Buzzketball Splits in Emerald Coast Classic

If asked what they did over their Thanksgiving break, the Virginia Tech men's basketball team could provide a lot of answers.

They could keep it simple and say the just traveled down to Florida to play in the Emerald Coast Classic, an early season tournament no one's heard of which broadcasted the majority of its contests via an announcerless Youtube stream (seriously).

The Hokies could talk about playing one of the five best teams in the country in Iowa State, and getting their doors blown off in the process. The Cyclones gashed their way to a 22-point first half lead and beat Tech 99-77, illustrating just how behind the team from Blacksburg is from the upper echelon of the sport.

Or they could talk about the thrilling finale of the weekend, an overtime victory over UAB which wiped at least some of the sour taste away from the trip. In Tech's most complete game to date the Hokies grinded their way to a 82-77 win, Seth Allen looked his best in maroon (23 points in a much calmer effort) and the team showed the glimpses of promise fans have looked for since the year began.

The win wasn't enough to overlook the drubbing the day before, but the outcome as a whole wasn't bad enough to just dwell on the loss. The Hokies showed some backbreaking flaws, but did enough by the final horn on Saturday to make you think there's progress being made.

There was both good and bad over the team's holiday trip, and what's important now is to separate what they do well and where they need to improve.

Good:

Let's start off with something positive, shall we? The biggest offensive problem a year ago was the team's inability to break down a defense off the dribble. The only person who could do it consistently was Devin Wilson, and his lack of a jumper made it easy for opponents to prevent blow bys.

Now? The Hokies have plenty of players who can win a one-on-one matchup. Even in the dumpster fire against the Cyclones, Chris Clarke, Justin Robinson and Seth Allen all beat their men with the ball in their hands. Did it always end well? No. But it often resulted in either a shot close to the basket or a trip to the line (which we'll talk about later).

Zach LeDay showed some nifty moves through the lane as well, and while it's unclear what position he plays (I lean towards undersized power forward, but that certainly has its problems defensively), he continued to look impressive throughout the tournament. Now Buzz has the option to play three different players who're threats to get to the hoop at one time, which means if their spacing is good (which it's not always), they can put their opponents in a bind nearly every possession.

Bad:

This team won't get any better if the defense doesn't improve. I know Iowa State moves the ball spectacularly, can shoot from all over the floor and puts even the best teams in a tricky spot to guard them. But simply put, if you allow 99 points in a college game you need to reconsider a lot of things, because it's embarrassing.

The coaching staff tried multiple looks over the course of the weekend. Half court man-to-man, zone press and half court zone. The Cyclones dismantled everything Williams threw at them, and while the Hokies came out with a better showing against the Blazers, there were still gaping lapses which lead to open shots (threes in particular).

Their struggles go beyond facing an offensive juggernaut. It doesn't matter what scheme they throw out there, if the players don't improve defensively the team won't be any better than they were last season. It's about closing out quickly, with two hands up on shooter. It's about not losing your man away from the ball. It's about communicating and battling to combat screens. Right now there's a little of this. An average defense does it consistently, and a good one never fails to execute. Can it get better? In theory, yes, and it improved on many possessions against UAB. But is it something I'm willing to gamble on? Not a chance.

Good:

Justin Robinson at point guard. He's the foot on the gas pedal of the offense, and plays with a nice pace for most of his minutes. He'll need to learn when it's better to slow things down, or calm his teammates when they start moving too fast to be successful (see the frantic chaos as Iowa State pulled away in the first half). But that's a veteran move which'll come with age.

The freshman has a solid first step and was able to get into the paint and land a few shots early both nights. But his scoring isn't what's most impressive about him, it's the way his presence impacts the play of those around him. The assist numbers don't show it, but when Robinson plays the ball moves quicker. His passes are just a little bit crisper, and the team seems to find an open look more frequently.

Despite his performance, he continues to split time with Devin Wilson and Seth Allen, each getting roughly the same amount of minutes. If I had to guess where this goes moving forward, Robinson gets the bulk of the action, Allen'll see almost all of his on the wing as an undersized shooting guard and Wilson will pick up the scraps. His lack of a midrange game (or anything outside of two feet) still plagues him, and though he reads the floor well Wilson still has a negative impact on spacing.

Robinson rushes decisions and can be sped into choices that make you put your hands on your head, an attempted lob that hit the top of the backboard against UAB comes to mind. But the freshman is explosive and can make things happen. For example: on a loose ball rebound against the Blazers, he dove to the floor, grabbed the ball and made a perfect pass from his keister to the opposite corner.

Now the subsequent shot was missed, but you get the point.

Bad:

Robinson's pace is fun, but his team's is often not. The Hokies play too fast, and it results in a ton of wincingly bad turnovers. In my opinion they should play with tempo, their athletes getting up and down is an advantage, but in the half court it looks almost jittery. Players sometimes end up in the same spot, one will cut through the middle right as another drives with the ball (often resulting in a disastrous cluster three feet from the rim) and Clarke moves around with reckless abandon.

Clarke's athletic ability is wowing, and he's the perfect head of a trap defense, but the guy likes to run around. Against Iowa State he ran into his own teammate, while they were taking a jumper. I don't think you can get credit for a block on your own guy, but it was something to see.

As the team grows this should, again should, get better. Calming things down just a little would help with the spacing problem, which would in turn help with the miscues.

Bad:

I know it's early, but the Hokies are going to the line a LOT. As in, of this writing, the most times in the country a lot. Tech has shot 210 free throw this season, and if they continue such a pace (although unlikely since it's such a small sample size) these misses will be both infuriating and debilitating.

Tech shot under 50% against the Cyclones on Friday, and I know it wouldn't have made a difference since they could do whatever they wanted on the other end, but it made the thought of a comeback impossible. Against UAB, however, things turned around. Not only did the team convert 75% of their 32 tries, but LeDay, Allen and Clarke hit nine of the last 10 attempts down the stretch. And not so coincidentally, the clutch ability from the line played a heavy hand in the win.

This is a complete guess, but to me it looks like the coaching staff wants to take advantage of the new rule changes limiting contact and handcuffing defenses. They have the players to do it, and foul trouble is kryptonite for many a team, but it's useless if you can't convert the chances you're given.

Good:

And a quick note to end on: I think Buzz found his best lineup. It's not ideal, and certainly not one to fix any defensive woes, but it's what he used for the majority of the second half of both games.

Down the stretch on Saturday, the Hokies threw out either Robinson or Wilson with Allen, Bibbs, Clarke and LeDay. It's hyper-small, but hyper-aggressive and uses Clarke's endless abundance of energy to fight with bigger players.

It obviously won't work well against teams with size (think a Florida State or a North Carolina) but I think it'll be a nice quirk to use for five minute bursts of scoring efficiency. And when the coaches have to put in a bigger body like Johnny Hamilton, who stays on as the power forward? It's been LeDay's spot so far, but Clarke took a few minutes away from him against the Blazers and made an impact.

It's far too early in the season to be overly concerned with a team's flaws or very happy with what they do successfully. The Hokies did about as well as anyone expected, coming back from Florida with a split, but it's important to remember the win didn't even come against a power-five team. It's progress, but let's wait and see how they perform against Northwestern on Tuesday before we say how much this team is actually improving.