Buzzketball Central: VMI Keydets (5-4) at Virginia Tech Hokies (6-1) 7pm DEC 5 ACC Network

#GamedayGuide:🏀 vs. @VMI_Basketball 📍 Cassell Coliseum 🕚 7PM ET📺 @ACCNetworkExtra #getBETTER pic.twitter.com/09BTaepKNH— Buzz Williams (@TeamCoachBuzz) December 5, 2018

GAME INFORMATION
Date/Time: December 5th 7PM
Opponent: Virginia Military Institute Keydets
Site: Cassell Coliseum, Blacksburg, VA
Radio: Virginia Tech IMG Sports Network
Talent: Jon Laaser & Mike Burnop
TV: ACCNE
Live Stats: HokieSports.com
Game Notes: Virginia Tech
SXM 193 (Streaming 955)

Keydet, Cadet: An Old School Rivalry

Buzzketball has VMI coming in to Cassell on Wednesday night. While it's been many years since these two schools took very different trajectories in the overall makeup of their student bodies, this remains one of our longest tenured rivalries in all of Hokies sports. This will be the 136th meeting of the two programs going back as far as February of 1909, when Tech suffered a 15-9 loss to the Keydets.

The Hokies have dominated the more recent version of this rivalry though, winning 22 of 23 games played at Cassell and 43 of the last 46 matchups. The last loss to VMI came in 2004 at Lexington. In recent years this has been a high scoring affair so expect a high paced, high scoring evening on Wednesday night.

The Keydets are coached by Dan Earl, who is in his fourth season at the helm for VMI. He is 29-70 as a head coach, having suffered through three straight losing seasons. He spent time as an assistant coach at Navy and Penn State. Prior to coaching, he played professionally for the Roanoke Dazzle in 2001-2002.

The Keydets come in 5-4, with wins over D-III Washington College (MD), D-III Goucher, South Carolina Upstate, D-II Kentucky Christian and Stetson. There losses are to Pitt by 39, Kentucky by 10, American by 10, and Longwood by 20. They return their leading scorer in Bubba Parham from last season but graduated a couple key players.

Defensively, Coach Earl has a very similar style to Buzz, in that he expects his team to limit transition baskets and play a very heavy man to man pressure defense to create turnovers.

Offensively, you might call Coach Earl's philosophy Fire and Forget, as he wants his team to get up shots, especially from the perimeter, and then get back on defense. One thing for sure is that Buzz needs to have his guys ready to play perimeter defense as VMI continues its trend of shooting from outside that is a trademark of Coach Dan Earl's offensive strategy. So far through nine games VMI has attempted 261 three pointers or 29 per contest. One other area of focus for Earl is limiting turnovers and so far this season the Keydets are only turning the ball over 11 times a contest.

Keydets Backcourt

Sophomore Guard Bubba Parham (#3), 5'11, 155 lbs, is in his second season starting for the Keydets. He is averaging 23 PPG, while also pulling down 4.4 RPG and dishing out 3 APG. He is shooting 40% from the field but 41% outside so far and is making 79% of his free throws. Parham has scored 30 or more in several games this season, including hitting 10 threes against Kentucky.

Sophomore Guard Greg Parham, (#5), 6'4, 160 Lbs is averaging 11 PPG, 2.2 RPG, and 3.6 APG as the starting point guard. He has grabbed 1.4 SPG as well. He is hitting 42% from the field while hitting 34% of his three pointers. He is only hitting 47% of his free throws. I haven't been able to determine if there is any familial link between the two Parham's but they hail from vastly different areas.

Garrett Gilkeson (#2), 6'4, 200 Lbs Junior Guard is averaging 9.7 PPG, 6.2 RPG, and 2.2 APG so far. He also has 1.9 SPG. He is shooting 56% inside and 46% outside. He is also shooting 75% from the free throw line.

Sarju Patel (#31), 6'3, 170 Lbs Sophomore Guard, is averaging 8.2 PPG, 2.5 RPG and 1.7 APG. He is shooting 39% inside, 35% outside and 38% from the free throw line. His production is critical for the Keydets but his performance is sporadic at best. Seems to have a bit of the Ahmed "Now you see me, Now you don't" Hill disease.

Keydets Frontcourt

Myles Lewis, (#15) 6'5, 181 lbs Sophomore Forward is averaging 8.9 PPG, 5.1 RPG and 1.1 APG while shooting 51% from inside, 10% from outside and 81% from the line. He also adds 1.1 SPG on the defensive end.

Tyler Creammer, (#25), 6'10, 245 Lbs Junior Forward is averaging 7.2 PPG and 7.9 RPG. Defensively he adds just over a half a block per game. He is shooting 47% from inside, 21% from outside and 70% from the free throw line.

