ITS AMAZING. WE ARE ACTUALLY ON TV.
Television
ESPNU - Zach Zaidman & Stan Heath
Radio
Virginia Tech IMG Sports Network - Bill Roth & Mike Burnop
Also available on:
Satellite: Sirius 93, XM 199 (WVU broadcast)
Digital: Hokies Xtra & TuneIn
This game will obviously be an uphill challenge for our young Hokies. The Cousins come into this contest firing on all cylinders so Tech will need to play its best game of the year to have Buzz dancing on the Clamshell floor after this afternoons game. The Mountaineers have several good wins this year, including beating Connecticut by ten and NC State by fourteen. In terms of common opponents, they beat VMI by thirty one earlier this season.
Huggy Bear has his team playing some strong fast paced basketball so far, led by senior guard Juwan Staten (#3), who is scoring almost 16 ppg, along with 3.3 rpg, and 4.3 apg from the point guard position. Another senior, forward Jonathan Holton (#1), provides the Mountaineers their inside scoring with 11.9 ppg and 7.3 rpg. He is joined by sophomore forward Devin Williams (#5), who is putting up 10.2 ppg and 6.9 rpg. One other Moutaineer that the Tech guards will need to keep in check is Jaysean Paige (#0) due to his deadly accuracy from outside. He is averaging almost 50% from behind the arc so far this season.
One area that WVU excels at this season is turning their opponents over. Their opponents have been giving them the ball 22 times a game compared to the 12 turnovers that WVU averages on offense. 10 more possessions can make a 10-15 point swing in a game so the Hokies will need to play good possession basketball, making crisp passes and not allow the Mountaineers to rush them into mistakes. We will likely see some 3/4 court press to extend the court quite a few times this afternoon, but beating the press is one area the Hokies have seemed to be pretty strong so hopefully Tech can turn this into easy baskets. The Mountaineers also excel on the boards, using their size inside to dominate the rebounds, pulling down almost as many offensive rebounds (18 pg) as compared to defensive rebounds (20 pg), so our big men will be critical in this game and any sign of foul trouble for JVZ or Pierce could be disastrous down low.
The one area that seems to be a weakness for the Mountaineers is their ability to shoot the midrange to outside shot when being contested. They dont seem to have many guys that can hit shots without being wide open from the outside. If the Hokies want to win this game they will need to constantly be forcing shooters to alter shots and having hands up to prevent passes into the lane. Once the ball gets inside, its going to be difficult to prevent the two WVU forwards from getting good shots down low. If we had the depth to foul, they arent exactly world beaters from the free throw line similar to the Hokies so Buzz may need to employ strategic fouling late in the game to get a win.
This is only the second game so far this season where I have felt that this young team really will struggle. This is going to be a difficult game to get a win for the good guys. Fortunately we are coming off our most complete performance of the season in our game against Presbyterian so hopefully that translates into enough confidence to stay in the game early. If they can keep this game close, than they may have a chance to close out a win late. The key will be not allowing the Moutaineers to go on one of their patented 18 to 20 point runs this afternoon.
Final Score: Mountaineers 75, Hokies 70
Comments
This is what I want to see this afternoon.
If only this game was 2 years from now, I would feel like we'd be ready to smack em in the mouth.
I just don't see it this year, though. Team just isn't ready for big tests, but it'll be a good learning experience that'll pay off in the long run.
ugh stupid adult things like work when i should be somewhere with an ice cold and a big screen. looks like espn tracker for me. GO HOKIES!!!!
Great shooting today still gives us a chance, I would feel better about the game if I did not feel WVU is highly motivated to whip our butts. Buzz, work your magic!
I went back and looked at the box score from the 2012 game. Robert Brown scored 21 points!!!
On a separate note, has anyone heard whether Isaiah Ford is still planning to play?
I asked that question yesterday and the official release from the school is a non answer essentially. Hopefully one of our folks start seeing him at practices. The other place to look will be dressed in a suit sitting with the team until they think he is ready but HokieSports has not officially added him to the roster at this point.
Thanks, I am hoping he is able to play and help the team be deeper.
I am hoping he doesn't play because the Basketball doesn't need another 6 4 guard/Forward.
But the Football team needs it star WR back healthy.
If I Ford was 6 8, then I would be all for him playing bball.
Right now this team could use all the talent its allowed to put on the court and if I. Ford is better shooting or playing defense than someone out there now, I want Buzz to put him to work.
True. But this roster is not talent depleted. Bibbs won freshman of the "some time period". And the team is getting greater contributions from Henry and Hudson.
