Things got dark in the second half of Virginia Tech's 90-71 loss to Pittsburgh in the Petersen Events Center.
At one point, in what was a perfect microcosm for the Hokies' debacle, Zach LeDay had a corner three blocked by a sprinting Panther, who then turned the subsequent possession into a wide open triple of their own. Tech couldn't close out on shooters all night, and in a 30-second cycle had the detriment thrown in their faces on both ends of the floor.
It was a puzzling game to say the least. Buzz Williams' squad came out as flat as they've been since the Duke loss three weeks ago. Pitt hit jumper after jumper, capitalizing on loose defense and a bevy of Hokie turnovers. The home team controlled things the moment they got on the floor, and never let go until the final whistle sounded.
It was a total defensive collapse, and when the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Mike Barber asked what went wrong Williams didn't mince words.
"Whatever you want to write would probably suffice," the head Hokie said. "They shredded us in every way. I think Louisville had nine guys scoring against us, [Pitt] had 10. So the tenth one was the guy that came in at the end; good for him."
Tech's performance wasted what was possibly the best showing of Seth Allen's tenure in Blacksburg. The junior guard did his best to keep his team afloat, as he hit 14 of his 28 before intermission, and sank everything he could get his hands on (5-5 from three, 9-12 from the line). Unfortunately for the Maryland transfer, the other players in orange didn't have the same success around the basket or behind the arc.
"It's not satisfying because we have to win," Allen lamented. "Who cares if you score and you lose by 20? It's not fun. I'd rather not score and win by 20."
LeDay, often the one to share the scoring burden with Allen, finished with 12 points on an inefficient 5-13 from the field. The forward battled foul trouble and was eventually disqualified, which lead to cameo appearances by Shane Henry, Satchel Pierce and Johnny Hamilton. The trio did their best to highlight LeDay's importance to Tech's overall success, as the time without him was an amorphous blob of below average.
It's not possible, however, to pin this loss on one specific shortcoming. The Hokies gave the ball away 21 times to Pittsburgh's nine, Panthers guard James Robinson racked up 11 of his team's 30 (that's right, 30) assists as Jamie Dixon's guys put on a clinic of ball movement. There seemed to be an open man in white with each pass, just waiting for his chance to hit a 12-foot midrange shot.
Tech trailed by double digits throughout the second half, as those Panther buckets buried the Hokies in an eventually insurmountable deficit. It marks their fourth consecutive conference loss after a surprisingly successful start in January. Is the skid, one in which the deficits have grown with each result, concerning to the coaching staff?
"I just think it's part of playing in the ACC," Williams said. "Half of them will be at home and half of them will be on the road. It's hard to win on the road. Real teams win on the road. Typically that's the separator in any league but I think for sure it will end up being in our league."
And there's no time for Buzz and company to lick wounds. Tuesday brings another road trip and another hostile environment, this time in Syracuse. It's another challenging test, and it's vital for Williams' crew to turn things around in order to avoid slipping into a spiral of further losing.
A few quick thoughts
It's difficult to understate both LeDay's impact each time out, and how poor a game he had on Sunday.
From the jump, LeDay looked like he slogged through each step. His legs didn't have their familiar pep, and the quirky inside game we've grown to love was nowhere to be found. He ended with 12 (but lucked into a few wild makes), only attempted a pair of free throws and visibly wore down as time moved on (he picked up all five fouls after the half).
It makes sense to see a bit of fatigue from the South Florida transfer. He averages 30 minutes a game in ACC play and makes up for his lack of size by exerting extra effort. His role as Tech's most important front court player brings a challenging defensive matchup, and often one of an opponent's best defenders.
But the players opposite him won't get any worse as the season progresses, and it's clear the team can't survive when he's a non-factor like in the last 20 minutes against Pitt.
Tech's lack of shooters came into full effect when it became clear the Panthers planned to pack the paint and stop penetration. Outside of a single LeTrey and two Jalen Hudson triples in garbage time, a threat from the perimeter didn't exist.
This is where Justin Bibbs needs to grow out of his passivity. He's a team guy, and the perfect man to catch looks after an Allen drive. But he passed up a number of tries as they kept forcing things down low.
A few sunk threes could unclog the paint, and he's the only person with the constant ability to concern defenses from out there. Yes, he went 2-6 on the night, but five of those came in the first 22 minutes of action. He needs to be assertive throughout the whole game, and when he was not it showed.
It's shortsighted to write this off as something that simply happens to young teams. Yes, going on the road in western Pennsylvania was going to be a challenge, but there has to be a raised level of expectations surrounding this group.
Though it seems unfair, they're better than many of us thought heading into conference play, and they showed their ability in seven out of their first eight ACC contests. We need to now hold them to the standard they set for themselves. A loss in which the youngsters came out flat footed and overwhelmed is one where they didn't play up to their ability. Pittsburgh is a good team, but they're nowhere near as dominant as they seemed to be.
