Virginia Tech combined efficient shooting with stingy-enough defense to blowout Radford 95-68. The Hokies didn't trail past 17:55 in the first half and shot 62.0%. That's 6.7% better than Buzzketball's season average of 55.3%.
"When we just had our team meeting after the game, we realized we didn't shoot any bad shots for the whole game according to how we chart it," said Justin Robinson after the game.
Indeed, and the Hokies shooting their shot has been a theme throughout most of the season.
Tech leads the nation in points per game (96.6) and field goal percentage (aforementioned 55.3%). It's the sixth time in nine games Tech scored at least 95 points. Nice.
Those who continued to watch the less-than-competitive game/shooting treat even when it was out of hand late were rewarded. Robinson and Ahmed Hill collaborated on the dunk play.
Comments
Also lead the nation in points per shot, adjusted field goal percentage, free throw attempts, free throws made per game, and are 3rd in 3-pt %.
Those are impressive numbers/stats regardless of who we've been playing.
It feels so damn nice to not be awful at Free Throws
I also love that KJ isn't terrible from the line. Having a big man that can hit from the charity stripe will definitely help.
I agree, 11/11 last night, not terrible!!! 78% on the season not terrible. (Oh yeah 60% from beyond the arc.... not terrible)
Could someone give me a tl;dr on this please?
Shoot rock good
New All-Time Tech Basketball Highlight Dunk Candidate.
Nothing will be Washington over Paulus.
that wasn't a dunk....
FML. I'll show myself out.
I think you were thinking about Deron's infamous "Do the Hokie-Pokie and turn yourself around young man" dunk against Boston College. That was epic. It's all good, we know what you meant.
WARNING: The below video is not recommended for children. What Deron did to that rim is illegal in 23 states
What amazes me is that right after the dunk, he had time to undo his corn rows, change into a maroon shirt, and sit in the stands. Wizard level.
That's why I called it a "candidate", not the GOAT.
We definitely need a "Caption This" for that picture of NAW. That's grandiose timing.
"whale gahlee willickers!"
"Boy howdy what a fine night for sport!"
BTW, I'd pay money to hear "whale gahlee willickers" in a Canadian accent.
Also enjoyed the halftime interview with NAW. First time I've heard his story.
I didn't get to see it, what's the cliff notes version?
Cliff Notes:
He grew up in Canada. His uncle taught him the game of basketball when he was really young. His mom moved him to the US by himself at 15 so that he could play against better competition in High School. The kid's got great heart and called Buzz "One of the realest coaches" he's ever interacted with.
I love this video and appreciate you getting it here but...I can't get over that reporter having his lower jacket button buttoned with the top one not being done.
ugh can't unsee
Yeah, and the white undershirt showing makes him look like a priest.
Brutal slam!
Edit: Yes his Mom needs to help the announcer get dressed more often. Looks like he just got off a 3 day bender that morning.
If someone photoshops the ball out of the pic... looks like he is about to do the Carlton.
I went to get another beer and missed the play by Pig that Buzz called the play of the game, and did not have time to rewatch to find it. If anybody rewatches, please note the game time it happens so I can go back and see what Buzz was talking about.
5:24 remaining. Buzz went nuts on the sideline, need a gif.
Seconded! Paging Billdozer and the Kickass GIF Dept...
Question I have is, what does it take for us to be ranked? I'm not an avid follower of BBall but with our record and the way they are playing it seems to me like they should be. Anyone have any insight?
Not too much more if you're looking at the Coaches poll, but the St Louis loss took away all votes we were getting in the AP. We just don't have the schedule (yet) for anyone to give us a coveted #, in my opinion. That said, a win next Saturday in Lexington would most likely be enough to get us there.
Gotcha. Like I said, I am not an avid BBall follower but I know we are looking legit this year. Figured we shouldn't be too far away from being ranked.
