The men play at Miami tonight at 8PM. The game is on ACCN. Miami is 10-9 overall and 2-7 in the ACC. The ACC record may be a little deceiving. They have lost to Duke twice, Louisville twice, Florida State, NC State and UNC. All of the losses except UNC were to very good teams. They have beaten Clemson in OT and Pittsburgh.
Miami will be taller than the Hokies. But Miami has a lot of injury concerns. In their last game against UNC, Lykes, McGusty, Stone and Gak did not play. Stone and Gak probably will not play today. Lykes and McGusty will be game time decisions. If all four of them do not play, Miami will only have 6 scholarship players available.
It's hard to know what to say about Miami since we don't know who will be playing. They only shoot 29% from 3 and allow 38.5%. Vasilevic and Lykes, if he plays, are threats from 3; McGusty also shoots 31% from 3. If Lykes and McGusty do not play, unless someone else steps up, they won't have many options from 3. They shoot 40% overall, but have been allowing 49%. The Hokies could have a good shooting day unless they come out flat like they did in BC.
They average 8.5 assists and 13.5 turnovers per game. Without Lykes and McGusty, Vasiljevic is the only double digit scorer left. They have been out-rebounded by 5 per game. They are averaging 67 points per game and giving up 81.
Keep in mind that all of these stats have been generated against a very strong schedule.
Stats for the stats guys:
Even if Lykes and McGusty play, the Hokies should have a chance to pick up an away game win today. If those two do not play, they should have a very good chance.
Go Hokies!
Comments
Might as well drop this here. Myron Medcalf has an article up on ESPN discussing the overachieving and underachieving teams in each conference. We got an honorable mention in the ACC Overachiever discussion.
Interesting they mention cuse overachieving while being picked 8th; but say we're honorable mention when being picked last, going 1-1 against cuse, and having less experience in the floor than almost the whole p5...and haven't we had a higher net than cuse also!?
LET'S GO!
HOKIES!
Why are the stats above for just 8 games?
Actually, they are for 9 games. After the teams have played enough conference games, I just use the conference games in the stats because I think the games against all the lower tier teams do not reflect what we can expect as well as just using ACC stats.
Got it, thanks for the clarification. I was a little confused.
I hope Chris Lykes plays so we can see how Jalen Cone plays with a height advantage. See if he shows off some post moves against the smaller defender
Chris Lykes is OUT. Stone and McGusty will play.
via GIPHY
At least we won't have to see Lykes do this all night
Lykes broke our Jrob last year. Relieved to see he wont have the opportunity again.
Vasiljevic is still there. Seems like they've been playing against him longer than four years.
It really does seem like he has been playing since '05
The Perry Ellis of the ACC if you will.
I understood that reference.
Gak...what is that, dutch?
Maybe he is going to play
Cool cool cool another game we can't watch in Florida.
Am I the only one whose game is glitching or something?
Happening to me too
Who turned out the lights in the arena?
first a broadcasting complaint: they have our team name in maroon and miami's in orange despite us wearing our orange jerseys, definitely ripe for confusion
second a scheduling complaint, having to go from boston to south beach with 2 games in 4 days is tough, worried about our legs in the second half, will be interesting to see how deep into the bench CMY goes
Went to the Miami-Duke game last Tuesday night (first game at Cameron. Even for a down crowd, highly recommend. Place is pretty damn cool.) Miami is absolutely awful. Then turned around and got pummeled about as bad against a very bad Carolina squad Saturday. Cannot stand to lose this game.
Yeah, I've been there for a number of high profile ACC matchups... Definitely a must go if you get the chance.
Miami starting out hot. Hopefully won't continue.
It didn't. Damn.
Can't complain too much when Horne is 2-2 from deep, although Bede should have about 6 assists by now.
^^^This was just before our most recent basket
Well, this is not going as hoped
We are getting killed right now. No offense and no defense. Where is the energy??
"_______ (insert worst player on opposing teams name) hasn't made a shot in 3 years but boy is he heating up against Virginia tech tonight".
-announcer at every game we play
Team looks like its asleep again. Understandable since the lights are turned off.
Right? I hear complaints about Cassell being dark, but this is something else
I want to burn the MicroTouch Solo company to the ground.
Welp... might be two ugly one's in a row.
This past game against BC and this game so far is about what I expected all season.
Looking like a true bottom feeder. Based on the last two, the team might have peaked about two weeks ago. Seem really lost tonight.
