We're back, #HokieNation!!
See you at 7 in Cassell when we take on Alabama St
pic.twitter.com/rNHHUCitjx— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) November 14, 2015
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Its been a seemingly long road to get us back here as we are set to begin Season 2 of Buzzketball. We saw transfers, injuries and graduation dramatically change this roster from last year. We are about to begin the season with six players that have never suited up for the Hokies before, barring injury, it would have been seven. The first few games will be critical to show us whether these changes are for the good or if we are looking at another season of finding our way, constantly having to move pieces around in hopes of finding something that works. If you haven't had a chance to check out my first post of the season, please check it out here as it will bring you up to speed on all the new rule changes in college basketball this season.
Now onto our opponent for tonights game, the Alabama State Hornets, come in off a 19-11 season, but losing four of their top six scorers from last season. Leading scorer, Jamel Waters, a preseason SWAC all conference first team nominee, comes in having put up 14.2 PPG and 5.2 APG last season. Waters (#12) is a 5'9, 160 lbs senior point guard that has already joined the 1000 point club in his career and will be critical for the Hornets tonight if they want to succeed.
He is joined by second team SWAC nominee Bobby Brown, (#5) a 6'6, 195 lbs senior shooting guard who has enjoyed the role of sixth man the last two seasons for the Hornets but must now step up to a starting role. He scored 8.4 PPG and had 5.2 RPG last season. His improvement in a staring role might be the most critical for the Hornets as they don't have many other reliable scoring threats left from last season.
A third guard to watch out for this evening will be sophomore Steve Rogers, (#52) 6'1, 160 lbs who led the team in three point shooting at almost 46% last season while being named the SWAC Freshmen of the Year. If the Hokies struggle to guard the perimeter like they did season, than Rogers could be set to have a big night tonight.
The Hornets round out their players on the floor with Terrance LeFlore, (#30) a 6'1, 170 lbs shooting guard, Robert Ojeah, (#45) 6'9, 245 lbs senior Center, and Chidozie Omile, (#1) a 6'5, 210 lbs senior guard.
LeFlore is coming off injuries last season, so his coaches hope he returns to form, when as a freshmen, he averaged 5 points a game in sixteen minutes on the court.
Ojeah is one of three "big men" on the roster for the Hornets, expected to play center in a four guard, one big set. He is capable of playing with his back to the basket, which allows him to pass or shoot consistently from the lane.
Omile assumes the role that Bobby Brown played for this team the last two seasons, stepping in as sixth man to provide a spark when things are going awry for the Hornets.
Alabama State hopes to play a fast paced four guard, one big set with high pressure defense leading to turnovers and fast break points. Their coach, Lewis Jackson, had this to say in an interview earlier this year, "Defense! If there was one word, it's defense! People tell me that I was known as a scorer, but I thought I was a hell of a defensive player too. It was always about defense. It's been ingrained in me. Our defense and hustle is what has kept us in the top half of the league for the last few years." They will play mainly zone defense on the Hokies, especially with the size differences at almost every position in favor of the Hokies but really expect to see these Hornets close in on ball handlers to try to create turnovers.
I would expect Buzz to have these young Hokies push the ball down low, taking advantage of their size down low to put Alabama State in foul trouble early and get our bigs in the game from the start. Expect our guards to drive the basketball from the perimeter, causing matchup nightmares for the Hornets.
The Hokies absolutely cannot come out flat or they might fall victim tonight like NC State did yesterday to William and Mary and Georgetown did today with Radford. Hats off to two in state schools that pulled off big upsets to start their seasons, especially the Highlanders, who beat Georgetown in double Overtime. This also shows you why, until these young Hokies show me they can play as a team, I expect a few ugly non conference losses. We play at Radford on 12/9, so hopefully the Hokies faithful will travel heavily for that game.
As for tonight, I expect a pretty high scoring affair, with the Hokies coming out on top 84-65, having to endure a couple runs from the Hornets in the second half to put this game away. The Hokies cant sleep walk through this one or they will find themselves playing catch up and might not recover. The new roster has the size and talent to make this a quick game but until I see it happen, the jury is out. Go Hokies!!
Comments
Ah yes. The Hoops Wiz is back!
Go Hokies tonight. Heading home to watch it now.
Ten minutes to game time. Fire up those computers.
Small crowd in Cassell. Some things never change
It's still early in the Buzz tenure.
When he starts getting some traction, they'll come.
Leday making an early impact. Still not enough pressure on perimeter shots. Pierce with a bad foul and failure to finish what should have been an easy dunk. Frustrating.
Loving Kerry Blackshear. Just a man in the lane.
Chris Clarke can ball.
So far its all new guys making the impact plays
Could have sworn it said "1st Quarter" at the bottom of the screen going into the break.
