Learn. Respond. Move forward.🎟️ https://t.co/6ucPIoOTQL🤝 @CarilionClinic pic.twitter.com/VlZWxJ54lU— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 9, 2026
LETS HOPE SO
Cal (13-3)
at
Virginia Tech (12-4)
4pm
ACCN
Hokies -6.5
O/U: 145.5
ESPN Analytics Hokies 64.9%
Who is this team?
Another huge question mark loss. Two in a row now where the Hokies either started flat or couldn't play basic basketball. Questionable passing. Questionable shot selection. No idea what to expect but analysts seem to think the Hokies should beat Cal today above just a hone court advantage margin. Are they capable of this? Absolutely. Will they? All depends if they decide to play 40 minutes rather than 38.
Cal comes in with three losses. Their latest was a blowout 2 hours up the road on Wednesday. Wahoo's put an 84-60 smackdown on Cal. Cavaliers DOMINATED in the paint with a 19 rebound margin. I think this is where the analysts are viewing the difference for the Hokies. If Lawal, Gurdak and Hansberry can combine for 24 rebounds it should give the Hokies a decided advantage.
Cal also lost by 20 to Louisville 90-70 and again on the boards the Cardinals had a 19 rebound advantage. Only other loss was a 99-96 loss to Kansas State. That one basically came down to who had final possession but most statistics were pretty even.
Notable wins are over UCLA and Utah. Their sole ACC win was a 72-71 victory over Notre Dame with some really questionable officiating in the final seconds. Cal was awarded a 4 point play after multiple huddles by the refs.
Mark Madsen is in his third season at Cal and has equaled his first season win total and is one away from last season's total. He has four players that were Top 100 in their classes.
Dai Dai Ames transferred in from Virginia and leads them in scoring. The Junior Guard is putting up 17.6 ppg. Chris Bell, another ACC transfer, this time from Syracuse is tied for third in scoring at 13.9 ppg. Former Hokie John Camden, after transferring from Delaware is also putting up 13.9 ppg. Scottie Pippen's youngest son Justin transferred in from Michigan and is averaging 14.9 ppg. Lee Dort rounds out the starting five. He was a transfer from Vanderbilt but was at Cal last season. He is putting up 8.3 ppg.
Cal goes about four deep on the bench consistently. They put up about 16 ppg total on about 16 mpg each.
Cal brought in nine total players from the portal this season.
Expect Camden to try to put a chip on his teammates shoulders to show the Hokies what they let get away so starting strong and muting that energy will be important.
In prior seasons Madsen wanted to go slow on both ends. This season he has flipped to a much faster pace approach offensively. He also has focused the team on sharing the ball. Last season Cal played alot of hero ball. Madsen also pursued pure shooters in the transfer market. Camden shot 41.6%, Ames 39.7% and Bell 44.3% from 3 last season, and this season that has continued to an extent. Ames is at 43.1%, Camden at 38.9% and Bell at 36%. Pippen also shoots 37%. As a team they are hitting 36.4%. Expect rapid passing around the perimeter using Dort to facilitate some in/out passing.
Cal is very similar to the Hokies in that they dont turn the ball over much, averaging under 10 per game and allow the fewest steals in the country.
Bears Starters
Dai Dai Ames
#7 JR G 6-1 185
17.6 Pts, 1.9 Reb, 2.6 Ast
Chris Bell
#22 SR F 6-7 180
13.9 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 0.8 Ast
John Camden
#2 SR F 6-8 208
13.9 Pts, 4.9 Reb, 1.8 Ast
Justin Pippen
#10 SO G 6-3 180
14.9 Pts, 3.6 Reb, 4.1 Ast
Lee Dort
#34 SR F 6-10 255
8.3 Pts, 7.6 Reb, 1.2 Ast
Bears Bench
Semetri (TT) Carr
#3 FR G 6-0
5.8 Pts, 3.4 Reb, 2.7 Ast
Nolan Dorsey
#21 SR G 6-5 185
2.6 Pts, 1.5 Reb, 0.5 Ast
Milos Ilic
#8 SR F 6-9 203
2.1 Pts, 3.4 Reb, 1.1 Ast
Mantas Kocanas
#17 SO C 6-11 235
1.9 Pts, 1.5 Reb, 0.1 Ast
DJ Campbell
#1 SR G 6-2 205
2.0 Pts, 1.7 Reb, 1.0 Ast
OUT
Rytis Petraitis
#31 SR G 6-7 210
5.3 Pts, 4.0 Reb, 1.0 Ast
Also out are Jovani Ruff, Sammie Yeanay and Stephon Marbury (Yes he is Stephon Marbury son)
The Hokies will again be without Johnson and Dorn. Lawal had his minutes restriction lifted so should be a full go today.
Hokies need to do two things well today. Defend the perimeter and rebound the basketball. If they do those two things for FORTY minutes they come out with a win in a Quad 1 game (at least currently).
Comments
LET'S GO...
Hokies!
As of today, Cal is a Quad 2 game so more critical to win
Tip off pushed to 415pm thanks to prior game
Called "Virginia" after one possession.
Clock issue, again!
We're a fucking technical school. We have a fucking rocket science program for fucks sake. How can this still be happening for the third straight game?
It's why we dropped "Invent the future" 😂
Good start. Ball needs to move quicker on O if cal is going to double and pressure so high.
Is it just me, or does it seem like the refs in ACC play have been pretty reluctant to blow their whistles? I feel like if these 2025/26 refs officiated in, say, 2018, there would be a lot of foul-outs. Especially if you were one of the "darling" teams like UNC or Duke...you could barely touch them back then.
Allowing them wide open looks outside.
