want to close out a game by not making our shots.
I know it'll never happen especially now but at point the hand checking and bodying NEO on the perimeter has to be called.
This will, possibly, end up being an epically bad 3 game stretch. One that could very easily keep us out of the tournament. But, this is the Mike Young way. Play a few great games... Look like dog s@!t for a good portion of the season... Try hard to make a run in March.
Lose the entire roster... Rinse... Repeat.
The stars for South Carolina have come to play...
Mr. Big Shot Ben Hammond
Johnson fouled out
See we've reached the part of the game where they call a foul on us every play.
You know, typically the most athletic team on the floor wins the foul count. Not tonight.
It's a lock for SC. Make a move to the rim and the whistle will blow.
And the SC players know it. Playing with aggression cuz they can
Free throw attempts
VT. 12
SCar. 24
That's likely good for us considering we are awful from the line...
But they normally arent.aren't.
Scar 19 for 26 now.
Tech 7 for 12
12 point advantage
Surprised they didn't call a charge. And of course the commentators are saying it was on us🤣🤣🤣🤣
How was that not a foul with Hansberry shooting? Hands on both his arms
Unbelievable no call. It's so obvious now
How many in and out's are going to have tonight. That's at least 14 points that were that close to going in.
They will reverse the call.
Why is lady at the table in a referee uniform? Don't think I have ever seen the scorer wear the uniform
Finally fucking called them
Welp
Wtf
That was absolutely NOT the same violation.
Dudes not being set never gets called and it's called x2 in 10 seconds.
It was about Dorn being more than shoulder width apart with his feet
Well his shoulders are like 6' feet apart so I'm not sure what they're expecting.
Dorn with 4 now. We can't survive OT with these whistles
Holy shit
This is unbelievable.
Can't believe they didnt shoot...but they have a great advantage in OT
That was bad basketball 🤣
Worst last possession I've ever seen
Neo just hasn't been getting it done in the past 4 games.
Holy fuck.
You cannot lose to this fucking team.
Get your shit together
Solomon Davis will most likely need to come in at some point if these whistles don't slow down.
Dumb foul by Neo
Yep. And of course he hits it. We can make wide open 3's.
Neo is tired and it's showing in the number of bad plays he's making.
Every time that 7 footer is moving screen...only been called once
Well, we hit the over
This team has so much potential, but their defense and FT shooting are both dogshit. They also make so many braindead decisions. Mike Young will have a hell of a challenge getting this group into the tourney.
Such a late freaking whistle.
Now Neo out
Johnson out
Hansberry 4
Dorn 4
They still only have 2 guys with 3 fouls
Horrible whistle. Ghost foul. Unbelievable
This is where Mike Young struggles...
He loses most of his roster each year. He has to rebuild his roster each year. This year he did an outstanding job with the rebuild. The problem? It takes him soooo long to get the guys to gel and settle into his system.
Schutt baby
Call a T on Meechie
24 fouls to 16.
Unbelievable
How can you run from the 3-pt line and not travel?
Hammond's playing his ass off this OT.
Not one...but two...shoves offs. "great play!"
Every time SC catches the ball outside the arc, jabs, and then drives to the outside, they catch us off balance and get a whistle.
GAMEFAMMake one bricked the second
Why can't we make FTs
Are you new here?
FAM
Hanesberry has bricked everyone of his 1st shots from the stripe.
Meechie Johnson was clutch for VT the last few minutes of regulation and in OT!
We almost lost to the bottom-feeder of the SEC who dribbled out the clock on themselves.
Not good enough CMY.
You have the support, you have a Roster...expectations are higher than this.
Not having Lawal hurts, but you Better find some shooters....fucking 20% from 3 and 55% on FT ain't gonna get it done
Truth! If CMY can't turn a corner with this roster, then VT needs to find their basketball JMFF.
FUCK OFF YOU MUTHA FUCKING REF's.
What a gutsy win. Had to overcome the refs but we got it done.
Won a 5 on 8😤
Geez.....
Go Hokies.
The ole beta blocker win. Love it.
Tobi Lawal is good, don't get me wrong. But I feel like this team should still be a lot better than it is with him not out there. It's almost a night and day difference. Whether its talent or coaching, something needs to step up
What, exactly, is going on with Lawal's injury? Does anyone know more than the obvious? Young has just said no timetable for his return, but is he just being super cautious and saving him for the ACC? Was this discussed in this thread y'all were posting while I was watching the game on delay? If so, sorry.
No clear information has been given but watching Lawal around a few huddles it was clear he is limping pretty significantly even accounting for the boot. By the looks of it, I would think it is a stress fracture of some kind which unfortunately take a while to heal
Thanks. Not surprised that coach is playing it close to the vest, but our season without Lawal doesn't look so rosy.
According to another website, 4-6 weeks.
Can you post link?
That would suck as the 6 weeks if from now would mean 10 more missed games or about 13 1/2 games total which is about 42% of the season. If it lingers longer he might be better of taking a medical redshirt as much as that would suck for the trajectory of this season.
Not surprising if its a stress fracture though.
From the Roanoke Times article on the game last night.
https://roanoke.com/sports/college/basketball/virginia-tech-hokies/men/a...
Young did not divulge the specific nature of Lawal's injury and said he did not know how long Lawal will be sidelined.
"It's going to be a bit. I don't know (if it's) two weeks, I don't know (if it's) a month, I don't know (if it's) six weeks," Young said. "We'll know more as we go along. But it's not going to be a ... quick turnaround.
"But ... it could've been a lot worse. ... He'll be fine."
Thanks