Seth Allen was exhausted, his right shoulder wrapped in ice, his voice growing hoarse.
But he didn't mind one bit.
Not after his Hokies had just moved to 2-0 in conference play. Not after his Hokies had just knocked off rival Virginia — who just so happened to be ranked fourth in the country — with a 70-68 win that once again had the familiar beats of Enter Sandman ringing in Cassell Coliseum well after the final horn had sounded.
"It takes your soul," said Allen of the upset victory. "My voice is kind of gone because I've been yelling and screaming. It took literally everything we had. It was a hard turnaround playing Saturday and then coming back Monday, but we just stayed the course."
It was a shocking scene in Blacksburg, one that left 'Hoos and Hokie fans alike wondering exactly how it had happened. How did Virginia Tech — the same Virginia Tech team who kicked off the year with a loss to middling Alabama State — just take down the fourth-ranked team in the country?
Maybe it was tactics, a brilliant defensive philosophy dreamed up by Buzz Williams that stifled the 'Hoos for much of the night, one that forced a senior-laden team into an uncharacteristic 16 turnovers.
Or better yet, maybe Williams had somehow devised a way to beat Virginia's famed pack line defense.
No, said Williams. It was much simpler, yet still deeper. It was his team's habits, their routines, their work ethics, their collective growth. That's what was beginning to move the needle.
"I don't think that you can have such a shallow answer and think that the preparation from Saturday evening to Monday evening was why we won," said Williams. "I don't think you can just say that the preparation versus NC State was why we won. I think you have to have a bigger perspective and think about the habits that we've tried to build since we all got here. I don't think you can beat a Hall of Fame coach, a team good enough to win a national championship, just on 48 hours of preparation. I think it has to be the habits that you've tried to establish from the beginning. Will Johnston, Christian Beyer have as much to do with this win as the kids that played tonight."
But even with the growing confidence inside the Hokies program, Williams knew he would have his hands full against the 'Hoos. Virginia, after all, entered the evening with victories over Ohio State, West Virginia, California and Villanova, all teams that could potentially be dancing come March.
"It's so hard to bend them to try to play any way other than the way they wanna play on both ends of the floor," said Williams of the Cavaliers' system. "They're so rhythmatic, the route that they wanna play in. They're not gonna beat themselves."
True to form, the game began at the methodical, deliberate pace that Tony Bennett has patented in Charlottesville over the past seven years. The Hokies led just 3-2 at the first media timeout, and with 9:24 left in the first half, the 'Hoos had sped all the way out to a 13-10 lead.
But behind 11 first half points — including three three-pointers — from sophomore Justin Bibbs, the Hokies managed to take a 26-21 lead into the break.
Virginia, perhaps growing weary of the low-scoring game, came out guns blazing in the second half and took a 38-34 lead into the first media timeout courtesy of four threes from point guard London Perrantes. Had it not been for an almost equally impressive offensive display from Zach LeDay over the very same period, the Hokies could have been looking at a double-digit deficit just minutes after emerging from the locker room.
"Dog gummit, they just blitzed us," joked Williams after the game. "I think 32 (Perrantes) hit 4 threes in that 17 point run, and I think Zach hit his 3 threes...And I apologized to the team during that round, 'I'm sorry, I should have called a timeout.'"
The Hokies slowly recovered from the 'Hoos offensive onslaught, tying the game back up at 43 and then 47 with 9:17 to play. LeDay, Allen, and Kerry Blackshear all helped the Hokies keep pace offensively, the latter performing admirably well in his matchup with Cavaliers star forward Anthony Gill.
The game was tied at 50 at the under eight media timeout, but Allen quickly scored the next five points to give the game yet another lead change.
Still clinging to just a three-point lead with under four minutes to play, Bibbs got free on a spectacular effort play from LeDay and drilled an open three to extend the lead to six. It symbolized LeDay's game perfectly — a scrappy, hard-nosed team-first player who twice grabbed his own miss only to find an open teammate on the perimeter for the biggest shot of the game.
