The Virginia Tech men's basketball team has four fatal flaws: having only one reliable big man, defensive rebounding, free throw shooting and turnovers. All of which came back to haunt the Hokies in the final 20 minutes of their 58-61 loss at Penn State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
Everything was going according to Buzz Williams' plan for most of the first half. Tech was getting great play in the paint from Joey van Zegeren, forced a ton of Nittany Lion turnovers through ball pressure and played at a tempo that created transition opportunities.
The troubles the team had earlier in the season weren't an issue. Every single player boxed out well, which lead to clean rebound chances for JVZ, Justin Bibbs and Ahmed Hill. For the most part everyone played within themselves, didn't force anything and let the offense flow through the post. By doing that, Tech's first turnover in the game was at the 1:44 mark in the first half.
Everything was going well, and though the Hokies went into the half trailing by three, it was easy to feel good about their chances.
Then the second half happened.
The Hokies gave up 10 offensive rebounds and turned the ball over seven times in the final frame. They struggled to hit shots as Penn State extended their half court defense, which put them on the wrong end of a 19-2 run at one point in time. van Zegeren picked up his fourth foul with just over 10 minutes to go in the game, which left Tech devastatingly undersized for stretches of game time (Shane Henry had to play center by the end of the game).
To their credit this team fought until the bitter end, despite not having a thing go their way. Hill had a chance to send the game to overtime with a three-ball, but it (fittingly) rattled out at the buzzer.
Though the game was quite disappointing compared to what it could have been, I'm not going to write in much more detail about the negatives. We know exactly what this team struggles with, and those things will be problems all year. What I'd like to focus on are the signs of progress that the team exhibited and how they can grow going forward.
Obviously, the first place to start is with the big man down low. Joey created a huge mismatch with the Nittany Lion post players, dominating close to the rim. His wingspan made him tower over his defender at all times, and his favorite hook shot could barely be contested on the block. The most underrated part of van Zegeren's night, however, was what set him apart from Penn State's big man.
If you watched the game you probably didn't realize, but there was a seven footer on the opposing bench as well. Jordan Dickerson was by far the biggest player wearing black and pink on Wednesday, he's listed at 7'0", 240 lbs, yet only played 16 minutes because he couldn't keep up. The pace was lively for the majority of the game and it simply wore the big fella down quickly. JVZ, on the other hand, excelled with the tempo. He got his touches in the post, but was also moving extremely well. He was slipping off of screens and even put the ball on the deck and drove to the hoop a few times.
Fouls will always be an issue, but JVZ is the perfect compliment to a small lineup. He can move well enough to defend other undersized units while also exposing them on the other end. His big problem is obviously free throw shooting, where his 0-7 performance was a disastrously sour note to an otherwise huge night.
Before all you go to the comments and hit me with a "practice more free throws!!!", I think we have to acknowledge that it goes deeper than that. For one, big guys' hands are often disproportionately large compared to the basketball, which makes free throws a struggle for post guys. Secondly, he's doing what you would want mechanically, and if you look closely you can see him break down each step in the free throw shooting process. He lines up his hand on the ball, sets his form and let's go an often good-looking shot. They just don't often hit the mark.
For all of the great advantages that Joey brings to the table, I'm not sure that he can close out games offensively if he can't correct his foul shooting.
On another positive note, van Zegeren wasn't the only person to make stuff happen in the lane. Bibbs showed a nice streak as a playmaker, Hill's cuts around the rim made the defense sweat and Devin Wilson did a nice job creating shots. He may have only ended the day with 3 assists, but there were plenty of open shots that simply didn't go down.
I'm still not sold on Jalen Hudson as a secondary ball handler, but he played defense like a banshee on Wednesday night. If that's a way that he can channel his athleticism, he'll always have a roll on Buzz's team as a primary defender and secondary playmaker. That's not a bad spot to be in as a freshman.
You could tell that this team wanted to get out and run, and at times they did. Hill is a menace filling the lane on a fast break, and I'll start to feel robbed if we don't see at least one transition dunk from him a game. The best part of playing small is that practically every player on the floor can grab a rebound and start a fast break, which in theory should ramp up the chances to run.
The only snag to that is sometimes the young guns are too eager to play fast. If they try to get out too quickly, they'll forget the most important part of a fast break: the rebound. Sometimes, in their haste, everyone will start to leak down the floor only to see their man grab a rebound. It not only gives the opposing team a second chance, but it also limits their chance turn up the tempo. We saw this a few times against Penn State, and they paid the price for it.
This game was incredibly frustrating, and I feel for all of you who finally got the chance to watch a Hokie hoops game on something other than a computer screen. Despite solid stretches of play,they ended up showing their youth and then made some mistakes that cost them the game.