Buzz's bunch had a stinker. It was what it was, but to simply accept it as part of some mythical growing process is an insult to the season they've already cobbled together. It's a short turnaround to play Syracuse, and I think we all (players, coaches and fans) should expect more in the Carrier Dome on Tuesday.
Comments
Took me several minutes to understand the title of this article.... But i got it, Buzzketball waaaas dominated. Bleh.
The refs allowed the game to be far to physical for us to have a chance. So many times we drove to the basket, forced contact, and there was just no call. The refs called the game much more like a B1G game or an old Big East game than what is typical of the ACC
If is what it is....
Sloppy ball handling is hard to overcome, but of what I saw, it was quite physical, favoring Pitt.
I only saw 5 mins of the second half but that was my takeaway as well. I will say in those 5 mins, Pitt was playing as as well as any team I've seen this year, and if that 5 mins was a composite of the entire game, no one the league would have been able to stay with them yesterday. Just chalk it up to they played great.
I don't know, I thought this was the worst called game by refs all year, but it seemed to go both ways in my opinion. Overall, Pitt was making shots and dominating the glass. It felt a lot like the Louisville game where we just could not scrap our way back in because they were too big and could make outside shots when they needed to. The refs were just miserable all around though.
Yeah I agree, I thought the refs actually called too much on both sides.
My favorite was the loose ball foul on Bibbs, that was changed to the Pitt player and it looked like both guys just running into each other trying to get the ball.
As I recall, the replay showed Bibb was positioned with both feet on the court, and the Pitt player lunged into him.
We had no defense. Sure , some of the calls were questionable , but the refs were not the issue - we still got to the line more than they did . Blaming the refs doesn't change the fact that they had a high # of uncontested shots. We can't play D very well. We allow 80pts/game in ACC play, opponents shoot 47% (truly expected that to be higher). Can't expect to win a ton of games with those #s.
Not blaming the result of the game on the refs at all, but they did not call a good game last night. If every call was correct, Pitt still wins this game maybe by even more points, they played well.
Yes our D is not great, but what can you expect from the size of players Buzz has to work with. LeDay and Shane Henry usually have to cover the big man of the opposing teams. Guys like UNC's - Meeks, NCU's - Anya, Duke's - Plumlee, etc. Guys that physically are as big as if you combine Henry and LeDay into one person. I think Buzz realizes this and has put a team on the court that can't stop an offense in it's tracks consistently, but can create steals and missed shots that turn into fast breaks and fouls. I think he has designed it this way to give us a chance at winning games.
I'll be at the Dome. Bad time for a 2 game "road trip" when a few days off may be warranted, but if ever there was a great opportunity to show what they're made of and put some heart into it for a bounce back win, this is it.
Well, that one was tough to watch. I will say, though, whatever Allen has been working on with his 3-ball, I hope he keeps it up!
I don't know what it is about Pitt, but so many of our teams, whether it's football or basketball, just seem to get off the bus, not ready to play.
Seth Allen scored well, I can not say he played all that well. Too many times he was out of control and got a charging foul or a erant pass at a critical point in the game. It is his job to be the field general and he can not have these mental break-downs. D Wilson should not even be on the court, he is a liability at each end of the court. Pitt was sagging off of him and clogging up the passing lane when he didn't haave the ball and his defense is soft. And I still can't figure out Bibbs and Hudson, one game lots of points and the next game look completely out of sync. Our defense against the shooters was non existent, very slow to the ball.
My biggest fear is that this team doesn't shake it off and this starts an epic spiral down. Last night's game was a very embarrassing loss and a huge step back. Let's hope they can regroup and come ready to play on Tuesday.
Pitt shot really well from the field, it was at their court and they are a good team that should be in the tournament. We lost this game by a lot of points, but I don't think we will start to spiral down. We have already played the top 4 teams in the ACC (also Duke, who is not top 4 right now) and only have to play UVA again. Still have to play Miami twice, but the rest of the schedule is pretty easy as far as ACC schedules go.
Do these guys take the bus to Pittsburgh or do they fly them out? I bet that makes a big difference on how they play.
I'm hoping Buzz finds a way to get his team's legs under themselves...it doesn't get any easier with a game at the Carrier Dome tomorrow.
is it just me or do we have a pretty bad perimeter defense?
I cant put last night on the officials because they were calling the game consistently. It may have been consistently different than what we have been used to the rest of the ACC slate so far, reducing our free throw attempts significantly and forcing us to actually hit our shots (which we didn't do and Pitt did). We have to be able to realize how a game is being called early on and adjust our approach to accommodate it. This is where lack of experience comes into play and shows how we are a developing program. Most of our players don't have the ability to change up the game plan completely to ensure we are getting open shots rather than trying to flail our way to the basket. Part of this is because of how few players we have that can score consistently as it is. We continue to get no production from two spots on the floor for most of the game. Typically its one guard and one big man spot on the floor, the only four that consistently score game in and game out is Bibbs, Allen, Leday and Hudson. Last night we lost to their bench. Their bench outscored ours 29-4. 25 point difference when starters are not on the floor. That's part of the growing process in a program though, when you develop the depth beyond the starters on the floor.