The BBall team will need time, but I would not be able to digest the record breaking Star WR hurting himself in BBall and not being ready for Football season.
Who would you take minutes from for Ford to play? Mueller has had his minutes taken.
I need to see Ford interact with the team before I will make a recommendation on who's minutes he should make a dent in.
Fair enough.
Isaiah ford will be playing basketball and plans to join the team after he returns from home and break. he said that will not be until arond the 20th of jan. but at this time he is 100% still planning on playing basketball. #sources
Wow, that sounds like a long time to wait. He would probably not be able to get into a game until Feb.,missing a good portion of the ACC schedule. If that is the case, I believe he might as well forget basketball.
i agree i dont see the point but he loves hoops, he wants it so hes going to go for it. cant be mad at that even if its only for one game if thats his goal.
Damn, driving through morganhole today but should be in happy valley by the time the game tips off. Would love to see Buzz coach.
Hey Horse, you know of a good bar (in state college) to stop and watch?
Super productive afternoon coming up for me
haha who you telling sitting at work watching x's and o's magically pop up on a basketball court on espn game cast is sooooo entertaining! but work will not be getting done thats forsure. (i have no idea what is actually going on in the game by watching this gamecast thing but i can keep up with the score. got it DVRD at home so if we win i will watch haha)
Not a great start..gotta get rollin or we're gonna get housed.
Not a good start, glad we finally got on the board
Need to start grabbing rebounds
Gotta contest outside shots. Too many open looks early.
Tech is handling the press alright. When they break it, though, they must slow up and get into a halfcourt offense. The goal of a full court press isn't just to cause turnovers. It's also supposed to make the offense go faster than they would like.
Unless it's a 3 on 2 or 3 on 1 situation.
These refs suck
Basketball refs are the worst human beings on the planet. Complete pansies and wildly inconsistent. No idea whether the same thing is gonna be called or not possession-to-possession.
My preseason prediction was one unexplainable win. Why not WVU?
These refs are pretty bad both ways.
After seeing Will Johnston's hair, I'm kind of glad Tech hasn't been nationally televised yet.
So glorious
It's just not quite the same.
Sam Rogers....you must do this....
Pierce still looks absolutely lost and outclassed. OOC schedule is nearly over and I've seen little to no improvement. Not sure what the issue is.
He just has no idea how to attack the basket. He's one on one with a smaller guy and he pulls up and badly misses the shot. Just be assertive, get to the basket and draw a foul.
And then he does that..a beautiful back down, post move and baby hook. So much potential. Don't understand it.
You got me. Sometimes he's solid, sometimes he looks like that kid in 5th grade who hit his growth spurt and still has no idea what to do with his body.
Hmm, I think you just described a freshman.
Sorry I strongly disagree- Have watched every game from down close and Pierce has improved very much... and has a skill set far above JVZ. Great soft hands, touch out to 12'. Guy will be very good.
He's been playing vs. 6-7 front court players until this game. Showed todayhow he can compete against similar sized players.
The maddening part is that he does show that - sometimes. At others, he just looks clueless. Typical freshman big man.
Anbody got a link to the game?
ad in the background "US cellular hello better", is that really the best slogan for a company. I know we aren't great but HELL we are "better"
Pathetic free throw shooting is gonna cost us yet again.
We're really moving the ball around well late in the first half and getting a good offensive rhythm. I'm impressed so far!
For sure. If they can cut down on the dumb turnovers and start sinking some free throws, they could have a decent shot.
Yeah, both have been our Achilles heel this season. Hopefully we can improve on both once ACC play commences.
Something about Adam smith not being good enough for Acc play? Can we stop that discussion for at least a few days please? Kids on fire today
Doesnt matter if he scores 15 if he gives up 20. Most of the open outside shots in that half were against Smith. We all know he can shoot the lights out. He can't defend a paper bag though.
Paper bags...they'll get after ya
Looking pretty decent on our press breaker.
Anchor says Wilson isn't playing well... what a tool. Wilson's done an outstanding job getting the ball out of that press quickly and hitting guys making their cuts through that defense. Just about any time another player has tried to break the press, it hasn't worked as well.
The FREE throws still disgust me.
Physically and emotionally painful.
tough guys make free throws ;)
Does anybody have access to a link for the game online?
Opponents never learn.
Second half focus has to be to cut the turnovers by half and make half the free throws we missed. If we are able to do that we might win going away. If not it will come down to final shots like the half did.
I actually am beginning to like this team, I must be nutty.
You sound like a proud hokie.
Good point but I was referring to the squirrely part. :-)
JVZ fouls 7 seconds in. Not a good start to the half.
