Virginia Tech (13-4)
at
SMU (12-4)
9pm
ESPNU
BROADCAST INFORMATION
TV |
Ted Emrich, PxP
Debbie Antonelli Color
ACCN RADIO | VT Sports Network
Zach Mackey, PxP
Mike Burnop, Analyst
VIDEO STREAM LIVE STATS
ESPN.com and ESPN app stats.hokiesports.com
SMU -8.5
O/U 157.5
ESPN Analytics 81.6% SMU
Feeling Disrespected?
Hopefully Young and Chester Frazier made a point of emphasis about the odds on this game. Good news is Dorn has been upgraded to Probable. Bad news is Hansberry has been added as probable. Johnson is still out.
SMU and Coach Andy Enfield are 12-4. They come in on back to back losses to Clemson and Duke. The other two losses were to LSU and Vanderbilt. Their quasi-strong wins are over Butler, Miss St and Texas A&M. Their most legit win was upsetting UNC at home by 14. Seems like a really inconsistent team.
SMU has one questionable and two probable for this game. Mitchell Holmes is questionable and Boopie Miller/Sam Walters are probable. Miller is the critical one as he is their leading scorer at 20.6 ppg. Walters and Mitchell only represent 5 ppg combined. Boopie is spelled Kevin.
SMU has a high flying offense, scoring the 13th most FG in the NCAA. They are 16th in scoring at 89.1ppg. They shoot 36% from the perimeter and make about 8 threes per game. They do their real damage inside. Shooting 57% from inside and making 24 FG per game.
SMU uses a Motion offense with a high number of pick and roll drives typically with a third attacker coming from backside to have three options on any drive. They are really good at getting defenses off balance by forcing switches.
This is an offense I wish Young was willing to consider using a zone defense. Both teams are good at getting to the line so that will be a factor.
Defensively, the Mustangs play an aggressive man-to-man and run traps at the top of the key to force turnovers to lead to transition baskets. Their 7'2 center is a dominant force inside especially where it comes to blocks.
Mustang Starters
Kevin Miller
#2 JR G 6-0 165
20.6 Pts, 3.9 Reb, 7.1 Ast
Jaron Pierre
#5 SR G 6-5 185
17.4 Pts, 4.9 Reb, 1.6 Ast
B.J. Edwards
#0 SR G 6-3 188
13.9 Pts, 5.8 Reb, 5.4 Ast
Corey Washington
#3 SR F 6-6 185
12.2 Pts, 5.4 Reb, 0.8 Ast
Samet Yigitoglu
#24 SO C 7-2 265
10.9 Pts, 8.6 Reb, 1.5 Ast
Mustangs Bench
Jermaine O'Neal
#7 FR F 6-5 185
5.3 Pts, 1.9 Reb, 0.6 Ast
Jaden Toombs
#10 FR C 6-10 230
8.4 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 0.8 Ast
Mitchell Holmes
#13 SO F 6-11 215
2.8 Pts, 1.4 Reb, 0.3 Ast
B.J. Davis-Ray
#9 FR F 6-6 195
1.6 Pts, 0.9 Reb, 0.7 Ast
Sam Walters
#4 JR F 6-10 198
2.4 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 0.4 Ast
Overall I think this game come down to avoiding scoring droughts. None of the Young patented four minute periods with zero points.
Physically I think we match up well IF Hansberry plays. If he is out even with Dorn and Lawal back this game becomes a real uphill battle.
Tough road trip so difficult to tell if Hokies are well rested and ready to go.
Comments
Let's Go!
HOKIES!
My first chance to see a live VT sporting event in many years. GO HOKIES!!! Beat Southern Millionaires University!!!
Brutal game time
I understand they were there yesterday? Maybe they've adjusted to central time. Unless you mean for the fans.
For the East Coast Dad who's usually in bed by 9:30
This is why the Central Time Zone is the best time zone
Any word on Dorn or Johnson
Edit: need to tkp harder
Of course we won't get to see the first 10 minutes of our game...
