Buzzketball Stumbles Against Virginia 67-49

Things escalated quickly in the Virginia Tech men's basketball team's 67-49 loss to in-state rival Virginia in John Paul Jones Arena.

An early turnover lead to an Anthony Gill three point play, and the rest of the game followed accordingly. The Hokies made mistake after mind-numbing mistake, the Cavalier defense tightened even further and then eventually capitalized on their abundance of chances.

Throughout the slop coach Buzz Williams stood on the sideline, arms primarily crossed, foot occasionally stomped. Without a word he already echoed the sentiment reverberating across Hokie Nation about the showing: frustration and disappointment.

"I think if you get beat the way we did from start to finish, I think you should always credit (Virginia)," the head Hokie said. "I would say some of them were even uncharacteristic for us. 35 percent of the time in the first half we turned the ball over. We were a little better in the second half, but that was not a good start at all."

Nothing went right for Tech. Junior forward Zach LeDay picked up two early offensive fouls and battled with the bench for most of the night. And even when LeDay found himself on the floor for a decent stretch, he couldn't get anything to go (1-7 from the field to finish with seven points).

His transfer counterpart Seth Allen failed to find success as well, as he ended with an ineffective six and double the amount of grimaces. Virginia's defense made things tough on the junior, whose explosiveness came in handy multiple times in his team's win last month.

And with the failure of Tech's biggest threats to gain traction, the Hoos slowly pulled away. While the group in orange may have had issues holding onto the ball, Tony Bennett's squad passed with precision. The ball rotated crisply around the arc, frequently finding the open man, who would then bury his jumper.

"Virginia Tech really james the lane, they flood it, they pack it, they pick up a ton of charges," Bennett said. "So you've got to make the next pass, and they forced us certainly to do that early."

And it's how the first half would go. A Hokie mistake, a Wahoo capitalization, and in seemingly the blink of an eye UVA was up double digits, then 15, then 20, engulfing their opponent in an insurmountable lead.

There were, however, two shining stars for the losers.

Freshman Chris Clarke made his return after missing all of conference play so far. The silky smooth athlete from Virginia Beach made his presence known immediately, not just with an early dunk but with his mere donning of the uniform.

It was hard to take your eyes off him if you were a Tech fan in the building, just waiting to see if the former top recruit in the state would check in. He ultimately did, though he told reporters afterwards he didn't know he'd get time until the moment Williams pointed his way, and glided through an up and down comeback.

While the fast-rising dunks are easy to remember, so should the haphazard ball handling and missed bunnies at the rim. It was a great return, but the youngster also reminded fans there's more to improve.

Another bright spot was a fellow frosh, point guard Justin Robinson. He lead the team with 16, scoring all but two of them in the last 20 minutes. Though there were a few plays which padded his total, the freshman showed more poise than many of his upperclassmen peers. He attacked with intensity and knocked down open triples.

Robinson's ability makes Hokies yearn for the future, as his ceiling at the position is higher than anyone in Blacksburg's since Malcolm Delaney.

Coming up the Hokies get a week off before heading down to Coral Gables to play another top-12 team in Miami. It'll be a tough test, but don't think Williams will allow his guys to get discouraged. Yes, Tech hardly had a chance and it was apparent early on. But the head coach thought this barn burner was different than others this season.

"I thought our spirit was pretty good tonight, honestly," Williams said. "I know there are three games of the 12 that we've played, at Pitt, at Duke, at Virginia, that kind of don't go in the grouping of the other nine games.

"Seven of the 12 have been decided by two possessions or less, I think they're comfortable when it's a one or two possession game because we've played more of them, but I thought our fight and our spirit was better at this blowout than it was at Duke, I thought we lost our identity at Duke within the first media timeout, and I thought at Pitt we just never had any juice whatsoever. I thought we had good juice, I thought our spirit was good tonight."

A few quick notes

This may lead to an entire article, but just one note tonight.

The last four times Tech has faced off against the Wahoos have been fascinating. On one side, a team and a coach who've soldiered through every stage of rebuilding. On the other, one who is trying to do the same. From taking over a program in pieces to an annual NCAA Tournament frontrunner, it's hard to ignore the job Bennett's done.

Not only the success, however, but how he's done it. Bennett enforced his style, never wavering, as he brought in players who fit. And each year, as more of them accumulated, UVA saw bigger and more impressive success.

In fact, if one had to pick a team to model Buzz's blueprint after, the one down the road may be the most replicable. It's not reliant on McDonald's All-Americans and 18-year-olds waiting their turn for the NBA, but just a bunch who believes in their leader and what they need to do to win. It doesn't have to be pretty (and spoiler, it's often not), but the Cavaliers have completely bought into their path to victory.

It's not there yet for the Hokies, but isn't there a leap to be made over the next calendar year? Isn't it feasible, should Williams remain in Blacksburg, that the rivalry could gear up in the Commonwealth?

Absolutely. And though the Hokies were steamrolled on Tuesday night, things could get even more exciting as these two programs move forward.