Things often looked bleak during the Virginia Tech men's basketball team's contest against Notre Dame. The Hokies came out flat, saw the Irish sprint out to a nearly 20 point lead, and seemed destined for a drubbing.
But good basketball teams don't get blown out at home. And with Tech holding a 15 game win streak in Cassell Coliseum, they weren't going to go quietly.
And as if on cue in the depth's of the Hokies' despair, Seth Allen and Chris Clarke took charge. The two playmakers lead a furious comeback, as Notre Dame watched their lead dissolve. The effort crested with Tech taking a 67-66 lead with 1:52 remaining, and another big ACC win within reach.
But unfortunately for Buzz Williams and company, home teams aren't invincible, and win streaks aren't safe. Not in the best basketball conference in the country.
In a matter of moments, the Irish came back and took control. Down one, Allen committed a costly turnover in the lane which lead to an opposing bucket. And immediately after, Notre Dame point guard Matt Farrell dove at halfcourt to take a rolling inbounds pass away from Justin Robinson. He lead a fast break, and promptly increased the lead to five.
It was an undisputably great play, and it sealed Tech's fate.
The Hokies lost 76-71.
"Gritty, tough, winning play by (Farrell)," Williams said. "You can point to all of those little things in the last two minutes and 41 seconds, and those are winning plays by Notre Dame and losing plays by Virginia Tech."
Losing plays and mistakes were a theme of Buzz's press conference. His group shot 10-18 from the free throw line and 5-18 from three. They occasionally lost shooters on defense, and had trouble keeping Farrell out of the lane.
But despite all of the mental lapses and brutally slow start, the game was there to be won. The crowd gave Tech juice at the first whiff of a comeback (Allen scoring eight points in the span of just over a minute halfway through the first half), and the squad responded.
"The first thing I said to them (in the locker room) was that 'you had every reason to stop, and you didn't,'" Williams said. "'And you had every reason to win, and you didn't.'
"I hope that we grow. From how hard it is to win a game, and how hard it is to execute and play to the scouting report every single possession."
This one will sting the Hokies, who have now lost three of four and head into a Wednesday night home matchup against Georgia Tech. But there's still plenty of time to get things back on track, and a loss to the only undefeated team in the conference is nothing to panic over.
But if anything, the defeat proves how tight the ACC is from top to bottom. And the path to tournament time this year will be especially long and painful. Tech still has the talent to fulfill their postseason dreams, but letting games like this slip through their fingers won't make the journey any easier.
A Few Quick Thoughts:
It's tough to pin the loss on any one thing, and the mistakes certainly come to mind when thinking of a culprit. But when Mike Brey was asked about how Tech chipped away at the lead, he hit on something interesting:
"Seth Allen really got going from the three point line in the first half. And that gave them some life to believe," Brey said. "And we had a hard time keeping them out of the paint, their drives. The thing about it is though, we're really good offensively, and those only count two.
"And our offense can maybe absorb twos. We just couldn't absorb them making double-digit threes, which they've done in this building a bunch. So to chase them off the line, and have them only make five, I think was a key."
Outside of two spurts from Allen and Robinson, the Hokies failed to make a single triple. The looks where there, Justin Bibbs and Ahmed Hill both had great opportunities and just didn't see them fall. In a matchup that came down to a final few possessions, the difference between dumping the ball inside and having a three splash down was huge.
This was a great reminder about how nice a basketball venue Cassell can be. Is it out of date? Sure, in many different ways. Could it be renovated in a way to give the athletic department more revenue (better chairs for high paying donors, possibly a suite or too, etc.)? Absolutely.
But when it's close to full, as it was on Saturday afternoon, there are few better places to watch the sport. The sightlines are great, and the way it's built echoes sound from every corner of the arena.
Even in its current state, I'd much rather have a Cassell Coliseum than a monstrosity like what NC State has in Raleigh. Same for many of the other soulless arenas in the conference. As long as people come, the place will always have life.