Its live on the app
Of course at the beginning of the game when I opened the app it had logged me out for no reason.
The "all new" ESPN App, just as shitty as the old ESPN App
Yea, SEC on ESPN2 and ESPNews, so we wait. ESPN sux!
Now, Vandy at UT Austin on 2 channels, fucking tools!
We're on espnews right now
Hate to be that guy, but these officials.......
Lead is the free throw line
And the missed layups.
We aren't a very good basketball team.
There's growth needed for sure, but this team is much better than last year's.
Much better than last year's is absolutely right. I'm not sure that makes us a good team.
Yep. Fair or not, I was led to believe we would be better than we have been so far.
And I suppose relative to last year, that's still true.
Lawal is an instant boost on the boards.
Sooner he is up to full minutes the better
Nice little run. Neo's trying to finesse those 3's instead of just shooting naturally.
Need to work on rebounding in the 2nd half. Block-out and have strong hands.
Our shooting is poor, we're being killed on the boards, and we're only trailing by 1.
I'll take it.
The slightest improvement, offensively or defensively, would be great.
Watch their big. Count the seconds in the paint on offense. Dude is camping
Get Dorn out.
"Reaches over the top" = new terminology for Over the Back
What a recovery by Lawal! Holy hell!
"Watch this block"
Ignore the guy smack Dorn in the head from behind
That slow mo replay from behind the backboard made it look like Dorn got the ball on the glass before the block. Can they go back and review it? it's split second.
That's my kinda foul Dorn! Make sure he misses!
Miller jumps back into Dorn and only real contact was Boopie linking his arm into Dorn causing him to hit the floor. Dorn did not hit him in the head and pulled back to avoid full body.
It looked bad live but slo mo wasnt bad
Completely changes the game.
No whistles on the two arm smack on Lawal's dunk...convenient
they must have been looking at how high his feet were off the ground instead of him getting smacked up side the head
How was that not a foul on the Lawal dunk?
Miller is a flopper. Refs don't wanna call it when Lawal gets smacked in the head while "airborne".
Yep
Where is the flagrant on the Hansberry dunk attempt? "AIRBORNE SHOOTER" Right Debbie?
I will never understand how elite basketball players can be so terrible at free throws
Problem for Hokies is usage. Too much time on floor giving guys dead legs.
10 of Miller's 20 points at the free throw line and going to line for two more
Miller is a very poor man's SGA.
Flings his body around with minimal contact to draw soft fouls.
Foul igatolu every time and give ben hammond the ball.
Totally. Foul that big mofo off the ball.
Huge clutch shot by Schutt!
12 minutes to play 24 seconds now
The damn ONIONS on Schutt!
FAM
My feed must be behind
I'm following on Hokiesports.
The ticker had hit End of Regulation, then went back to 8 seconds after I typed that.
Goddamnit
I hate that f*@%ng site.
God dammit Neo
Pass the fucking thing to hammond. This team tries to choke every fucking game away.
That's not the first time this year we can't inbound
Ref now wants to blow the whistle before we even catch it.
Umm..maybe not a popular opinion, but this team looks better without Neo on the floor
I agree alot of the time. More aggressive with Schutt, Hammond, and Bedford
He's been awful against P4 teams.
Worst coached and least clutch team I've ever watched.
God our FT shooting.
This team hates closing.
Seen this movie before. Id rather foul and go to OT
61% at the line
ugggh. FT's in the last minute are our kryptonite it seems. Tough guys make free throws. Put Tobi at the free throw line to deflect a long pass.
Dont guard the inbounder, Mike.
Make them catch it 60+ feet from the basket.
You've got to be fucking kidding me
Of fucking course it did
Unfuckingbelievable
That's why you don't guard the inbounder.
Trap the guy who catches the ball, instead of having Neo wandering aimlessly in the middle of the Court
Tough guys make free throws. Could be the story of this one.
Way to go Young. Failed to close out
All you had to do WAS MAKE A F@-$&$&#&# FREE THROW
You can't let Miller catch the ball. He should've been doubled. If someone else beats you oh well.