FFS ITS THE ONE THING THEY DO WELL
yeah. they're letting them have straight on 3's. (3pt line just above the top of the key)
Cal wants this way more.
I don't have social media. But can those of you who do please light up whatever asshat play-by-play commentator it is that keeps calling us "VTech"?!?
Patrick O'Keefe, PxP
Eric Devendorf, Color
Again, we have a fucking media department. How can we not be telling these damn announcers to not call us Vtech or Vaah Tech already. It's mind boggling. Nobody calls GT Gaaah Tech. Nobody calls Louisiana Laaah Tech. What's the fucking problem?
We haven't had a good look since before the war
Hokies must be underage because they cannot by a shot
Damn the way Lawal's Dunk bounced off the floor. I think it went above backboard
Remember 4:50 in the 1st for the Lawal dunk for the (hopefully) giftory!! Nasty!
Why Wait??
Somebody with titter please post a clip of that Lawal dunk here. Don't think I've ever seen a ball be thrown straight down through the hoop like that before.
That was goaltending on Gurdaks shot
God Avdalas
Getting our asses kicked on the boards
18-7 right now
19...that time they had two bigs inside all our guys
If we could just get our effort to stop coming in waves, we'd be in a much better position going into the half.
+12 rebounding margin for Cal is brutal.
do we not know how to block out?
Especially since UVA and Louisville outrebounded them by 19 boards each.
Young is using that Fire and Forget strategy and its biting us in the ass.
We also keep allowing our guys to drift out on help defense to stop dribble penetration and then their bigs slide into position in the paint for rebound.
Holy shit, how does John Camden still have eligibility left?!? I feel like he played for VT years ago. Crazy how quickly we forget.
It was two years ago. Started at Memphis with Redshirt. Two years at Tech. Left Hokies, went to Delaware, now at Cal. This should be last season.
Out rebounded 20 to 10 by the WORST rebounding team in the ACC
It has me wondering if we are better off with the Hansberry/Gurdak combination inside. Gurdak is the best of the three at positioning himself even though he is the least athletic of the three.
we need to start getting downhill. that last drive by Hammond is how to go after these guys. they will foul - if the refs will just call it.
Agreed
Its already 13-7. We were in bonus quick but then started sitting on perimeter throwing up junk rather than go inside. We aren't even getting the ball to Hansberry in the paint.
What a way to lay an egg to start half.
CAN WE PLEASE FOLLOW OUR SHOTS??!!??
At least three times tonight our shots kicked right back at shooter but our guy has already run back the other way
The ACC network must love their theme song to play it over the entire game!!!!
How many times are we going to have ZERO guys on offense inside perimeter? I have counted at least 7 times so far where every Hokies player is outside the 3 point line.
that makes an inside - out game nonexistent.
Exactly, also means when you jack up a bad three no chance you are getting a rebound. I dont know which assistant is doing the game planning but too often it looks like we didnt bother scouting our opponents strengths and weaknesses for advantages but rather play right into them.
We just had the under-16 media timeout a minute and 15 seconds ago. What's the reason for the under-15 media timeout?
These broadcasts are becoming more and more unwatchable every day.
Lawal shooting 3...no one inside perimeter.
and as soon as it left his hand... he and everyone else headed the other way.
It drives me crazy. Its the basketball version of surrender cobra and Cal isn't exactly burning things up in transition.
There is zero energy with this team. It's like the loluva game wiped them out!
I honestly want a 5 minute stretch of Gurdak, Lawal and Hansberry on floor together with Hammond and name another guard
Hammond shot came right back at him but he was over midcourt as it came back instead of following the shot
Announcer calling for us to take it right inside but that just means our coaches will do the opposite
Shooting FTs all the way home. Should do nothing but attack the rim.
...and yep. Taking jump shots away from basket
Fouled Bedford twice before the fouling of Gurdak
Ames second half is deja vu of Okorie from Stanford
they keep going inside... but we don't
When the color announcer is pointing out all the same issues we are it hurts more for some reason.
because he keeps calling us virginia or v-tech
Yep...if its obvious to this blabbering idiot it should be CRYSTAL FUCKING CLEAR to our paid coaches
that makes me laugh and cry at the same time
But then he says they "pushed" Hansberry away from basket....sorry but Coach Young gifted them that with his strategy.
Give me more Hansberry and Gurdak playing two man game in paint please. Good things happen
Is it a dunk if you just drop the ball in the basket? Asking for a friend...
it's a SLAM DUNK!!!!
Color commentator is dumb as shit. Hansberry and Avdalas both have clean blocks, but the announcer says they're fouls because they rotated too late before the block? What does that have to do with anything? It's either a foul or it's not.
The ACCN gives us moron commentators just about every game. I swear I'm watching a different game than they are.
That Neo foul was a 100% clean. All ball and he didn't make body to body contact. It wasn't even close.
He did contact right arm after blocking ball. Unfortunately most refs are going to call that.
I believe the contact to the shooter's arm occurred after the ball was cleanly dislodged and therefore should have been deemed incidental. I don't know what the current NCAA rule is for that scenario.
Its not a foul but gets called one 8 times out of 10
I think the rule is... if you can call anything against Virginia Tech, then do so!!!
Remember when the refs used to berate the Hokies bench to sit down, every single play, but they wouldn't say anything when someone like Boeheim was damn near half court? You're on to something here...
Camden choked it away for them...poetic
Still had to give us cardiac
FAM!!! We smoked 'em!!! /s
Lazy ugly wins are still wins.
I know that's all that matters to the selection committee, but the Hokies would need to have a lazy, ugly win for the rest of the regular season to make up for the Stanford loss, IMO
It was painful but its currently a Q2 loss so long term if that holds it shouldnt hurt too bad