Welcome back Hokies fans, hopefully the football team comes through today to give us something to cheer about. Buzz and the boys definitely did nothing for us last night except drive us crazy. Bad turnovers, bad perimeter defense, bad shots, bad free throw shooting, just pretty much bad all around. It was obvious Iowa State decided to make a statement in last nights game, finishing off the Hokies 99-77.
This afternoon we face a much closer talented team to our own roster. Tech and UAB have two similar opponents faced and are each coming off a loss last night. UAB comes in having beaten Alabama State by one possession and also having beaten Jacksonville State by a handful. The Blazers also have the support of former Hokie, Robert Brown, helping to lead their team this season. I am sure he would love nothing more than to get a win in his senior season against his former squad.
The Blazers are led in scoring by Sophomore forward Chris Cokley, (#3) 6'8, 218 Lbs who is scoring 15.8 PPG, while pulling down 8.6 RPG. He is a very athletic and likely will match up against Leday for most of the game. Currently, he is shooting 57% from the field and 73% from the line. Cokley is the only Blazer currently scoring in double digits per game. He takes most of his shots within eight feet of the basket, so keeping him out of the lane with possession is critical.
Former Hokie Robert Brown, Senior Guard, (#4), 6'5, 190 lbs comes in as a do a little bit of everything for the Blazers. He is averaging 9.6 PPG, 3.4 RPG, and 3.6 APG. He is considered their top defensive player, so I would expect him to match up with Clarke when he is on the court. He is still fairly ineffective from the outside, which was one of the knocks on his game when he was at Tech.
After these two, the Blazers basically are balling by committee, having nine players averaging between 3 and 7.2 PPG. Lewis Sullivan (#7), Sophomore forward, 6'7, 195 Lbs is scoring 7.2 PPG but doing so in only 13 MPG. I can only speculate that fitness is why he is only playing such sparse minutes as his contribution rate in almost every category is at the top and he does not appear to be in foul trouble often.
Guards Nick Norton (#2) 5'10, 175 lbs and Hakeem Baxter (#0), 6'2, 170 lbs round out the rotation for this team, putting up about 6.5 PPG and 3 or so RPG each. Norton is more of a facilitator with his 4.3 APG.
The Blazers are usually playing two forwards and three guards since they don't have much in terms of size. Expect UAB to try to push the pace to try to score in transition rather than have to run a half court set where the Hokies will be able to put their size to better advantage. This is going to mean high intensity defensive play from the guards of UAB. Our young backcourt will need to be ready to break that first trap with a solid pass to the open player.
The good news is that this season so far, the Blazers are terrible perimeter shooters, averaging 25% as a team. This could essentially wipe out one of Tech's biggest weaknesses so far. Tech opponents have averaged about 40% from the perimeter so far through five games. Last night certainly didn't help, with Iowa State shooting 62% from outside. Take that in, the Hokies allowed the Cyclones to shoot 13 of 21 from three point land. Not a number you ever want to see as a coach.
Buzz will have his hands full getting these guys focused again after the beating last night. The bright spots continue to be Leday, Clarke and Bibbs. Henry continues to progress and we finally saw some contribution from Hudson with seven points.
Seth Allen, even in double figures again, continues to struggle. He just seems to be trying to do too much rather than rely on his teammates. Its worrisome as we are now five games into this season, rust is one thing but habits are another. These are beginning to seem like habits.
If the Hokies play to their talent level, this game should be a nice 10 point win but if they succumb to their inexperience than we could be in for a long night. These teams are very close in terms of playing ability so whomever wants it more and executes their game plan will win this game. I expect that this game will come down to Leday executing in the lane. If he goes for more than 20 points tonight, the Hokies win. Tech 71-UAB 68.
Comments
Time to refocus, 45 minutes to game time. Stay drunk and continue to cheer on.
No TV,Rob?
In the title. Should be on CBS Sports again.
I got BYU vs Utah State on my CBS Sports channel. (Football)
No, they have a FB game on.
Seeing the same. It appears CBS also didnt sell the rights either even though they are sitting on the game. May have to chalk this up to two bad basketball teams dont outweigh any football game unfortunately. Not even an ESPN3 option it appears.
I'm high on VT athletics and need the Basketball team to keep it going. Hopefully they perform a bit better than they did last night.
Directv doesn't have it scheduled
YouTube stream for all that want to watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrWQrEcD0wU
That stream is better video than we usually get with ESPN3. So crystal clear. As for the basketball I only caught the last three minutes and nothing jumped out at me there.
Thanks!
Can we get all the games this way? I don't miss the inane comments from the broadcast crew. And I really like that we don't have to follow the player who just made a routine layup down the court while the offense tries to bring the ball up against the press. And I really, really do not miss the floor angle shot from the baseline when you are trying to see through the forwards to see what the guards are doing with the ball at the top of the key.
I liked the stream for the most part, but during the timeouts they kept doing the "instant replay" thing. For some reason the audio and video during that was really choppy and annoying. If they can shore that up I would love to watch all the games on youtube. (I do think it was Emerald Coast Contest stream though so I doubt the option will exist for the rest of our games)
38-35 UAB. This team has no one to shoot 3s except Bibbs. Haven't seen Wilson even attempt one in 3 games.