Or if you foul on that double...he missed 5 on the night. Worst case you go to OT.
Miller shot two less free throws than the Hokies did as a team.
I'm a big fan of denying the ball to the best player who probably they drew the play up for in the first place.
1000%
Rather than guarding the inbounder, you use Neo as a Trapper to force Miller to either pass the ball up or launch a low percentage shot over 2 defenders.
Instead, we let him dribble right up the sideline with our fifth Defender standing at the free-throw line with his hands on his hips.
In the NBA where the ball is Advanced, it makes sense to have someone guarding the inbounder...in College it almost never does.
It's time to start the conversation.
Fuck!
Un fucking believe able. We should be undefeated in ACC play.
MY. You had me fooled after the uva game. Now I'm done. You gotta go bud
Just make a freaking free throw.
We are such a bad team.
I came back just to say, what the fuck!?
We lose up 13 with 3 minutes left and now lose up 4 with 7 seconds left and the ball. Simply unbelievable.
Just practice free throws the rest of the year what a collapse
Tonight's loss and the loss to Stanford was due to not making free throws. If we could make a damn fee throw, we win. Period. SMH
Stanford was more about clock management. If Neo "I am nowhere near a 1st round pick" Avdalas doesn't turn the ball over twice in final two minutes and doesn't jack up no hope 3s with 21 and 19 seconds on shot clock no way Stanford can come back. Neo needs to be off the floor at end of games and needs to be banned from shooting 3s. 0 for 7 tonight. 1 for 5 against Stanford. Shooting 21% in ACC play from perimeter before tonight. Now at 16.67%
So many fouls missed on SMU in the second half. But it comes down to missing the free throws in the last 2 minutes AGAIN!!!
That and turnovers. Neo killing us in that category.
Shit! If Avdalas could hit a shot we win by 8. Darn it!
And *****poof***** went whatever minimal, lingering hopes this team had for March Madness.
Can't make free throws, can't imbound the ball, and let them get the ball to the exact player they want to have it all in the last 8 secs.
Sorry Mike, this is a badly coached team. Its probably time for VT to move on.
This team has no hope of making the tourney. Terrible defense, terrible free throw shooting, and braindead decision making in the clutch have all been consistent issues all season. It's a shame because this team is talented and athletic enough to win 25 games.
We held them 10 points under their season average. Neo just can't shoot a three and that is all he wants to shoot.
If you think this team's defense is anything but bad, you haven't been watching the games.
Have to agree. We are allowing the 11th most points in conference play and are 192nd in that category overall.
We're 56th in defense efficiency rating per Kenpom which is about 110 spots higher than last year
It's time for CMY to be on the hot seat!
We can't rebound.
We can't inbound the ball.
We can't shoot FT.
We have no killer instinct.
This is gonna be a common theme the rest of the season huh. Every game will be tight. And sometimes they shoot themselves in the foot and lose. Or they'll get lucky and win
Schutt needed to be in the game immediately when SMU went to zone.
Absolutely terrible look for the program. CMY's seat should be on fire given he's been living off the one ACC championship for his entire tenure. Not great when you have the narrative that NIL got raided last year for football, and you bring in a first-round pick this year and still look bang average.
Question is - who do you bring in to raise the ceiling? If you can't make a better hire then maybe you do cannibalize the program for football. If you're a P4 program without serious chances for the tournament on a regular basis, what's the point in throwing money at basketball?
I honestly think Chester Frazier is HC in waiting. That's why he came back to Tech
But is he an upgrade? Unproven with no HC experience.
If that's the case then more of the status quo. Not exactly trying to compare ourselves to our neighbors to the north, but UVA went out and got a proven winner. Took UMBC, USU, and VCU to the tournament. And he already has UVA rolling.
I thought we should have got Odom when we got MY. Can't change history tho
Bring Buzz back when he gets bored with UMD in a few years?
