Hokie Hoops Central:
Virginia Tech (17-9)
at
Miami (20-5)
8pm
ACCN
Miami -7.5
O/U: 150.5
ESPN Analytics: Miami 80%
Will be piecing this together. My home WiFi has been blocking TheKeyPlay since Friday and haven't been able to figure out how to fix it.
What team is in Miami?
The tale of two games. Dominate at top 20 opponent on the road versus getting obliterated by a sub-.500 opponent at home. So hard to tell where this team is mentally. FSU was the first game that looked like they quit.
Miami is 20-5, but they also lost to FSU and lost to Cal and Clemson. Their other two losses were to top 10 teams at the time in BYU and Florida. Their only notable win was over UNC. Its a team that beat almost all the teams it should have and struggled against other top teams. Do the Hokies have the athleticism to beat them? Absolutely. Will they put it together tonight? Honestly no idea.
Under Jai Lucas this season, Miami's defensive identity has shifted toward a more pressure-oriented, guard-driven system built around ball containment, switching versatility, and tempo disruption.
Miami primarily plays half-court man-to-man, focused on ball pressure the entire length of the floor, hard point-of-attack containment, and disrupting timing early in possessions. The goal is to speed up decisions without overcommitting to traps.
Lucas emphasizes his Guards picking up opponents early, forcing ball handlers to one side, and fighting over ball screens aggressively. This helps them force opponents to initiate offense later in the shot clock and disrupts opponents specific play calls. With similar-sized wings, they're comfortable switching on most perimeter actions. They rely on deflections, hands in passing lanes and forcing rushed reads to create turnovers that feed transition opportunities.
Miami's offense has taken on a guard-centric, tempo-aware, spacing-driven identity built around downhill pressure, shot creation, and advantage basketball.
The core of the offense is high ball screen play, particularly in a 4-out, 1-in formation using flat or angled screens at the top, shooters in the strong-side corner, and an attacker coming from weak-side at same time as dribble penetration.
Lucas prioritizes his ballhandlers reads to start with a drive to the rim, if stopped utilizing a lob or pocket pass to the roller. If the psint touch isnt available they will look for a pass to a weak-side shooter or to shoot a three if defender goes under the screen. Lucas encourages guards to attack decisively — hesitation dribbles are limited. It's read-and-go basketball.
Offensively, the Canes in ACC play are shooting 57.8% inside, 29% from 3 and 68% from the line. Strikingly FSU-esque in numbers. Probably means they will shoot 40% inside but 65% from 3 against the Hokies. Turnovers are about even, rebounding they have an advantage but both their and opponents totals are very low. Likely because they allow opponents to shoot 52% inside and nearly 37% from 3.
This season shows just how fast a program can flip the script when you get a high profile coach and give him an open checkbook to buy a team. Going from 7-24 to 20-5 in one season. Miami's top eight contributors are five transfers and three freshmen. Only about 2% of scoring is from a member of last season's team.
Canes Starters
Malik Reneau
#5 SR F 6-9 233
20.1 Pts, 6.6 Reb, 2.2 Ast
Tre Donaldson
#3 SR G 6-2 190
15.8 Pts, 3.7 Reb, 6.0 Ast
Shelton Henderson
#7 FR F 6-6 240
14.5 Pts, 4.8 Reb, 2.0 Ast
Tru Washington
#10 JR G 6-4 195
11.9 Pts, 4.0 Reb, 1.7 Ast
Ernest Udeh
#8 SR C 6-11 250
7.0 Pts, 9.5 Reb, 0.4 Ast
Canes Bench
Dante Allen
#35 FR G 6-4 220
6.7 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 2.4 Ast
Timotej Malovec
#88 FR F 6-8 214
5.0 Pts, 1.7 Reb, 1.0 Ast
Noam Dovrat
#14 JR G 6-5 213
2.9 Pts, 0.6 Reb, 1.3 Ast
Salih Altuntas
#11 FR C 6-10 274
2.0 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 0.2 Ast
Out
Marcus Allen
#4 SO G 6-7 220
5.3 Pts, 3.1 Reb, 1.6 Ast
Hokies need to force Miami into multiple resets on offense as this seems to be where they make the most mistakes. Miami struggles late in possessions so the longer a shot clock winds down the better for the Hokies.
This is a game I really wish Young would consider using mostly zone, along the lines of the Pack Line Defense, where they clog up the paint. Miami excels with guards getting to the rim.
Miami also benefits from second chance scoring as their bigs compete for rebounds rather than setting up defense. The Hokies need to limit the offensive rebounds for the Canes.
