Buzzketball Central: Charleston Southern Buccaneers (4-6) at Virginia Tech Hokies (9-1) 9PM DEC 20 ESPNU

IT'S GAMEDAY! #BeatCSU Cassell 9 PM ESPNU pic.twitter.com/fC0i1Kq88j— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) December 20, 2016

GAME INFORMATION
Date/Time: December 20, 2016 / 9 p.m.
Opponent: Charleston Southern
Site: Blacksburg, Va. (Cassell Coliseum)
Radio: Virginia Tech IMG Sports Network
Talent: Jon Laaser & Mike Burnop
TV/Internet: ESPNU
Talent: Alex Faust & Jason Capel
Live Stats: HokieSports.com
Game Notes: Virginia Tech

Did a search for the XM channels but couldnt seem to find one listing the Tech game. Only game listed at 9pm was New Mexico vs Arizona

Check out this sweet deal:

FREE TICKETS! We have a handful of free for tonight's @VT_MBBall game. Tweet at us, let us know why you want them & how many! #Hokies pic.twitter.com/Xk5k9qUtzC— Cassell Guard (@CassellGuardVT) December 20, 2016

Box of Donuts

Buzzketball is closing in on the end of their out of conference schedule. The Hokies have taken care of business to this point. Two more less than stellar opponents until they take on a Top Five team. These are some of the hardest games to win. An extremely overmatched opponent, a late night start, a game that might be taken for granted. The Hokies have come out slow in each of their last six games and honestly I don't know if this game will be any different. Hopefully it will dawn on these guys that they need to treat every team like they were a #5 Duke for at least the first ten minutes of every contest. Play your game rather than having it dictated to you.

This is a late game on a Tuesday when the school has sold off the student section to fill it up so hopefully with the holidays, most ticket holders will be in attendance and the stands will be full to cheer on these Hokies. It would be good to see a full arena considering the game is nationally televised.

Charleston Southern comes in to Cassell with a 4-6 record that is even more deceiving than it looks. You already see a losing record, than you see that their wins are over Division I Abilene Christian, USCAA opponent Johnson & Wales (NC), NCCAA opponents Columbia International and Toccoa Falls. Their losses include one to the same Abilene Christian team they had beaten earlier, South Carolina Upstate, Florida State, Alabama, VMI, and Georgia. The losses to the three P5 schools were each by 20 points or more. The Buccaneers come into this game with a KenPom Ranking of 306 out of 351 teams.

This shouldn't be the high paced game though that we saw against The Citadel. Charleston Southern scores a modest 77.6 PPG while giving up 72.5 PPG. This is heavily skewed though by 90+ performances against three of their overmatched opponents while only giving up an average of 53.3 in those three games.

This will be the sixth meeting between the Hokies and Buccaneers since 1976. Tech leads the all-time series 5-0, with the latest win coming in 2009, 73-50.

The Buccaneers are coached by Barclay Radebaugh who took over the program in 2005. Radebaugh has led Charleston Southern to two Big South conference titles as well as two NIT appearances in those 11 seasons, the latest in 2015. There was a huge talent drain from graduation after that season so the Buccaneers appear to still be building back up these last two seasons.

Defensively, the Bulldogs employ man to man and a couple different versions of a 2-3 zone. These defenses are not typically high pressure and are not designed to force early mistakes. The Buccaneers are extremely vulnerable underneath, allowing opponents to shoot 52% on the season.

Offensively, Radebaugh employs the Dribble Drive Motion Offense. Imagine four Seth Allen's on the court with one big underneath. This offense is designed to find weaknesses, penetrate the lane on the dribble to either find a shot or find the open perimeter shooter. It also has the effect to cause defenders to reach, leading to quite a few trips to the foul line. Trying to open the lane, expect to see the one big fade to the opposite side of the lane as the ball handler. This forces the down low defender to either follow his man, leaving the lane more open to penetration or stays put, leaving his many open to an easy interior pass. The Buccaneers still attempt over 20 three pointers per contest so the Hokies cannot afford to fall off the perimeter.

