We had seen this movie before.
Near the end of the most stellar performance of his freshman season, Jalen Hudson had a chance to put things away for Virginia Tech. Two weeks ago, the guard missed a layup and the opportunity to beat Duke.
On Tuesday, down one in the opening round of the ACC Tournament against Wake Forest, Hudson had the ball again. As the final seconds ticked away, he crossed over, took it to the rack and brought it home.
It brought his point total to 32, a career high, and illustrated yet again the insane amount of talent that rests in his Nikes. More importantly, however, Hudson's final shot brought his team a win.
For the entire season, I've written that Buzz Williams' team had done many of the things that it took to win. Game-to-game they would do things like contain Boston College's Olivier Hanlan or limit rebounding opportunities against NC State. Despite doing those things, the Hokies would still find ways to lose.
It was the complete opposite against the Demon Deacons. Their two stars, Devin Thomas and Codi Miller-McIntyre, combined for 45 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists. Tech's lone big man Satchel Pierce battled foul trouble all day and played only five minutes. That in turn lead to Thomas' dominance inside as well as a Wake advantage on the boards.
On top of all that, the Hokies surrendered a 10 point halftime lead as their opponent strung together a 17-2 run early in the second period. In a matter of a few minutes, nearly everything that could have gone wrong did just that.
This time, though, it didn't matter. Hudson and friends kept the team afloat, and rallied in the face of another potentially gut-wrenching loss.
We've been monitoring the growth of the young guys that populate the roster since November. There has been discussion after discussion, forum topic after forum topic about the often polarizing freshman who have been forced into heavy action all year long.
Obviously, Hudson had himself a game. But if you looked closer you'd have seen more than one newby stepping up and providing important contributions to the win.
Justin Bibbs showed a mature ability to shake off a rocky start (1-6 from the field) and hit three crucial shots to keep Tech in it with ten minutes to go.
Ahmed Hill had a vital stretch later on in the half. With his team down four, Hill got a steal and promptly sank two free ones. He was then directly responsible for the next six Hokie points, assisting on a Malik Mueller three and then banging home a triple himself, both of which kept them within reach of the lead. Without Hill, Tech could have easily seen this one slip away with five to go.
And then, there was Hudson. The oft-maligned youngster came out of the gate red hot and never looked back. What was arguably the most impressive aspect of his performance, however, were not the highlight reel dunks or the game winning layup. It was that Tech's most impactful player wasn't afraid to take the ball to the basket as the minutes dwindled down.
He was fouled a bunch, and the 59 percent free throw shooter stepped up and nailed every single attempt from the charity stripe that came his way. 10 for 10, six of which came in crunch time.
This squad has been growing up right before our eyes. As the year has gone along, I've had knocks on each of the young guys. And you know what? Nearly every one of them addressed those critiques, and threw them in my face today.
Bibbs recovered after a slow start and didn't let prior misses impact his game. Hill used his athleticism to its fullest, yet played in control and finished at the line. Devin Wilson showed those active hands on defense that had been missing in many conference games. Mueller and Shane Henry didn't get a ton of PT, but made it count when they saw the floor.
It's no secret that I like this team, probably more than I should as an "unbiased journalist." But who am I kidding? I'm in the tank for what Buzz is trying to do in Blacksburg. I'm head over heels for the talent I see in flashes from Hudson, Hill and Bibbs.
And most importantly, I believe that this team could be legitimately good. I'm certainly not making any promises for tomorrow night's game against Miami, and I know that next year will be it's own challenge. But the future, that thing looks brighter every day.
But no matter what happens against the Hurricanes we will all have this win, players coaches and fans alike. Sure, it's a last second thriller against another team trying to rebuild. Is it something to remember forever? Probably not.
It's just another step in the right direction.
Comments
Brian, great writeup! A great win when it was truly needed.
That was the most complete game we've had in a long time.
So, 3rd time's the charm on Miami, right?
Is it snowing in Greensboro? Agree, this setting up nicely with Miami up next. Just a wild guess, but I think Hokies will be all over the court. I see a fast start to this game.
I'm hoping that Miami will expect to walk over us after our two meetings earlier this season. I'm willing to bet they receive a rude awakening.
Hopefully Tyrone can appear in more games this year and in the future. He is an elite caliber player
This. The caption to the pic above should be: "Tyrone HAM"
Way ta go boys!! Hokie Nation is proud of you!!
