Hokies travel to Ole MissTech, Rebels meet in Oxford on Saturday afternoonhttps://t.co/DpO1IRYpP6 pic.twitter.com/zJUixCFg8D— VT Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) December 1, 2017
GAME INFORMATION
Date/Time: Dec. 2, 2017 / 2 p.m. Eastern Time
Opponent: Ole Miss
Site: Oxford, Mississippi (Pavilion at Ole Miss)
Radio: Virginia Tech IMG Sports Network
Talent: Jon Laaser & Mike Burnop
Internet: SEC Network +
Talent: Seth Austin & Marc Dukes
Live Stats: HokieSports.com
Game Notes: Virginia Tech
Sirius/XM Radio: SIRI 119 (Internet 963)
GAME WILL BE ON WATCHESPN APP
still celebrating last night's win like... pic.twitter.com/Hx7ZhCXrpk— VT Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) November 29, 2017
Road Challenge
Buzzketball is now 6-1 on the season, with its sixth blowout win behind them. The Hokies have won by at least 24 points in all six victories thus far. They now get their third Power 5 opponent on the season in the Ole Miss Rebels but the first in a true road game.
The Hokies head to the Pavillion to face an Ole Miss squad with a 4-2 record, having suffered losses to Utah and South Dakota State. Their victories so far are over University of Louisiana Lafayette, Eastern Kentucky, Georgia State, and Rice. The Rebels are giving up an average of 77.8 points per game so far. The Hokies had their fewest points in a win at 79 but are the second highest scoring team in basketball at 98.7 PPG. I expect to see another game where the Hokies blister the net mainly because both teams like to get out and run. These two teams have met four times and have split the series so far.
The Rebels are coached by Andy Kennedy. He has been the head coach at Ole Miss since 2006 during which time the Rebels have gone 234-139, with six trips to the NIT and two trips to the NCAAs in eleven seasons. He is 255-152 as a head coach overall, with one season at Cincinnati where he took them to the NIT. This is the last remaining P5 opponent for the Rebels until they reach conference play.
Defensively, the Rebels utilize a ball screen zone defense. Kennedy coaches his teams to be especially aggressive around the perimeter to create turnovers and transition scoring but it has been a challenge implementing it so far this season. His teams are also normally very high in blocked shots, especially the bigs down low. This season though their turnover numbers are rather ordinary 14 per game and blocks coming in at 4.5 per game.
Offensively, they utilize the Dribble Drive Motion Offense, especially against the 2-3 Zone defense that the Hokies run most often. The premise of this offense is to get your guards consistently driving the ball into the lane to create spacing and open shooters if the primary drive doesn't lead to a shot. The Hokies will need to ensure they protect the paint but are able to defend their assigned shooter. One critical area to watch will be the baseline entry by the guards in this offense for layups. So far this season, the Rebels are attempting over 25 shots per game from outside so they have to stay with their man.
What does that mean for the Hokies?
The Hokies will be on the road in a crowded opponent's arena for the first time this season. Maintaining focus is critical to early success. The Hokies need to ensure that they do what they have done all season against subpar defensive efforts, which is get to the rim and find open shooters outside.
Ole Miss is allowing opponents to shoot 37% on 25 atttempts per game outside. This plays right into the Hokies hands who are still shooting 47% from outside.
The Rebels are not a gigantic team this season with only two players above 6'8. Much like the Hokies they rely on their guard's ability to create offense who are Ole Miss top five scorers.
The Rebels are a team that has solid depth consistently playing nine players for 15 or more minutes per game. There is one Ole Miss starter that is averaging at least 30 minutes. The Rebels are shooting the ball at 47% from the floor and 70% from the charity stripe. The Rebels perimeter shooting is managing just 35% on 25 attempts per game.
Rebels Backcourt
Junior Terence Davis, #3, 6'4, 190 lbs is the leading scorer for the Rebels, averaging 18 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 2.7 APG and 1.5 SPG. He is shooting 51% from the field and 70% from the stripe. He is attempting over 7 shots per game from outside, hitting 38% so it's critical that the Hokies close out on him. His role on this team is very similar to Chris Clarke in that big bodied wing, who plays to the edge or down low, rather than the top of the key. He is also their high energy defender, so if Allen or Robinson are finding their way down low, they will likely eventually be covered by Davis.
