With much of the student body shuttered away in Newman Library preparing for final exams, the Hokies took on Lamar on Sunday afternoon at Cassell Coliseum and dominated from the opening tip. Perhaps with a bit of added confidence in tow following Wednesday's victory over southwest Virginia rival Radford at a quasi-hostile Dedmon Center, the Hokies cruised past the visiting Cardinals with an 88-53 victory.
"Momentum is the hardest thing to get in life. But it's harder to keep," said head coach Buzz Williams. "I think we do have a little bit of momentum."
Less than a month removed from their eye-opening home loss to Alabama State, this Hokies team was a vastly different-looking unit than the one who fell to a SWAC opponent in their season opener.
This Hokies team was the clear aggressor, one that jumped out to a 20-4 lead early and refused to look back.
This Hokies team got out in transition, attacked the offensive glass for easy buckets, and played with a passion on defense that Williams desperately longed for early in the season.
To put it simply, this Hokies team knew they were best team in the gym, and then went out and proved it.
And there's something to be said for that.
"We wanna blow teams out, no matter who they are," said Bibbs. "That's how we're growing as a team."
Bibbs paced the Hokies early and finished with 17 points, consistently beating Lamar from deep with the silky-smooth jumper that earned him a spot on the USA U19 team. Bibbs' game this year remains somewhat one-dimensional as he hasn't shown much of a scoring ability off the dribble, but with two-plus years left in Blacksburg to hone his craft, the sophomore guard's ceiling is remarkably high.
"When he's got ten toes to the rim, he's fairly accurate," said Williams. "He was last year too."
Devin Wilson started at the point for the Hokies and was an important steadying presence on both ends of the floor, one that Tech desperately needs whenever their young team gets sped up. Wilson, as he has a knack for doing, drew a charge late in the first half that earned an unsuspecting referee a playful slap on the butt from a gleeful Williams.
Seth Allen worked off the ball most of the afternoon and added 10 points and a career-high seven assists to the cause.
Chris Clarke had yet another solid performance, and Williams' efforts to reel in Clarke's dynamic — but often out of control — playmaking ability seems to be having a positive effect. Perhaps no play better demonstrated Clarke's individual growth than the game's first possession, one that saw Clarke attack the rim with fervor only to dish off to Bibbs in the corner for an uncontested three.
Fellow wing Jalen Hudson, known more for his slashing ability, knocked in two three-pointers and finished with 14 points, leaving Williams gushing about the talented sophomore's growth postgame.
"Proud of him. He's an easy guy to love," said Williams. "I think it's clicked. I don't tell him that. But I think it's starting to click on how hard you have to work everyday and how that has to become your habit."
Williams' eight-man rotation that featured just two bigs — Zach LeDay and Kerry Blackshear — was notable as well, especially given that Satchel Pierce and Shane Henry logged just 2 and 3 minutes respectively when the game was well out of reach. Both LeDay and Blackshear rewarded Williams' confidence in them with double-doubles (LeDay's sixth of the season), an encouraging sign for a team who had major question marks surrounding their interior play heading into the year. And while LeDay and Blackshear did play together in spurts, Williams often utilized a four-guard lineup made possible by a Lamar team whose three leading scorers are all listed at 6'1" or below.
On the defensive end, the Hokies turned in their best performance to date, holding Lamar to just a 33.33% clip from the field. Nick Garth, the Cardinals' leading scorer, had a hand in his face all afternoon and limped to a 4-13 shooting performance. And perhaps most importantly, the Hokies forced 20 Lamar turnovers and turned them into 21 points of their own.
"I think our staff has done a really good job with the scouting reports. That would be the first thing," said Williams of his team's improved defense. "I think the more reps that our players have had absorbing the scouting report the way we go about it, they're with each passing game improving."
After a 35-point drubbing, it's easy to pick out the deficiencies of the losing side. And admittedly, Lamar, especially when forced to play on back-to-back days, isn't exactly a powerhouse. But at 5-3 (now 5-4), Lamar isn't to be scoffed at.
This win, much like Wednesday's victory over Radford, represents growth.