It's very true that this team took a step in the right direction today, and this win HAS to boost their confidence. While it's not a signature win by any means, it's always satisfying to close out a close game and get a W in the conference tourney. Buzz has got me wanting to Walk it Out!! The future is indeed bright for Hokie Hoops.
Let's stick it to the 'Canes!!!
Great performance. The scorers on this team have been so inconsistent, just need Smith to put in 30 tomorrow night when Hudson scores 4.
Pierce should be fresh and ready for a rebound performance.
I smell some Bubble Trouble. Miami will come out tight and we need to jump on them early to pull the upset.
We have nothing to lose!
We needed this win, especially after that Washington Post article. This win should give the young guys confidence for tomorrow and something to build on next year.
Good win! Finally caught a break! On to Miami. Can't get worse than last Saturday. Hard to beat a team 3 times in a year...just sayin..very impressive today. Very proud of those guys today. Could've very easily packed it in. Absolutely refused to do so. Well done! Got the late game tomorrow night..lets get after em early and often!
I called It, big dance here we come! ;)
I've got my dancing shoes picked out and ready.
I looked at this season as an opportunity for the young guys to get plenty of valuable experience. The outlook was so bleak coming in for Buzz, that to expect them to compete for a tourney spot was unlikely (in my opinion). He's bringing in talent, and if they stick with the team, I think he can make this a competitive group by year 3. The young guys certainly have some talent, but they just lack consistency at this point. Hopefully Buzz can bring in some more help in the interior to compete at this level.
Man this game was much needed. We worked hard all year but we didn't get as many wins as we wanted. Anybody with the record we had could have rolled over to let Wake advance in a lazy game. Anybody could have let Wake continue their second half run to victory. I didn't see that. I saw Devin and Ahmed dive for a ball. I saw Bibbs trust his shot. I saw Jalen use his talents to have a career high. I saw Beyer fight for every ball he was near. I saw a team effort on the court, a team that fights. I believe in what Buzz is bringing to Blacksburg because I see players who give a damn and it makes me want to give a damn too. I haven't missed a game all season and there's a reason why. I love watching this team battle. Can't wait to see what's next for Hokie Basketball
Ahmen, I'm with you! Let Go Hokies!
Fired up about Buzzketball, I really hope the students will fill the stands for every game next year. Cassell will become a very tough environment for visiting teams.
Lets Go Hokies!
Yais! One down! 8 more wins and were in the Final 4!
Hudson was straight ballin'
Also, this seems appropriate!
You've been waiting since Pitt to use that title line haven't you.
I'm just glad we didn't have to deal with "just like football" chants. Let's go 2 for 2!
Aside from the win, I'm excited tomorrow night's game is going to be at 9 (or whenever the previous game decides to end) so I can actually catch the whole game.
So let it be written, so let it be done.
Also, you really should listen to Buzz's postgame presser if you get the chance, Link Here
Buzz brought up the numbers game Tech has going into next year. The Hokies will still be very young (65% of the squad will be underclassmen) and will have only 2 seniors (Henry and Smith) and 3 juniors (2 of which are sitting out this year). Then there's this nugget that really caught my attention:
It's very interesting to me that Buzz is so open about his feelings on the roster. While Pierce has unimpressed me this year due to slow development offensively in the post and his frequent fouls, he's still 7ft tall and you can't teach that. Hopefully, he'll improve this offseason and come back to Blacksburg a more complete player.
Finally, Buzz needled Mark Berman of the Roanoke Times and that's always a fun time. Joe aptly summed up HokieNation's collective feelings:
For someone who is not basketball smart at all, why was signing hill and pierce "not smart?"
It was surprising the remark about Hill, not as much on Pierce. May be an underlying reason on Hill.
I think Hill's name was only in there because it would have been weird had Buzz only singled out Pierce.
And while I think Hill is an important player for us, he's also really similar to a lot of the players we have on our roster in size and position. Next year, with the returning players we have now combined with the 2015 signing class, we'll have 9 "guards" on the squad. Buzz obviously is creative with his guard play (see Muller guarding power forwards and centers this year, for example) but that's a lot. The only players over 6'5 will be Pierce, Henry, LeDay, and Blackshear.
Additionally, it's worth mentioning that there's no way everybody returns and everyone signed makes it to campus; there just aren't enough spots.
Isn't Chris Clarke on the taller side of 6'6"?
Pretty much a "wing" who is a SF sized player in college.
I would bet you a lot of money right now that he plays small-ball 4 for Buzz. He fits the role currently filled by Mueller, but much better.