"When you watch him, I don't think he's that good...But he's just always around the ball," said Williams, his emphasis firmly placed on the word always. "He doesn't always make the right decisions. Sometimes he tries to do a little too much. But I think there's something about when you work the way he works, his peers are never disappointed even when he tries to do too much because they know how much he cares and they know how much he works."
Allen picked Malcolm Brogdon's pocket on the ensuing possession and found Blackshear streaking up court for an old-fashioned three-point play that gave the Hokies a nine-point lead with just 2:47 to play. And after yet another empty Virginia possession, Justin Robinson hit a midrange jumper that improbably gave the Hokies an 11-point lead with 2:10 left on the clock.
But the 'Hoos weren't finished just yet. The No. 4 ranked team in the country answered with their own offensive flurry and at one point cut the Hokies' lead to just two with 18 seconds to play courtesy of a rare three-pointer from Gill (albeit aided by six missed free throws from the Hokies in the game's final minute).
LeDay made one of two from the line following Gill's three, but Virginia answered with two free throws of their own from Brogdon that cut the lead to one with just 8 seconds to play. Forced to foul immediately, the 'Hoos sent Allen to the line. Allen made the first but missed the second, leaving the door open for a potential game-winner for Virginia.
But with Bennett out of timeouts, Perrantes was forced to race upcourt and heaved up a contested layup that was blocked by LeDay. There appeared to be at least some contact on the play, but Bryan Kersey, Pat Driscoll and Brian Dorsey — two of whom worked the Final Four a year ago — were content with a no-call. Shane Henry grabbed the rebound and was fouled with .4 seconds to play, but with a 2-point lead, the celebration had already begun in Blacksburg.
Henry proceeded to miss both free throws, but a futile full-court shot attempt from Perrantes came up well short and Williams' most impressive win to date as the head Hokie was complete.
Many a team — and almost certainly last year's version of the Hokies — would have folded after Virginia came out firing in the second half with a 17-point barrage in just over 5 minutes. And against the No. 4 team in the country, it wouldn't have been the least bit surprising. But the Hokies hung around, two words that seem to keep popping up with this team.
"I think there's a little bit of their system on both ends of the floor...that preys on your lack of discipline," said Williams. "When they go on a barrage like they did, I think one reason teams typically don't hang with them the right way is they're just trying to hit a home run the next possession. We can't hit home runs. We don't have a home run hitter. We don't have a guy that can throw a knockout blow. We just gotta throw good pitches. Good pitches. Body blows, body blows. I don't know who would bat fourth on our team. It changes. Jalen was the best player Saturday, and tonight he scored 2. But if you base it off Saturday's game, you're like, 'that guy's batting in the 4 spot.' And then tonight he's not. So we just have to kinda hang around. I know it's boring, but just hang around."
That message seems to be hitting home for the Hokies at the right time, and Williams senses that he's beginning to reach his players on a more profound level.
"I don't think I'm necessarily the easiest guy in the world to play for. I don't think I'm necessarily the easiest guy in the world to work with," said Williams. "But the one thing that I would say about those kids is they care. For whatever reason, they know that I love them. And they know that I love them hard. And I think that's reciprocated."
Comments
I see Buzz dancing surpassing Beamer dancing soon! ;) Lets Go Hokies!
can we please please please pretty please get a GIF of Buzz dancing?
I believe Henry was responsible for stopping the final shot more than LeDay was. LeDay was lucky a foul wasn't called on him on that shot. That said what a great game I couldn't be prouder of our boys.
I don't know where this ranks in greatest wins for Hokie basketball, but this has to be way up there. Heart won this game, not talent. Go Hokies!
I am proud to say I am eating my words this morning. After WVU, I buried the Hokies. Let's wait another year. As ProudHokie says, Heart won this game. No doubt! True grit, BYOG as Dabo says. To know you can win means a great deal. To never give up and continue to fight is what it's all about. I have loved VT from the moment we moved to Virginia. So proud of you!!!!
Hell yes what a great Tuesday morning read!
It was an amazing win. They looked like a confident and competent team. I'm glad 'this' team showed up. Now Buzz needs to get them in this mindset for every game and it will be a superb season.