Jake Stephens, (#34), 6'8, 230 Lbs Freshman Center is averaging 6.4 PPG, 3.1 RPG and 1.1 APG. He is shooting 59% inside and 32% outside while hitting all eight of his free throws this season.

What to expect from VMI?

VMI plays predominantly man to man focused on preventing open looks from the floor. They are averaging 8.4 steals per game so far this season and turning opponents over 14 times per game so something to be aware of as the Hokies bring the ball up the court. It's an aggressive man to man after retreating to prevent transition baskets so they do create quite a few turnovers. This will be the fastest paced opponent in terms of transition from defense to offense the Hokies have seen this season.

In a half court set, don't be surprised to see constant passing around the perimeter to find the open shot as the Keydets rely on shooting in quantity from the perimeter to stay in games. They are averaging over 29 attempts per game so far this season. Fortunately for Tech, they are only shooting about 36% so far from the perimeter so the Hokies have to be vigilant to keep this number low.

Unlike in recent games against the Keydets where they strictly relied on the outside game because their roster lacked any size, the Keydets this season have an abundance of bigs, especially compared to the Hokies lineup. The Keydets will rotate in at least four players 6'8 or taller in this game.

The Keydets come in fouling opponents 18 times per contest, which is fairly average for college basketball. Opponents have however reached the free throw line 21 times per contest which could be a major factor in the final outcome of this contest.

One area the Keydets are very similar to the Hokies is their assist to basket ratio. Currently the Keydets assist on almost 64% of all made baskets. This will be troublesome for the Hokies guards, who have struggled to stay with shooters in rotation.

The Hokies

Buzz and Company has shown us one thing so far, expect balanced scoring throughout the players on the floor with a handful of scorers reaching double figures each night. Through two games, there are four Hokies averaging in double figures (NAW 17.9, Hill 14.4, JRob 14.4, Blackshear 13.3) along with Outlaw averaging 8.9 per game so far.

One area of concern early on is the spread of the time on the floor. Three Hokies are over 31 minutes per game and two others over 23 per contest. Much of this has to do with the suspension of Clarke and the ongoing ridiculousness of the Landers Nolley situation.

Buzz Williams touched on the Nolley situation during Tech Talk Live and it wasn't encouraging.

It would take me a long time to say all of it. I'm not allowed to say all of it because of FERPA, but there is an initial eligibility process that a student-athlete has to go through regardless of sport. That eligibility process has nothing to do with Virginia Tech. There are several steps in that process, he is hung up on one particular step. I don't know what the answer is going to be, and I don't know that the answer, whenever we get it, will be good or bad.

It's not in our control, it's not in Virginia Tech's control. NCAA compliance, you've probably heard the word, our office at Virginia Tech has been over the top good in every single way regarding this. His parents, albeit disappointed, have been very understanding. Landers, the player, has probably handled it more maturely than any adult involved, but much of it we can't control, but we're trying to work to help it be as good as it can be. That's probably as much as I've ever said, and the reason I'm saying that is because there was some information that got out, outside of Virginia Tech, that is not completely accurate. That is why I'm expanding upon it.

It's hard on him, it's hard on our kids. I think our kids have been incredibly resilient, just as Landers has in all of this. We're not the only program/team that has had to deal with something like this. We were hoping it would be resolved by now because we've spent so much time on it. We don't know when it will be resolved, and when that 'when' is we don't know what the answer will be. It's just become a part of the deal. I think all of the kids and the coaches have handled it in a very mature way.

This game the Hokies need to close out on the perimeter, create turnovers and get the ball into the lane to cause VMI early foul trouble. Continuing to move the ball on offense for the open look will also be critical.

Tech needs to be aware of who the opponents are on the court so they can exploit the numerous matchup issues the Hokies pose for the Keydets. There are going to essentially be two or three matchup challenges for VMI with whatever five Hokies are on the court, the Hokies just need to capitalize on them.

In Closing

VMI is another severely overmatched opponent that sometimes gets competitive if allowed to hit from the perimeter. Continue to take advantage of the mismatches and Tech comes out of this fine. Fail to and get haunted all season.
Hopefully this will be another game to get the end of the bench some great experience, playing a larger number of minutes if the rest of the team performs how it should.

This should not be the early route that Central Connecticut turned into but I do expect the Hokies will likely have a double digit first half lead that is maintained throughout the second half in this one.

Expect this to be an extremely high scoring affair so something along the lines of 96 to 68 considering the Hokies showed what they can accomplish against lesser opponents when they faced Central Connecticut. The critical aspect of that game and this game is that the Hokies play defense early and often. If they hold VMI to 25% shooting than there should be no issues in this contest.

If you are 👀 for an excuse... You will always find one.If you are 👀 for an opportunity...You will always find one.— Buzz Williams (@TeamCoachBuzz) December 4, 2018