#GamedayGuide:🏀 vs. @ESHawksHoops📍 Cassell Coliseum 🕚 7PM ET📺 @ACCNetworkExtra #getBETTER pic.twitter.com/rOz6Q1xDZb— Buzz Williams (@TeamCoachBuzz) December 28, 2018
Date/Time: December 28th 1PM
Opponent: University of Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks
Site: Cassell Coliseum, Blacksburg, VA
Radio: Virginia Tech IMG Sports Network
Talent: Jon Laaser & Mike Burnop
TV: ACC NE Andrew Allegretta & Mack McCarthy
Live Stats: HokieSports.com
Game Notes: Virginia Tech
Sirius: 134 XM: 194 Internet: 956
Make sure you serenade Coach McNeilly tonight with Happy Birthday if you are at Cassell
Happy birthday S/O to assistant coach Jamie McNeilly (@CoachMcNeilly), who gets to coach a game on his b-day! 🎈#getBETTER | #Hokies 🦃 pic.twitter.com/cucQTsowRt— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) December 28, 2018
Last of the Non-Conference
Buzzketball is home in Cassell against another overmatched opponent and with the challenge of a bleak home atmosphere with the student body on break and an ever constant challenge of bringing in a local crowd you have to wonder why they didn't schedule this on Saturday to give themselves a Womens/Mens Doubleheader to hopefully entice a slightly bigger crowd during the holidays into Cassell to cheer on the Hokies. This is the ninth game between the Hokies and UMES. The Hokies hold an 8-0 edge so far in this series.
The Hawks are coached by Clifford Reed, in his first and probably only season at the helm of UMES. Reed was an assistant at UMES since 2014, when this spring the school decided to not renew the contract of head coach Bobby Collins, and named Reed the interim coach for this entire season. They did him no favors by waiting so long, it gave him little if any time to recruit in a year where he has lost four of his top five scorers from last season. He does however get three veterans back that missed the entire 2017-2018 season with injuries.
Reed is 1-12 at UMES this season, but also spent 10 seasons as the head coach of Bethune Cookman where he was 125-167 as head coach with a surprising run to the NIT in 2011, his final season there. So far this season the Hawks sole win is over Central Pennsylvania College. Their losses are to Georgetown, NC State, Longwood, University of North Texas, Mercer, St Johns, Delaware, ECU, Duquesne, Pitt, Winthrop, and American. Ten of their twelve losses have been by at least ten points with their largest loss by 38 to Mercer. Their average margin of loss is by 19.6 points that includes the score from their sole win.
Defensively, the Hawks at least in a majority of their out of conference games are forced to use zone defense because of the disparity in talent between this team and their opponents. This is a team that plays half the year to make enough money to continue the Athletic Department for its school and then the Conference Schedule to be competitive. They will rotate between a 2-3 and a box and one defensive scheme. They struggle with playing zone and defending the perimeter. That said, opponents thus far have only managed to shoot 36% from outside but that's on 29 attempts per game, meaning even with the low shooting, opponents are still averaging over 10 made threes per contest. UMES is 300th or worse in 9 key defensive statistics this season. One other alarming area for UMES is that opponents are pulling down an offensive rebound on 33% of their own missed shots.
Offensively, UMES under Reed seems to be the kitchen sink philosophy since there does not appear to be much continuity game to game on how they want to approach the offensive end. They seem to look at how they are being defended and throw what they think will work best against it, usually not to a very successful measure. Not to be outperformed by the defense, UMES is 300th or worse in 13 key offensive statistics. So far this season, the Hawks are hitting only 27% from the perimeter, but still attempt over 20 shots per game. Relying heavily on interior scoring to get their baskets seems to also let them down, just not as much as outside. A big part of this I imagine is the rebounding spread. So far the Hawks have been outrebounded by 144 rebounds in thirteen games or about 11 per game.
Hawks Backcourt
Senior Guard Ryan Andino (#1), 6'2, 175 lbs, returns after sitting out all last season with an injury and is averaging 12.1 PPG, 1.6 RPG and dishing out 0.5 APG. He is shooting 33% from the field and 34% outside so far and is making 82% of his free throws. He also averages 1 SPG.
Junior Point Guard Bryan Urrutia, (#13), 6'1, 206 Lbs is averaging 7.2 PPG, 3.5 RPG, and 4.5 APG. He is hitting 46% from the field while hitting 16% of his three pointers. He is also hitting 62% of his free throws.