Clarke is an amazing player, the most talented we've seen in Blacksburg since Dell Curry. He's the lynchpin of Tech's offensive movement, and is responsible for a countless number of open shots for his teammates. But his efficiency down the stretch in close games falters, due to his lack of shooting.
We haven't seen the Hokies trail in many close ones this season, but Clarke's iffy jumper could potentially force him off the floor in spots. He does enough in every other place to make up for it most times, but if Tech's in a position where they need a three, can they afford to play both Clarke and Zach LeDay?
Buzz pulled him with 20 seconds to go, when they were down five and things were all but over. But it'll be an interesting development to watch, as the Hokies find themselves in closer games throughout conference play.
Comments
Ever since the win against Duke, the tide has turned with VT b-ball. Maybe I am old school but when did it became acceptable to give up a base-line drive. I was always taught the base-line was your friend and cut the drive off. Now they seem to follow them in for a lay-up. That is problem numbr 1. Problem number 2 is driving wrecklessly in the lane and then trying to figure it out when you get caught in the air. Problem number 3, you have to make your free throws. Time to regroup guys because it is not going to get easier. This was a game we had a chance to win.
I think it's a combination of things leading to our slump. For one, we're not moving the ball around offensively like we did earlier in the season. We're playing slower, and not making the open shots as proficiently as we did. And lastly, I think the lack of a true big man inside is a weakness against the bigger teams, and we're getting eaten alive on the boards. If we're going to be small, like we are, we have to play to our advantages, and that's the team quickness, crisp passing, and making the open shots. Without that, we're an average team at best. We have to find a way to get our mojo back. I think this could just be in part due to a little mid-season fatigue, so hopefully we'll get over the hump soon, and turn it on during the backside of our ACC schedule and leading into tournament play.
This was an exciting game to watch, in spite of the final result.
It's just a shame they fell short at the end, when it seemed within their grasp except for a few avoidable mistakes.
It was a good game, but what's up with Bibbs and LeDay? Poor or no shooting ehen they used to be impact players....
Bibbs is just a streaky shooter. His shot comes and goes with seemingly no rhyme or reason.That's just who he is. He's been around enough to where we just have to expect that. You always hope its going down, but we can win without his shooting, it just makes it harder. LeDay just had a bad game in all facets today. Don't know what happened to him. It just happens sometimes I guess. I expect him to bounce back.
Something to keep in mind with some of the late miscues, especially the missed FTs, is exhaustion. We battled back from 15+ twice. Around the 5 minutes left, they showed Clarke on camera with his hands on his head heavily breathing looking dead tired. I'm sure he wasn't the only one. ND was stretching us out sideline to sideline forcing 3, 4, 5 help and recover sequences in a span of 15 seconds every single possession. Combine that with ND's defense really making us work for shots and chasing us off a lot of open looks, you're going to get tired. And when you get tired, you make mistakes. Like I said in the game thread, ND is a great team. To beat the best teams in a brutal ACC, you've got to bring your A game for a full 40 minutes. We didn't do that today. A slow start can still cost you late even if you've tied it up.
Bring the A game for GT. Don't overlook them. There are no gimmies in this conference this year
Excellent point.
While that certainly could have been part of it, if anything, ND should have had the tired legs. They played late on Thursday night at Miami and then had to turn around and play early in Blacksburg on Saturday. Really no excuse if fatigue was a bigger factor for VT than ND.
We're going to be dealing with exhaustion as a team due to our lack of depth. With Buzz going with a 7 to 8-man rotation, when the NDs, FSUs, and UNCs of the world having 10+ players rotating in and out, we'll be fighting exhaustion, along with potential foul problems, on a pretty regular basis. I'm sure Buzz knows what he's doing, but until we develop some team depth, we'll just need to deal with our limitations the best we can. Looking back, it would be nice if we still had Jalen Hudson, especially in light of the fact that Blackshear is out.
GT is a gotta have. Winning at Clemson and Carolina are going to be tough tasks, though we're going to need to steal one eventually
Thanks to all the students showing up early for the hoops game. Way to represent.