Smallest team, Second youngest team. Seems like that's beginning to play out.
There is almost nothing to be excited about right now. No one is motivated and we are going through the motions.
We now look like the worst team in the ACC.
Also please get Wilkins out
He's about doubly as good as Cattoor.
Wilkins is at least trying to create and hustling. Cattoor seems content to stand still on both sides of the court.
Seconded
20-2 run.
Can we stop playing teams that are on multi game losing streaks
The sloppy second half of the BC game has continued into this game. This is hard to even look at.
WTF IS GOING ON?!?!
I cannot even believe what I am watching right now. It's like the guys came tonight only because they HAD to, and they decided before even taking the court that this game would be a loss. Going to be hard to decide whether to endure watching the 2nd half or not.
And finally another basket
Hey remember when we were picked almost dead last in the ACC?
We've been showing why the last few games.
Young, inexperienced, small basketball team plays like young, inexperienced, small basketball team. More at 8.
Anyone notice it's always a foul on us this game but not for Miami?
Or is it my O AND M glasses
We're playing out of control and undisciplined. Yeah some have been ticky tac but overall most have been legit.
Oh, good. We're only losing by 19 to go into half. Sigh
This was always going to be a rough couple games. Traveling up to BC then back to blacksburg for a day and then to Miami is the toughest travel you can do in this conference.
Nolley never jumps on defense just raises a hand. They easily shoot right over the top of him
Bede needs to learn how to sink a free throw. Somebody should give him a ball and not let him leave the gym until he makes 10 in a row.
Shit, we did that in high school
Back to reality I guess...
Are you kidding me Nolley your down 17 shooting from the logo WHATT
PLEASE TURN THE LIGHTS ON!! YOURE GIVING ME A HEADACHE!!
We've already given up. We're shooting stupid desperation shots, and of course we cannot get enough of those to go with the defense we are playing. This one's over.
Vasilovich gets every damn roll.
Just give Radford the ball and get out of that man's way
Clearly no one else is stepping up, so feed him the ball and let him go to work!
Radford came to play. Lets keep feeding him the ball........
Night Hero commercial. My night is complete.
Are we a football school now?
In all seriousness, what have the H2Okies been up to?
Nolley has hit some kind of a wall.....just not in any kind of groove
Dont tease me.....
NIT starting to look out of reach. Oh well. This is pretty much what we expected going in to this year
That's about the 4th or 5th time Bede has made a lazy telegraphed pass.
Yikes this was an awful run there nolley has to be aware there
I love Bede, but he makes some mind blowing mistakes.
Last play summed it up. Makes a great block on the dunk. Grabs the ball, hurries down the court and throws a telegraphed pass TO for easy 2.
The awful first half, the missed travel/flagrant one, and us choking this ending. This has been rough.
I get why they call it a flagrant one but it's routinely called as a common foul. No it probably wouldn't have changed the outcome and this team played terrible (again) but it's inconsistent BS again from ACC officials.
These guys generally call the games as total homers... Their overall judgment on these calls is remarkably piss poor. As one who has done some officiating you have to in a way see in slow motion and most of this is beyond these clowns ability
This game perfectly summarizes being a Hokie fan. Too little, too late. Enough to make it exciting at the end, just to let us down that much harder. Disappointing and embarrassing loss tonight.
I guess Bede feels the need to identify with his teammates and play like a freshman.
Bede and nolley both playing poorly is gonna result in a bad time
Bede is the least clutch player I've ever seen. We were truly spoiled with JRob the past few seasons.
That pretty much knocks us off the tournament bubble. Will take a miracle finish to season and/or deeep run in ACCT.
With this loss, I'm looking at the rest of the season honestly questioning whether we even make the NIT.
We have (had) less chance of making the NIT than the big one. The NIT is so much smaller now, and the lesser conference regular season champs get automatic bids.
Yeah and this bubble is huge. There will be minimal separation between the top and bottom seeds of the NIT resume wise
The other problem is that with so many mediocre ACC teams this year they are only going to take but so many and a team like UNC would be more "attractive" from a TV storyline perspective that they would get in even with a worse overall record than us.
We have to win at least 2 more to be "NIT eligible". Realistically, I am thinking 19-13 at a minimum which would mean 5 more wins. Every game is tough but I am going to immediately right off 3 of our remaining games as very unlikely wins (FSU, @Duke, @Louisville). That leaves us needing to get 5 wins out of the following 8: @GT, BC, Pitt, Miami, UVa, Clemson, @ND, ACCT
Not impossible, but much more difficult after dropping the last two. I do think we need to lower our expectations and shoot/hope for an NIT birth which would have been good progress back in October but feels a little disappointing now after the start.