Montraz Oliver (#10), 6'2, 150 Lbs, Sophomore Guard is averaging 6.1 PPG, 2 RPG, and 1 APG so far. He is shooting 44% inside and 25% outside but is a surprising 90% from the free throw line.
Colen Gaynor (#4), 6'5, 185 Lbs, Sophomore Guard was forced to sit out the first ten games with an eligibility issue that has now been resolved. He is averaging 10 PPG, 5.5 RPG, and 1 APG so far in two games back. He is shooting 57% inside and 16% outside but 50% from the free throw line on two attempts.
Dontae Caldwell (#20) 6'5, 195 lbs Junior Guard is another veteran working his way back from injury but is struggling so far in being able to stay on the court. He is putting up 3.2 PPG, 4.1 RPG and a half an assist in about 16 minutes per contest.
Hawks Frontcourt
Junior Forward A.J. Cheeseman (#12), 6'6, 230 lbs, is averaging 12.5 PPG, while also pulling down 3.8 RPG and 1 APG while shooting 43% from inside, 18% from outside and 60% from the line.
Tyler Jones, (#15), 6'7, 200 Lbs Junior Forward is averaging 6.9 PPG, 2.1 RPG, and 0.7 APG. He is shooting 44% from the field, 22% from outside and is 67% from the free throw line.
Isaac Taylor (#35) 6'8, 250 Lbs Junior Forward also missed all of last season and the first 11 games this season with injuries. He had 11 points in his first game back but was used sparingly in his second. I would expect he will be on the court against the Hokies as much as possible but how effective he is, is yet to be seen.
What to expect from UMES?
The Hawks have been dealing with injuries, inexperience and foul trouble so their roster is spread thin. They have lost 35 man games to a variety of injuries. They have seven players already averaging more than 2 fouls per contest. As a team, they have been whistled for 228 fouls in 13 games, or 18 per game. Opponents have also attempted 259 free throws so far, or 20 per game.
The Hawks also struggle with turnovers, giving the ball away on average 13.6 times a contest. That said, they force opponents into 13.7 turnovers per contest so the turnovers balance out
The other area the Hawks are having difficulties is shooting the ball. As a team they are shooting 37% from the field (351st in the nation) and only 27% from outside (344th in the nation). That said, they have not fared well against pressure and struggle to create the open shot. As part of this, their opponents have 45 blocks in thirteen games so far. This also leads to a huge disparity in the number of assists simply because opponents are putting the ball in the basket so much more often than the Hawks. Their current assist differential is 213 to 125 on the season.
The Hawks are also dreadful trying to rebound, giving up 33% of opponents missed shots to offensive rebounds, leading to a significant difference in possessions and second chance scoring. They are also outrebounded 4 to 1 when they are on the offensive end. This is more significant than the poor defensive rebounding because of how badly they shoot the ball, leading to more missed shots on their offensive end than the defensive end.
The Hokies
Still no update on Landers Nolley or Chris Clarke being approved to play. Stretches to the 12th Game now. Now that he has missed the Out of Conference play, I would not expect to see him play this season. Clarke getting cleared might make the decision to play to go out with his teammates and be done but that situation is just as unclear as Nolley's.
The biggest factor in this game is focus. If the Hokies can come out and play the way they are capable they should be up by 20 or more points 10 minutes into the contest and be able to work on any aspect of their game that Buzz thinks needs work before ACC play. If they do what has been unfortunately common though, they will play down to their opponents level for significant periods of this game because the crowd is thin and they aren't able to draw energy from the building and do just enough to win the game going away.
Everyone should have a huge game but especially Blackshear and Horne since their only real size is still struggling to regain form since returning from injury, relying on him actually being on the floor. This is an opponent that will struggle all night with size and ability to back down the opponent in the lane.
In Closing
The Hokies have the advantage....period. The Hokies should flirt with 100 points but wont because they will take spurts off that allow the Hawks some semblance of hanging around.
Tech wins 86-48 in a game they easily should double up their opponent's score. This game should be over early but far too often this season we have seen the Hokies put out either a lack of effort, a lack of concentration or a more disturbing combination of the two. A team this talented should not need Buzz to scream at them at halftime to finally get into rhythm but its what it seems to take.
Comments
LETS GO!!!!
HOKIES!!!
Hokies! As always, thanks for the write up. Looks like NAW is in street clothes during warm ups. Anyone know what's up there?
Ahmed Hill has that A$AP Rocky haircut
ACCNE feed looks like they turned the contrast way down. Really dark here at home.