Guys are busting their hump. Imbalanced line up not exactly great decision making at times, but they show they have heart and are capable of a higher level of play. Hope we can get the W back in West Bend.
Agree on both points. Great atmosphere, and this team plays with heart. Just dug too big of a hole against a good team. Those free throws down the stretch killed us.
This x10000, exactly why I love Cassell and don't want it to go away. I was on the court after a conference win last year working for Rhino, and the stands tower over you. It's dark and stuffy. It's intimidating IMHO. Yeah, the seats need to be updated, and I also think updates to get the students closer to the floor would be good. But nothing too major. It's great just the way it is.
ND is really good. Brey never gets the credit he deserves. They can score from all five spots, solid on D and Farrell makes few mistakes and gets more than his talent warrants.
And for all the worriers about VTs height, ND shows you can win with a good 6'6" post player and great help D.
Brey could use a shave.
He looks like a mobster to me.
Only piece of this that I contest is that Clarke is probably on track to be the best Hokie since Ace Custis, who was best since Bimbo Coles, who then probably goes back to Curry, who goes back to Allan Bristow(had an amazing 78 straight games scoring in double figures) before him. Lets not forget Custis as a sophomore led the team to an NIT Championship, while averaging 15 points and 10 rebounds per game. He also didnt have nearly the talent that Clarke has around him. One piece of your point is why I put Ace above Clarke right now, and thats because Ace could shoot a jumper inside the arc. That part wasnt lacking from his game.
Custis Stats:
Freshmen: 10.9 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.5 SPG, shot 52% from the field
Sophomore: 15.8 PPG, 10.5 RPG, 2.5 APG, 1.5 SPG, shot 53% from the field, Won the NIT
Junior: 13.4 PPG, 9.5 RPG, 2.4 APG, 1.7 SPG, 1 BPG, shot 50% from the field, Tech got as high in the rankings as 8 this season and lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Senior: 14.7 PPG, 9 RPG, 2 APG, 1.7 SPG, shot 46% from the field, Finalist for the Naismith award for the Nations Best Player.
Custis was only the third player in Tech history to go over 1000 points and a 1000 rebounds, something Curry didnt even do at Tech.
Unfortunately for Custis, he was that same type of player that Clarke is now at a time when the NBA wanted either behemoths or quick perimeter shooting guards and not much in between. Custis main weakness was he did not have a perimeter shot to speak of which is something that may concern NBA scouts as they watch Clarke as well.
Hokies won 81 games in four seasons with Custis. He did this all with almost no talent around him.
A couple things: first of all I said that he's the most talented player since Dell Curry. Talent and results are two totally different things. Custis is one of the best players in Tech history, a big part of which is because of the lack of talent around him.
Clarke is insanely talented, almost a basketball savant. Curry had the shooting ability that no one can teach, it's just inherently engrained in him. The combination of Clarke's freakish athleticism and the way he sees the court can't be taught. From a talent perspective, he's heads above nearly anyone else in Tech history.
It also goes beyond a plain old stat line. If we counted assists like they do in hockey (where you can get one for passing it to the player who ends up passing it to the scorer), he'd average double figures. He's the best on the team from an assist/turnover standpoint, and is responsible for a ton of points getting quickly out in transition.
But if we were going to look at stats, in his last 10 games, Clarke's averaged 15/8/4/2 on 64% shooting from the field. He's doing this against the best conference in the country (not the Metro, where Custis played two ranked teams all year.)
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Custis fan. Some of my first Hokie hoop memories are with him. But he and Clarke are not the same kind of player.
Good discussion. I am literally praying the next thing he works on (seems like his handle is better this year), is a top of the arc (his arc not court) jump shot. I honestly think that vaults him into getting drafted. Doesn't have to be long range, just something that he can stop and pop with or pull up off a pass.
Just my intuition on what would help next. Haven't really thought about it. Either way gonna be fun to watch him grow. I want to see him carry this team next year.
My #sauces say that Buzz knew Clarke was talented enough to leave after one or two years. Was worried he may do so upon arrival on campus. Not sure where it stands now though and the sauce hasn't been refilled.