Lots of points scored, but also lots of fouls by State.
Too bad we are as bad as usual at the free throw line. Believe we have missed seven free throws already
18 points off the bench! I've forgotten what it was like to have bench scoring...
The press pool is NOT happy about the new press box location. Apparently they are looking straight into the back of people's heads.
Not Berman, he's looking at shoulders.
You spelled "ankles" wrong.
Well they arent donating 20k a pop for each of the new tables that took their spot. Thats in addition to paying full price for four season tickets on top of the table price. Thats 280k for just the new tables plus the ticket price
True but it's weird there are folding chairs say right in front of them. And he empty press seats have fans in them?? Just a weird setup.
Empty press seats are used for overflow of workers for the game. If there are fans in those seats then rhino isn't doing their job. You'll probably also see people sitting in the area between the ADA seating and press seats when the press area is full.
Leday is a monster. Totally was not expecting this performance
It is early, but this team seems much better in the paint so far. Leda & Blackshear are going to be really good for the Hokies this season.
It feels weird watching Devin Wilson ride the pine. Buzz is certaily playing to the height advantage, but Wilson hasnt seen a minute.
Was there a suspension or injury? Or is he that far down the depth chart?
Reported that he has a groin injury.
There is an immediately recognizable size and athleticism improvement. They need to pull it together now that the lead has slipped away. The short shot click is now our friend.
They are just not very good. Fundamental issues all over the place tonight
Can't score. Can't defend. Can't make free throws.
I mean I know we are probably still a year away from where we want to be, but losing to Alabama State is just not acceptable. This is a crappy loss no matter how you dissect it. I expected better to start the season.
Positives: LeDay Negatives: Everything else
I would say offensively - free throws we were great. Any time you score 82 you should be able to win, and that's not counting the 15 free throws that we missed. We hit even half of those and we win. To say "everything else" is negative isn't quite fair.
I would say offensively - free throws we were great
I'm sorry, but what freaking game were you watching? Certainly not the Hokies. We gave up at least 10 points simply due to missed free throws.
What he is saying is that he thinks we did great offensively other than free throws.
Yes hence the minus sign thrown in there. I realize now it isn't doesn't really look like a minus sign, but that's what I meant. And offensively we WERE great. 82 points is nothing to shake our heads about; free throws however...totally different story.
I think we need to hire a local rec coach to come in and teach free throws. I think that's the most embarrassing part of this game. Maybe play a little 21 in practice.
It truly is impressive how awful we are at the easy crap regardless of who the coach is. Free Throws should be the easiest thing to do and we suck terribly at it.
Have to wonder if the venue is playing into this at all
Alabama state didn't seem to have any problems with them haha. The way the games are being officiated now a lot of games are going to depend on free throws so we better take care of this quickly.
Why are you suprised that 3 freshman struggled with free throws in their first college game?
Free throws.
Because free throws aren't taken in high school....
Because they are 18 years old and I dare say their head was spinning a bit in their first game. You can practice and scrimmage all you want but you can't simulate a team giving 100% to upset you and make their season.
Because they've never been at the line in a high pressure spot before...
So you can walk out there today and make 80% from the line in your first game in maroon and orange?
So embarrassing.
Tough loss but we did just break in 6 players that haven't played major college ball in a year (or ever). Positives: Leday has 26 and 15, we have depth and size, freshman will grow up
There is no explaining away this kind of loss. Alabama State is the kind of team you out athlete to a win. Losing is just unacceptable. Or program really needs to get out of the mindset where losses like this are at all OK. This is like our football team losing to Campbell.
We're starting the second year of a rebuild, we aren't in a position to 'out athlete' anyone yet. 3 major contributors had never played before, cobwebs and nerves are going to be a factor. Let's wait a couple games before panicking.
Lol
We lost to Alabama fucking State. This is a team you do not lose to. Period you don't lose to them. This game is going to necessitate a complete readjustment of our rebuild progression, because tonight was a giant step backwards. Even mediocre teams don't lose to Alabama State.
Alabama State is not a cellar dweller of their conference and their conference isn't the cellar of Division 1 ball. We shouldn't lose to them but NC State shouldn't lose to William and Mary by 17 either and that happened yesterday. This team wasn't mentally tough enough to withstand a run from a mid major that is slated to finish third in their conference, who also happened to have four seniors on the court towards the end. There is a lot to be said for experience in a game that goes down like that. Its unfortunate that we can start the count of 1 possession games already but there will be more of those this season. For all the talk about Buzz being a defensive coach, I have yet to see it employed. We don't run traps, we rarely press, and we regularly allow defenders to have open looks. You definitely cant do that against a team that is running four guards against you. I agree that this is a terrible loss but its not a program changer.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/25374810/opening-weekend-upsets-continue-va-tech-falls-at-home-to-swac-school
Yeah, they are that bad
Lets see where they are ranked after they finish their OOC schedule. No preseason ranking is worth a thing until games are played. They get that kind of ranking because they had lost key players last season and had nine new players to integrate, albeit three of those were JUCO transfers, one of whom went for double figures on us. The reality of our ranking being so high is only because we have the ACC conference to bolster it. Their OOC should tell us what we need to know as that is more challenging than their conference slate.
