Buzzketball Central: Lamar Cardinals (5-3) at Virginia Tech Hokies (6-3) 3PM ESPNU

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Welcome back Hokie fans, this time Tech faces the Lamar Cardinals for the first time in school history. Lamar is led by a Hokie great on the hardwood. George "Tic" Price, Lamar's head coach, is a Hokie, having played at Tech as a Small Forward from 1976-1979. Price was the captain of the 1979 Hokie team that went 22-9, won the Metro Conference Tournament, and then lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament. During his time at Tech, the Hokies went 81-34, going to the tournament twice. Price was mainly a back of the rotation guy with a high motor, known more for his defensive prowess than his offensive ability. Price spent all of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties as an assistant coach here in Virginia and Tennessee, spending time at Roanoke, Chattanooga, and Old Dominion. He was also a Virginia Tech assistant coach from 1989-1991.

This is just Price's second year as the head coach at Lamar, having led them to a 15-15 record last season. He took over a program with nearly a bare cupboard. Gone are his top three scorers, top two rebounders, and top shot blocker from last season. Price has built his roster up much like Buzz Williams, by bringing in some transfers, JUCOs and six freshmen. Many are having to play significant roles similar to Tech. Nod to a Hokie that has done well for himself.

Now onto the game and what to expect from the Cardinals. Lamar comes in riding a three game win streak after pulling off a 73-58 win over Liberty yesterday afternoon. One thing is for certain, they can score in droves. Tech needs to have a strong defensive game plan to slow this team offensively. Lamar comes in averaging over 80 points per game as a team, with its lowest output of the season 66 and having cracked the century mark once in a win over DIII Austin College. So far their toughest opponent has been either Rice or Fresno State, both of which ended in losses.

The Cardinals have three players scoring in double digits so far this season, and all three seem to have that do a bit of everything attitude on the court. Top scorer is Nick Garth, (#3) 5'11, 185 Lbs Freshmen Guard, who is averaging 14.6 PPG, 3.1 RPG, and 2 APG this season. He is shooting better than 40% from the field, 72% from the free throw line and even 37% from outside. Lamar against Liberty got him quite a few open looks and he led all scorers with 22 points, including 3-5 from outside and 5-5 from the line.

The Hokies need to plan on having Wilson or Hudson guard him closely all night. Garth has attempted over 50 three pointers already this season so a hand in his face is critical considering he has knocked down 22-54. The last ten minutes of the game yesterday was essentially the Nick Garth show, where he scored 18 of his 22 points.

Lincoln Davis, (#5) 6'1, 173 Lbs Junior Guard is a transfer from Fairfield that sat out last season, who is averaging 12.4 PPG, 4 RPG, 4 APG as well as 2 SPG so far this season. He has very similar shooting percentages to Garth so the Hokies will have to hope Allen or Bibbs can handle guarding him. Garth is the most likely on this team to slash and drive, trying to create a shot or a trip to the line. His 48 free throw attempts are 10 more than anyone else on the Cardinals this season.

Last of the double digit scorers is Kevin Booze, (#0) 5'10, 170 Lbs Sophomore Guard, who is averaging 11.7 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 4.1 APG, and 1.1 SPG. This trifecta of guards really contribute a surprisingly balanced attack, combining for 11 rebounds and 10 assists each game. Booze does have a tendency to get into foul trouble, averaging 3.6 fouls per game as his role usually seems to be guarding more the wing type players like Clarke and Bibbs, who are larger and able to muscle their way past him to the basket, leading to fouls. This could be a critical component for Buzz to focus on in his options to attack the basket.

If Booze gets in early foul trouble, expect Preston Mattingly (#22) 6'2, 195 Lbs Junior Guard and Marcus Owens (#20), 6'1, 195 Lbs Junior Guard to pick up the slack, as both come in averaging about 18-20 minutes on the floor each night. They combine for essentially 10 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists per game.

One of the surprising points in Lamar's victory over Liberty is how they dominated the Flames in the paint, outscoring them 38-16. A big part of this dominance was from another freshman, Forward Dorian Chatman, (#2), 6'6, 224 Lbs who is averaging 8.1 PPG, 4 RPG and a sneaky 1.6 BPG, coming in off a 14 point performance against Liberty in which he went 6-8 from the field. Chatman appears to be their sixth man, change of pace type player, much like Clarke and Hudson. He is rough around the edges but can knock down any shot inside 10 feet. Liberty allowed him way too much space in the lane from about the six-foot mark where he knocked down three easy buckets early in the second half that essentially buried the Flames. Chatman is another Cardinal that seems to have foul problems each game, averaging 3.7 per game so far.

The Cardinals rotation seems to be three guards and two forwards for most of its court time, so alongside Chatman, they run three other bigs into the rotation to fill the minutes. Lemon Gregory, Senior Center (#4) 6'10, 255 Lbs, by far the largest Cardinal on the floor gets the most time as part of the big man rotation. He manages 5.4 PPG and 3.1 RPG. A third Freshmen making an impact, Josh Nzeakor, (#11) 6'6, 207 Lbs Forward, is putting in 5.7 PPG and 3.3 RPG. The last of the bigs rotation is Dontavious Sears (#23) 6'4, 175 Senior Forward, who is averaging 6.3 PPG and 4 RPG.

The momentum this team has coming in is worrisome, but the bottom line is that the Hokies have both a speed and size advantage at most positions on the court, along with better depth in the back court than Lamar does. I expect that our size on the court, even if Buzz runs his preferred "smaller" unit will force Lamar into quite a bit of zone defense. They will try to force the Hokies to shoot from outside and prevent the drives into the lane where Tech can create. They may run some surprise pressure defense out of timeouts or after turnovers to try to move the ball in their direction. Tech showed weakness late in the game against Radford in turning the ball over deep, giving the Highlanders several easy steal and score baskets.

The Hokies really need to find a way to get their bigs involved in this game, even if its just to create space at the top of the key to allow slashing guards to give and go. If Tech has trouble in the lane than we could be in for another bad afternoon in this learning process. Leday needs to deliver a solid performance, be it by making baskets or by making it at the line. Blackshear needs to build off the 13 point game at Radford and deliver another good performance down low for the Hokies. It may be necessary to get Pierce involved in this game if either of the other two struggle as winning the lane is a big key to this game.

These teams have very similar numbers, scoring about 80 points a game and giving up about 70 each game. One thing is for certain, the Cardinals have a knack for finding the rebounds. They average 14 offensive rebounds a game right now and almost 32 a game so far total. The Hokies can ill afford to let this team have easy buckets that make up for their size differential. Proper positioning and locating attacking offensive players are critical areas the Hokies must deliver on to be successful in this game.

Attack the basket when you have the ball, win the offensive lane battle, get the rebounds, especially on the defensive end, and guard Garth on the perimeter. Do those four things well and the Hokies will be successful. Final in this one, Tech 78 – Lamar 66. The Hokies likely win this game at the free throw line late with all of us imbibing or nail biting to the end.

Lamar is also the Alma Mater of Assistant Coach Steve Roccaforte, who I am certain would enjoy a win against his old school. He also was their head coach from 2006-2011, as well as an Assistant as far back as 2003, so there may be some motivation there as well.