BUZZKETBALL CENTRAL: #8 UVA Wahoos (12-1, 1-0) at Virginia Tech Hokies (11-3, 0-1) 9PM ACC Network (WatchESPN)

🏀 #BeatUVA📍 Cassell Coliseum🕘 9 PM EST📺 ACC Network#getBETTER pic.twitter.com/K0q6eRZy70— Hokies Basketball 🦃 (@Hokie_Hoops) January 3, 2018

GAME INFORMATION
Date/Time: Jan. 3, 2018 / 9 p.m.
Opponent: University of Virginia
Site: Blacksburg, Virginia (Carilion Clinic Court at Cassell Coliseum)
Radio: Virginia Tech IMG Sports Network
Talent: Jon Laaser and Mike Burnop
TV: ACC Network
Talent: Evan Lepler & Dan Bonner
Live Stats: HokieSports.com
Game Notes: Virginia Tech

Auld Lang Syne Missed Three Pointers

For those of you that were with us til the super sad end, welcome to another day in the ACC!! The Hokies come in off a painful gritty struggle against the Orange. All of that aside, things don't slow down for the Hokies, or maybe they do, as they their methodical plodding in state rival tonight. UVA comes to Blacksburg ranked #8 in the country.

The Wahoos have wins over VCU, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin and a squeaker over Boston College in their ACC opener. They come in on a 4 game winning streak with their only loss this season against #18 West Virginia. The biggest surprise this year is the offensive efficiency of the Cavaliers. Last season they broke the 80 point barrier only one time and that was against Grambling. Even their 2OT game against Tech only saw them score 78 thanks to Perrantes ball sitting pretty on the rim. This season though, the Cavaliers eclipsed 80 three times already, and have scored less than 70 only five times. The pack line defense always keep teams low scoring (1st Nationally in Avg Points Against) but usually the team has holes on the offensive end. Not so this season as the Cavaliers come in averaging 71.1 PPG, although dramatically less than the 88.8 PPG being put in by the Hokies. UVA leads the all-time series 90-55 but Tech is surprisingly 16-7 against the Wahoos inside Cassell.

The Cavaliers are coached by Tony Bennett, who has a 269-117 record as a head coach. The hard to believe stat is that the win over Boston College to open ACC play was his 200th win at UVA, where he is 200-84. It doesn't seem like Bennett has been coaching the Wahoos for 9 seasons but that is the case. He has taken them to five NCAA tournaments in the past six years.

This is a team that plays defense first second and third and this season seems to have found an offense to match. You guys have heard the term "Pack Line Defense" thrown about regarding UVA on several occasions. So what does it mean? It is a high pressure, man to man defense that sags to the middle of the court. It is designed to prevent penetration by driving the basketball. The "pack line" is an imaginary line two feet inside the three point line that all defenders not guarding the current ball handler are never supposed to be outside of.

The defender that is on the ball handler is expected to be up close, hand in face to create turnovers on the outside. One other critical aspect of this defense that is different than most is that it's designed to deny the baseline. Defenders are taught to position themselves to not allow any baseline penetration, relying on help defense to close down an adjusted drive to the center of the lane. At the top of the post, expect to see defenders attempt to position themselves somewhat in front of the opposing offensive player to prevent the easy pass to the top of the lane.

The key weakness of this defense is if a team gets a large lead on you, than they are free to pass the ball around the perimeter to run clock. Unfortunately with the skill of the players that UVA has recruited, that doesn't happen very often. Tony Bennett draws this defense from his father, Dick Bennett, who is considered the developer of this style of defense while he coached at Washington State University.

Bennett has his team running what is called a Block Mover Offense on the other end of the court. This is a variation of the Motion Offense, allowing the primary ball handler at the top of the key to attempt to use a screen provided by one of two lane personnel near the top of the key. At the point of the screen, the ball handler decides either to drive the lane, kick out to an open shooter or attempt a down low pass to their second lane player, who usually moves across the basket down at the baseline block to create space for the driving guard.

The defensive rotation is what drives the guard's decision making process as he assesses what is in front of him. The guard essentially has three options coming off the pick or can spin back out to reset for another play. The key for the Hokies will be to limit the times where we allow dribble penetration by Kyle Guy or Devon Hall or allow a clean pass into the lower lane player for an easy layup.

What does that mean for the Hokies?