On offense, the goal should be to get in the paint and control the tempo. Miami is susceptible to easy baskets when you force them to switch at the point of attack.
I know the Hokies this season prefer to go faster but if they can force a snails pace it will frustrate Miami on both ends.
Comments
LETS GO!
HOKIES!
Well after the flop on Saturday we desperately need another Quad 1 win. Hope it comes tonight.
Fuck Miami. That is all.
My thoughts about the game...
Yessiree Bob. My thoughts also.
Which Hokie team will show up?
OR
"Snake Plisskin? I thought you were dead!"
OK updates complete. Back to my WiFi
Tyler Johnson out again tonight
F
Currently watching BC putting FSU in hell. Of course
Start with a three minute scoring drought...and zero defense on other end
Why is NEO handling the point with Hammond on the court?
They are letting Miami get away with using the pick guy as a moving screen all the way to the basket. Three times their big has come to the free throw line on a pick, then as he drops back down, the dribbler follows him in. Its like watching a RB follow a pulling Guard.
Beach ball clusterfuck...hope a tech fans throws another on court. Tech Foul on Miami
Twice now Pasha has been at the rim and decided to pass into a turnover.
Not sure why Pasha has suddenly been getting run.
Turnovers now on three of our last four possessions
Wow that foul on Lawal was such bullshit. You cant block a shot cleaner. Only way that ball flies as far as it did.
Neo just watched the guy lay it in
Get up 18-14...another 3+ minute drought and trailing
Nah...just have no one in the paint instead
...and again
Why the FUCK is ACCN airing commercials in spanish? This ain't Telemundo.
They air what they can get. If the company wants it in Spanish, ACCN isnt going to say no, especially if it pays more than Spurtle.
no call on the chicken wing
I have seen #11 from Miami on To Catch a Predator.
So, I'm guessing I'm seeing ads for next years Super Bowl all over the place because of the lack of eyes on this years game?
Maybe one of you basketball nerds can help me understand the "block/box out" under the rim where the offensive player basically pushes the defender completely out of bounds while his teammate drives to the rim. Why is that not a foul? And if it isn't, why doesn't CMY use his big bodies to do the same?
I mentioned it above. It should have been called four or five times in the half. Its essentially a moving screen but they aren't calling it.
They didn't call so much shit on Miami it wasn't funny. It truly was five on eight in Miami.
I think I saw this movie over the weekend. Maybe we actually come out of the locker room for the second half this time.
need to limit the 2nd chance points. they've got us 8-2 in first half.
...and yet these coaches get paid to scout opponents and plan for it
I think I'd rather Neo shoot and miss than not even looking for a shot.
Announcer says guy only got 5 points in first half and it happens alot but he always manages to get to double digit scoring.
Last I checked 5+5 =10
Second half opponent shooting 85% ✅️
I just got tired watching them run up and down the court... whew!
Dorn having by far his best game as a Hokie. Not perfect but big positive impact
Yup just needs to be a space filler and play solid defense. He's been running the floor well and going straight to the rim and finding which is a huge bonus.
Our mens commentators are so much less useful than the womens one. The womens broadcast on VT app you can picture the game as it's going... The mens is a glorified audio box score
Braindead turnover. Zero floor awareness
...and then Hansberry GDit
I wonder if we can just skip the last 3 minutes of the game.
Love the lack of any defensive adjustment to Miami running their entire offense thru #3.
Yeah continue to get beat at point and no help defense to stop the drive. Zone fixes thst most likely but Young just wont do it
Hard to scheme against moving screens / pivoting screens
Yes Donaldson is good but how is Hammond getting torched off the bounce like this? His on ball D is very inconsistent.
And yes, play a freaking zone for one minute
It was actually Bedford getting beat around the screen the majority of the time with Donaldson. If you are REALLY concerned about Donaldson shooting 3s, go to a box and one. The one goes wherever Donaldson goes.
7:13 last FG
can't we play deny defense on donaldson?
I'm glad Bedford gave that up to Lawal... and I'm doubly glad Lawal just did a simple dunk
Absolutely refuse to cover #3
Mike Young basketball:
Let the other team force you to play to your weaknesses while letting them playing to their strengths
Can't believe the number of hard fouls in this game and Miami only has 4 fouls.
Hell it took three attempts and about 7 actual fouls for them to send Lawal to the line
They aren't actually allowed to call fouls on Miami, at least against Tech.
Play hard D. Foul doesn't hurt you.
