Buzzketball Central: #20 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (15-2, 4-0) at Virginia Tech Hokies (13-3, 2-2) 2PM The ACC Network

IT'S GAMEDAY! #BeatND Cassell 2 PM ACC Network pic.twitter.com/Bp7WmLja1u— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) January 14, 2017

GAME INFORMATION
Date/Time: January 14, 2017 / 2 p.m.
Opponent: No. 20/20 Notre Dame
Site: Blacksburg, Virginia (Cassell Coliseum)
Radio: Virginia Tech IMG Sports Network
Talent: Jon Laaser & Mike Burnop
TV/Internet: The ACC Network
Talent: Tome Werme & Bobby Remins
Live Stats: HokieSports.com
Game Notes: Virginia Tech
XM Radio: XM 81 (Internet 81)

FIVE THINGS | #BeatND EDITIONHokie Celebration Elite Eight Reunion Giveaways pic.twitter.com/9iwGkcSEgP— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) January 14, 2017

No place like Home for My Birthday

Buzzketball consistently beat the zone and put down the Orange in what might be Jim Boeheim's last trip to Blacksburg. The Hokies get a second straight game in the comfy confines of Cassell Coliseum with #20 Notre Dame coming to Blacksburg. Notre Dame has won all four of its ACC contests so far to start the conference slate. Those include wins over Pitt, #9 Louisville, Clemson and Miami. One thing working for the Hokies is that Notre Dame might look over them a bit with their next game at Florida State. The other is that Notre Dame comes in having just stopped Miami's 21 game home winning streak.

SELL OUT COMING! Get your tickets for tomorrow's game before they're gone...#BeatND https://t.co/QPb9yTyjhP pic.twitter.com/na0Px7PuL5— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) January 13, 2017

Still no students and really crappy weather to boot may make getting a huge crowd in Cassell a long shot even with this game listed as a sell out, with no walk up tickets remaining to the general public. Notre Dame enters this game 15-2, with losses to then #1 Villanova and then #15 Purdue in back to back games. They have P5 wins over Northwestern, Iowa, Colorado, and their four conference wins.

This will be the eighth meeting between the Hokies and Fighting Irish. Notre Dame leads the all-time series 7-1. The one win is historic though, as it was an overtime victory to give Virginia Tech the 1973 NIT championship. The series against Notre Dame started back in 1972. The Hokies lost to the Irish last January 83-81 with Seth Allen's three point attempt rimming out at the buzzer.

The Fighting Irish are coached by Mike Brey, in his seventeenth year at the helm of Notre Dame.. In seventeen years, his team has won 20+ games twelve times. He has led them to the NCAA Tournament eleven times, with two elite eight appearances. Notre Dame has been to the post season in all but one season under Brey.

Defensively, the Fighting Irish have gone from a steady man to man pressure defense up until a couple seasons ago to being a very situationally based defensive team. This means against Tech we may see man to man and probably some high perimeter zone with defensive players switching off over or under screens to prevent quick penetration by the Hokies guards. The other aspect that we may see a lot of is to double team Leday in the post to prevent him easy access and force him to make a good perimeter pass. If this team begins trying to utilize this double team, expect to see like in the Syracuse game where the Hokies were breaking the 2-3 zone, where Clarke will take the interior pass high and then force Notre Dame to decide how to approach him.

Offensively, Notre Dame runs a four out, one in motion offense very similar to the Hokies. They don't rely on significant size on the floor to accomplish what they intend to. This makes this contest a pretty even matchup. The Irish shoot almost 25 three point attempts per game, hitting on 9.8 of them. This means the Irish find almost 30 points a game from behind the perimeter. The Hokies will have to be able to close out on the perimeter to keep the Irish from hitting their usual 40% from outside. That said, they still manage 50 more points per game between the line and inside the arc. 14 of those points come from the line where as a team they are shooting 84% on the season. Expect the Irish to go after the basket with whatever the Hokies give them in terms of openings and available looks.

What does that mean for the Hokies?

The Hokies need to force the issue inside. Using Clarke at the high post and forcing Notre Dame to account for Leday on the blocks will consolidate the Irish defense, allowing good open looks outside. Driving to the basket or finding Leday down low so he can work inside will be critical to this contest.

The Hokies need to cause problems for the Notre Dame starters in terms of spacing and forcing fouls. Notre Dame relies on four players to play over 30 minutes per contest and have four others that clean up the rest of the minutes. The more minutes forced on the second four, the easier the Hokies will find getting to the basket or hitting open shots.

The Hokies are going to need to hit their perimeter shots as well considering how well the Irish shoot from outside.

This game will be as high paced as these teams want it to be. By this, expect to see bursts from each side and explosion on transition opportunities. Both teams look to get back to prevent transition though so the Hokies need to limit giving the ball right back if they get a stop.