Man. What the fuck is going on.
Edit: I know this is who we're supposed to be this year, but we've defied the odds up until BC, then we broke.
Young teams struggle on the road. Especially on the ACC and especially and the University of Coral Gables. That is the most boring venue. Nothing to feed of off. FSU in the Cassell on Saturday. Time to turn out and turn up and support these guys. They work hard.
I didn't open the season with tournament hopes, even through our run of wins against below average teams I knew it would eventually end. But losing to a bad BC and Miami team in this fashion is a terrible feeling.
Tough loss. Like the fight in the guys though.
We lack height, we lack a true point guard who can shoot and the freshman have just hit the wall. It could be a tough end of the season. It doesn't help that FSU is up next.
Welp FSU just became maybe a must win. Definitely gotta win the four after that. If we lose FSU, we gotta pick up one of the Duke UVA Louisville stretch.
If we go chalk and lose the 4 big games then win the rest we're sitting at 11-9 in conference and 20-11 on the year. Could be in if we pick up a game or two in the ACC tourney but we'll be sweating
We will not make the NCAA tournament. And there's nothing wrong with that. Just getting that out there because everyone (including myself) got their hopes up after the great start. But we have regressed back to where we were projected. It's gonna be less excruciating to go into these games without any unrealistic tournament hype.
Hopefully we can hold on to get a good seed in the NIT so we get another home game. But that looks doubtful with how we've been playing.
Also Tyrece Radford is a beast.
If we make the tourney (especially now) Mike Young will be the national coach of the year. That was my excitement when we looked like a tourney lock. Plus the extra practices and games would be good development of these youngins.
Radford is so fun to watch, he's the real MVP. But ooof, another ugly loss. Seems like we had 82 turnovers.
It's as if we ran one too many jet sweeps. /s
Haven't seen anyone mention it yet, but why was Jalen Cone basically absent tonight? Bede clearly wasn't getting it done, so at least have someone in the game who can shoot it.
Cone being on the floor in the first half was part of the reason Miami went on a 20-2 run. He isn't ready to play defense against ACC guards, and he isn't ready to create his own shot against ACC defenders. He's got quite a bit of raw talent and explosive quickness but he needs to harness it and apply good technique to take advantage of it.
It's no surprise he was on the bench and Cattoor was on the floor when we clawed back into the game.
Imagine if Lykes had played. wow.
I think in a year or two Cone will be our neutralizer for guards like Lykes and UVA's short PG. He turned a bit of a corner earlier in the year and started getting more PT, getting credit from CMY for improved defense... but since then, his defense has slipped and/or opposing ACC coaches are watching game film and identifying how to take advantages of the gaps that exist in his game right now.
Bede KILLED us tonight single handily. Hate to say that, but the turnovers. Shots taken he knows he shouldn't and hasn't taken all year. And shots he should take but doesn't. The craziest one was a clear drive to the basket and dumps it to Radford for a blocked shot. He might not have made it but it was a clear look and he makes a tough pass to Radford instead. Smh
Blaming a loss on a single player when we were down by 20 at the half is a terrible take. Everyone minus Radford came out flat tonight. Nolley manages to always get his points, but the entire team looked very meh the entire first half and overcoming a 20pt deficit is very hard to do.
People expecting a chance at the NCAA are delusional. Watching every game here on out as being a "must win" game will severely dampen your enjoyment of watching said games.
At this point we'll probably need to win the conference tournament to make the NCAAs. These last 2 games have been crippling losses to that endeavor.
Bad losses yes, but crippling no. It's still college basketball and road wins in conference are never easy. If these were two home losses, then I would agree
This is a delusional take. I highly doubt we make the tourney after these last two losses, but we do have a chance to get there. I imagine viewership for our games will be much higher with "must have games" to get into the tourney as opposed to what we thought we'd be at record wise at this point in the season.
Watching us play actual meaningful games to close out the year won't Dampen anything. It will actually make me seek out the games and watch them in "Hope" we can continue to shock the world. At this point in the season I don't think anything we do except losing out could "dampen" the season. We already beat expectations and everything else is a cherry on top.....get to the NIT it's sprinkles.....get to the dance it's hot fudge......get to the round of 32 it's.....I'll stop there.