While watching the game down the stretch, it looked like the refs were trying to help UVA back into the game with some VERY questionable calls that the replays confirmed were obviously wrong. Such is life in the ACC.
That blocking foul on LeDay late was atrocious. That was a textbook charge, outside the restricted zone, with the defender square to the shooter and not moving before he went airborne. In fact, UVa got bailed out a lot late in that game. Numerous times they simply got out of control around the rim forcing bad shots up and were bailed out by the whistle on some really iffy crap. But I guess you get those calls when you are a top 5 team.
That said, I did find it amusing to see time and time again idiots over on TheSabre blaming the refs for the loss, as if they were somehow in our pocket last night. They are reaching Tobacco Road levels of delusion.
That unbelievable call on LeDay's set up was one of the most egregious calls I've ever seen in all my years watching Hokie basketball. He was in place long enough to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, for goodness sake. Maybe the no call on the final UVA drive was a little pay back, replays looked like we could easily have been called there. No matter though, that was a great win. I don't think we're a top ten team or anything, but I would like to think that the best teams in the league will be wary coming into Cassell now. Props to the team, props to Buzz, and props to the fans who were able to make it to the game.
Taking off my O&M glasses and putting on my striped glasses, the "no-call" at the end was the PERFECT call. Textbook case of an offensive player initiating contact with a defender clearly in legal guarding position.
Most of the time, the best officials shine in the most pivotal and important parts of the games; all while making the correct call. That's why they work the Final Four.
I think the main issue with the play was LeDay coming down on the offensive player (blanking on who it was) even though Henry was in fantastic position and stayed straight up the whole time.
Leday may or may not have made contact with London Perrantes after the shot was away, it really wasnt clear from the one angle that they kept playing.
For 39 minutes and 59.6 seconds, the only coach not complaining to the refs was Bennett. That said it all with regards to the evenness of the officiating.
Anthony "Caveman/ManBun/Idiot" Gill might be the most out of control basketball player I've ever seen.
There were two specific calls I thought were poor decisions/no-calls by the refs: the obvious charge they instead called a block on LeDay, and then a no-call when Perrantes was losing control and took out LeDay at the knees that resulted in a layup.
Otherwise, I thought the refs were pretty good for the most part and that was a top notch officiating crew. While there were a few instances where it looked like a UVA player was out of control, most of the time we bailed them out by trying to swat a shot that was getting forced anyway and ended up hacking.
Obviously, I was ok with the no-call at the very end since it went in our favor. But even if it the roles were reversed, I'd be fine with a no-call there. Refs will eat their whistle about 90% of the time on plays like that, whether it's right or not... you can't expect them to bail you out in the final seconds of a game.
Let's also be fair, there are some posters on the sabre that are giving Buzz and our team credit for a good game and a hard fought win.
I didn't see a whole lot of delusional posters recently, but some, like this gem:
http://chat.virginia.sportswar.com/message_board/basketball/2016/January...
Crap like this is why I regret not even applying to LOLUVa. I viewed it as a wasted application fee since I knew I was going to do engineering and their department was way behind all the schools I considered. Had I applied and gotten in, I could throw it in the face of arguments like this. Oh well.
The only place I applied to was this fantastic place I call home. Even my Uncle a Mechanical Engineering grad from LOLuva said not to bother applying there because their program wasn't as good.
My trip from Philly down to Virginia to look at schools was planned around going to see UVA. Visiting Blacksburg was more of a happy accident than anything.
I always loved this retort. I got accepted at VT, UVA, Duke, and UNC. Being a Hokie was never a "fallback" plan for myself or pretty much anyone I met during my time on campus.
One of my college roommates was a VT Engineer, sister was a Clemson Engineer (wanted to do a specific Engineering that VT doesn't have). Their parents went to Duke/UNC. All four of them applied to and were accepted by UVA and turned it down for better programs elsewhere.
STFU UVA.
Ditto, I once countered a hoo's assertion that I couldn't have gotten into UVA by mentioning I had gotten an appointment to the Air Force Academy. He said UVA was harder to get into than Air Force. What do you say to something like that?
