Virginia Tech fell to No. 8 Kentucky 87-93 on Saturday afternoon.
Kentucky made a season-high 11 of 22 shots from three, an outcome which visibly surprised Kentucky coach John Calipari as he gazed at the stat sheet during his postgame press conference. Buzz Williams made it clear that even though the Wildcats performed above their average (37.1%), he wouldn't have changed anything about Tech's game plan.
"If we'd play again tomorrow, I would still play the numbers," explained Williams after the game. "That was the gamble."
Virginia Tech, in defeat, shot the best percentage from the floor in Rupp Arena during the John Calipari era. The only time a team has shot better than the Hokies 58.2% was Florida in 2014.
The Hokies' record output came via an otherwise off-night shot wise. The first half hovered around the pace Tech wants to shoot from deep (7 for 12), but Tech followed that up with only 3, three-point buckets in the second half.
Given the size differential, the Hokies kept the rebounding margin much closer than expected. Kentucky finished the game with a slim 33-30 advantage in total rebounds. The killer was offensive rebounds though.
"It takes a lot [out of us]," Hill answered when asked about giving up nine offensive boards in the second half. "It's basically what we prepped for ... when it doesn't go that way, we're just giving them points. And it's the easiest shot because they're right there for a layup."
However, what hurt Virginia Tech most of all were turnovers. Kentucky deployed a 2-2-1 trapping press to help force the turnovers. It sped the Hokies up to a pace they were visibly not comfortable with, and the Wildcat's length only enhanced their success.
"That's my old press from 10 years ago," noted Calipari after the game. "You always press the pressing team. And that makes you the aggressor. If we let Virginia Tech be the aggressor in this game, we lose."
Tech finished the contest with 19 giveaways which gave way to 36 Kentucky points. Justin Robinson had a team-high four turnovers, which he owned up to in the post-game interview.
"They're long and athletic ... they're a good defensive team," said Robinson. "Their 2-2-1 gave us fits early on. We had 19 turnovers and I led the way. It's something I got to do a better job as a teammate, getting our turnovers down."
From the press row perspective, in the thick of Rupp Arena's raucous atmosphere, the environment turned up to a level Tech was unaccustomed to this season. Yet, the Hokies didn't buckle.
"It was a good road experience. We play in the best conference in the country," noted Robinson. "It's what we see everyday, night in and night out. There's no awe in playing Kentucky."
Virginia Tech played in front of 22,690 people on Saturday afternoon. About 22,640 of them were raging Kentucky fans.
The Hokies could've gotten rattled after they started to throw the ball away early in the first half. They could've become unhinged after giving up a 9-0 run late in the first. Buzzketball could've given up after Kentucky flipped a seven-point deficit into a four-point lead in the early moments after the intermission.
But they didn't. They showed they belonged on the big stage. They played their style of basketball, against one of the most talented rosters in the country. It might not have been a 'W' in the win column on Saturday afternoon, but it most definitely was a mental victory. The Hokies learned they can compete with any team in the country on any given night.
First Half, Virginia Tech 47, Kentucky 41
18:30 — The Hokies have started well, forcing two Wildcat turnovers and scoring a fast-break layup. This place is so quiet at the moment. It's kind of shocking honestly.
17:51 — Blackshear picks up his first foul. It's crucial he stays out of that column on the stat sheet today.
16:36 — Kentucky shows some press after their first basket and flusters Nickeil Alexander-Walker into a turnover. He showed his age there.
15:39 — Tech looks confused. They've given up a 9-0 run and have forced multiple passes, leading to sloppy turnovers.
14:58 — If Chris Clarke is going to be the Hokies' center, there will be some issues. He's entirely too small to be bodying up Kentucky's much much larger players
12:57 — Kentucky has gone small, just like the Hokies. Although, their "small" is still taller than most players on this Tech team. It'll be interesting to watch how Virginia Tech attacks the Wildcats on offense.
11:44 — Tech grabbed a two-point advantage at the under-12 media timeout. Their offensive success has come from two sources: fast break layups and a specific set.