And for a program that's grown all too accustomed to the bottom of the ACC standings, growth is a welcome sight.
Comments
Sounds like a good time. Go hokies.
Need a Gif of this for the basketball equivalent of Fuller's high five with the ref.
Cant tell if Buzz is slapping his butt or slipping him a twenty for beer.
That's a lot of bald.
We need to keep the confidence thing going. The competition is about to get considerably stiffer. Nice to see these kinds of wins for a young team, though.
I've got that St Joes game in two weeks circled on my calendar. Next big test for this team.
Unfortunately I had to miss this one. Glad to see us beating the teams we should and how we should. Enough with this preseason, bring on the ACC!
Was there in person today. Quite a few things have improved over the last few games. The ball movement looked really good and the passes were quicker. This seems to lead to less stupid turnovers. Also, guys are starting to kick it out when they drive in instead of going for the 1v5 shot attempt. Last but not least, the perimeter defense has improved. Very few wide open jumpers. Almost every attempted three had a hand in their face. On the other hand the free throw shooting is still awful. Excited to see this team play some tougher competition.
except for Seth Allen
I really don't understand all the hate for Allen. He hasn't played as well as he was hyped during preseason and has made some questionable decisions here and there like the rest of the team, but he is still a team player in my mind.
I don't remember seeing him drive and shoot on multiple defenders against Lamar, but I do remember seeing him drive and kick-out to a 3 point shooter on at least 1 occasion. He also led the team with 7 assists (rest of the team had 11 combined) after coming off the bench.
Hate is a strong word,I like Seth, don't get me wrong, and I think he has gotten much better than the first hand full of game but I just think his style is a little more individualized at times and less team centered. There were two instances yesterday where he drove down the middle, getting around all the defense for layup and missed both. Instead of turning around to go on defense, he was under the basket upset that he missed which led to Lamar having 5 on 4 leading to easy baskets.
I think he is a fantastic player on the offensive side and is very quick but plays more like an NBA style point guard right now.
My only concern is when the game is close and he has the ball in his, what will he do, drive in no matter what or do what's best for the team.
I still don't think you can say a guy isn't a team player when he leads the team in assists.
Unfortunately Allen has made some maddening decisions/turnovers that made it easier to criticize him. (Myself included)
That said some people have to have at least one scapegoat on the team, it's like a prerequisite and an easy way to complain without digging into stats or anything. It happens every year, it'll be Devin Wilson or Allen this year.
(I'm not talking about anyone specifically on TKP, it happens with almost every fan base and social media outlet)
FT shooting is not awful. We have four guys shooting > or = to 75% from the stripe. Hudson is shooting 67% and should improve on that considering his season basically just started.
Bibbs and Clarke are the only two guys that arent doing great and Bibbs just hasn't gone to the line much at all. LeDay might be the best FT shooting big man we've had in years.
Also we lead the nation in the % of points scored off FT's going into the UAPB game, I imagine we're still up there considering we made 22 of 30 FT's in that game.
We may lead the country in FTM and FTA, but we are only shooting 65% as a team. That is terrible (14th in the ACC). We went 13-23 (57%) against Lamar. I think it's the difference between us being 7-3 and 9-1. Leading the county in FTM and FTA only shows that you get to the line more than anyone else. You actually have to convert a decent percentage for those stats to be meaningful.
Coming from a team that last year, well we all know the story of the past two years. To this one... It's nice to hear that we might be moving out of the ACC basement apartment.
Outside of Alabama State, it's nice to see us hand out ass whoopings to teams we should be handling with ease.
I'm pretty thrilled to see a MUCH more balanced scoring attack (6 players in double figures in this game) than in years previous. Anybody on this squad can make plays and get hot, rather than looking to players like Malcom Delaney and Erick Green to score 40 to even keep us close. Lots of weapons, lots of ball movement, lots of teamwork. This will serve us well throughout the year.
It's amazing what the second half of that Iowa State game did for this team. They grew up leaps and bounds in confidence that second 20 minutes and to follow that up with a gritty win over an NCAA team from last season changed the season outlook for these boys.
I think the loss to Alabama State was such a gut punch for the team, it's nice to see they've rebounded well from that.