In all fairness, VT was a lot easier to get into when I got in (1995), and I do know plenty of kids from Northern VA who considered it a safety school. That being said, VT is way harder to get into now than it was 20 years ago. I'm glad that subsequent generations of Hokies are raising the value of my degree!
I got the same response when I told them I turned down Carnegie Melon to go to Tech. There's nothing you can do for people like that.
Turned down UVA, GT, Duke, Harvey Mudd to go to VT in Engineering. (Princeton did not accept me). Have never had a Hoo sound surprised, even though my Dad went to UVA Grad school (business), and have met lots of Hoo's through him. I think the Grad school is more real than the prep part of the school, as most went to undergrad somewhere else.
During my senior design project at VT we worked on designing a scram jet engine along side some UVA engineers. UVAs task was to image ways to bring it back to the ground. They provided some colorful power points illustrating some creative ideas. We designed a rocket engine. VT is far from a backup to UVA.
Did their ideas involve ejector seats and emergency crash response teams?
My daughter did just that. While only wanting to go to Tech, she applied to both schools for the sole reason that she wants to be able to say she got accepted at UVA, but chose to go to Tech. She has received her acceptance to VT and will be a Hokie! We are still waiting for the UVA acceptances to come out later this month.
I visited both years ago when looking at schools, but didn't like their campus and their engineering department wasn't on anybody's radar. UVA has some great academic programs, but I cannot understand why any in-state student would choose to go there for engineering.
VCU's engineering school ranked higher on my list than UVA's. Not a lie.
Granted I'm from Maryland, but I did early admission at tech and graduated in Civil Engineering. Engineering at U of Delaware and the physics dept. at Towson both ranked higher for me than anything UVA or UMD.
Now, to be fair, I was pulling hard for my fianc to get into UVA for their law program because it's killer.
Applied to VT and UVA, got accepted at both. Chose the good guys because they have a better Engineering program. Plus at the time there had just been a huge bust of a cheating ring in the UVA engineering dept. Kinda turned me off from them.
Kept saying this team has too much talent to be that bad. You don't stockpile 4* players at every position and stay bad for long. Our problem has always been experience and the lack of it. So I'm not surprised when we have games like we did against WVU. However, I am surprised we did this to the Hoos last night. I was hoping they could keep it close and walk away with the experience that they are better than they thought. Games like that show things might be coming together a bit ahead of schedule. The next 2-3 years when this same team is playing with experience and the confidence knowing they are capable of playing with the best, good luck stopping them.
There is potential with this team. We aren't there, yet but man is it going to be fun when they are.
Saw the final score when I woke up this morning. What a way to start the day.
came back from my morning jog and saw this post--what a great way to start the day! GO HOKIES!
Damn I fell asleep on the couch and woke up near the end of the WVU TCU game and when I got up all I did was go to bed. Should have made myself stay up later.
Nice work boys!
Way to go Hokies! LeDay played great but my game ball goes to Blackshear he was amazing all night long! Great defense, hustle points, always in the right spot, and blocking shots so happy for him!
I've been really impressed with Blackshear over the past 2-3 games. He always seemed a little out of place at the beginning of the season and not great on offense, but has been tremendous lately. I think maybe he's gotten the hang of college ball and is playing relaxed with more confidence. I might say the same for Justin Robinson as well, really playing some tough defense and assertive with the ball.
Does anyone know if a "just like football" chant was started? I mean, while a 2 point win in hoops and a 3 point win in football isn't much to brag about, the Hoos did their bragging about "wait until basketball season" in November.
I heard it over the broadcast
I give this one:
Learning how to win is just as important as having talent on your team. Buzz is slowly instilling the will to win with this team. There will still be some bumps along the way, but if they continue to play hard everything else will fall into place. At that point, this team will be dangerous and very good. I don't think this is the year, but other. teams in the ACC will need to keep looking over their shoulder because we are not that far behind. Great win and GO HOKIES!!!
Exactly
This team will have fits and starts but is gaining confidence in themselves. As this happens other teams will start to worry about then fear playing us. Once Buzz guys are living rent free in their heads there will be huge improvement in our W/L record
Well said/written.