Jk
I mean, we're 13-5. We're a competitive team. All of our conference losses have come by a few points, basically all off buzzer beaters. There's 13 games left in conference play. I'm just as concerned with everybody else with our inability to close out games. I believe CMY needs a strong finish to this year and momentum going into next to not have a scorching hot seat.
I'm not sure about totally defunding the program. We'd become a massive laughingstock and the program would totally crater. Not sure if the money we redirect to football would make a significantly tangible difference. Could be wrong there, but not sure it's worth the risk of completely alienating one of the two top revenue generating sports.
All three conference losses have been by a 3 point shot made at the buzzer. All have been contested.
That's lacking so much context.
Stanford was an epic 10-point collapse with 2 minutes to go.
Wake was lost by a horrible start and once again missing two free throws at the end.
Tonight was lost by two players missing FTs to ice the game, and a bad turnover.
Stanford was 13 point lead with 2:52 left.
Went back to look at the play-by-play of the Cal game. End of game looked like a battle of "who wants to lose more" with the turnovers and missed FTs.
-Lose big
-Lose small
-Win small
-Win big
We're somewhere in the middle of lose small and win small. In year 7 of CMY. And we really haven't gotten past that level at all. Just think we should be better than that as a program.
One thing I will say in this new era of paying players....Whit doesn't want to fund basketball. If you gave Chester Frazier $4M in Rev and $4-5M in NIL, this is a much different program. Instead Whit has them on the popcorn budget although maybe fancy popcorn this year. Hokies are thought to be 12-14 in budget/rev share/NIL in ACC in mens basketball. Young also only has 3 assistants when they are allowed 5.
I just don't see the vision for basketball. It seems the goal is to spend as little as possible and try to float along in the middle third of the conference. But what does that really matter? Can't make the tourney finishing .500 in confidence with our Non-conf SOS. Don't even make a splash in the NIT. But hey, "at least we're not Boston College"
I think CMY raises the floor of the program but it's obvious our current ceiling is a first round exit from the tourney, if that. Football will always be the straw that stirs the drink but Cassell will rock if you give them a team to believe in. If not, then apathy sets in and we all know what happens from there...
You honestly think Neo is a first round pick? You haven't been watching the games.
Oh I agree. Dude doesn't even look like he would be drafted after the season.
Doesn't change the narrative going into this year that we'd take a huge step forward and he'd be leading the way.
Sigh, we had such high hopes for the team with Lawal and Neo. Lose Lawal for 8 games and Neo has been good in what 3 games total?
Zero in ACC play for Neo
This needs to be Mikes last year. He's just not a good enough coach.
We're a .500 in-conference team at best (and at worst looking at last year) with him. Most years, that's not gonna get you into the tourney with the level of the ACC nowadays. It's just a question of what are our aspirations in basketball?
Also random thought question - who's the better VT coach: Greenberg or CMY? You can base it off any metrics you want. Results, coaching ability, talent, etc.
The important (and unfortunate) part is that the results are effectively the same.
Mike is just a much better person and easier to get along with, so he's not going to get the axe as quickly.
Classic corporate rule of being likeable is often times more important than being good at your job. I'd much rather have an asshole coach that wins than someone that is easy to like.
Why not both?
Stylistically, the two are not the same. Results wise, CMY is trending towards being a non-asshole version of Seth Greenberg
the difference being, I think, Greenberg did it in a tougher ACC. I think the version of the ACC that CMY is playing in is softer than the version Greenberg was in. The ACC has gotten worse over the last decade so Greenberg was probably the better coach, to be honest. I like CMY. But being likeable doesn't win you ballgames (to that end, being an asshole doesn't either....my point isn't that likeable guys can't win. My point is that you don't keep someone around just because they're nice if the results don't meet their goals)
I agree with alot of this. Consider how many Hall of Fame coaches have left the ACC the last few years. That talent drain alone makes this a much weaker conference. Then add in Cal and Stanford to the bottom third of the conference and several other schools, us included, not adjusting financially to stay competitive and it all points to a weaker conference now.
Not going to happen with the money we just invested into football. Gonna have to live with Young for a few seasons until the football revenue starts to pick back up
His buyout is $3M. I think we can swing it.