The set is as follows:
- High ball screen from a good passer (usually Clarke or Blackshear Jr.).
- Initial pass goes to that screener at the top of the paint.
- Two guards cut off either side of the screen, tight, towards the basket.
- Either the guards are open for a layup or the weak-side guard rotates to the top of the key for an open jumper.
9:59 — Virginia Tech is out-rebounding Kentucky. So... there's that.
8:48 — I'm really struggling to stay unbiased on press row. The Hokies are playing their brand of basketball and beating the No. 9 team in the country. I don't know if a victory will be the end result, but this type of showing is extremely encouraging.
6:13 — Hokies have accumulated 10 turnovers already. This is a completely different ballgame in the second half if that stat can be limited.
5:07 — Kentucky is on a 9-0 run, with all their made shots coming from deep. Virginia Tech needs to close out this half on a strong note and head into the locker room with some momentum.
2:12 — After calling timeout to quell the 9-0 Wildcats' run, Tech has gone on an 8-0 run of their own. Ahmed Hill and Blackshear Jr. both drained a three.
1:06 — Blackshear Jr. put Wenyen Gabriel in a damn washing machine for a layup. Virginia Tech is on a 15-2 run.
Halftime Thoughts
Virginia Tech fought off adversity to take a six-point halftime lead.
Kentucky shot at a 57% rate from deep. They average 35% for the season. I can only imagine the Wildcats will cool off in the second half.
"We executed our game plan well," Robinson reflected after the game. "They just had wide-open shots. I think it's just something we have to watch in film and take as a team and see what we got wrong."
Remember when I wrote Kentucky would dominate the Hokies on the glass? That's not happening. Tech is actually out-rebounding the Wildcats, with a 16-14 advantage. Kentucky isn't crashing the glass at all with the hopes of stopping the Hokies' run-and-gun style. But still, Tech is out-rebounding one of the biggest teams in the country. On the road. In Rupp Arena.
The Hokies turned the ball over 11 times which led to 21 points for the Wildcats. Take just half of that stat line and Virginia Tech is in complete control of the contest.
I didn't think I would write this, but this is Virginia Tech's game to lose. I write it cautiously, because it's Kentucky. But I haven't seen anything from Tech that tells me they're incapable of beating Calipari's squad.
Second Half, Virginia Tech 86, Kentucky 93
19:14 — Blackshear Jr. picks up two very quick fouls to start the second half. He'll sit with three fouls. Hokies will need to show they can compete without their "big" man on the floor.
16:41 — Here come the Wildcats. A couple three-point plays and an open three brings them within one point.
15:48 — Circle Blackshear Jr.'s third foul. Kentucky has gone on a 13-2 run since he sat down on the bench. Additionally, Nickeil Alexander-Walker has showed his inexperience today. Several bad turnovers from the freshman have led to some very easy baskets for the Wildcats.
14:27 — Kentucky is in the bonus. The Wildcats have only committed one foul so far this half.
11:36 — Here comes that expected rebounding deficit. Two offensive boards during the same possession allows the Wildcats to get an easy put-back dunk. Blackshear Jr. checked back in with about 13 minutes left, which was a little risky. Not sure why Williams didn't wait until the under-12 media timeout.
One more reflection from this media timeout: Tech has turned the ball over 15 times and given up 27 points off those giveaways. And yet, they're only down two.
7:45 — Under-eight media timeout and we're in about the same situation as the under-12. Virginia Tech has kept it close, using some scrappy rebounding and fast tempo to get them easy layups. Tech needs to make a run here in the next few minutes before Kentucky gets their last licks in.
5:25 — Blackshear Jr. picks up his fourth foul. Kentucky has opened up a five-point lead, after two straight lane violations by the Hokies. Tech did the same exact thing in their loss at Louisville last season.
4:43 — Kentucky hits a three to go up by 7. Feels like the dagger, but there is a lot of time left. This game has been a battle of runs. We'll see what Williams does to calm the Hokies down during this timeout.
Virginia Tech still hasn't made a three this half. To have committed seven turnovers and still only be down by single-digits is something seriously impressive.