The good news? Tech won't often shoot 38.5% from the floor, some of those shots will eventually fall. Let's just hope that it will happen sooner rather than later, and that this defeat is yet another building block on which this young team can learn.
That may be too positive a take to have after a loss, but with a young team like this I'm not really sure we have much of a choice.
Comments
Very solid summary of the game, Brian. I think your perspective is the preferred one on this game. Yes, it was incredibly frustrating to see them lose a game they had every chance to win, and a critical OOC game at that. But on the other hand, that is part of life with an extremely young team.
JVZ played a great game excepting his FT shooting which was inexcusable. As you mentioned, he is 'now' (only recently) using good technique. Thus, down the road, we won't have to witness 0-fers from the stripe by him. He'll learn the the form. It would have been nice to see him hit half of those FTs, but as we all know, this season is about learning the process.
Another positive to take from this game is that we are seeing clear signs of several different players 'getting it' in regards to what Buzz & staff are coaching them. That's good to see, and bodes well that they are picking this up so early in the season. We'll need great efforts from them in ACC play.
A tough loss, but lots of pearls amidst the mud, so to speak. Now it is at home with Radford on Sunday!
I think you make some great points, especially with regard to two things:
My biggest concern with this game was the offenses inability to execute when Penn State played disciplined defense. PSUs positioning improved dramatically in the 2nd Half and the pick-and-rolls that helped spark the 1st half offense were sniffed out early. The ball handlers up top would move off the failed picks/screens only to find little offensive rotation. The offense became very stationary and lacked aggressive driving, movement off the ball and the resultant open shooters. This team doesnt have one guy that excels at creating his own shot off the dribble (a la Malcolm Delaney, Erick Green or even Ben Emelogu last season), so its efficiency depends on creating open shots and executing them with consistency.
The good news is, as you mentioned, these are things that tend to happen with inexperienced teams and will almost surely improve as the season goes on. A lot of bright spots despite the disappointing loss. Great summary, Brian - my apologies for the essay.
I was encouraged by two things last night:
1. Defense. -- Early in the game, it was clear what our strategy was to handle Newbill and it worked perfectly. As the announcers said, Newbill isn't a high volume shooter for a scorer of his skill, but his lack of shots in the first half was a sign of the defense. He just wasn't given much room to breathe. And, unlike the UNI game, we closed out on the three well. They made a few, but they were in large part contested looks. Finally, in the last 3 mins when we went to pressure, it worked. We can do more of that. VT is significantly improved on the defensive end under Buzz.
2. 4-Guard Lineup -- My concern all year was how often our unusual 4G lineup would be a detriment, last night it was our opponent who couldn't matchup with us for much of the game. You mentioned Dickerson, but their other bigs struggled to handle our athleticism as well. Villanova has had a few really good teams that played out of 4G lineups. We are probably too young this year to have significant success with our 4G, but I'm looking for signs that our lineup is more troublesome for the opponent than it is a detriment for us.
1. We out hustled Penn State for most of the game. Buzz' work ethic mentality is working - I think we wore down in the stretch.
2. Penn State #2 started taking over in the final 10 minutes, we need to address our ability to maintain curtailing opposing team's playmakers (we did pretty good early in the game).
3. Bibbs missed a lot of free throws also. Somehow we have to get our better freethrow shooters fouled more often - maybe our offense doesn't work that way.
4. It's funny that almost everyone had problems shooting from the outside and elbow. You'd think someone would still be able to hit shots... whatever hex was going around affected all of our guards (we played 4 for most of the game)
5. Whom is our other center? Man he needs to learn to box out and move, he seems glued to the floor. Hope he gets better. JVZ needs some support.
We should have won that game by 5, easily.
Satchel Paige is our other big man. One has to remember that he is similar to JVZ in that he is growing into his skill set, and will probably be a better player for us as a Jr/Sr than JVZ is, which would be great for us. Until then, he is in that tentative, unconfident period of learning college hoops at a high level. He'll get there, but this season will feature a lot of moments of learning, shall we say.
I agree with you on this. I thought for sure the JVZ was going to be a project that wasn't going to quite pan out. However, he sounds like he's been pretty impressive this season so far. I wonder how much of that is Buzz or just the light finally clicking on. Either way, I think the team is ahead of schedule. I didn't expect them to be nearly as competitive as they currently are. The current progress is pleasing, regardless of the W/L column.
I think JVZ's progress is a combination of the two. For the first time since he's been at VT, he's gotten good, solid coaching. Add in his maturity and comfort in his skin, so to speak, and he's becoming the player predicted when he was recruited. I think he & Satchel will make a good combo next year for us as bigs, then Satchel will take over in two seasons and be more of a dominant defender than JVZ, and possibly as talented offensively.