Honestly, and I'm not trying to play the program bias card or anything, but if we were an historically
eliterelevant basketball program with the exact same stats and record that we have now, I'm sure we would be ranked already. Either way, your observation is correct. If we keep playing our game the way we've been playing it, we'll crack the top 25 sooner rather than later.I'm not sure that's the case. Our best win is... Washington? And that wasn't even that great of a win until last night.
Compare us to Syracuse for example. Syracuse is a relevant basketball name, is 7-1 and has wins over MD and UCONN. Their loss to Kansas looks much better than St Louis as well.
Touche, but they're also 230 spots behind us in ppg. I know it's not the be-all-end-all, but if they were the #1 scoring team in the country, I really doubt they would be unranked.
Also, Maryland and UCONN, while great brand names, are both very medicore this year. I definitely think we have to start beating some better teams to be ranked but early season rankings for college football and bball are all about brand name and who ended the season decently.
Yeah, this is pretty much all I was trying to say. I'm just a chronic exaggerator
While we have a really good record, and have beat some decent teams, we have yet to really face a great team. It's still early and our PPG and shooting will eventually place us in the Top 25 (if we keep winning). Also, if you look at the coaches poll, we are right outside the top 25 with a few votes. The real test will be when we play Kentucky.
After we beat Kentucky!
Not too much more. Our OOC is pretty bad honestly until Kentucky. And that St. Louis loss is looking real bad...
Not sure this comment belongs here but I just realized Washington, who we wrecked, beat Kansas by 9 last night... Hopefully Washington turns out to be legit, if so our 24 point win vs the Huskies could be a big resume builder in March.
Washington looks legit. They jumped about 80 spots
in rpion KenPom with that win last night. Just outside the top 100 right now. We all should be big Washington fans for the rest of the season.Let's Go H
ouskies!And we jumped up 24, now at 83.
Wow, I didn't realize there was such a discrepancy between RPI services(?). I'm looking at Kenpom's RPI and he has us at 31 and Washington at 114 right now. ESPN has us at 84 and the Huskies at 60.
KenPom isn't the same as RPI. His ratings take into account adjusted point differential per 100 possessions. Also, RPI this early still doesn't mean squat. Don't look at RPI until February. KenPom is much more reflective of teams at this stage
Oh word. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
Yep. RPI essentially values wins vs losses.
KenPom and ESPN's BPI take into account HOW the game was played, in addition to the score (pace, efficiency, luck, ect). RPI is pretty antiquated these days. The selection committee is most likely moving away from RPI, to more analytic based models. Sure it still comes into the equation, but it's not as important as it was earlier in the decade.
This and his other comment above are spot on. Too many teams this point in the season have faced maybe one or two quality opponents. It really isn't until about halfway through conference schedules that any of the ratings really apply. It is concerning that we haven't received a couple votes at this point but nothing earth shaking. Play Kentucky tough, win the rest of the OOC by scoring over 100 in each and finish better than .500 in the ACC and we will be fine. It wouldn't hurt to knock off a couple ranked conference opponents along the way.
WOW just watched the highlights. it wasn't even that close. I agree this may yet become a very high quality win on the ledger sheet.
I appreciate the awesome alliteration in the title, Joe
As always, absolutely appreciate awesome alliteration.
I do what I can y'all.
I've been struggling with alliteracy all my life; this post made me smile.
Sorry to be "that guy" but I'm getting really tired of this team not hitting 100 points.
Might be time to bench some underachievers.
We need someone like Tony Bennett to get this team back on track for triple digit scoring
This could be a legit complaint for the rest of OOC outside of Kentucky. Putting up 95 on a team giving up less than 70 on average is still an ok night. UMES giving up 81.8 PPG right now so should definitely be a 100 point night in Cassell.
Don't forget the rebound at the front. Was watching with MrsEMC and he pulled it down, I was like "wow, that was good." Kick out...Pass..."ooh, wow that was good." On my feet...Dunk..."WOOW that was good!" My Roku then refused to rewind.