NAW with an ankle injury in practice being held out because UMES....
That's the answer I was after. Thanks Rob. FWIW: he looks like he can move around just fine.
Boy our out of conference schedule was pretty ass this year
Some of the teams but this has been Buzz' strongest OOC schedule so far especially with the Charleston Classic teams compared to previous tourneys.
Huh, today I learned. But I honestly feel like that's a telling stat
Oh it definitely is. Its been a major issue not just under Buzz though. Its the same reason that the Greenberg teams would come up short on the bubble. Buzz has slowly improved the OOC slate each season as his talent has improved. He thought he had Kentucky committed to another game this season but they backed out. Its challenging to get top teams to commit to playing you with the hit or miss history our program has had.
They scared.
Pretty good first 4 minutes minus the j Rob turnover
Hokie Great Ace Custis is an assistant for UMES. He was fun to watch play. Wish him all the best. (except for this game! lol)
So not quite twenty at the 10 minute mark. Missed it.
Who is this player on Twitter? /s
Edit: got the correct link
Chris Clark
Ah, missed the s. Was wondering if there was an update that they knew that we didn't. Had to check the box score to make sure he wasn't playing.
No worries, have a leg
Looking good from the courtside.
What's the team record for made 3's?
18. Set earlier this season lol
made 18 vs Central Connecticut State this year. that is the record.
Well this one's been done for a while now
must be why I keep falling asleep in the recliner.
We have made only 4 less 3s (14) than the total shots they have made combined (12 FGs, 6 FTs)
85-40 final.
11-1 entering ACC play.
50 points at halftime was a season high.
24th straight OOC win at home is a new school record.
And Buzz is having fun with the post game interview. Sounds like he's ready for conference play.
That was too much of a victory. I turned it off about 8 minutes in the 2nd half. UMES was simply not competitive. It was probably a good confidence boost game for the lineup with NAW sitting out to rest the ankle. Bring on Notre Dame.
Someone let Hill know that he's allowed to play that way in conference games
This narrative bothers me a little. First of all, UMES is one of the worst D-1 teams. Duke and UVA won't leave Hill open for 3 like they will. Second of all, he had some good games in ACC play last year (18 points vs. UNC, 21 @ Wake, 17 @ Louisville) before his role was reduced for defensive reasons. Yeah he didn't do all that much late last year, but that was because of a major role reduction. And kudos to him for improving his defense over the offseason like we needed him to.
Yeah, no. It's an earned narrative. He's consistently under-delivered (especially given his recruiting pedigree) every season when conference play rolls around. I don't know the reason why, but he does. I do remember reading on here about a year ago a post by either a writer or a knowledgeable fan that theorized his shot motion is slow and thus its harder to get off against faster, more skilled players you see against teams in the ACC so that could be a part of it. But its not a role issue. While we're all rooting for him to break out, there's been a visible difference between the Med you see on the court in November and the Med you see on the court in February. With Clarke and Nolley nowhere in sight, we're definitely rooting hard for Med to be different this year.
He even said in his postgame interview that he is very game-to-game, that sometimes his shots fall and others they don't. It just so happens that he feasts on lower teams and struggles against better ones.
I will just edit this comment away since people are getting feelings hurt over it, but the ones handing out negatives better not be the same ones whining in February when you knock down criticism in December. Happy new year all.
iM a CoLlEgE bAsKeTbAlL fAn
That's the same as me saying I think you should spend more time at your 9 to 5 job and not on TKP.
ACC play isn't some magical line of demarcation for him, though. Last year was inconsistent but he didn't really start to struggle until the BC game on 01/31- he was in double digits for half the games before that. Same the year before- nearly a dozen good games in conference but almost the same number of clunkers. Before last year when his confidence was gone and his role decreased he hadn't completely disappeared in conference play like has been intimated here. He has shone the ability to play well against the ACC- the issue has been consistency.
You're blowing it way out of proportion.
Here are Ahmed Hill's stats:
2014-15: 11.8 points per 40 minutes overall. 10.7 in ACC
2016-17: 15.3 points per 40 minutes overall. 13.5 in ACC
2017-18: 16.9 points per 40 minutes overall. 12.0 in ACC
Not too much worse in ACC (which can largely be explained by better competition) until last year (which can largely be explained by the shift to defensive focus which really hurt Med). Hill doesn't create his own shots much so he relies on guys like JRob to penetrate and kick it out to him. Good (ACC) teams leave him open less than bad ones so he often scores less.