This is where you throw a zone at them. Would just screw Miami up royally
Not terrible. 1-1 with 12.5 left. Would rather they press and force them to move the ball early saving clock
better block out for rebound
Expected outcome unfortunately.
I just can't with this team any more
YOU LET ONE GUY SCORE 66% OF YOUR OPPONENTS POINTS IN THE SECOND HALF
I don't think it was let as much as they illegal screened for him all night and he pushed off a lot. Bedford is a really defender and would get tossed aside leaving him to score.
I don't understand this officiating crew. They call a terrible (but consistent game). Next time we have them they'll call fouls on us for breathing on the other guy.
But as a coach seeing that, you have to change up how you approach it. Going to a 2-3 zone compacted to the lane takes away their biggest weapon of screens and rolls. How many times tonight did they get free runs at the basket? Too many
Mike Young is too stubborn to consider a zone and it cost him another win.
Donaldson would just light it up from outside
Force him to prove that rather than giving up bunnies and and 1s
He shot 70% in second half thanks to eight layups
Of course
Listening it was not clear why bedford shot a corner 3 on the fast break... Was a layup not an option?
We were allowed to get mugged all night. Free throw disparity says it all.
2 games in a row Miami won on free throws
3 obvious fouls on the last play...but they weren't calling anything all game, so they're consistent??!??
They were consistent, they just don't call fouls on Miami. With this crew, Miami might go undefeated.
Hansberry wasn't strong on the screen and Donaldson slipped it. That's where the play blew up.
Didn't look like a foul to me on the last play. Moreso the common case you see in today's game of the offensive player trying to draw contact to get a foul instead of focusing on making the shot. Refs didn't bite and Hammond lost his balance which lead to an even worse shot. But that's just one play. We lost because there was zero defensive adjustment in the 2nd half. Just Mike Young and his staff watching the same thing happen over and over with their hands in their pockets
Interested to the see the replay. Not surprised it wasn't shown. Regardless, no one should be shocked, this team has zero idea how to close out a game.
Will just leave this here. Definitely a coach failing to adjust issue.
Wow!!!! Holy Smokes!!!! This just stings. This alone tells one all they need to know....CMY is not a dynamic coach at all. Mixing in zone form time to time, at the very least to just throw off your opponent off, would have more than likely changed the outcome of 4 of our losses, maybe a 5th.
And, I'm not even taking into consideration our inability to close games.
I didn't watch this game, but my son did. Here's his text to me.....about says it all and I am glad I didn't watch this game.
What a fucking sorry ass team
Loss by one point
Up by 5 with 2:30 left. In the last 2:30 we scored one fucking point.
1 fucking free throw in 2 minutes and fucking 30 seconds.
Tobi turns the ball over and fouls them with 12 seconds left. They make one free throw and that's the game.
And of course we get the last second shot and Ben Hammond misses a 9 foot shot.
This. Team. Fucking. Sucks. So. Much. Ass.
This is just as true about the late-game collapses.
Letting something happen once maybe twice is just part of competitive sports.
But not making adjustments to trends that are clearly harming your team just isn't good coaching.
The reluctance to play any Zone ever is baffling to me at this level. I thought Chester Frazier was supposed to be a "defensive specialist??"
And it's not like we're getting beat by Lottery picks--Miller, Donaldson, and Calmese are all probably fringey UDFA/Summer League guys at best.
Its just really not good enough coaching at this level, sorry CMY.
For me, this sums up the CMY era.
Since CMY is so rigid, I am more than happy to coach his static system, but make the plain to see adjustments for a third of his salary.
Take the delta and hire a strong assistant and put the remaining towards NIL.
I would also reduce my buyout to $1M.
If this were the case right now, we very well may be 22-5 (11-3). We would be top 3 in ACC and ranked this season.
But in reality, if CMY made some obvious adjustments, we would be in the top 4/5 in the ACC, well on our way to the Dance, and possibly ranked for sure. And, all of this his completely in his and the team's reach. It isn't because of bonehead coaching and players doing boneheaded things in the last minutes game after game.
Yes there were plenty of blown calls. CMY needs to adjust. Bad officiating doesn't forgive an inability to coach. I want to see NEO coming in off the bench. A starting 5 of Hammond, Bedford, Schutt, Lawal, and Hansberry interest me more.
Sorry to hear you all had to suffer through watching that game. My BP is escalating quickly just reading your comments.