One last thing, this is not the team that the Hokies want to try to come back on late in the game, especially by sending the Irish to the free throw line to shorten possessions. The Irish shoot 84% as a team and three of the starters are 89% or higher.

Fighting Irish Backcourt

Steve Vasturia (#32) 6'6, 212 Lbs Senior Guard is averaging 14.7 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 3.2 APG and 1.4 SPG. He is shooting 42% from behind the arc and 48% overall. He is also shooting 93% from the free throw line. Vasturia is the primary high point ball handler for the Irish but that top of the key passing is shared predominantly with Matt Farrell. He is playing close to 33 MPG so far this season.

Matt Farrell, (#5) 6'1, 178 Lbs Junior Guard comes in averaging 14.1 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 5.5 APG and 1.2 SPG. He is the best of the guards off the dribble but also shoots 41% from outside and 89% from the line.

Rex Pflueger (#0), 6'6, 202 Lbs Sophomore Guard is averaging 4.9 PPG, 2.3 RPG, and 1.6 APG. Pflueger comes in averaging 20 MPG. He is considered Notre Dames best all-around shooter, but the numbers tell a slightly different story, hitting 41% from outside and 78% from the line.

Temple Gibbs, (#2), 6'3, 200 Lbs Freshman Guard is giving the Irish about 14 MPG while averaging 4.8 PPG, 1.5 RPG, and 2.4 APG.

Fighting Irish Frontcourt

Bonzie Colson, (#35), 6'5, 225 Lbs Junior Forward is averaging a double-double with 15.9 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 1.9 APG, 1.2 SPG, and 1.4 BPG. Colson primarily fills the four spot, and as seen by his numbers, he does a lot of everything for this team. Very much a Buzz OKG kind of player in that his motor never stops as he forces mismatches with his speed. Clarke and Bibbs will likely be called upon to balance Colson in this contest. Colson does not shoot consistently from outside but his interior scoring is at 47% while shooting over 90% from the line. He gets to the line about five times per contest. He is averaging 31 MPG so far this season.

V.J. Beachem, (#3) 6'8, 201 Lbs Senior Forward, is averaging over 33 MPG and comes in putting up 14.5 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 1.2 APG and 1.1 SPG. He is shooting 43% from the field, 37% from behind the arc and only 79% from the line. One critical piece on Beachem is that he likes to step outside to shoot the three. He leads the Irish in attempts per game at over six per contest. The Hokies can ill afford for him to get hot outside. Beachem and Leday down low will be battling all day which should be a good contest to watch.

Matt Ryan, (#4) 6'7, 228 Lbs Sophomore Forward comes off the bench to supplement both Colson and Beachem. He only plays about 10 minutes per contest but he is averaging 5.1 PPG, 1.4 RPG, and 1.1 SPG. Ryan doesn't get rebounds nearly as well as his two teammates but does hit shots at 45% both inside and out.

Martinas Geben, (#23), 6'10, 255 Junior Forward covers just over 16 MPG this season, averaging 4.4 MPG, 5 RPG, while shooting an amazing 65% from the field.

Names the Announcers will Butcher

No one seems excessive here but Rex Pflueger and Martinas Geben seem the best candidates.

What to expect from Notre Dame?

The Fighting Irish rely on their starters to get things done. The eight players that are typically in the rotation are pretty experienced, with only one freshman, which seems a foreign concept in the ACC with all the one and dones that typically dot a roster. Mike Brey doesn't seem to recruit many of those that he thinks will leave his program that quickly, rather getting guys that will develop over time to be a strong core for a very consistent program. The back end of their bench is still pretty well rounded with only one other freshman in the mix.

Notre Dame's rotation of eight players, while slightly bigger than Tech as a whole don't really have the size to dominate Tech like most of the other ACC programs and the bench uses about the same number of players as the Hokies on a regular basis so this should be a pretty evenly matched game if Leday is successful in guarding Colson. That will be the matchup to watch most of the afternoon. Colson leads the ACC in rebounding, so disrupting second chances on the offensive end will be something to watch for as he currently grabs 3.5 offensive rebounds per game and the Irish average almost 11 as a team.

Expect to see Notre Dame switch defenses several times, especially if Tech is finding success with one thing in particular, like last game, when Clarke and Leday had a field day beating the Orange zone in the lane. Notre Dame wont allow that to continue, and will likely switch to a 1-3-1 zone or back to man to man based on what Mike Brey thinks will work best to disrupt the Hokies.

Offensively, expect to see the Irish move the ball, especially around the perimeter. Crisp passing and getting open looks is something they are extremely well versed in. The X factor this year is that Notre Dame no longer has Zach Auguste, who dominated Tech in the second half, but Bonzi Colson has somewhat taken on that role.