Terrible loss. Period.
Should we have won this game? Yes. Is this a terrible loss? Not really. Did we see some positive things? Yes. We just started Year 2 of the Buzzketball era, let's hold off a little bit on saying we took a huge step backward. We're still very much in the rebuilding phase because of the abysmal state this program was in when Buzz took over. Patience is a virtue, let's put it into practice.
I really doubt that our program has that mindset. Losing isn't ok, but in our current state, it is the more expected outcome. This still isn't a very good team. It wasn't supposed to be a very good team.
That being said, the method of our losing is very disappointing. Free throw misses and allowing off. boards is a poor look for this team.
Losing is unacceptable? What does that even mean? You expect us to fire Buzz Williams immediately and lure Coach K or Tom Izzo? That'd be amazing and all but it's just not happening and frankly your standards are out of touch with reality. I'm not against criticism and I'd give a pass if you had given any semblance of constructive criticism but instead it's a string of posts only after the loss that have zero substance other than you don't think it's OK. Guess what? That opinion was clear after the first post.
No
Three things remain true for VT basketball:
1) We are TERRIBLE from the line. These are D1 players 62% is absurd.
2) We aren't great on the boards... We are a bit better, but we should have won that battle by much more than we did.
3) Our defensive rotation is awful.
I'm not sure how good Alabama St. really is, but it looked like we should have won this game easily.
So in the last 4 seasons we've lost to Ga. Southern, South Carolina Upstate, UNC Greensboro, Appalachian State, Radford, and Alabama State...all at home.
Man how embarrassing. As much as i want to be a relevant ACC team, id just appreciate not having fucking pathetic home loses to nobodies.
3, 3 pointers? Why did we force Adam Smith out.
I'm down with the approach of not shooting the long ball. Did we play like crap for most of the 2nd half tonight? Yes. But taking the ball to the rim consistently as we did in the first half got us the lead early on. If LeDay continues to dominate the post like he did tonight, we'd be foolish not to feed the beast. We lost this game on the defensive side of the ball and missed free throws, not because we didn't shoot enough 3s IMO.
Two fundamentals cost us this game. Off ball defense and free throws. Too often easy open buckets because one of our guys drifted away from his assignment. The free throws though is certainly unexcuseable. 25 of 40. Make ten percent more and you win the game. Blackshear's ankle or foot may not affect him on the floor but I do think it affects his set shot. He went 1 of 5 from the line. Robinson, Clarke and Leday all below 70% as well on the night.
64 of our 82 points from new players tonight which I didn't see coming, Leday being the huge spotlight. My only complaint on Buzz tonight is that they got this team in foul trouble early and failed to capitalize getting those guys off the court by focusing on fouling out key players. Alabama State finished the game with four different players with four fouls each. Those guys accounted for 33 of their points to include 12 of their last 20 points. As a coaching staff you have to be aware of where you stand against opponents in foul trouble. I was surprised that we saw more of Pierce and less of Hamilton. I really thought that Pierce was going to be fourth out of four amongst the big men. One other area that will need improvement as we go along is our perimeter shooting. 25% on the night is not going to get it done.
I wasn't able to watch live. Was leday's last foul shot an intentional miss? If so he's at 75%
No, they just got lucky and got the offensive rebound out of it.
I am glad you took the time to type this up, my thoughts exactly. The defense didn't do well maintaining their gaps and rotating when Ala St would drive the lane allowing for easy kick outs or slashing lay ups. Too many easy baskets and missed free throws made this game a taller task than it should have been.
Allen looked more like a freshman than a seasoned vet. Took many mental mistakes, lazy passes, etc.
I agree completely here with this. For all the hype on him coming in, he made me yearn for Devin to be out there quite a few times.
Ugh, would not agree.
Agree, Devin is by far the best true point on the team. He protects the ball, fewest turnovers, and distributes better than anyone. Getting him back out there will help free up Allen for better looks.
Plus, from what I've seen so far, Devin plays better defense than Seth or J-Rob.
Leday was a MONSTER tonight. The main thing I took away from this game is that the team will be able to physically compete in a good amount of the games we play this year, but there are massive improvements to be made. That was a demoralizing loss that Tech should have (given the lack of fundamentals) at least stolen at the end. Give them time to gel together and I think we'll be looking at a much more solid product in time for ACC play.