What does that mean for the Hokies?

5 THINGS | #BeatCSU EDITION Student for a day Faculty/Staff enter FREE! 9 PM tip-off pic.twitter.com/ajc8Z0XNvj— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) December 20, 2016

The Hokies need to come out playing as if they were lined up against Duke. No more first half sleepwalks. This is another overmatched opponent so Tech should be able to win by 20 or more going away. Anything less says that the Hokies didn't play their normal game.

The Hokies especially need to be focused on the defensive end, because Charleston Southern grabs over 10 offensive rebounds each game so far. This contributes to a better than average offensive efficiency for the Buccaneers. Its also a faster paced offense than most, although nothing like The Citadel, so the Hokies can ill afford to let their guard down.

The Buccaneers have seven players that are shooting better than 35% from outside. Closing out on perimeter shooters will be critical in being successful in this game for the Hokies. The occasional foul of one of these shooters may not be as harmful as you might think. The Buccaneers are shooting only 60% from the line.

As another indicator of how little passing may be involved in the Buccaneers offense, they are 300th in assists with only 123. This means the Hokies need to be that much more disciplined on defense because the ball doesn't travel as much between shooters. Too often, the ball carrier takes the ball inside, attempting to force the issue down low. Sy needs to be extremely careful to not get in early foul trouble from leaning down on these tiny shooters.

Along the lines of passing though, Charleston Southern does use the pass to a cutting guard, so I would not be surprised to see Buzz go to a zone defense if Charleston Southern begins to enjoy success with the interior cuts.

Buccaneers Backcourt

Five guards get to see at least 10 minutes or more of floor time. Lots of substitutions to try to get opponents to rubbery legs, wore down for a late game push. Trying to figure this out against The Citadel got Tech in early trouble, so hopefully they learned the lesson in that game and can come out playing like they should in the first half of this contest. This team relies a bit more on a core group but still manage to spread the time around.

This team shoots much better than The Citadel though so Tech cant just rely on rebounding to create. As a team, the Buccaneers shoot 51% inside the arc, and 37% outside. Tech needs to have hands up and stay with their assigned man.

Sophomore Armel Potter, #1, 6'1, 180 lbs leads all Buccaneers in scoring. He is averaging 14.9 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 2.9 APG, while shooting 36% from outside. He attempts almost 4 three pointers per game. He has a balanced ability to shoot from outside or work the ball in but will be severely undersized against all the Hokies on the floor. Potter plays about 29 minutes per game.

Freshman Christian Keeling, #11, 6'3, 175 lbs is second on the team in scoring, putting up 14.3 PPG, 6.1 RPG, and 1.5 APG. Keeling shoots from outside at 38% but prefers to do his scoring inside, where he shoots 47%. Expect to see him use his big body to get to the basket quite a few times in this game. Between Keeling and Potter, they get to the line about 10 times per game, putting in 6.5. Keeling is playing about 27 minutes per game so far.

Junior Cortez Mitchell, #2, 6'2, 180 lbs comes in averaging 10 PPG, 2.4 RPG, and 2.3 APG. He is playing a respectable 22 minutes per game so far. This is the guy that can do damage from outside, currently shooting 46% so the Hokies can ill afford to let him get warmed up.

Senior Raemond Robinson, #0, 6'3, 190 lbs is averaging 6.3 PPG, 1.2 RPG, and 1 APG in almost 16 minutes per game. Robinson shoots a respectable 37% from outside.

Senior Patrick Wallace, #4, 6'1, 185 lbs, is putting up 5.7 PPG, 1.1 RPG and 1.3 APG in about 16 minutes on the floor. Averaging over 4 attempts per game outside the arc, hitting at about 37%.

Buccaneers Frontcourt

Junior Forward Javis Howard,#23, 6'8, 210 lbs will be expected to matchup as best as possible with Leday. Howard is putting up 7.1 PPG and 5.8 RPG while shooting 53% from the field in about 29 minutes of play per game. Leday and Sy will have their hands full down low.