I'm shocked that Buzz plays Seth so much. I've never seen somebody consistently so bad at defense.
I was afraid that this was something that would be what I missed. So not sold on Allen. It gets worse by the game. These are habits not rust. He doesnt even shoot the three like Smith could.
VT 50-49 More toughness on D this half
Seth Allen is single-handedly killing this team. Gets tricked by a single fan with dummy shot clock attempt, over helps on the defense leaving the only UAB shooter open for a 3, gets beat by his man. Over and over again. His ability to drive and make layups is cancelled out by terrible shot choices and defense.
Anybody else watching us give #2 wide open threes all game.
Playing much better than last night, shooting free throws better.
It seems Buzz has conceded only being able to defend either the lane or the perimeter. Since this team shoots 25% from behind the arc, he is giving them that shot. Shouldn't be that way but until these guys can play perimeter defense and collapse correctly inside with their man we should expect more of it. Allen is definitely costing us this game. Constantly out of position or loafing back after a bad offensive possession. Just not sure how long Buzz can keep this experiment going.
He must have heard me. I hit send and he hits a three.
Do it again. :-)
Allen with the offensive foul when we needed a calm clean basket the most. Leday being in foul trouble isn't helping here either.
What's frustrating is that when he's in the game, nobody can get into any kind of offensive rhythm. Except for put backs on his misses, nobody else gets the ball.
Allen drives and gets the offensive foul for pushing off. I can't stand him. I'm not sure if he's come out the 2nd half.
Tied up at 71 with 13.5 to play.
OT
Overtime baby. Clutch FTs from LeDay. Be sweet to win this one!
OVERTIME. UAB missed a deep 3 as the clock ran out. Leday did a great job eliminating a potential low post pass.
No excuse to be in this position. We hit 13 more free throws than this team and have 12 more rebounds. Just ridiculous that we have to go to Overtime. I am probably more irritated because I have to leave now and miss OT.
Another turnover by Seth...unforced too.
Better offensive possessions in OT, but still messing up that final pass.
LeDay is being a beast on the boards. Just forced a foul too.
Great win!
Hokies win.
These are the type of games we couldn't finish last year. Sloppy game, but always nice to beat a tournament team, one that beat Iowa State at that.
The Giants need to win tomorrow, and this weekend will be complete!
Question from somebody who watched only the last 3 minutes: Why was Allen in instead of a big man like Hamilton or KJ?
Obvious answer is free throws. But before the game got to that point and was still tied, why not? Neither one is a terrible free throw shooter
75% FT shooting! Holy Moly!
Clarke had 16 rebounds. My goodness.
Made it out to Niceville for this one. Took my parents to their first Tech basketball game. I'll take an ugly win over a good team anytime. I did notice some glaring issues though:
Seth Allen is a ball hog, and it's always an adventure when the ball is in his hands.
Several times we turned the ball over simply due to guys not knowing where the ball was/ not communicating. That seems like an easy fix, and it needs to be fixed soon.
Chris Clarke is gonna be awesome after some development, but he's very raw right now.
We gotta cut down on the fouls.
Need to find consistent perimeter shooters not named Bibbs.
Glad to see that we pulled this out in OT. 11 rebounds compared to 3 for UAB in OT. Someone at ESPN fell down on stats keeping in this one though. If you look at the play by play, it says Null did this, Null did that so a ton of stats weren't assigned. One of those has to be turnovers for Allen. He was only charged with three on the stat sheet. I saw three in the last five minutes of regulation.
Great work on free throws but we continue to rack up the turnovers to counteract the good. Foul trouble for key people obviously hurt in this one as well.
I am sure all the headlines will credit Allen with this win but if you watched it you know that is far from true, but that's what happens when you lead the team in scoring. 23 points on 7-19 shooting, saving grace being 7-8 at the free throw line. His defensive failures and turnovers though allowed UAB to hand around. UGLY Habits he needs to break before we get to the ACC schedule or we are in for long nights.
Was at the game today, very exciting.. here is my take. Great win. Justin Robinson was lights out both yesterday and today.. incredibly quick and could get to the basket at will..even against Iowa State. LeDay is always around the ball.. always making plays and tough in paint. Bibbs is unselfish and needs to create more. Clarke is a freak but plays out of control too much.. that is due to youth. He is really special though and love him. Hamilton definitely has a role. Hudson should play more. Do not know why Robinson barely played in 2nd half vs UAB.
Regarding UAB game, I could not fathom the selfish play by Seth Allen... many possessions he thinks it s a game of 1 on 1.. I simply do not get it. His D is terrible, gives up the back door plays a lot or just doesnt seem to be that engaged. Buzz must like something that we do not see. I can not believe they let him play like that but were in the bonus so they felt it was ok to drive every time. He appears to have his own team rules... would imagine his teammates would not like it. Offensively, his is really over rated but also pretty darn quick and could get to the whole.. I do not like his team game at all.
http://www.hokiesports.com/mbasketball/recaps/20151128aaa.html
Sure enough, even the Hokiesports write up makes it sound like rainbows and puppy tails with Seth Allen. Frustrating but expected.