The Hokies should come out trying to speed up the tempo of this game to create open looks. If they are not able to do that then each possession takes on that much more significance against one of the best defenses they will face all season. UVA is allowing the fewest points per contest this season and is also holding opponents under 30% from the perimeter.

The Hokies need to wash away the struggles of the last few contests and realize that these are now the games that count the most. A renewed focus needs to be evident, as they have struggled with their perimeter shooting since the second half of the Kentucky game. The Hokies are 21-76 from outside in that stretch, or 27% which is about half of where they were the rest of the season which was 111 for 233 or almost 48%.

The Hokies will not find the size challenge nearly as evident as the Syracuse game was. UVA has two bigs but neither is the focal point offensively or defensively. Outside of those two, the Wahoos run a couple of forwards out that are 6'8 and 6'9 so it's still advantage UVA height wise but those same two run 205 lbs and 195 lbs which Tech has guards that weigh in bigger than those two.

Wahoos Backcourt

Kyle Guy, #5, 6'3, 165 lbs Sophomore is leading the Wahoo's in scoring at 15.7 PPG, 1.9 RPG, 1.6 APG and 1.2 SPG. He is knocking down his perimeter shots at 46% on over six attempts per game. He also shoots 84% from the free throw line. Most people may have trouble recognizing him as he decided over the summer to remove the man-bun.

Senior Devon Hall, #0, 6'5, 210 lbs is averaging 11.5 PPG, 3.9 RPG, and 2.8 APG while shooting almost 48% from the inside, 44% from outside and 88% from the line as well. Expect to see Hall and Guy rotate off the top of the key, working to find each other open on the perimeter after initial drive attempts inside. These are the only two Wahoo's in double figures so far this season.

The next closest Wahoo to double figures this season is Ty Jerome, #11, 6'5, 192 Lbs, Sophomore, who rotates effectively with Hall and Guy. He comes in averaging 9.7 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 2.5 APG, and 1.2 SPG. Jerome is shooting a cool 46% from both inside and out, along with having hit all 11 of his free throws this season so far.

Senior Nigel Johnson, #23, 6'1, 185 Lbs, is averaging 6.5 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 2.5 APG, and 1.2 SPG. He is a graduate transfer from Rutgers, and previously played at Kansas State prior to Rutgers.

Freshman Deandre Hunter, #12, 6'7, 212 Lbs is averaging 6 PPG, 2.1 RPG, and 1.1 APG. He is a change of pace infusion when Guy or Hall needs a breather. He is averaging 15 minutes per contest so far.

Wahoos Frontcourt

The Senior theme continues with Isaiah Wilkins, #21, 6'8, 205 Lbs who is the Step Son of Dominique "The Human Highlight Film" Wilkins. He is averaging 7.3 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 1.9 APG, 1.3 SPG and 1.4 BPG while also shooting almost 58% from the floor and 80% from the line. As you can see from his stat line, Wilkins is a bit of a Human Highlight reel himself, with solid numbers in almost every statistical category both offensively and defensively. If he could be forced to the bench for any significant amount of time it would be a big blow to the Wahoos all around.

Sophomore Mamadi Diakite #25, 6'9, 195 Lbs, rotates with Wilkins as the Power Forward. He is averaging 6.1 PPG and 3.8 RPG while shooting 57% from inside and 77% from the line.

Jay Huff, #30, 6'11, 215 Lbs, Freshman, rotates the other big position with Jack Salt, #33, 6'10, 240 Lbs across 33 minutes per contest.

What to expect from the Wahoos?

The Senior and Sophomore classes are critical for this Wahoo team, as they account for the top six scorers on the roster this season. Starting with Guy, these six players account for over 75% of all scoring for the Wahoos. Three Seniors and three sophomores each averaging over 6 points per contest.

As a team the Wahoo's shoot a respectable 39% from outside but when you get in close you realize that the top three shooters are hitting 6 of 13 attempts per game or 45% from outside. In a game where points are at a premium

The starting five for this team is also skilled at stealing the ball from opponents, with four out of five averaging more than 1 steal per game. They combine for 5.5 SPG as starters, and as a team force 14 turnovers per contest.

One surprise this season is the lack of production from Jack Salt and Jay Huff, the two true Bigs on this roster, the first 6'10 and the second 7'1. They combine for 8.2 PPG, 6.7 RPG, and less than one assist in over 33 minutes per contest. Huff's playing time especially seems to vary dramatically contest by contest, with his most minutes being 24 against Austin Peay all the way down to zero, as Bennett has left Huff on the bench for five of their contests this season.