What a waste these last 7 years have been. Aside from being ACC champs in 2022 (a season which, I remind you, was preceded by some head-scratcher losses), we haven't done anything in the postseason (NCAA or NIT). We can sometimes win big battles, but we never come close to winning the war. All the momentum of Buzz and the flash-in-the-pan ACC champs has done practically nothing for the program as a whole...plans to modernize Cassell disappeared into the ether just like the Homer Simpson bushes meme. But yay! We got bigger scoreboards for more ad space! In some respects I wonder if MBB got long-term screwed over by that ACC tourney run the same way football got screwed over by CJF getting to the ACCCG with Beamer's players. Several years later and nothing to be proud of. Hopefully the rumors I have heard will prove to be true and we'll part ways with CMY soon. Then we can make a monster MBB coaching hire who will bring CMY (who by every measure is a great guy/Hokie) back on as an assistant 😜
Deja vu
Unfortunately unless those rumors come with a minimum $7M a year increase in overall funding, I dont see the path to a monster head coach. If you want the top of the market type coach the program would need $10-$15M more annually between NIL/Operating budget.
Facilities, even to rehab Cassell would now require $100M+ so that is probably off the table.
Yup. More SSDD in terms of missing the boat on investing when the time is right. We just sit back, bask in the glow of the good times, expecting it to last forever without any additional effort or investment.
And just to be clear, I am not expecting major investments in basketball like we are allegedly doing in football. I was merely looking backwards on all the missed opportunity to build that program up when success was achieved.
Yeah the Merryman way to do more with less mentality. Young made them giddy with the ACCCG win, thinking they could keep spending that way and still win, discounting how critical NIL has become.
Well and I kept hearing how these new transfers were big money and going to raise the floor. The strong start seemed to reinforce that.
We are marginally improved at best.
Yeah I can ask the PM about the project... last I checked in with him was post pandemic and the base option was well over $100m pre pandemic pricing with his guess being base reno would now be over $200m with the pricing we are seeing now. Pretty much every campus capital project is going to VE now due to cost increases.
VE?
Value Engineering probably. Where we go through the project and figure out what to cut.
Value Engineering. Delete 'nice to haves'; go cheap everywhere; delete anything that can be done as a future add-on. So that in the end, nobody gets what they wanted and the project many times doesn't come close to the original concept.
Ah it depends on the project delivery and willingness of owner-contractor-design team to be open. Budget can be saved by improving constructability, reducing superfluous scope, making product substitutions, revising specifications, etc that may not detract much at all from the original project programming.
But yes, most of the time it's putting things on the chopping block and figuring out what you can live with. Especially with today's market and budgets that were set a decade ago.
Every project everywhere is going to VE now. Inflation doesn't exist in the construction world according to owners.
Are those rumors based on something with actual substance or people just assuming things because of CMY's age and the fact that he's scaled back his recruiting efforts* which sometimes indicates a coach on his way out?
*The other and likely possibility is he is punting on traditional recruiting (something I don't agree with) and focusing solely on portal and international players.
Do tell...
Maybe an emotional reaction, but CMY needs to go. We have the talent to be better than this. We SHOULD be better than this. This does not appear to be a talent gap - this is an issue with the system and not molding it around our player's strengths.
Can the players actually play zone? Have we tried in practice and been horrible?
I played all sorts of zone in travel basketball as a kid: 1/3/1, Box & 1, 2/3 effectively. I sure as hell hope these D1 college basketball players can play zone.
EDIT: we were a legit team that had set offensive basketball plays, were taught a number of defenses, and I was taught how to box out and rebound. This was in the 4th and 5th grade. In all my post adolescence, I was always the rebounding machine.
Our coach was George Sullivan, former St Leo University HC and HOF inductee. It was a blessing having him coach us. His IQ and ability to teach kids that level of basketball was an amazing experience.
Can they play zone? Sure they can! If not, they shouldn't be on a D1 basketball team.
We're not asking to play zone 100% of the time, a la Boeheim's syracuse teams. But on occasion when the situation calls for it. For example, last night miami ran pick and roll after pick and roll against our man-to-man and kept making lay-ups. Switch to a 2x3 zone and you make them do something different for a few possessions. When donaldson got super hot, change to a box and 1 and try to deny him the ball for a few possessions. Sometimes you need to protect one of your own players from foul trouble. Zone sometimes helps you do that.
Is a zone defense a cure all? No. But sometimes it shakes things up for an opponent. Makes them take time to recognize what's going on. Just disrupts them for a few possessions.
If you keep doing the same things over and over, you are going to get the same results!
I had turned it off before 12-5 Miami not expecting a repeat of Clemson after FSU happened. I wasn't expecting to find out we led much of the game.