I always wondered what D Curry's totals would have been if there had been a 3 point arc.
Seemed like over half his points were as a result of 24-footers or beyond. So you could probably increase his point averages by at least 25%. He could fire it up from almost anywhere with confidence.
I've had some time to calm down and recollect about that game. At this point last year, losses like the one we took today weren't as disheartening. We took them as moral victories if there's such a thing.
This season, we're pissed off. We expect better. That's encouraging. It means the program is trending in the correct direction.
Also, this team didn't hit its stride in conference play until late February/early March last year. This team can play better, and they will. We're only five games into conferene play. No need to throw the remote through the tv just yet.
Brian, the perspective and writing here is top notch. You crushed it.
I'm glad with the fight the team had in the loss... They were down big early and fought back to take the lead.
However, at a certain point, we need to get past the 'pat yourself on the back for the effort' when we drop games like this. The play in the first half was downright inexcusable, especially for a team with legitimate tournament aspirations. They looked as lost and as uninterested as they did in the NCSU and FSU games, and it ultimately cost them the win. The second half comeback was great, but it was all for not because of the hole we allowed ourselves to fall into the first half.
Now I'm not saying that this mindset needs to change this year. Its only the 3rd year of the Buzz era and we aren't far removed from being the perennial doormat, but it will need to change at some point if we want to take the step towards being a legitimate program. Losses like this should frustrate, but I just don't get the feeling that it is with this team.
The good thing about Buzz is that he has the proper mindset for these types of losses. He doesn't preach moral victories. He voices he is proud of effort but in the end he let's them know that it was a loss. In the end, the Ws and Ls are what matters.
I wish we could stop digging ourselves the huge holes to climb out of, to win after trailing by as much as we often do means we basically have to play perfectly to get the stops and the needed points back to erase the big deficit. We did an amazing just scraping back from 19 down, but missed free throws, and bone headed plays/turnovers (not referring only to Robinson's one at the end) cost us this one.
Seems like lazy/weak/dumb passes leading to a turnover are beginning to be a pattern here. One that *should* be easily corrected, and hopefully it will soon.
on a better note, great to see Robinson bounce back like he did after the Syracuse game, and great to see Clarke being Clarke.
I definitely agree with the lazy passes. We also throw quite a few possessions away every game by trying to force full court passes into tight windows for transition points. I know Buzz likes to score a lot on the fast break, but if it's not there, don't launch a 50/50 ball 75 feet down the court.
I agree that there is much room for improvement during the lulls on offense but I think the issue when VT digs themselves a big hole is typically their defense. If you look at the big runs ND made on Saturday, it was stretches where VT's defensive intensity took a dip and it limited their ability to get some transition points. The same could be said for the first half against NC State.
For a team that relies on the 3 pointer as much as VT, there are going to be cold stretches on offense but defensive intensity will get them through those lulls.
Definitely agree the defensive play needs to step up big time. So many easy shots and layups
I'm in the 757 for a couple of days, any establishments on the southside likely to show the GT game (don't drink, so beverage menu isn't a factor)?
You may have to ask to get it on a television since its listed as being on the Regional Sports Network, so likely whatever station is the 757 Raycom affiliate will be carrying the game. #HokieHuddle hasnt posted the station list yet for the GT game.
IIRC, "Regional Sports Networks" generally refer to channels such as "Comcast SportsNet", "Fox Sports Mid-Atlantic", "YES Network" (Yankees Entertainment and Sports), in other words a patchwork of regional cable channels.
I think MASN is a big one in the 757, maybe Cox channel 11 on the Peninsula? It's been over 5 years since I lived there, and I'm not even sure if they're the same on the Southside. I'd check the local listings to make sure.
http://www.theacc.com/news/acc-basketball-on-rsn-georgia-tech-at-virgini... Here are the listings posted by the ACC for the game.
Got to watch on my espn app, not blacked out. (unlike the women's game Monday that was blacked out but also not on my Tv)