The problem isn't the buyout, the problem will be trying to hire a replacement when the entire NCAA Coaching world knows how financially hamstrung Young has been. In a recent poll of coaches the VT job was ranked 14th in the ACC. The only schools it beat out were Georgia Tech, Stanford, Cal, and Boston College. It was a precipitous drop from 11th -Wake Forest with 96 points to FSU, Pitt and VT 12-14 at 65 for FSU and 62 points for Pitt and VT. Only reason Pitt was tied with us is they are the only ACC school without a separate practice facility.
Until that changes I dont see Whit in any hurry to fire Young and have to start over.
Poll Article Here
I'm hopeful that Whit is on his way out as well. He's proven to be in over his head and I hope the comments he made about not being long for VT will come true sooner rather than later.
Are we (still) so financially hamstrung that we can't fully invest in both football and basketball? How much is it to fund a competitive basketball program nowadays?
It's a damning indictment on Whit that you publicly let funding for your two revenue sports fall so far behind your peers. We're just now fixing football, but basketball is still in a bad shape reportedly.
I get football is the straw that stirs the drink and always will be, but the measure of being "competitive" seems easier in basketball vs football. Top 40-ish gets you in the tourney most years. Top 25 gets you a decent seed even. You're usually not even sniffing a conference championship in football unless you're in the top 15 or better.
Well, at least I can say Hokie Nation was well represented at the game, place was not even half full and there we at least 100 Hokies there. Brutal end for my first live game I'm almost 20 years
These losses are squarely on Mike Young as much as I want to blame the free throw shooting. Three late game situations with three terrible game plans and team management.
If we can do that our metrics are fine (we actually went up in kenpom after our loss) the committee selecting teams sees we lost our quad one games but a 1-2 points, we're gonna be fine.
NEO should be nowhere on the floor when you need good defenders or FT shooters in the game. He should have been throwing the ball in on the inbounds since he's 6'9" and his best skill is passing, not having Hammond (one of our best FT shooters) throw it in to Neo. Then to have Neo in the lane when all they could do was an alley oop or tap in was also on Mike young. THEN to have Neo guard the in bounds instead of doubling their quickest and best player for the final shot with Bedford and Hammond or someone quicker was also on Mike young.
This is still a good team but they don't have a coach that can handle end of game management and chess moves. Despite the fact that all three end of game heaves were somewhat bad luck, all the games should have never had a chance to win it on the end game heave if Mike would have managed those end of game situations better. Something's gotta give and either we regress to the mean and the bad luck runs out on those heaves, or mikes gotta reach out to someone for help on how he should be coaching these tight games.
UNC lost to Stanford, which again would have boosted us through the ceiling had we maintained our lead there. Duke barely beat SMU with Boopie out on their home court. All of these teams are beatable with the squad we have if we can finish a damb game. We're going to have to find 7-8 more wins out of the games remaining so it's time for one of those February winning heaters Mike loves to go on to start a little early.
Spot on. This team is better than the teams we have lost to, which makes it incredibly frustrating to watch. CMY deserves criticism although Im not ready to fire him over it.
However, that Vandy coach is starting to look pretty attractive.
What you're actually saying is, we need to hire whoever is coaching JMU atm.
That does seem to be a pretty good trend. However I like the idea of a Roanoke native that has been on VT's staff before........ that also coached at JMU.
If you give CMY a hard time about something it should be "why so many close games?" and not "CMY is bad in end of game coaching and close games". The fact is our record in these close games is still quite good. His end of game coaching has still helped us win 4 OT games and many of these closely contested games. These close games do tend to average out and that is what we are seeing. You can blame some of the coaching decisions, some of the missed FT's, some untimely TO's. But for every one of those, you can point to good coaching decisions, made FT's, clutch plays in the games we did win.
For me, CMY needs to be focused on why we are in so many close, down to the wire games. He should be figuring out how to motivate this team to get a lead and play with a lead and protect and grow a lead.