3:54 — Last media timeout. Blackshear Jr. will have a one-and-one opportunity out of the break. Hokies really need to figure out how to get a stop on defense and make a couple shots from deep.
3:29 — Blackshear Jr. fouls out on a very strange call. I believe the officials said he cleared out the defender. That's most likely the nail in the coffin.
2:40 — Robinson hits the first three pointer for the Hokies in the second half. Really not sure how Tech is still in this game (77-82).
36.4 — Hill hit a huge three (83-85), but then the Hokies give up an easy corner three to Hamidou Diallo (83-88). Follow that up with a blocked Hokies layup and a Wildcats rebound, and Kentucky is about to close this one out at the free throw line.
33.1 — Hokies call timeout down by six. They'll need some type of miracle here to pull off the upset.
25.0 — Hill clanks his attempt from deep off the back rim and Kentucky snags the rebound. Although Tech won't walk out of here with a victory, I think they've gained a lot of respect.
Comments
We were still in it with all the turnovers in the first half. But the continued turnovers in the second half (we seemed scared against the press with players picking up dribbles way too early) and letting kentucky get easy tap ins off of offensive rebounds killed us.
The reffing left ALOT to be desired. Missed calls on both teams but towards the tail end kentucky got all the benefit calls (how that traveling call on Blackshear when he was clearly pushed).
I think if Blackshear falls on that play, we get the call. The fact that he stayed upright and tried to make a pass made it easy on the officials to call the travel.
They should have called KY on his being pushed so hard he had to take steps to remain upright...
Tremendous write up, Skutt. Keep em coming!
This might be a Madden statement, but had we had less turnovers, I think we win in a big way. The couple of dodgy calls by the refs shouldn't of mattered. It was also pretty frustrating to watch us freeze up against the full court press.
Also, while driving to the hole was working for us...it was kind of baffling that we abandoned the 3 in the second half.
Overall, I'm still high on our performance and think it says a lot about the potential of this team moving forward.
From what I observed, it's not that we abandoned the 3, but that they made a bigger effort to close out and forced us to make buckets off the dribble. The idea was to force us to play to their strength on defense which is their size. Their freshmen wings did not do a good job closing out and ended up giving us much bigger lanes to the basket.
This is a very astute observation. They did a much better job off of our ball screens and closing out on the 3 point shooters. It opened some stuff up down low, which we took advantage of (two man game with Robinson and KJ) but we needed some threes to counter their threes and offensive rebounds.
I too was wondering why it appeared we abandoned the 3's. I know Kentucky had the length on us, but Buzz also looked be content with the way things were going. I was puzzled...
But, Clark looked as if he was trying to pull us out of the funk... single-handedly.
I've got no complaints. Rupp is a TOUGH place to play and Kentucky just straight up beat us. Coach Cal was smart in how they played, using their length to beat us with the traps and pressing that caused most of the turnovers and also the adjustment in the 2nd half where they did a much better job closing out on our 3 point shooters. It's not that we didn't try to get 3 point shots, Kentucky contested every one and chased us off the line in many of them. We strategically gave a poorish 3 point shooting team in Kentucky 3 point looks and they stepped up and made them. Sometimes you just get beat. We didn't throw it away, we didn't get screwed by the refs*. We just lost. There's no shame in that.
*There were some questionable fouls but it went both ways. The only really egregious calls were the lane violations. That shit happens literally every FT in both college and the NBA but is never called. However, it was 1 point. Far from being the difference.
I'm still confused as to why we didn't take more 3 point shots during the second half. It did look like Kentucky was really focused on closing out, and it looked like our ball movement wasn't quite as sharp... maybe those things and some others contributed to the lack of deep shots.
I cannot think of a single win against a top 10 out of conference opponent since Buzz has been at VT. Based on yesterday's game I have some hope we may be able to even that up this March.
#8 Kentucky (yesterday) and #4 Iowa State (last season) are the only top-10 OOC opponents we've played with Buzz in charge.
So we only need to beat two top 10 OOC teams in March to even it out?