I'm extremely disappointed in the loss and expected us to get out of the ACC cellar this year. This isn't a good start. The good news is one game is closer to 3% of the season instead of 10% like football.
The excuses in this thread are unreal. We just lost to Alabama State...at home. I've now seen them lose to Alabama State and Radford at Home in a calendar year. Excusing shooting 62% from the stripe, which may not improve based on the forms I've seen out of our bigs. We can out athlete them because guess what we have way better athletes than them. Way too many dropped passes as well. In the past we can chalk up these losses on being smaller, or having a bad coach, or being in a rebuild. But sometime you have to just start winning.
So panicking one game into the season is the answer?
I'm a fan. I can't change anything in the locker room but I trust that one of the best in the business can. I choose to focus in the emergence of a solid big (something we haven't had since Allen) and the fact that 3 freshman took a hard shot in the chops in their first game. Let's see how they respond before we write the season off and send buzz packing.
Have a feeling there will be a lot of time to panic. We are still the worst program in the ACC by a wide margin.
State just lost to W+M, it's a long season and we are going to be significantly better than last year, even if it's just the fact that we have multiple posts to rotate against bigger teams.
Fire Buzz. Hire Rich Rod.
Why not hire Beamer? I heard he is available.
One year isn't a rebuild. Buzz has the best rsum of any VT basketball coach ever. Period. If we are in the same boat in 4 years, then yes its time to move on, but one game in his second year?
VT basketball was a dumpster fire, Seth's last year into JJs tenure was a joke. Building any similance of a program takes time. Rebuilding a program is no small task, he started at the ground, with nothing.
Chill pills....
I would argue that his first year was spent just getting us above ground from a deep dark dungeon like place. This season is about getting off the ground unfortunately.
I try to be rational, but man I hate losing out of the gate to a small conf team. As others have said, it feels like a step backwards. They made 6 more three pointers than us - that 18 point difference is hard to make up. Expected more from Allen. We missed Ahmed Hill's shooting and energy as well.
Missed Hill's defense more than anything.
Last five years:
Alabama State, 77-82, three winning seasons, one NCAA appearance
Virginia Tech: 71-92, one winning season, one NIT appearance
There is obviously a strength of schedule difference but our programs have been on about the same bottom line lack of success over the last five years
At least we got a bad loss out of the way now. Hopefully we won't let this happen again
Well, Buzz will have a lot to teach after looking at this film. Our defensive effort, other than a few good blocks by our bigs, was terrible. We looked terribly slow, no one helped and were generally passive.
Offensively, it was nice to see the play of the bigs inside and we were good when we attacked the hoop. But, our outside shooting and free throws are terrible. Bottom line, college bball is won with stellar guard play and we haven't shown that in years.
I fully expect Buzz will get the defense to improve; under Buzz you play if you play defense. But, it's up to the players to put the time in the gym on their shooting. It doesn't look like any of them took 10000+ shots in the off-season like Eric Green. If the officiating continues like it is so far, it will put a premium on teams that can attack and shoot from the outside.
I mean this is freaking Alabama State. Why couldn't we give Henry, Pierce, or Hamilton more time alongside Blackshear and or LeDay? I feel like we could've killed them on the boards. Realize that frontcourt won't do it come ACC time, but even those guys would give us a huge size advantage over freaking Alabama State
Size advantage on offense means quickness disadvantage on defense. Our bigs aren't ready to dictate a team switch away from small ball.
Blackshear looked outright confused downlow at times. I thought Pierce was the most confident down low kf the true bigs, Buzz's conditioning program seems ro have done well for him.
Those last 5 minutes were miserable to watch, poorly timed fouls during the double bonus, horrendous rebounding on either end.
As soon as Alabama St roared back in the second half, the game felt just like all their other losses to the early seasons scrubs of the last 3 years.
In this circumstance I had many of the same thoughts. Knowing how many Alabama State players were in deep foul trouble, I likely would have had three of our bigs in from about the twelve minute mark on. Only forcing them to deal with Leday and one big if that severely curtailed the fouls on the Hornets, let alone how much we were dominating them in the paint scoring wise. I think it would have outweighed the speed disadvantage on the defensive end especially if they had fouled out a couple more key players.
with Devin a "late scratch" ... all these new faces... I can't imagine this being considered a "gimme"
hope Devin is ok... both groin and potential for PT... seems everyone wants to replace the kid, but IMHO he is an ACC PG, which is hard to be
was hoping to hear how much he worked over the summer, better he looks in various facets
if not Devin someone will emerge to run the point... but if its a freshman this is gonna be a little lumpy... very few freshmen are ready to ACC PG duty
Hey everyone..it's just the preseason. The regular season hasn't started yet. /s
Lol wow... Some people on here truly live game by game.