Senior Deandre Burnett, #1, 6'2, 195 lbs, is having another strong season after transferring to Ole Miss from Miami two years ago. So far this season he is averaging 16.5 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 2.6 APG, while shooting 45% from outside. He attempts over 5 three pointers per game. He also has managed to shoot 80% from the line on over 6 attempts per game. He has a balanced ability to shoot from outside or work the ball in.
Freshmen Devontae Shuler, #0, 6'2, 192 lbs has made an immediate impact after arriving from Oak Hill Academy. He is averaging 12.3 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 1.3 APG, and 1.7 SPG so far in his opening campaign. He has hit all of his free throw attempts so far, while also shooting 67% inside and 34% outside.
Senior Markel Crawford, #5, 6'4, 197 lbs is putting up 10.7 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 2.3 APG and 1.5 SPG. He is a graduate transfer coming in this season. He played his three other seasons for Memphis. He is shooting 42% from the field and 74% from the line. He is a terrible shooter from the perimeter so far this season though, hitting only 21%.
Sophomore Breein Tyree, #4, 6'2, 190 lbs is averaging 7.8 PPG, 1.7 RPG, 2 APG and 1 SPG.
Rebels Frontcourt
Junior Bruce Stevens, #12, 6'8, 252 Lbs, is averaging 6.5 PPG, 5.8 RPG, and 1 APG. He is putting the ball in at almost 60% and hits from the line at 74%. That production is coming with only 25 minutes per contest on the court so far.
Senior Forward Marcanvis Hymon, #2, 6'6, 207 lbs. has managed 6.2 PPG, 8.5 RPG, 1.8 APG and 1.7 BPG while shooting 61% from the field in about 26 MPG. Hymon is a candidate for Hack-a-Shaq if there ever was one, shooting 38% from the line. He is the only Rebel with more than one block per game.
A bit of a disappointment so far is Dominik Olejniczak, #13, 7', 249 lbs Sophomore Center who sat out last season after transferring in from Drake and sitting out a year. So far he has only managed 2.8 PPG and 2 RPG when he was expected to be a much bigger contributor.
What to expect from Ole Miss?
This is a fairly experienced roster that showed the ability to get back in a game even when the doors had been blown off early. They fell behind South Dakota State 55-35 at halftime and managed to get back into the contest to force overtime but eventually fell 99-97. There are four seniors and two juniors in regular rotation here.
This team can score and do so in droves so the Hokies need to hit their shots or face falling behind quickly.
Lackadaisical defense without much intensity is something this Rebels squad has been accused of and found guilty. They are high intensity on the offensive end but have not managed to make it transfer down the court.
The Hokies
The Hokies will have their hands full here, they need to make sure they come ready to play. Any sluggishness and you open the door to a quick Rebel run. The best way to avoid this is attack the rim as normal because Ole Miss has had extreme difficulty defending against driving guards.
The other area that is likely in the Hokies favor is their high assist percentage because most of the previous Rebels opponents did not achieve high assist totals. The Hokies are 4th in the country right now in assists with 148 on 229 made baskets. Rebel opponents only managed 86 assists overall so far.
The Hokies need to continue raining in the outside shot, currently hitting 47% which is 4th in the nation on 22 attempts per game. They also need to continue to get to the free throw line, where they have attempted the 9th most so far at over 30 attempts per contest.
The Hokies are on the brink of having five players scoring in double digits with Justin Robinson sitting at 9.9 per game. Keep up the balanced scoring to make it difficult on any defense to focus on one shooter. The Hokies lead the nation in shooting percentage overall at 56%.
Highlight of the I-O-Who Game
Real recognize real 👊📰 » https://t.co/iHC7kITaQc pic.twitter.com/J15RszRi2i— VT Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) November 29, 2017
PJ Horne had a coming out party to show everyone how big he plays in that 6'5 frame of his. His 16 points on 6-6 shooting and the dunk in transition were phenomenal.
Put him on skates @5Alive_!! pic.twitter.com/40yiKqVVuH— VT Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) November 30, 2017
Justin Robinson breaking someone's ankles was the play of the night though among many.
In Closing
Every game it comes up but what energy level will the Hokies come out with. When they come out loose and running they are hard to stop. Keeping the game moving tonight shouldn't be a problem considering the Rebels like to run to.
I do not see the Hokies scoring 100 in this contest but it could be close. This game will likely be close but I just think the Hokies play better defense than the Rebels to make the difference. Both teams rely heavily on their guard rotations so it may come down to who shoots better overall.