Confidence breeds initial, repeated success and then other teams start thinking differently about dealing with you.
So begins the lesson....
My old boss, John Nerud, would say that anyone could get a horse fit to race; the hard part of training a racehorse is teaching them to be a winner.
Fuente weighing in with the #Buzzketball.
Malcom Delaney was also impressed.
great game. I hope the cavs go on to win every one of their remaining games against teams not named Virginia Tech.
Also, suck it wahoos.
Great sentiment, I shared the same thought watching. What a freakin' clutch play that was. I have been on his ass on how he would fare against the slightly taller and more athletic ACC forwards, but effort is what is going to push him over the top on a nightly basis. Big night for Leday.
You can only complain so much after a home win over your bitter rival and #4 team in the country, so I'll stick to griping about free throws. Hokies had an 11 point lead with around 2min to go, you cannot miss that many shots from the charity stripe and hope to close a game out. I must have switched vantage points around my tv half a dozen times in the last minute. Make your free throws gaddamnit!
Just now watching end of NC State game. Wolfpack had miss after miss at the line, while Hokies were making. That is exactly what got us to overtime and kept us in front at the final buzzer.
Was anyone else amazed at how Blackshear D'd up Gill? He positively made him look foolish at times, like he knew exactly where he was going and always beat him to the spot. That was seriously impressive.
I thought overall we were just quicker than them to the spot. They kept themselves in the game by just going over the top with threes.
Defense, of both teams, really surprised me. We got to the rim quite easily. The pick and roll was working great. LeDay's pump fakes 23' from the basket worked!
On the other side, they couldn't get a good shot, even though you could see their offense is impressive. They move the ball beautifully, they get their players in solid 1-on-1 positions, they are in position to crash the glass. But our D made life miserable for them.
Blackshear was a man on D last night. He was always there with help, but kept an eye on his man down low.
What a lovable but goofy player he is. 6'11 with the face of a 14 year old. He walks/runs on his tip toes, I feel like his heels rarely touch the ground. Once he polished up his outside game, he'll be a baby-faced force to be reckoned with in the ACC.
Right now his injury prevents him from putting down at least one of his heels. Still havent seen anything official on what the injury is but apparently he will play on it throughout the season and have it fixed in the off season with surgery. That said, he does run the floor much differently than most big men because of how many years he spent playing in Europe while his dad was playing basketball over there.
It's because he did. The scouting report the assistants put together was amazing for this game, because UVA never really strayed from what they always do. It was just like Bud's D, read your key and hit the right spot.
I can now say I've seen the Hokies beat No. 1 UNC (2006), No. 1 Duke (2011), and No. 4 UVa!!!
A proud Hokie I am!
Hey,hey! Don't be stealing my name.
6-10. That's what we need to finish .500 for the year. That's it, win 6 of our remaining 16 ACC games.
Maybe we should be thinking higher than .500, but to finish at .500 this year would be a great accomplishment. This team still has a lot of problems, still have 2 or maybe 3 of our best players in street clothes. And the schedule is unrelenting. With Wake and GT after Duke, there is a real chance to get to 4-1! then it's ND and UNC and Lville and Pitt and Syracuse and UVA and Miami and FSU.....it never stops!
6-10 the rest of the way would be huge.
Win your home games, that's that building block in conferences like the ACC. If you keep a competitive non-conference schedule, i'll bet you only need to be .500 in the ACC to be considered for the dance.
2-0 at home is a good start. You just need a few road wins to be in the top flight of the conference.
All that being said, we have a pretty tough home schedule.
.500 in the ACC would at least get our name thrown around during bubble talk at the end of the year. I still wouldn't expect to get in because of our bad OOC losses, but I don't care. It would still be a successful season in my book.
I know things are cyclical, but I remember one of our MD23-era teams finishing 4th in regular season play and not getting in (5th place Miami got in, right after we beat them in the ACC tourney, I think). That season was a head scratcher for me (of course many of our bubble seasons were).