You just really have to like how JVZ has evolved. A big, banging guy who doesn't shy from the battle. very solid.
I agree 100%! Man has come a long way from being a stiff. But he can't go 0-7 from the free throw line. Can't.
No disagreement there at all. Especially since FT shooting is something that there is NO excuse for a player not practicing on his own time. No reason for anybody, regardless of size of gracefulness to average less than 60% from the line.
just a heads up for everyone just in case you didnt know. any time our hoops game is on any of the espn networks no matter which one it could be espn deportes 11 instead of watching from your comp if you have xbox 360/one PS3/4 you can down load the espn app and stream the games live. not sure if this is old news or not but wanted to throw it out there for alot of people who search the TV see we are not on and then give up. also i good way to go back and watch old hokie games football, basketball or most other sports i guess. im not sure i dont watch anything else but there is an option for it.
What happened with that strange play off a missed 1&1? The one where PSU hit an uncontested layup while everyone stayed for a second free throw. Was there some confusion over if it was a shooting foul? I only saw the high(low?)light... Ah, got the embed code:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/virginia-tech-s-cluelessn...
I believe the referree that called the foul said it was on the floor so he treated it as 1-and-1 but the ref under the basket indicated to the players that they were shooting two. Watch as he walks out into the lane after the first miss, as if to take the ball and give it back to the shooter. You can definitely see the two refs in the replay have totally different stances towards the miss. One gets ready to sprint back up court, while the other just stands there.
I had many issues with the officials last night, especially in the second half. I dont usually get upset if calls are consistent, but there were quite a few times in the second half where our guards drove the lane, Devin on at least three occassions, with no fouls called, yet on the other end, you have quite a few ticky tack calls that dramatically changed the game in Penn States favor. The last foul on JVZ about made me throw my remote at the television
That officiating crew had me yelling at the screen at times. Inexplicable off the ball fouls, walks. It made the game all the more frustrating to me.
ref under the basket goes to get the miss and everyone on the court and in the arena thought it was 2...jr high officiating
That never even happens in house league. Even the announcers thought he had another shot.
I actually came away from that game feeling very good about the direction of the basketball team. We are better right now than we were at the start of the season. Most of our errors last night were of the inexperienced team variety, and that will only improve as time passes. The way we played last night, we play that same game against that same Penn St team 2 years from now, we win the game by 20, easily.
What I'm seeing right now is a team that as a whole is still catching up to the speed of the collegiate game. There were a ton of times last night we would go on a break, or get an offensive rebound, and then put up a low percentage shot, simply because we were near the rim. With time, the game will slow down for them, and they will pull in the reigns and they will set up an offense when the numbers just aren't there for a shot. And the very encouraging thing about last night is that we showed when we get open looks, we have players that can and will knock them down.
What's our record in the B1G challenge? Can't be that good.
3-6 now, I think.
You just get the feels in your gut that we shouldn't be losing to teams like PSU.
Actually, Penn State was favored by ten points over us in that game. Penn State is farther along in their construction of their basketball program. They might not have a lot of basketball history to the casual observer, but we have even less. In less than five years, your statement should hold true. Until then, we have a lot of ground to cover.
I know. I wasn't referring to this season so much as I think it was a few years ago when we did have the talent and personnel to whoop them and ended up choking another chicken. Certain things and aspects that tick me. I feel like my expectations have risen slightly with Buzz coming on. No I don't expect us to make the dance but I figured we could do the NIT.
You mean the NIT this season? Wow. Keep in mind the same deliberations occur for the NIT as for the NCAA tourney, and the NIT is a function of the larger tourney now. People should only expect to make the NIT if they fall into the range of winning record overall and nearly .500 conference record or better. For use that translates into a 16-15 regular season with seven conference wins in the toughest conference in the nation. Seven wins in the ACC is far above what any expert has predicted for us this season. Expecting an NIT bid is just overly optimistic. It would be great if that happened, but that would earn Buzz Coach Of The Year awards if we accomplished that. That's too much to expect. Setting the bar at 12-plus wins is a lot more realistic.
There aren't many teams a program thats loaded with freshmen in a non-super team of 1 and dones (Kentucky) should beat. As far as I'm concerned, I have no expectations for this team in the win/loss column this year. Largely, its meaningless. I expect us to be competitive most night, and to give a scare to a team or two later in the year that we really have no business hanging with. Right now, my expectations have largely been met.
Another sad little nugget on our loss....with how the rest of last night played out, if we had managed to win, we would have helped the ACC split the Challenge, as it was with our loss and UNC, the Big Ten wins again. I dont know how many of you watched the Georgia Tech game after ours but they are really really good. Looking at our ACC slate we may not be close to winning a game in conference until Jan 31st against Wake Forest because of how front loaded our slate is.
