BUZZKETBALL CENTRAL: Clemson Tigers (14-8, 7-3) at Virginia Tech Hokies (12-11, 4-6) 4 PM Regional Sports Network

IT'S GAMEDAY!! Wear your maroon, #HokieNation..#ThisIsHome pic.twitter.com/QDQDnlWArW— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) February 6, 2016

Radio
Virginia Tech IMG Sports Network
Jon Laaser & Mike Burnop
Also available on:
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Digital: Hokies Xtra & TuneIn

Television/Internet
Regional Sports Networks
Wes Durham & Mike Gminski
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Thanks to all the students who showed up for shoot around this morning. See you in the Cassell at 4pm. #Hokies pic.twitter.com/F4oa7YAnHj— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) February 6, 2016

Hokies fans, Tech returns home off a bad roadtrip hoping to turn their season back around against the Clemson Tigers. The Hokies arguably suffered their worst loss to Syracuse last time out, giving up a nine point lead with under two minutes to go in the game. Some terrible mental mistakes cost this team a shot at a big win. Moving forward, they have what many would tab the surprise team of the conference this season. Clemson struggled in its out of conference slate, going 7-5, with losses to UMass, Minnesota, Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia. Zero quality wins in that stretch either so most people thought that Clemson would fold under the pressure of increased competition from the ACC schedule, but they havent, only having lost on the road and two of those to ranked teams in #7 UNC and #13 UVA. The Tigers have conference wins over #8 Miami, #9 Duke, #16 Louisville, and Syracuse. They currently are tied for third in the conference. This won't be a pushover game for the Hokies, even with the Maroon Effect support from the crowd today. Hopefully the crowd is crazy as there was the off-chance that the football recruits visiting Tech this weekend were going to be in attendance at todays game.

On to the show, led by Jaron Blossomgame, (#5) Junior Forward, 6'7, 215 Lbs, who so far this season has put up 17.2 PPG, 7.1 RPG, and 1.5 APG. This is the Clemson version of Zach Leday. He does a bit of everything, if anything he may be more involved than Leday because plenty of times Blossomgame will be found bringing the ball up the court. He does just about everything right on both ends of the floor. He shoots 42% from outside and 77% from the charity stripe, while also giving his team a steal and almost two blocks per game on the other end. If there was someone that Buzz should send Allen after early and often with his drives to the basket, this is the guy. Get him in early foul trouble and Clemson has a hard time managing without him. Leave him in and it could be a long day in Cassell. Blossomgame also has the knack for getting to the free throw line, with more than double the attempts of any of this teammates at almost 8 per game. Leday will probably be responsible for guarding him which should be a fun matchup to watch.

After Blossomgame, the Tigers fall off, with only one other in double figures this season. Donte Grantham, (#15) Sophomore Forward, 6'8, 205 Lbs, adds 10.3 PPG, 3.8 RPG and 2.2 APG. He seems to very much be a tweener so even with the height differential I would expect Bibbs or Hudson to guard Grantham in todays game. He just doesn't seem to have the confidence to go inside and make a big impact and it would allow Buzz to keep the unreliable bigs off the court when Blackshear sits.

There are three other Tigers that Tech will need to be aware of today. Avry Holmes, (#12) Junior Guard, 6'2, 205 Lbs, brings 9.8 PPG, 2.4 RPG, and 2.5 APG so far this season. Holmes and Grantham are the two we will definitely need to focus on outside the perimeter as they take the majority of Clemson's attempts from outside. Essentially they average 10 attempts per game, hitting three to four of them.

Jordan Roper, (#20) Senior Guard, 6'2, 165 Lbs and the emotional leader of this team. He doesn't contribute as much as he used to but is critical for this team defensively as well as its top distributor in the passing game. Roper brings 9.7 PPG, 2.5 RPG, and 4 APG. Typically at the top of the key you will see a passing of the ball backnforth between Roper and Blossomgame until one finds an opening to penetrate the lane. Blackshear and Pierce have to release cleanly on screens today or they will quickly be in foul trouble.

The last Clemson starter is Larry Nnoko, (#35) Senior Center, 6'10, 255 Lbs, who comes in averaging 8.5 PPG, 5.5 RPG, and 1 assist. Nnoko is more the big body rather than a devastating talent, but he can still find ways to hurt the Hokies, especially like Plumlee fom Duke did. We can ill afford to leave him unattended down low where he can dominate the basket. The question here will be how long is Blackshear able to stay out there to counteract this big opponent.

When the Hokies are on offense, expect to see almost exclusively man to man from the Tigers. Clemson is notorious for flying to the ball, hands in face causing a ton of turnovers. On offense, expect to the see the Tigers run a lot of high ball screens attempting to get Blossomgame isolated to create a trip into the lane to either score or get fouled, Tech will need to be prepared to clog the lane to force jumpers and off balanced shots. This Clemson team, while they have some shooters from range, don't usually make the three pointer their bread and butter so the Hokies need to make sure the Tigers keep it that way as we all know how painful it is when another team heats up from distance.

Home game, coming off two bad losses, Cassell Colisseum rockin Maroon Effect and having the full student section back for the first time in a while, Tech manages to shock Clemson today 83 – 73. I know, just asking to get beaten up over this prediction with how the road trip went but if they can play the way they did against Syracuse than they should be able to win this game going away.