Think how ugly this game would have been if Allen had been normal from outside in this contest. He went 5-5 from outside, that normally would have been 1-5, which would have put us 12 more points in the hole. Not being able to shoot from outside is a critical weakness for this team in terms of being able to stage a comeback late in games. Buzz doesn't have a lineup he can put on the floor to create opportunities for clean shooters. Best group out there would likely be Allen(28%), Hudson(35%), Letrey(43%), Bibbs(50%), and Robinson(26%). Essentially three subpar shooters even with that group from outside the perimeter. Definitely a challenge when any of these players cant contribute at the end.
The other item that continues to raise its ugly head is how our bigs struggle to move and position on defense. Their struggles effect every spot on the floor like an anchor causing drag on a boat. Pitt feasted on open shots or open approaches to the basket last night. We allowed them to get 30 assists (18 is their season average), essentially 60-65 points came on wide open looks for the Panthers. Two thirds of their scoring. Even if we held them to their season average, you are looking at the potential to change the score by 24-26 points and we lost by 19.
This positioning issue also impacts us significantly on rebounding. Our bigs too often get beat to the point of attack for balls coming off the rim, allowing smaller opponents to get inside and put shots back up for quick points or ugly fouls. Pierce, Hamilton, Henry and Blackshear got us a total of four rebounds last night in 38 minutes on the floor. That's ridiculous. They need to learn how to earn their spot down low and provide us better control of the boards against smaller players. Devin Wilson pulled down three rebounds last night to show how poor this is on our bigs.
Blackshear seems to have lost a step somewhere in the last three games. Not sure if its a freshmen wall, the early fouls he has gotten or just something else going on but he definitely has lost confidence under the basket and moving top to bottom of the lane. High ball screens seem to create the biggest drag on our defensive rotation, which likely is because its the longest distance our bigs have to move on the floor. We cant recover as a team because we are waiting for these bigs to rotate back and the other team is continuing to move while we wait.
well-articulated repete, always good observation from the hardcourt
The highpoint of last night's game, as noticed by Joey Coogan.
Love it. I've been wondering if there are any NCAA rules about having to wear official team apparel on the bench? I think it's great that Buzz has all of of the quote and awareness T-shirts made, and it's not something I have seen with other teams.
I believe shirts they were last night were not Buzz quote shirts but rather shirts given out to the team by Chris Herren. There is a 30 for 30 on him, he was a great basketball player that threw it all away to his addiction. Now he his a motivational/guest speaker travelling the country.
http://www.theherrenproject.org/
http://www.ahoopdream.com/profile/chris-herren/
I was hoping I would see this one here, love it!!!
I heart Buzz.
I disagree that LeDay looked sluggish from the tip. He was playing well coming out of the gate and really was the only one scoring in the first 7 minutes of the game. For that reason, I don't see how you could put this loss solely on him. How about Hudson? Why is he so miserably inconsistent? One night he can be your best player and show flashes of a young D Wade, and the next you barely remember he's on the floor. Offensively we were average last night, but defensively we were miserable. Perimeter defense continues to be this team's most obvious flaw. Seems like other team's best shooting nights come at the behalf of our shoddy defensive efforts.
On the positive side, at least Allen was great last night. He can be incredibly frustrating to watch at times, but if not for him we would have lost by 40 yesterday.
I'd say LeDay started out sluggish as well, he just happened to have a few wild shots fall early. I'm not pinning the loss on him by any means, it's just noteworthy that he's the player Tech can least afford a bad game from. Too big a role.
As for Hudson, your guess is as good as mine. He directly contributes to their success when he's on (taking the ball to the basket, active hands in passing lanes on defense) but when he's off he's the portrait of their problems (wild drives, losing their guys off ball).
I was at this game and it was quite disappointing. We just couldn't score. Allen held the team together with some great three-point shooting, but it started to become apparent that he was was pushing a lot because the other guys couldn't get open and make jumpers. So many three pointers off the mark. Pitt was happy to take 15-foot and three point shots all night and didn't really need to go inside. The two 3-pointers in a row Pitt made early in the second half to again take a 9-10 point lead felt like they basically broke us. It was also frustrating to watch us fumble away some great steals and then also get called for fouls fighting for the loose ball. However, the most annoying thing all night was the Pitt student section starting a 5-second countdown every time we had the ball with 10 seconds still left in our possession. I might give them credit for good home court trickeration except for that it really was damn obnoxious to have going on all game. It's a fine line between crafty and obnoxious.