There have been a lot of positives regarding Buzz Williams' energy level. I have a reliable #source that was at two of our games at the Cancun Challenge. They told me Buzz is kind of crazy, which really isn't newsworthy; we all know, he is super detail-oriented, a workaholic, and a perfectionist, but this was in a more negative light.
My #source said Buzz singled out a player in the huddle with more intensity and viciousness than he/she has ever seen. Obviously, that comes with the territory, but my point is that all preseason reports were that the players were bought into Buzz. As the losses mount, so will the frustration, and if players aren't meeting Buzz's expectations and being singled out, well then, my feeling is that we should expect some more attrition after the season.
I believe Itrepeter2000 has predicted some level of attrition, but IMO this becomes more likely with more losses.
Just thought I'd share that information as many of us haven't been able to go to game and watch the bench and Buzz closely.
If you had been able to go to the games and closely watched the bench and seen how Buzz treated the players and how they responded, then you'd know the concern you raised is not a concern.
Yes, Buzz is OCD. Yes Buzz is demanding. Yes Buzz challenges his players in practice and games. He says so himself publicly and often. If one takes the time to look beyond any negative connotations to that, it would also be clear that Buzz then rebuilds the players after criticizing them to the degree that the players understand his point.
I've attended all the home games. I've watched Buzz turn his back on the action on the floor to review some point with a player while standing in the corner of the sideline/baseline. Go through his point, then make sure the player understood, slap him on the butt and send him to sit for a while. I've seen him do that many times in every game.
There will be players who can't handle the demands. There will be many more who perform better through Buzz's tactics. Buzz has been careful to not create any type of numerical bar for his team to meet this year. He understands far better than casual fans that this season is about the learning process, not about losses that might mount. The fear of a terror of a coach is vastly misplaced.
Thanks for the response. Good to hear. Hopefully the players have the same realistic expectations as Buzz.
I can't wait to see how everything develops over the next couple of seasons.
By all indications thus far, the players have bought in very much into Buzz's philosophy.
One difference in Buzz & other demanding coaches that might come to our minds, when you watch Buzz interact with players and with officials, it is apparent that they seem to understand he is coming from a constructive, not a destructive, angle. I've watched him yell at officials, literally jumping up & down with both feet. Like a quick hop drill. Then stop and say something to the official and the official nods and moves along. I even saw him draw an official's attention trying to get a certain call, then once he got it, Buzz actually slapped the official on the rump as if to say - 'Atta Boy!' The official trotted down the court shaking his head and chuckling.
I've watched him in the corner spot, which seems to be a preferred place of his to counsel the players. I've listened to him rip a player in practice for ignoring some instruction just given. While ripping the player, he explains in detail 'why'(emphasis added) the player needed to take five steps instead of four, etc. before running the play over so the player got it right. Then he stopped the practice & asked the player if he saw why it worked better. The player did, Buzz slapped him on the back, and then praised him for some other innocuous stuff the next three times down the court.
Buzz isn't just about breaking down players. He's about rebuilding them even better. Like the military, it might frighten some who don't pay attention. It produces results and an allegiance that is hard to match.
There certainly could a have been more discipline. But for the most part I think the shots and the effort were good. Was just one of those nights that the shots weren't dropping.
And it looks like JVZ palms and pushes the ball on his foul shots. Looks like he could use his fingertips to spin the ball. I could be totally wrong, I'm no expert.
High ball spin energy is never wanted on shots or free throws. I coached an HS Freshman AAU team and I wasn't a shooting expert but got 2 great shooting coaches to come to our practices (took my son to them also for 1-1 attention). They both emphasized that the shot should have minimal back spin (they told the kids to watch their favorite #2s in the NBA and college and watch the spin on their shots - you know, a majority of the good shooters shots don't spin much). The point being that if the ball hits the rim with low spin energy it doesn't bounce as much and then can use the rim to direct the shot in (its a statistical probability thing). It works, try it.
For free throws, they both emphasizes low spin energy and the shooting target to hit the top of the front rim so that if you missed the ball would bounce close to rim and eventually in - more times than not.
That works also, but only with real consistent leg involvement in the shot to insure you don't brick it. [Phrasing]
Hmmm... ball spin energy ...sounds like fully dipped, dork magic for college students at a frat party...
Very true on the low ball spin factor. I learned that in camp back when I was in HS, then had it reaffirmed by multiple shooting experts over the years. Same thing with the leg motion.
I have been excited watching how Buzz is coaching this young team, I believe they are all buying into his style of aggressive basketball.. Watching these young freshmen starting to gel with the older players is very encouraging. Get them some experience and with Allen, Robinson, Blackshear and Clarke on the way next season great days are coming in Hokie basketball.