And another stupid turnover... leading to WVU points
#5 WVU rec specs!!!
This game's over. Too many stupid mistakes, too many easy WVU baskets. Tech has no business being on the court today, absolutely pathetic.
that escalated quickly
As did the past 4 minutes of basketball. Just mistake after mistake and turnover after turnover. I love Buzz, but I have zero confidence in our guys' ability to just calm down and play smart basketball.
I disagree with that last statement, strongly. Yes its frustrating watching this team, but to say we have no business being on the court is a completely different thing.
14 turnovers (resulting in 21 WVU points), missed free throws, missed shots under the basket... how is any of that the kind of basketball an ACC team should be playing?
If this was year 2+ under Buzz, I would agree. We all knew this year would be a struggle. Some flashes of good stuff, other times we're gonna get shelled.
I'm not saying it's unexpected, and I fully expect it to get better, but right now we're going to struggle to even be competitive the rest of the way.
Like last year... and we have how many guys that came back from that team?
2? 3? This is a completely different team, but it's also a glorified high school all-star team.
If somebody wrote some of the things your writing about the football team you'd belt out a 12 paragraph diatribe defending the team. Have you not watched this team this year? Did you think the team that lost to Radford and Appy State could upset the #17 team in the nation at their house? They're not good we know, we could do without the insults.
It happens every season. Some folks transfer a football fan mentality to basketball, meaning they take a single loss as if it were a huge detriment to the team. Then that loss is used to slam the team as being unworthy.
As most of the rational Hokie basketball fans have agreed, Buzz's recent statement to Mark Berman of the Roanoke Times pretty well encapsulated this season. Buzz said, essentially - 'You're focused on a single game, while I am focused on these players' lives...' The fervent football fan mentality focuses on a single loss, instead of realizing this season is not about a W-L record. It is about building the program. Buzz has said this repeatedly, but casual VT hoops fans only care about basketball from the day after our bowl game until mid-March so they never pay attention except then.
Losses, expected & unexpected will come but so will wins, expected & unexpected. That doesn't even matter, though. What matters is building the culture of the program. I wish we had won, but I kind of knew we wouldn't. It would be nice to think we could upset UVa, but I don't expect it to happen. I'm fine with all that. Sometimes you have to burn the field to get the crops to grow better in the future.
I'm saying the exact same thing about this team as I am the football team. It's a glorified high school all-star team. How does THAT get downvoted? We've got 5 freshmen making all of our plays. I'm saying that we're seeing ugly basketball now and will for the foreseeable future. However, the dumb turnovers and missed free throws that seem to be the Achilles heel of this team, plus the poor rebounding, there should be no excuse for.
And I feel no shame whatsoever for my "has no business being on the court" comment. Losing by 30+ is simply being outclassed by a superior opponent. This was an old-fashioned butt whoopin.
TechHokie13, I'm usually in agreement with you on most topics, but I think Alum07 has a valid point here. Throughout most of the season, you staunchly defended the football coaching staff (perhaps rightfully so) and attributed most of the team's struggles to youth. In contrast, today during the basketball game you were quick to slam the basketball team early on in the second half. Obviously, this team is going to struggle and you've acknowledged that, but I don't see the need for such a unforgiving tone when this team's struggles should also be attributed to youth.
So you'd argue that we're going to compete with teams like WVU this year? We're not. That's all I've said. I don't see why I should take so much heat for pointing out that, no, we don't belong with top-tier teams right now. And yes, some of the dumb mistakes and turnovers and missed free throws are pathetic, because those are just focus and effort issues more than anything else.
Consider this: If someone had posted "this team shouldn't even be on the same field as Miami, this is pathetic!" during the Miami game, I would have expected a much-needed reply from you defending the team and its coaches because young teams are going to have growing pains. I see no difference between this hypothetical situation and what occurred today.
To answer your question, no, I don't think we will compete with ranked teams this year. I don't necessarily think WVU is going to end the season ranked, but that's immaterial at this point. The only reason I think you took heat for your comment today was because of how you defended the football team all year when youth is one of the main problems for both teams. It may have came off as a little hypocritical. And to be clear, I wasn't one of the downvoters.
They are also the result of having an extremely young team where all but about 3 players were playing in high school last year. That's all it is, we're young. We're very young, more so than we have ever been in any sport that I can recall. Were we going to compete with WVU today? Probably not, but we put up a good fight in that first half. WVU adjusted at halftime and ran us off the court. Shit happens, we'll move on and be better for it.