I think he will play a lot of 4 as well. With our spacing he proposes alot of miss matches on offense for a traditional power forward to guard.. But he can play anywhere from 2-4 given the circumstances
It's not about Hill, he has started 29 games in a row. He's by far the best overall player on this team, since he's not only a solid scorer (8.9 ppg, 3rd highest), leading rebounder (3.6 rb/g leads the team!), but Hill is also the only good defender on the team.
Shane Henry would like a word with you regarding the number of good defenders on the team.
Henry is a good blocker of players shorter than he, big guys tend to overpower him.
To be clear, that is what Buzz said, not me; I'm just relaying the quote from the presser.
To me, it's Buzz acknowledging how important roster slots are on a team that that has a limited number of them and needs production NOW. It's no secret that Buzz hasn't gotten a lot out of Pierce this year so I think Buzz was thinking about cost/benefit. If he didn't sign both those guys, he would have 2 more scholarships available for players in the future, players that may be able to contribute more and contribute quicker. Pierce seems to be a project that will need time. Given that time though, he could be really special. Erick Green is a good example of someone that drastically changed his game from Freshman to Senior year.
Also, Buzz was speaking rather candidly and had just won an emotional game in the ACC tourney, something he mentioned hasn't been done at Tech since Will Johnston's freshman year (2011-2012, a win over Clemson). I may be reading too much into it but I thought it was interesting nonetheless.
i thought the remark was more rhetorical in nature, part of the longer discussion of the roster...essentially, was the decision to be so young a good one? the flip side is were there really any other options. thought the discussion at the end re: Shane Henry was very interesting.
the jab at Berman was great...and the fact that Hokiesports included it is telling.
If you see the entire comment in context, IMO he's not at all commenting on Pierce or Hill per se. He was responding to a question about about many young contributors will be back next year.
It was more a comment about having so many frosh & sophs (plus 2 new upperclassmen) on next year's roster and (very) briefly reflecting on the wisdom of signing an additional two HS guys last spring.
Transcript of the Question and the Answer:
Q. I know that your concentration is 125 percent tomorrow. Is it possible to just peek into the future? Next year your leading scorer is coming back and four of your next five players are sophomores and freshmen. It must make you smile.
BUZZ WILLIAMS: I've had the time of my life coaching these guys, not because of my ego. I don't want to win for myself. The kids have worked incredibly hard every day regardless of the tumultuousness of what we've been through, and that speaks to who raised them for them to be so young and handle it in a such a mature way. We are two former walk ons that are on scholarship, and we have guys that are on scholarship that haven't been a part of our team in conference play. We've played 57 percent of ACC minutes by freshmen only. We started four freshmen today. So from an investment standpoint for the future, you can say, well, everybody is coming back, or you could say everybody is coming back and you won two games. So is that good enough. So our spring and our summer and our fall will probably be the most important three seasons of their career because it will dictate/determine where our future is going to be, because these kids along with other freshmen will end up having to be a leaders of our team because we'll have five sophomores, we'll have three freshmen, so again, 65 percent of our team will be comprised of underclassmen. We'll only have two seniors on the team, Shane Henry and Adam Smith. We'll have three juniors, but two of them are sitting out. So when you look at the decisions that were made in April, May and June when we got the job, we designed two freshmen, 'Med and Satch, don't know if that's smart. We signed we kept Jalen and Justin who the previous staff did an unbelievable job recruiting. They're two of the better freshmen in the league, but they didn't receive a vote for any sort of category, nor did any other player on our team. And then we signed two sit out guys. So there's six guys that are brand new. So if you look at next year's team, there will only be three guys on the team that were on the team the day that I was hired. So long term I hope it's the right decision on the decisions that we've made. I've had a lot of fun because I've learned a lot, and I've learned a lot because of the resiliency and the perseverance of how their parents raised them, and so it's helped me as a dad.
Gotcha! Thanks for all the replies and answers :)
My guess is he is looking at not having schollys available for JUCO or transfers that may be able to contribute and even out the class numbers. We are looking at a big graduating class leaving a big hole in the roster
Buzz and this team needed this win in Buzz's first ACC tourney game. Hokie Nation absolutely needed it. Now if we can get one more tonight against Miami the press, the ACC, the recruits will be like:
and then:
The advantage of a tournament is that Hudson will be on it again today. If you have that normal 3-5 day break like in the regular season odds are he'd cool off, but in a tournament usually hot players stay hot. Still have a lot of work to do on our transition defense, 80 points is really bad, but I was glad to see them keep fighting. I still see this team as 2 years away because we really need a legitimate big man.