Justin Robinson, NAW and Clarke are the key here. They have to exploit the lane against the Rebels to create space overall.
Hokies 93 – Rebels 81
Gratitude is NOT just about what we say, but also about the manner in which we live... pic.twitter.com/0TDGQiWfCR— Buzz Williams (@TeamCoachBuzz) December 1, 2017
Comments
Your headline says it's on the deuce, but it's not on my guide. I suspect it is just on the internet, right?
My guide says conference USA championship will be on the deuce. Expect you are right (internet only)
It's on SEC Network Plus. (SECN+) if you have the WatchESPN app on AppleTV or whatever else then it's available.
OT: JMU playoff vs. Stony Brook also on watchespn at 2pm b
Sorry for the confusion. Its SEC Network + which means WATCHESPN App
Thanks for the write up rob, helps to keep track of all the games!
Can someone please hire me for a job where I don't work weekends so I can watch these games? Also, my job is generally terrible. I'll go for GIS, urban planning, or really anything where the turnover isn't every 3 months.
You and me both brother.
I really need to go back and finish a degree.
Satellite command and control...for the gov't. Shift work, but you can watch TV on the weekends.
I don't have a SEC Network subscription (thus, can't stream SECN+). Does anyone have any recommendations for how to watch the game?
Its on ESPN3 or WATCHESPN app
If you don't have it, you can't watch it. I'm in the same boat. When you go to ESPN3 and select your cable provider it'll deny you access. Horse shit 🐴💩
EDIT: Intended to reply to ltrepeter2000
I only have ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU in the cable package I use to stream. I can't watch anything streamed on WatchESPN from channels like ESPN News and SECN (and their extensions, i.e. SECN+).
I tried to watch a replay of Miami vs UF volleyball (originally shown on SECN+) this morning as a test and I couldn't due to SECN not being in my cable subscription.
Does anyone know a work around?
I don't know if it would help you or not, but what I usually do is go to hokiesports.com, look at the schedule for men's basketball and scroll to the game. In the far right column are several options, one of which says "watch" with a tv icon. I click on that and have no problem watching, but I won't count on it until game time and I try it. I just know that it has always worked for me. I don't have a smartphone and apps and all that.
It can't hurt to try. Thanks for the suggestion.
It worked again for me, but for the first time in a couple of years I was asked to name my provider. Since I have Directv, I had no problems. Not sure how it might have worked for you.
I was able to watch for 10 minutes before I had to enter my Verizon Fios info. After that I was kicked out since I don't have the SEC Network. It got me 10 free minutes anyway. Thanks for trying. Go Hokies!
For those of you who can't watch the game be happy. We're letting yet another team go off from 3 point land. They're 5/6 from 3
this is ridiculous. commentating and reffing is bad
You can't turn the ball over this much against a team who runs. Our half-court passing has been extremely sloppy so far.
Horrible start to the game
Why is there an Ole Miss homer with an Ole Miss accent calling this game?
Its on the SEC Network, not many of their gamecallers that dont have a bit of the Southern twang, even if it is a sub of ESPN
For the same reason we have Tech homers call our home games that are broadcast on ACC Extra.
its allowed for us because we're the good guys.
I am more frustrated with how crystal clear their picture quality is compared to the ACC. Still have the terrible lag though
To be fair, their main shooter so far is hitting from NBA range which is not normal coverage.
We're getting out-hustled right now.
Too many sloppy turnovers. And terrible lag so you cant really challenge bad calls by the officials. Then they call a foul when we have our best open look of the game to help Ole Miss out
Is it just me or does our passing look really poor this year? I don't remember having near this many passes intercepted or thrown out of bounds last year.
Not just you.....they have played so many bad teams that they think they can force the ball anywhere so any decent defensive team easily gets in the passing lanes. Clarke and Robinson have been the main culprits this season
Is that first half on the players or on Buzz? They look completely lost against the double teams and came out with little to no energy in a fairly big game. Thought Buzz would have gotten the guys up more for this game. Another disappointing start to a game
Looks like the SLU team showed up
Can't make FTs or 3s, or guard, or keep the ball. Not great Bob.
They should have double the number of fouls on ole miss. They are hacking us for no calls.
Good lord this is ugly as sin. Hope no one is watching.