But to come out and slam the team saying they don't deserve to be on the same court as WVU and to repeatedly say they are a glorified high school squad is a punk move on your part and doesn't deserve an ounce of respect. You can criticize without belittling. Had these kinds of things been said about the football program (like, say when we were run out of the stadium against miami) you would have been one of the first to call anyone out on it. In fact, I'm pretty sure you did do that exact thing after the losses started to mount up this year.
Alright, then let's try this: That's what I saw, and I posted it. Cry about it, fuckwad.
Well there's no need for that...
Agreed. Out of Line.
Who cares? My posts before all said the same thing, "this team is young, and it'll get better, but right now this is ugly." How is THAT offensive? And yes, it's a glorified high school all-star team. Most of these kids playing for us now were in high school last year, that's the basis for the joke. I'm done trying to reason with these twats who just want to spin everything I say anyways. Hence the Queen.
I have read your comments for a while on here
You're better than that
Must be my severe allergy to bullshit that brings it out.
Stay classy
i'm not gonna lie, i loled
Relax. They are playing the #17 team in the nation at home. It is a learning experience for a very green team. They hung tough in the 1st and got smoked in the second. It happens.
The cousins have beaten two other ACC teams.
If you can't see the numerous pluses this team has, then I can list them for you.
There are plenty of plusses, but the minuses really add up. Youth (minus now, plus for later), missed free throws, rebounding ineptitude, defensive cluelessness, mind-boggling turnovers. This is gonna be the norm for at least the remainder of this season. We're in for some ugly basketball.
They are essentially playing VCU's havoc defense. All these negatives are created by this defense, except for FTs, which has been a year long problem.
Bibbs is top 100, Hill is top 150. Hudson is coming along nicely. They have growth and learning to do. This will help. Doesn't matter if you lose by 1 or 31, a loss is a loss.
It'd be less concerning if it wasn't such a strong trend early in the season. As I said before, this is essentially a high school all-star team. We're gonna continue to struggle rebounding, turning the ball over, and actually attacking the basket. For the remainder of this year at least, it's gonna be ugly.
Actually, during the game the flashed the stat that VT was only -2 in rebounding per game. That's not bad.
Also, Buzz has mentioned that he is not concerned with O boards as he is with getting back on D. Similar to the SA Spurs.
For someone who was quick to the "this is a young team we need to give them time" defense anyone criticized anything team related during the football season, you sure are impressively quick to throw a team literally made up of true freshmen under the bus at the first sign of struggle.
We are a team of guys playing their what, 15th game of their collegiate career on the road at a hostile venue against a ranked team of veteran players and somehow we were supposed to look like a well oiled machine? OK then...
I'm just going to pretend the 2nd half didn't happen
You've got some nice synergy with the team
What second half? We lost a hard-fought, low-scoring affair, 33-30.
Bob Huggins is going to wet his pants while watching film of the second half.
Missed free throws are demoralizing. This will happen when you continue to fight hard, get to the stripe and then come up empty time after time after time.
Well, I didn't see this coming. I blame Rob for saying we might pull away in 2nd half. :-)
Is anyone going to correct the color commentator? He's said Satchel Page 4 or 5 times now...
its happened pretty much every game
Not like he's got his name on the back of his jersey or anything.
24 turnovers.... Free throws were the least of our worries. The youth was going to show today against a tough Bob Huggins defense that contests you ever step and pursues up and down the court. Bad loss but great learning experience.
What? Free throws are not the least of our worries.
Free throws had almost nothing to do with the game today. 25 turnovers did.
so......we won?......
If we were playing golf, yep. Solid win.
well I do like golf..so that's cool.
My main take away from today's game is that Devin Wilson is our best ball handler, and Buzz trusts him the most. A couple of times he subbed all 4 players except Wilson.
Once things got out of hand, seemed like Buzz was determined to get Pierce more minutes, which I wish we would have done more in the previous non-conference matchups.
I expected turnovers since WVU were tops in the nation for steals, but a lot of turnovers were just guys not focusing on catching the ball or just baffling passes
What the heck happened in the second half?
We scored 11 points. They scored a whole lot more.
We got punked in second half.
the only dance Buzz is doing tonight is his sad dance
I unfortunately had a Dr appt at 330 so I missed the entire second half. Recorded it, and after the first ten minutes deleted it. This was about the ugliest result that could have happened. Tech couldn't get the ball past half court and when they did their shot disappeared after the half. Even the game thread got ugly. Lets all move forward knowing we have seen what it can look like at its worst except maybe the Duke game. Hopefully the kids can use what they can and forget the rest of this game moving forward.
I think you meant fortunately***