I think it was FSU, but I remember the same thing. We placed higher during the regular season and beat them head-to-head, and yet they got the bid over us.
That was a direct result of the mouthing off Seth did towards the committee and the dipshit cluelessness of the Wake Forest AD.
Both of those + our 150th+ ranked OOC schedule really reared its ugly head. That was the year the team had those killer Ut Prosim Nike's with the VT shield on the heel if I remember correctly.
Lets not jump ahead. Lets worry about Duke and then approach those other games. Wake Forest, as bad as they were in recent years, is a dramatically improved team this year, with wins over Arkansas, LSU, UCLA, #14 Indiana, and Rutgers. Three of their four losses are to #19 Vanderbilt, #18 Louisville and #6 Xavier.
Georgia Tech has wins over Tennessee, Arkansas, VCU, and Duquesne. Three of their four losses are to #8 Villanova, Georgia, and #7 UNC. They also will bring with them a certain three point sharp shooter who would probably love nothing more than to put a W on Tech. Adam Smith is averaging 13.6 PPG as the #2 scorer for the Yellow Jackets. He is currently shooting 45% from outside.
That my fellow Hokies is what Buzz means by building a winning culture! Awesome game!!
I also thought was the quote of the year so far. Everything team. Leg.
I have to say, we just beat two teams that should have dominated us down low in NC State and UVA. I honestly think NCSU's Abu and Anya may be the ACC's best (and heaviest) front court tandem and we handled them well. UVA, while they suck, is overall a tall physical team that has some tough inside players including Gill and Tobey.
We don't really have a physically dominant inside player as of right now beyond Johnny Hamilton, who plays sparingly. I hope I'm not getting ahead of myself, but it feels like we are seeing that harassing, turnover-creating basketball team similar to what Buzz had at Marquette. We have a ways to go, but I like the direction we are going.
Johnson and Meeks (when healthy) from UNC is the best ACC front court IMO. That being said, you're right that Our bigs have been really impressive the last two games.
We are gonna need these against Duke. If we make even 4 of these the game isn't even close down the stretch. We were 77% from the line before these misses. I am sure Buzz will talk to his team about FTs down the stretch.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Fuck UVa.
Spot on, dude.
After watching the game,I was feeling this.
I just didn't know how to put it into words.
Thank you.
Some thoughts on this one:
- Great win, period. UVA is a great program under Tony Bennett and their top 5 ranking is well-deserved.
- I think UVA may have taken VT too lightly in this one, and we certainly punched them in the mouth in the first half. Having watched a decent amount of UVA basketball, they looked lethargic and did not play up to their standard. Part of that was excellent defense by the Hokies, but UVA was sloppy with the ball in both halves. Lots of miscommunication between their guys, which VT exploited well.
- I was really proud of how this Hokie team did not fold under pressure in the second half once UVA took the lead. It gives me more hope for this season that we'll be a much improved team. Perrantes was killing us for a stretch there, but we kept pace and didn't let the game get away from us when it seemed they were gaining momentum. Buzz's comments about apologizing to his guys for not taking a timeout when that was occuring were interesting... in the long run, I think it benefits this team knowing they don't have to be bailed out by Coach Buzz to stop the bleeding when the other team is making a run.
- Also, some caution. While this is a wonderful statement win, there are still some issues that may rear their ugly head with this VT team. They've been Jekyll & Hyde this season, and I don't know that it's completely gone just yet. As Buzz said, there's no consistent go-to scorer on this team. That could hurt us at times when you just need a basket when the team is struggling. The fact that we've had several guys step up with big games is awesome, but it's a double-edged sword since it means some guys will just go cold on any given night.
Playing as a team and not relying on any one person can help alleviate that, and that's how they played last night. Unselfish play was readily apparent last night, as you could tell every guy was just looking for the best shot on almost every possession. It paid off, and I hope to see a lot more of that as ACC play continues.
After the game we gave them in our house last year? If that's true they deserved this loss from the opening tip.
Bennett is a great coach, but if they did come into this game taking us lightly, he's a fool.