Your points on Neo are spot on though. He looks so good sometimes and looks so bad other times. The other coaches have figured it out to...SMU wanted that match-up in the lane for the tip-in, and it worked. CMY seems hesitant to take the ball out of his hands or take him off the floor in those moments. I think the assumption is that Neo is an incredible talent and CMY is painfully taking these hits because he is expecting a sudden leap in Neo's comfort level out there, his performance and ability to take over the games the way he did at Providence and the way we have seen some of these smaller point guards do to us recently (Okarie, Maltese for Wake, I know I got that spelling wrong, and Boopie for SMU). He is just trusting that Neo is going to be that player, and it just hasn't happened yet. Hopefully it does!
Neo needs to stop shooting contested 3s. Half the reason why we are in close games is because the moment we get up 5 or 7 pts, Neo will jack up a contested 3 and kill any offensive momentum we have. I don't mean to be hard on the kid because he has so much talent but he makes boneheaded plays at the wrong moments.
It should be pretty simple for him, drive or back down a player to the paint and shoot layups/mid range/fadeaway or get fouled. Only shoot wide open 3s because he cannot consistently make contested 3s. And then when the game is late, let Hammond or Bedford handle the ball and let Neo work off ball or take it on the offensive side. He is an elite passer but he is not a press breaking PG.
This part is the mental and physical dilemma of someone moving from Euro ball to American basketball. He has been coached for fifteen years to play passive team defense and facing passive team defense. They dont play physical offense so he has to learn to do that.
With the Tourney likely out of hand, at least I don't have to sit around and watch every game as if winning them matters and then get bummed if we lose.
I have to imagine the team checks out on the season now. I expect to see some individual performances just so they can go get paid somewhere else next season. I'm sick of the mediocrity with CMY.
Remember making a comment like this on a VT basketball thread a while ago:
So, I guess it's a good thing that I have no interest in and don't pay any attention to basketball, isn't it.
This says it all
CMY is the top guy and he will get the heat, but it wasn't him that missed those free throws last night and cost us the game.
It was him though that directed the inbounds play that allowed their only real scoring threat to catch the ball running at the basket.
It was Young who called the inbounds play to Avdalas at the baseline that became another clutch turnover to cost us a game.
Think we all agree MY is not THE reason we lost but he is A reason of about three that have occurred in multiple consecutive games now; Mike young and poor game planning in end of game situations being the constant variable
Part of the problem is I dont know which assistant is doing the in game strategy evaluations. It had been Kevin Giltner before he got hired to be Wofford HC. Whichever one it is is doing a pretty poor job.
Oh, I agree wholeheartedly, but last night, I saw missed free throws causing the loss regardless of how poorly coach set things up.
Watched those last three or four endings back again. Find it interesting in the wake game we had 7 seconds left. Stanford we had 2.7. Apparently every team can win games against us even down four with this much time left, but we can't even inbound the ball or get a shot off with a prayer. Up 4 with 7 seconds SMU beats us. Up four with what 6 seconds and UVA takes us to another OT? Why can't we even get the ball in bounds
This is why whoever is doing the game planning is piss poor. It used to be Kevin Giltner and he did a much better job of using the right people in each role each time. It usually was using players consistently in those roles too. Seems this season they are constantly changing up the inbounders and the receivers. These guys dont have enough muscle memory with each other to do that but they keep doing it.
And it's not just end of game or end of half situations. There have been multiple occasions this year where we've had a hard time inbounding under our own basket or from the sideline. Mike Young (or Giltner) have historically drawn up good inbounds plays. But this year they are much more hard to come by. I don't know if it's lack of play design or lack of situational awareness. But it's something that needs to be addressed quickly.
Hypothetically, if there is 7 seconds to go with a four point lead, can you throw the ball to the other foul line and even if they intercept it cleanly, what's the chances they make two shots before time expires?
Same mentality should have been applied against Stanford. Could they score 13 in 2:52 if we just held the ball? Neo wasted 40 seconds of clock in last two minutes by shooting unnecessary 3s. He also had two terrible turnovers in that same period.