I'm on board with that.
Wow if you told me that the first made 3 of the second half was at 2:40 left. I would think that we lost by 30. We played well on a national stage. I have to think that our national perception could only improve after this game.
Even though we lost, I'm encouraged by the fact that we can expect our boys to come into a big game and look like they belong there... and not be surprised when they deliver.
Walking out of Rupp yesterday I realized two things: 1) I can't believe how far this program has come. 4 years ago calling us a dumpster fire was offensive to dumpster fires 2) We gained a lot of respect from UK fans. So many were asking me about KJ and JRob, those two are going to be national stars
I'll preface my comments by saying a couple things; first, I would be the first to admit that I'm a noob when it comes to watching VT b-ball, though I've played and watched a decent amount of basketball. And second, overall I was impressed at how competitive we were with Kentucky yesterday and love the trajectory this team is on with Buzz as HC.
With that said, here's what stuck out to me:
-Watching Hill on defense drives me crazy. The number of times he drifts off of his man to try and get a steal only to sacrifice being able to close out on his man hurt the team. He was the one who left his man late in the second half and gave up a corner three.
-Where did Alexander go? He seemed to disappear a little in his first big time game. Hopefully he can remain aggressive in the bigger ACC games coming up.
-Wilson seemed to hurt us on offense. Not much of a scoring threat and had some ugly turnovers passing it to guys who weren't looking or to the other team.
-Blackshear is a beast, held his own very well against good competition. Robinson impressed me with his ability to drive and finish as a guard. They would be my two MVPs.
I think NAW was a little overwhelmed as a freshman under such bright lights. I am hoping he learned from the experience.
Wilson is not an offensive guy. He really is in there for defense only and anything he contributes on the offensive end is gravy.
I liked KJ's game. I know in the game thread he got some grief for the some of the boneheaded plays he made, but I thought he played really smart when he was in foul trouble. Wish he would have been smart enough to avoid the two early fouls in the second half.
This game felt a lot like the Bristol game in football a season ago. VT was as good, if not better, than their opposition. However, unforced turnovers will get after ya.
I will disagree to an extent. Turnovers in basketball are much different that turnovers in football. UK forced a lot of those turnovers by making us play at a pace we weren't comfortable with. The BaB was generally unforced errors (bad snaps, poor ball security.) We definitely could have won this game had we played closer to perfect, but UK is clearly the better team (even if younger.)
I get we didn't help ourselves with TOs (those were unacceptable), but I still feel like we were forcibly laid back by the refs.
If moral victories were a thing, shooting nearly 60% against UK would be a moral victory.
It may not have cost us the game, but some of the homer calls certainly made a difference. The negated Clarke goal for "pushing off". The very dubious "moving screen" on Blackshear that negated a goal. It was not a level playing field at key times.
^This. I thought the reffing was pretty decent until the last 8-10 minutes of the second half. There were so many nit-picky calls on us for things that happen almost every possession in basketball. That being said, I was more annoyed about our unforced turnovers than the questionable reffing.
The call on Clarke was complete BS. The illegal screen on KJ was a decent call, although it could have easily not been called. If KJ gets better position, he wouldn't have had to shuffle his feet which drew the call.
there's no way that's actually an illegal screen though. KJ was diving to the basket and our ball handler happened to follow him down the lane for a couple of steps. Offensive player has a right to move toward the hoop and just because there's traffic in the lane doesn't mean there's a moving screen. 110% B.S. that is called as a player's 5th foul.
My boss is a HUGE UK fan since he's an alum there. Thank God I took a vacation day monday...
But damn, we played really well despite turnovers. Cal is right. We damn well could win the ACC playing like that.
The officiating that game was atrocious, I don't think the refs were intentionally calling the game one way or another, but inconsistant calls in the paint and making the soft calls they did undoubtedly hurt us more. If we had blackshear in the last couple minutes then I think this game turns out differently
Despite foul trouble, sloppy play and a size differential we still managed to compete with a great Kentucky in thier own house. I know there are no moral victories but we learned a lot about this team yesterday and I am psyched for ACC to start. We will be making some waves come march.