Never, ever, ever take your rival lightly. Ever. Doesn't matter how good you are, doesn't matter how bad they are, your rival is always capable of knocking you off because they play you often enough, and circle the game often enough, to intimately know your weaknesses and exploit them.
If that is legitimately happening in C-ville, then its only a matter of time before we soar past them in all these important sports. If we legitimately want the wins more than them, they've already lost the war.
I don't think Bennett did at all (I also think he's the best tactical coach in the ACC) - his players, on the other hand, might have taken us lightly. From the postgame presser:
They came out very flat and there were lots of execution errors uncharacteristic of UVA. I'm not trying to take anything away from our guys, as they played a hell of a game. Great effort on our part and we kept the Hoos on their heels throughout.
Preparation is half your job as a coach.
If the team came out flat, that's on the coaching staff for not getting them ready to play.
How come this applies to basketball, but when it is said about Frank & Bud it is met with strong disapproval by the masses?
Just wonderin'....
is that the case? I thought the general consensus has always been that if the team comes out flat that's a poor reflection of leadership from the coaching staff. Am I wrong on that?
I've seen it a lot on this site during the past few football seasons. It really became prevalent when the potential firing of Beamer was trending and again when Bud said they didn't need a culture change. I never really voiced my opinion, but others did after stupid losses and saw a lot of backlash because of it.
Reading this caused me a lot of emotional pain because it made me think of football and our non-conference "rivals". I hate to say it, but ECU has become a rival of ours, and too many times have we let them exploit us.
But back to UVa, I definitely think the UVa players were set on cruise control up until about 5ish minutes left in the game. That is when I noticed their faces went from "Meh, no big deal that we're only winning by 4 or losing by a handful" to "[expletive-deleted] who are these Hokie ballers and why are they still winning?" You would have thought that given the mutual hatred between the two schools they would have been furious they weren't ahead by at least 10 points by the first media timeout!
And this is precisely why the series needs to end. They are not our rival. We don't give a shit about them, and view the game as an annual tune up for the regular season. We, however, are their annual rivalry matchup. They circle us every year and scheme for months to beat us. Its no surprise they have beaten us the past 2 years. They want to win those games far more than we do, which is a product of us being in a bigger conference with more important games down the line.
And its not like we have to keep playing them. They're out of conference, out of state, no political ties, and 2 programs on an uneven playing field, with us being in a Power conference and them not. There's no reason this series should continue annually like it has been going.
And this is why that, once we get rolling in basketball, we're going to be whooping on them annually. We want to beat them more than they want to beat us. Which, for them, is insane because we're in the same state and in the same conference as them. We would never take the UVa football game lightly, regardless of how bad they are, because we understand the importance in keeping the aura of dominance going. With Buzz gaining momentum, and our program starting to show signs of life, the worst thing they could do was take us lightly, and they did precisely that. Now, we can go to all our recruits showing we are capable of beating them, even when they're at the top of the game.
Where we're more than willing to step on their throats in football to keep them down, they're too busy making excuses to why UNC is a bigger rival and how our game doesn't matter. And that is why their time in the top is limited.
UVA fans for years have dismissed VT as rivals. For many years, it was the conference thing, we were just not important like the ACC games, but now that we're in their conference, they still want to dismiss the matchups as not being "rivalry" games. There are many reasons to hate on UVA, this has been one of my top reasons for decades. Now, while I don't care much about many of the Olympic sports, I still call every game with them a rivalry game, and cannot wait until we find a way to keep the pressure on them in baseball. They have so many advantages in some of the sports compared to us, but as much as they hate us, we just hate them even more, so we always have that going for us. I hope they just keep that snotty superiority thing going, it really does work for us.
just to compare some players point totals between NCSU and LOLUVa:
NCSU LOLUVa
LeDay: 9 22
Henry: 0 0
Bibbs: 2 16
Allen: 23 13
Hudson: 23 2
Blackshear: 9 10
Wilson: 1 2
Robinson: 6 5
I'm ok with a player going cold so long as we don't 100% rely on him for our points. As it stands, we've had different guys have big games. Yes, they could all go cold at once, which is a terrifying thought, but at least it's not on the shoulders of one player like it has been in previous years.