We need to beat St. Joes.
Systematically over the last four games, Seth Allen has completely changed his style of play, and while not perfect, yesterday was about as close as he has come to looking like a starting caliber ACC Point Guard. Why is it important that he more and more act like a point guard? Because this team has too many other quality guards to rotate for him not to be a better game manager.
Consider these numbers, in the first six games of the season Allen shot 33% from the field, going 22/66 for a total of 77 points (12.83 PPG). He was even more dreadful from outside, shooting 22% by going 7/32. He also had five more turnovers than assists in those contests 18-13. (3 TPG/2.2 APG) Hell, he had more personal fouls than he had assists 15-13. Then there were the turnovers not credited to him, as well as the inability to get back on defense or guard anyone and it made for a less than stellar start.
In the last four games, you have seen an emphasis from Allen to kick the ball out to teammates. He doesn't always get credited with an assist on these kick outs but it has done wonders for his shooting percentage and points per game, shooting 43%(17/40) for 63 points (15.75 PPG) over this stretch. His outside shooting was still fairly terrible at 30%, (6/20) but his impact on games vastly improved even on the defensive end. He cut his turnovers down to 9 (2.25 TPG), compared to 12 assists(3 APG), he frequently forced turnovers by challenging ball handlers, so while not a steal to show in the stat book, the Hokies have gotten the ball which is all that's really important. He does still have moments of frustration, either by not getting back in a timely fashion or by taking on all five defenders when he has open teammates, but these moments seem to be getting fewer and fewer with each game that goes by.
My bigger concern from the game yesterday was how little our other bigs played considering the score in this game. A total of five minutes on the court between Henry and Pierce is not enough to have them ready to respond come ACC time when we are the team in foul trouble and we need a big game from one of them stepping up. It was nice to see six Hokies reach double digits but I much would have preferred to see that spread a little farther out and even if we scored a few less points as a team, had those guys play meaningful minutes to them while the team played less than meaningful team ball.
Onto more positives, Blackshear delivered a second straight beautiful game, especially on the play he took the pass from Bibbs crashing down the lane from the high position for the pretty lay up. Speaking of Bibbs, his shot from outside is so silky smooth its crazy how often he is wide open out there, but with guys like Clarke and Allen crashing the basket, the defense has to react somewhere.
Our two achilles heels remained very much on display even in a 35 point win, with 13 turnovers and our inconsistencies at the Free Throw line, shooting 56%. (13-23). The other item that doesnt glaringly show up in the stat book is how many easy buckets we missed in the lane. Clarke and Leday probably left 10 points out there between them. We can ill afford to miss gimme baskets once we cross into the ACC schedule. That said, we won the Paint scoring battle 46-14 in this game.
And after that, I will shut up about Seth Allen
Maybe they figure Hamilton will be back for ACC play? I agree not playing Satch or Shane down the stretch was strange. He did experiment with some different defenses with his main rotation guys, but getting real gametime for scholarship players is important. If Hamilton returns, I doubt Satch sees much playing time at all, he still seems a year away from really contributing, so maybe Buzz just isn't worried about him being in rhythm for ACC play?
Two problems I still see, and others have mentioned these before, from two big contributors. Bibbs still has trouble creating off the dribble. He'll get his points, but he could be a dynamic star if he could drive or create his own shot with more consistency. I'd also like for them to set more screens so that he can run off them and get an open shot, he's too still on most possessions. Secondly, Clarke is constricted by his inability to shoot. You mentioned this before, I think, but defenders play back on him cutting off his driving lanes. He attempted a three yesterday, I'm wondering if that was his first of the season. Our offense is a little less threatening when he's on the floor because of that, once he learns to shoot better it's going to create opportunities not only for him but for everyone on the floor.
someone pointed out elsewhere in this thread that as soon as Satch came in the game he threw the ball away. Why should he get more playing time if he's going to be that bad against sub-par competition? The rest of the team needs reps just as much as Satch does and they are actually building chemistry and developing a never-let-up mentality that will serve the team well in league play.