Shots from the foul line come at a premium though for UVA, averaging just over 15 attempts per game, so barring a significant change, this shouldn't hurt us dramatically. Part of this is their high offensive efficiency but also the fact that they only pull in nine offensive rebounds per game on average this season so not a lot of second chance points for the Cavaliers. One thing to keep in mind is that five of UVA's top six scorers this season all shoot better than 76% from the free throw line so in close games Nigel Johnson is the only regular who shoots poorly.

The flip side of this coin though is that the Cavaliers allow the 5th fewest free throw attempts in the nation, averaging less than 13 attempts. Considering the Hokies are still averaging over 25 attempts per game, it will be something to watch for as this game gets going. Whichever of these teams keeps it closer to their average would have a big advantage in what should be a low scoring affair.

The Hokies

🔥🔥🔥 Numbers 🔢#Hokies🦃#getBETTER pic.twitter.com/EKQelvzjbO— Hokies Basketball 🦃 (@Hokie_Hoops) December 28, 2017

The Hokies need to be the utmost in efficiency in this game on the offensive end. UVA only turns the ball over 9 times per contest on average so the Hokies will not be able to count on significant extra possessions this way. The UVA opponents also do very poorly in the rebounding category so the Hokies will need to be wary as opponents only manage 31 rebounds per contest, and of that only 8 on the offensive end. UVA is in the top 10 nationally in 9 defensive categories including first nationally in fewest shots allowed, fewest interior shots attempted, fewest assists allowed, and points per game.

The Hokies will have to find holes in the zone and they have to be able to penetrate the zone on the dribble to create gaps or they will play directly into the Wahoo's game plan. The Wahoo's do allow opponents to attempt 22 perimeter shots per game, but as previously discussed they only allow 29% to go in. The Hokies will need to be able to hit their shots or force their way to the line. Last season's win saw the Hokies go 8-26 from outside but hit 20-26 free throws which played a deciding factor.

Clarke, Blackshear, and Horne need to play a much larger role against UVA than they managed against Syracuse. If they are able to establish position in the lane it will open up shooters when the Wahoo's collapse to the center.

Highlight of the Syracuse Game

Uphill Dreams 👌 pic.twitter.com/wR4qJteOOO— Hokies Basketball 🦃 (@Hokie_Hoops) December 21, 2017

Highlight of the game goes Nickiel Alexander-Walker, who went 7 for 13 from the field and 4 of 8 from outside. Honorable mention goes to Chris Clarke, who managed 10 rebounds going up against the much bigger Orange roster.

In Closing

This game is going to come down to three things, dribble penetration for both teams, execution at the free throw line, and offensive rebounding by the Hokies. If the Hokies are the better team at these three areas, than they will even up their ACC record. Get the better of the Wahoos in two out of three areas and give yourself a chance. Let UVA win these areas and it's another long night in Cassell for us fans. The Hokies will definitely need to win the offensive rebounding battle to get more shots and second chance points against the Wahoos to keep us in this game.

Whichever team gets to the rim more consistently with the ball will do one of two things, run up the score on baskets or ramp up the free throw attempts, which could go a long way in deciding this contest. One last thing that will be critical for the Hokies is that Justin Bibbs needs to find his shot from outside to keep the Wahoo's honest in guarding him outside. This could be a key factor in allowing Robinson, Clarke, NAW the needed space to drive into the lane against the Cavaliers.

It's a home game, they failed to deliver in a tough situation on Sunday, and its against UVA. All the recipe for these guys being amped up, now Buzz just needs to keep them focused. I believe we have the talent, size and speed required to break this defense tonight. It obviously would be better with Ahmed Hill heating up from outside to give the Cavaliers fits. Blackshear and Robinson at the free throw line late in this one are the difference.

Tech wins 73-70, hanging on against a late miss from the perimeter by Guy.

Extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.Not all things matter equally. Find the things that matter the most.— Buzz Williams (@TeamCoachBuzz) January 3, 2018

Around the ACC

Louisville opened ACC play with a 77-51 thrashing of Pitt, who fell to 0-2 in conference play.

Records:

Duke is 13-1
Clemson, UVA and Miami are all 12-1
UNC and Syracuse are 12-2
Florida State is 11-2
Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and Louisville are 11-3
Boston College and NC State are 10-4
Pitt is 8-7
Wake Forest is 7-6
Georgia Tech is 6-7