Buzz's mixed metaphor game is strong. The way he mixes sports, blending baseball and boxing, switching from his team being pitchers to batters to clean-up hitters to throwing body blows...next-level stuff.
Nice to see our guys celebrate, even better to hear what Buzz said to them at the end.
Wow! Buzz' talk to the team in this one is great stuff and should help keep a chip on their shoulder. He knows, Duke is looming, and then GT and Wake - watch out for them, read ltrepeter's comments above. The journey has just begun - stay on the path.
On another note, the characteristic of this team has changed since Chris Clarke got injured. That kid is a stud, but that change has to mean something. Inputs from TKP members smarter than me on that effect would be nice to read.
Enjoy this victory Hokie Nation! JUST LIKE FOOTBALL!
My take on it is that it was a huge blow to the team talent-wise, especially with Ahmed and Ty's absence already hurting the team. Then, WVU dealt us another huge blow as the guys tried to figure out where their new positions and responsibilities would be. But since then each guy still left on the court has stepped up, some more than others, to become more of a cohesive team that understands how each guy is contributing on the court and how to capitalize on that. Before, with Chris playing I think it was a bit of an unfortunate crutch (much like Erick Green was) because he is able to make something happen himself whereas now the rest of the team is making things happen more for each other. I still think Seth is struggling between a "do it myself" and "do it for the team" role, but hopefully he'll land in a happy medium as conference play goes on. In any case, I LOVE the grit and fight the team is showing along with all the moral support those on the bench are providing (a whole lot less pouting than in years past!).
Seth had at least one really nice assist last night. A quick check of the box score shows he had 3 assists. Nice!
Seems he is making the transition from as you say: "do it myself" and "do it for the team".
His blind pass to Leday across the lane was a thing of beauty. I am not sure how he even saw Leday with all the traffic in front of him.
That was the one. As soon as I saw that I said:
Small steps required to change a bad habit. Progress for sure.
At least he knows himself. He may live in his own little bubble the majority of the time, but he cares about the kids.
Also, Joey and/or Mark, how would you rate that pre-game meal? And thank you for not being one of the idiots that kept me there til 1am.
Great win for Buzz and the team. Watching these last 2 games, I'm now hooked on this team for the season (knowing we will struggle to get 4-6 more wins this year). This reminds me of Greenberg's 2nd or 3rd season with Zabian, Collins and Gordon starting to grit out games - maybe not winning, but not backing down from the league giants. Its a fun thing to watch.
I was finally able to make it through this game on WatchEspn, although it took about twice as long as necessary (worst experience ever...note to self, don't forget to set the DVR, and don't try to fast forward/rewind WatchESPN).
Good work by the team and the fans were loud despite the empty seats at the top. Couple of observations/questions from a casual BB fan:
1. It seemed there were several (many) scoring plays where the UVA defenders seemed to freeze for a split second while the ball handler just went around them. Was it just me?
2. Are we still being fouled at a very high rate over the last few games? (we were close to #1 in trips to the line a couple weeks ago)
3. How does the out-of-bounds line work? Is the paint in or out? Is it the first paint or the second paint? I imagine if you can see a shoe in the un-painted portion it's considered out?
1. There were several instances where they did not expect a Tech player, especially Leday at the top of the key, to drive in against their pack line defense. They were slow to react thereby giving our player enough time to establish themselves in the lane, at which point its difficult for a defender to do much with the new larger charge circle in play this season.
2. The fouls/free throw attempts are down (we are currently 3rd in attempts and 9th in made in DI) with the increase in quality competition but we still forced our way to the line more against UVA (22/17) than they were allowing on the season so far, which is also true for the NC St (22/16) and WVU (30/28). The St Joes game(11/16) is the only game this season where I think we have had less FT attempts than the opposing teams average. Even in a bad loss, our ability to get to the line is impressive. The Iowa State game where we went to the line 25 times is amazing considering the Cyclones foul the least in Division I at 12.69 FTA per game allowed. We essentially went to the line twice the amount of their average.
3. The inside edge of the line is considered out of bounds.