Junior Jamar Martin, #5, 6'5, 215 lbs comes in playing around 19 minutes per contest, averaging 6.1 PPG, 4.3 RPG, and 1.2 SPG while shooting 46% from the field, 38% from outside, where he takes around three shots per contest.

Names the Announcers will Butcher

Ugo Mmonu and Barclay Radebaugh seem to be the only tongue twisters for me so far. One is the coach though so we should hear that one quite a few times.

What to expect from Charleston Southern?

The Buccaneers play predominantly a half court man to man or 2-3 Zone, but don't seem to gear it towards forcing turnovers. This seems to be the big difference both in pace of play and scoring between this team and the Citadel. Allowing opponents offensive possessions to run their course takes quite a bit of clock.

This team has fairly balanced scoring as well as minutes on the floor because of the pace of play they like to run. Charleston Southern regularly goes 10 deep, but the bottom three essentially are fillers to allow others to catch their breaths. The big thing tonight is that this team can shoot so not giving them the easy looks will be critical to success.

The breakdown on their average scoring is 38 points inside, 27 points outside, and 12 points at the line. Fairly well balanced so the Hokies must defend the entire half court, especially cant afford to let their opponent find space inside as this offense thrives on that type of spacing.

Rebounding wise, the Bulldogs are quite below average with 37 rebounds per night, which puts them about 260th in the nation in terms of rebounds. They lack the size to really challenge for boards, although surprisingly, they do manage to pull down 12 offensive rebounds a game.

One thing that the Buccaneers seem to not do is foul opponents very often. So far this season, they are averaging less than 20 personal fouls per game as a team. They also only give up about 21 free throw attempts per game. No one player is averaging more than 2.5 fouls per game.

The Hokies

The Hokies need to essentially put on opponent blinders and imagine that Duke is on the floor with them. Something, anything to get a full game effort from these guys. Tech will have the height advantage at almost every position. Combining that with our athleticism should allow the Hokies to build and maintain a big lead in this game early on.

In the rebounding game, the Buccaneers tend to linger on the offensive end so the Hokies need to be ready to score transition baskets. This is another game where if we are executing the way we should, several Hokies should be able to get easy buckets as they break to the basket ahead of the Buccaneers.

Pound the Paint, both Leday and Sy should each have double digit scoring in this game. Allen should actually be able to reach the rim with his dribble drive so I would expect to see some of that. Hopefully Robinson avoids early trouble and can get back in the flow of the game because it will be critical that he is at his best once we reach the Duke game.

Highlight of the Citadel Game

First triple-double in school history Only ACC player averaging over 9p/7r/4a@Chris_Clarkee #OnTheRise pic.twitter.com/0C9XurRwC0— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) December 19, 2016

Hill from three or Chris Clarke with the Triple Double. Both were extremely impressive. Lets hope it continues.

13 - @Chris_Clarkee14 - @tydollasign4414 - @JustinBibbs10 22 - @MED_XIII16 - @ZachLeDay3214 - @khadimsy114 - @5Alive_ pic.twitter.com/YSnntZdiiw— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) December 18, 2016

In Closing

Very similar rosters, although the Hokies have better size and overall talent, Sound Familiar? This is another game where Tech should be able to manage a double digit lead by around the ten minute mark and carry on from there, but all of us have watched the last six games where Tech has come out slow. Opponent Blinders is what these guys need.

Hokies must be ready to see a movement pattern that they haven't faced yet this season. Hopefully they don't get sucked in and start reaching for their opponents rather than use their athleticism to recover and prevent easy buckets.

Hokies win big. We wont see a totally dominating effort but they will finally break the 1st half complete malaise. I expect to see a Hokies surge somewhere after the 12 minute officials timeout. Buzz will use that timeout to put them in gear if they haven't found it already. Final score 88-62.

If u don't have time,you will get If u don't have lead time,it's tough to lead When you charge your , find a way to charge yourself— Buzz Williams (@TeamCoachBuzz) December 20, 2016