The one thing I noticed about the officiating was the lack of calls in the first half. I am certain that benefited us. It turned around in the second half and we weren't able to adjust to the difference in officiating.
The fact that it was so different from the first half is what pissed me off so much.
I noticed that too. Game was called very differently in the 2nd half.
Makes you wonder why, doesn't it?
C'mon TKP, theorize.
those lane violations were just embarrassing
The shooter started his shooting motion and stopped, then resumed, which is actually illegal if rarely called.
The multitude of turnovers and cold shooting from 3 were disappointing, but the encouraging part is even with those negative aspects, we were never out of it and it was a close loss
Decided to challenge myself during the game and take a drink of bourbon every time I thought, "well, it's Kentucky, I'm not sure what I was expecting." That didn't turn out too poorly, but I did seem to end up drinking as a result of uncontested offensive boards by the 'cats a lot. Their length definitely got the best of us, but it's very encouraging to see the team compete on that stage against a roster as talented as theirs. Can't wait to see how we fare in the ACC.
Also, just noticing that Wabissa Bede didn't record any minutes on Saturday. Am I missing something or did Buzz just not feel like he was ready? Tyrie only played 1 minute as well.
I don't think PJ played either, guess Buzz figured they weren't ready.
I'd expect that to be a trend during ACC play. Bede isn't ready to play on a tournament team with guys ahead of him in that position. Jackson will get a few minutes for his athleticism. And Horne will play some games when KJ fouls out, but I think we'll see more of Clarke at the 5 like we did Saturday. This is pretty normal for freshman who will be 4 year players on contending teams.
I see what you're saying, but damn, I hope we're not running essentially a 6 man rotation in ACC play. Those kids are gonna have to learn to step up sometime.
JRob
Bibbs
Hill
Dev
KJ
Clarke
NAW
7 guys with Horne and Pig getting spot minutes. We played 8 players vs. UK. I had to put all the guys down just so I was sure who was playing haha.
My bad, I took your comment too literally thinking you meant Horne and Pig will continue to get as little as 1 combined minute during ACC play.
Personally, I would like to see Bede play more often than Wilson, but Devin's experience is probably worth more than I think it is.
Wilson comes in because he can defend a forward better than any of the other guards, as well as handle the ball. He is taking minutes from Horne more than Bede IMO.
He can do those things but doesn't always.. at times with the ball he seems really tentative for a 5th year senior and defensively he frequently does the same thing Hill does and sink down towards then lane to help on driving guards but doesn't do it aggressively enough to stop the drive while simultaneously getting too far away from his shooter such that he's out of position to close out on a 3pt attempt on the kick.
At least he had the instinct to spot up for the charge after throwing that terrible pass that Kentucky intercepted.
I think if we played this Kentucky team 10 times, they'd win 2 or 3. They were able to hit three pointers when that is usually not something they do well. They forced an obscene number of turnovers. It just seems like Kentucky's path to winning required much more perfection than VT's path to winning.
It was one of those games I went into not expecting to win so I wasn't too upset when we didn't pull it off. It does give me confidence going forward that we didn't play our best game and it was still so competitive. What was it, 8 ties, 11 lead changes? We just gotta keep learning and grinding, we'll be fine come March.
FYI, in case anyone hadn't noticed yet. We're still creeping just outside the Top 25 in the Others Receiving Votes section of both polls. Didn't drop a single spot in the Coaches
We lost a lot of votes in the AP. We had been about 28th.
Total votes actually dropped less in the AP from 15 - 3. Coaches votes dropped from 41 - 26. Either way though, it's good to see that we're still in the voters' minds heading into the ACC slate
I guess I don't understand the polls. We played the current #5 team in the country a very close game on their court and we lose votes???
Voters don't watch the games they only look at the scores in the morning
Not sure if anyone is watching this Kentucky at Vandy, but NAW's cousin just took the game to OT hitting 2 clutch free throws with 2.0 seconds left capping a 14 point comeback. Awesome game.