Refs have decided to even the fouls regardless of what is happening on court.
If they didn't call that push off there I would have thrown my phone through the window
Hopefully they aren't as sloppy in the 2nd half
This SEC Network color commentator with the Mississippi accent and the Ole Miss themed suit and tie is just blatantly rooting for the Rebels. He said the Ole Miss coach needs to talk to the officials about the 10 to 4 foul discrepancy. Maybe the coach should talk to his team about fouling too much?
Sadly right after he made they comment they called three fouls on tech.
Most of these blocks are then hitting our player not the ball.
We had our chance to go on a run when Jones left the game in foul trouble and didn't capitalize. Now we have to hope Jones cooled off and that the run happens. One thing that I've noticed in this game and the Saint Louis game is that when things aren't going well offensively, the players force a lot of bad shots and risky passes. Hopefully Buzz calms them down at halftime.
I think we'll be fine. We were sloppy in that half and they played probably their best half of the year. Let's hope both trends don't continue and we take control to start the second.
Horrible shooting in first half, fg, three pointers and free throws.
Ugly half, lucky to only be down 10
Wow. I thought the Saint Louis game was bad. We look barely capable of playing in the NIT with how this squad has been playing today. Jesus christ guys. If I'm Buzz, I don't even know what I would say at halftime right here. This is a team we should be beating by 10 at half.. We just look like we don't care
live by the 3, die by the 3
they have 18 points off of 10 turnovers... not good
Not sure why it is but every game this season, the ESPN boxscore shows Blackshear with all zeroes until the game is over and then they update it.
I've noticed the same. It's probably something stupid like his name being formatted differently between ESPN and their stat provider.
It's one the main reasons I use the live stats on HokieSports
Use the HokieSports data tracker. It is very good.
Thank you for mentioning this. I couldn't watch the game and was worrying he got injured on the tipoff or something crazy
Tough to compete when you shoot 34% from field and 18% from outside. Just isnt going to get it done
Geting tired of Blackshear taking terrible fouls.....completely unnecessary
Been very surprised how often he is out of position on defense.. thought he was supposed to be an athletic big?
He is athletic just sloppy.
And then a bad call followed by a no call gives them a five point play.
OUR player barely makes contact arms fully extended in defense - FOUL
Their player bodies into us slaps all arm on defense...play on
The no calls on Ole Miss on offensive rebounding is frustrating
Why can we never go 2-2 at the freaking free throw line
Thats four straight trips a Rebel has either pushed off or gone over the back with no call
Can't watch, but listening is painful...
This thread gets awfully quiet when the Hokies are playing well
🤔🤔🤔
" "One would think we were down 20 only tracking this thread"
-Henry Skutt"
-BetaEta576
Don't go stealing my tweets, now.
Hahaha caught me. I fixed it
Ole Miss is completely spooked by our full court press right now!
Real good stretch there, great to see Bibbs finally hit a 3 off of some great passing. Hope we can keep it rolling
Thank god our defensive effort has seemed to pick up. Seems like every game when we start playing harder on defense it leads to our offensive production picking up. Hope we can keep this up, so far Ole Miss has seemed to want it more but the past couple minutes has been all VT. Let's Go Hokies!
Another call on us when the ball carrier initiated contact and pushed off
-Laser
I can't watch this. Within two minutes I saw three hokies get knocked to the floor and not one foul called. I didn't know Duke rented out their refs
Med's hands are straight up every time. Offense initiates the contact every time
CLean block by vt player - foul
Body hits the floor when ole miss attempts block - play on
Ummm.... that looked pretty damn clean to me. Laze was right, this officiating is just weird
Gotta love when referees try to dictate a game instead of letting the players decide it
Wow Bailout whistle from mid court when the ref three feet in front of it with clear view knows its a block
reminder that ncaam refs are worst in all of sports
That's twice in a row that JRob has dribbled down and faked a timeout... interesting
Win or lose, this team has shown GRIT today!
How do we let them get thzt rebound and easy putback after great d
So to get the game to overtime, they just push 5 to the floor...
Wow that was terrible
What the actual fuck? How was that not a foul?
A student section near the court, what a concept
We won in regulation. That was a horrible no call when they were deliberately fouling.
Shoutout to Kerry using the crowd against their own foul shooter.
Play of the game
Why has Hill been on the bench so much today?