The Hokies
Tech should aim to keep this game as high paced as possible to force Notre Dame to respond with a smaller lineup. Get things somewhat even and then employ the X factors for Tech that they didn't have last seaon. Chris Clarke and Ahmed Hill both missed last seasons game against the Irish. The athleticism and speed that these two bring to spreading a team out could play a major role in a different outcome this afternoon.

Tech needs to be ready to respond to an ever changing defensive landscape and recognize what it needs to do to either penetrate it or work someone open on the perimeter. Responding quickly to what Notre Dame does will show us a bit more of how mature this roster has become with Buzz at the helm.

Justin Robinson needs to extract his head from whatever location he has currently stashed it and come ready to stay in this game. Too often since the ACC slate started, Robinson has found himself missing critical time by being on the bench in foul trouble. That just cannot continue if the Hokies are going to be successful. The Syracuse game Tech has to hope was Robinson's rock bottom, as he put up zero points and fouled out of the game while only getting on the floor for 14 minutes. There may be a need to wonder about fatigue because if you look at Robinson's game log, he played more than 33 minutes per contest in 7 of their 12 OOC games and then played 39 minutes against Duke. Since then his minutes have declined in all three contests.

Khadim Sy will need to bring some critical minutes to this game to keep the Irish honest in their player transitions. Leday will need a couple breathers working against Colson for the majority of the afternoon. This means Sy needs to put in a meaningful performance statistically speaking, which has been missing for a good stretch now. His last big performance outside a few critical rebounds against Duke, was the Citadel game, which is almost a month ago now.

Hitting perimeter shots will be another key factor and one player that seems more and more to be a homerun at home is Justin Bibbs. Bibbs disappeared in the two road games that the Hokies lost in ACC play, but came back with a vengeance against Syracuse, putting up 18 points and grabbing 7 rebounds to reappear from his two game disappearing act and really help the Hokies put some distance between themselves and the Orange. He wasn't spectacular shooting percentage wise but he had the confidence that had seemed lacking in the previous contests.

One critical area that I have touched on almost five games in a row now is the Hokies need to improve in one critical aspect. They have to not turn a great defensive play immediately into a poor offensive play. They cant go from getting a stop or creating a turnover to throwing the ball away. Even in the win against Syracuse, the Hokies on at least five chances to seize control of the game by opening up big runs, gave the ball right back to the Orange rather than utilize the stops they got on defense. Tech did that at least seven times during the NC State contest at least another five times against FSU. Scoring in transition is nice but scoring period is most important. These are the little mistakes that could mean the difference late in the season, especially come tournament time. In each of the last three games, you are talking about the chance at least for ten more points just thrown away.

Highlight of the Syracuse Game

16.8 PPG6.3 RPG3.5 APG6 STEALS#MrVersatility through 4 @accmbb games pic.twitter.com/0oRxDSZnsn— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) January 13, 2017

Chris Clarke and Seth Allen guiding the offense with Robinson missing most of the contest. They had a combined 11 assists between them while still putting up a total of 28 points. Clarke also grabbed four critical offensive rebounds.

11 points2 rebounds5 assists1 steal1 blockHAVE A DAY, @REALSETHALLEN! #getB3TTER pic.twitter.com/5c0mU9vpxx— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) January 11, 2017

In Closing

Both teams will push the pace early on, and then there will likely be an attempt to settle the game by the Irish. After that the game will likely go in runs, so the Hokies need to ensure they run a little more and let the Irish run a little less. These are two closely matched teams in terms of talent and size so the team that most reliably executes their game plan wins this game.

Hopefully Tech finds the Irish somewhat floating between their big win at Miami and thinking about their next big game against the Seminoles. If the Irish don't come in with complete focus, Tech could exploit them much like it did against Duke.

As both of these teams shoot so well from the perimeter as a whole, this game likely comes down to who wins the lane. Getting to the basket or putting opponents in foul trouble by working the ball inside will probably be the turning point of this contest. Each team has their "dominant Big" between Colson for the Irish and Leday for the Hokies. These two will likely get their normal production.

For every mile of road there are two miles of ditch.#GamedayGuide: #BeatND pic.twitter.com/ISUbt3Ed6W— Buzz Williams (@TeamCoachBuzz) January 14, 2017

It will be in who else contributes inside that will provide that spark. In this instance I think this gives Tech the edge as Clarke and Colson will likely cancel each other out. It's the matchup of Leday versus Beachem that I think Tech exploits in their favor as long as they are ever vigilant in guarding him on the perimeter. His biggest games are when he starts hitting from behind the arc. Against Clemson he went 6-10 from outside.

Tech wins in more of a shootout, 88-81. They need to keep the Irish off the line and prevent clean looks from outside. Do that and win a critical home game, don't and let another chance to step forward slip away.

pic.twitter.com/6K5rdE76e4— Buzz Williams (@TeamCoachBuzz) January 12, 2017