For most people, if you havent been doing something consistently, than initially you are going to face challenges when you get out there. Such is the case I believe with Pierce and Henry. What they didn't mention is that he also grabbed a nice offensive rebound, went right back up with it to score the basket and also drew a foul in the two minutes in the game. Henry grabbed two rebounds in his three minutes. You break down the rate they were pulling those down and its better than the other two bigs in the game purely time to output wise and we are stuck wondering what Pierce or Henry might have managed given 10 minutes on the floor a piece. There were 12 other turnovers by other Hokies in this game as well so focusing on one is not giving it the big picture look.
As to why its important that they get in the game, what does Buzz do when Blackshear and Leday get into early foul trouble? You want the chemistry of at least three if not four of the big men to be capable of entering an ACC game without the flow dropping off significantly. The team was up by 30+ points, so the win was intact, so not playing guys in low pressure situations to make sure they are still executing live plays could be critical difference at the end of games against teams like:
Florida State - (three 7+ footers + three 6'8 – 6'10) these six combine for about 75 minutes on the floor and 31 points
Clemson - (three 6'10+) 2 combine for 36 minutes/14 points and (three 6'7 or 6'8) top two leading scorers on the team plus another 55 minutes between them
Wake Forest - (five players 6'9 or taller including two 7+) combine for 77 minutes and 44 points a game
NC State - (four 6'9 or taller) combine for 72 minutes and 27 points
Syracuse – (five players 6'8 or taller, plus 6'7 Gbinije who is potentially All-ACC) combine for 115 minutes and about 47 points
Why did I pick these five to look at? These are the next tier teams we need to be trying to beat to move out of the cellar of the ACC and unless we have backups capable of holding their own against opposing ACC bigs than we are likely in big trouble is quite a few of these games. Any of the teams above that are above 70 total minutes means that those teams are essentially playing two bigs at the same time in the majority of their games. All five of these teams meet that criteria.
I agree that a never let up mentality can serve you well, but only if that mentality is shared by everyone on the court, and when Buzz is forced to get those guys in games its going to be tough for them to just throw a switch if they aren't seeing time in games where we get up by enough that playing them is not a risk to the outcome.
Buzz obviously has his preferences, but I have seen the lack of bigs performing burn us year in and year out for quite some time in the ACC so given that we finally have the bodies available (sans Hamilton) I would like to see a better rotation of time.
good points
Excellent points, but I think even more important than a never let up mentality is Buzz getting his normal rotation to play together and figure out how to operate as a unit. How often do we see 3-4 players on the court who weren't there last year?
To your point about what happens if we get into foul trouble, well, how often have we seen Satch finish a night with about as many fouls as points? Sure he's huge and he does snag the occasional rebound for a few easy points, but he lacks the mobility and ball skills to really be a force inside, bordering on being a liability at some points.
Just things I've seen from one end of the court.
Looks like neimo isn't keeping up his TechHoops site any longer. That's too bad, I always enjoyed his highlights.
Yeah I reached out to try to find out what caused the Hiatus and how long they think its going to be. It was always good having those other perspectives to read to give myself a sanity check.
Heard back from the guys at Tech Hoops and they are definitely sitting out this season and will reassess after that.
Nice article nice discussions. Go VT hoops!
I keep looking for when I think this program will be ready for a "program defining" win. A "we have arrived" win. We've kinda been there on the strength of individual talent under Greenberg. I feel like this team has more depth, but will take really strong developmental off seasons. A guy picking up a jumpshot, a guy getting a handle so he can go to hoop, guards getting more automatic with the dribble, etc., etc. We have three or four guys with big off seasons, I think it happens next year. If not next, then the year after. If I sound pessimistic, sorry, just think these guys are loaded with upside, need to work hard to get to that next level.
Love what Seth is building. It is gonna happen and when it does its going to happen with a deeper bench and more consistent methodology than it happened in the past.
Some of my fondest memories are going hoarse in Cassell. For a few years there camping out for tix, participating as loudly as possible in cheers, and it seemed every game was a big game. Cassel is a unique place even if I can't spell it anymore. Very close to the floor as electric as a place can be. Its gonna happen.