Did anyone notice Blackshear sat down as soon as the Ole Miss player attempted his foul shot so the crowd would yell "Sit down!" as he shot? Thought that was funny.
Fencer beat me to it.
I figured Davis would cool off at some point. He was throwing up some pretty contested shots in the first half that were going in. Regression to the mean.
hell, this is stressful. never seen a game so thrown by the reffing though
Hell of an effort to overcome a bad start and pull out a P5 road win.
i saw it...
Wilson killing me
Lol we had no business winning that game.
Actually I'd say we had no business losing that game
Either way it was ugly. Didn't lead until late in the 2nd half, didn't take care of the ball (foul or not) at the end, missed ft's that could have iced it in OT. Bleh.
Given how poorly we played at times and how horrible the refs were (man I dropped a lot of f bombs....), plus having Hill out for most of the game, pulling a win out there says how good this team can be.
I turned the game on the radio and started building some basement shelves in the shop to avoid throwing things at the TV. Those refs should be canned.
Shocking, they were SEC refs
GO HOKIES!!!
Great win!! We looked absolutely lost until we started pressing about 5 minutes into the second half. It really threw Ole Miss off and they never recovered.
I would not characterize this win as a "great win".... very sloppy with horrible start to the game.... would call it more of an ugly win
It's a great win because the team played like shit in the first half, but somehow found a way to pull it out late. Playing on the road is tough regardless of the opponent.
I guess your definition of a great win is different than mine. With all things considered, I didn't think to myself... "man what a great game!"
We were down 16 in the second half, on the road, in a game with unkind refs, where we had played like shit for 1 and 1/4 halves. It's great that they were able to pull it together, keep their composure and execute on both sides of the court.
sure it was great that we won... but imo was this a great game considering how poorly we played for the time you stated
Giving that one away might have haunted us later in the year. Glad we overcame the terrible first half and all the other stuff
Ugly win still counts as a win! Still...it'd be nice to see this team consistently put out good effort for the entire game.
Also, college officials are terrible. These conferences need to send them to summer school and re-educate them.
Hokies ended up out shooting ole miss 43.9% to 39.7%
Hokies shot 70.3% from the line... good
only got out rebounded by one
good days work to come out with a victory
was it pretty, no. but a W is a W no matter how you do it!
🎵Colonel Reb is crying into his confederate handkerchief 🎵
Wilson should never be in at the end of a game for exactly that reason.. Dude has zero offensive ability and is a liability at the free throw line. Hell of a comeback and a lot of grit shown by these dudes in the 2nd half though. That was a game we could not afford to lose after already dropping one to Saint Louis. Lots of room for improvement, but a road win against an SEC squad is still nice to have. 2 cupcakes before the big one against Kentucky. Hopefully we can start off better against them.
Wilson was in to play defense on the previous deadball, and was fouled getting the rebound.
Nothing Buzz could do there; you need him on the court to play D.
I haven't noticed anything to convince me Wilson is a far superior defender compared to anyone else, and his offense is such a liability that I'd be willing to risk him not being on the floor
He's great at taking charges, but I was definitely wanting him out of the game down the stretch.
Wilson doesn't need to convince any of us of anything at all. Buzz, on the other hand is making the big bucks to make that evaluation. I'm content to let him earn it.
Wilson and NAW were alternating offense/defense, but didn't happen there. Maybe because there were only a few seconds left.
Last year, Sy started the 1st and 2nd halves and LeDay came off the bench to let LeDay get a feel for the game and avoid early silly fouls. Perhaps Blackshear should start games on the bench this year for the same reasons.
May I ask what a ball screen zone defense is?
The way Ole Miss plays it is primarily from a 1-3-1 zone formation, where they utilize traps, especially on the perimeter to prevent the ball screen motion offense from being used. Also uses the big to force the drives up the side of the lane rather than across to drive penetration into a help defender. I had to dig around in a bunch of articles on Ole Miss and Andy Kennedy which is where i came across the reference to it. Likely just the name that writer assigned to it because as your question points to, not a defensive scheme name i had seen before either. They were fairly effective in the first half but Robinson seemed to pick up on the tendency and exploited it in the second half with better passing.
Yeah, that's a 1-3-1. Must be a Mississippi thing.
Good, gritty win.
Not sure what the scouting report said, but we looked very unprepared for the trap Ole Miss ran in the first half. Took awhile to adjust and get the offense going.