The Hokies failed to capitalize on their final significant non-conference opportunity for a quality win, falling to the Purdue Boilermakers 58-55 in overtime. The loss set Tech back to 4-3 on the season with rival UVA coming to town on Sunday.
Malcolm Delaney just simply didn’t show up, going 2-of-18 from the field in what could be his worst game in his four years at VT. Delaney finished with just 9 points, missed a fadeaway shot at end of regulation, and turned the ball over on Tech’s final possession of overtime, cementing the Purdue victory.
Tech was once again hampered by poor free throw shooting in clutch situations. Leading 50-49 with 21 seconds remaining in regulation, Terrell Bell only made 1-of-2 free throws and Purdue’s JuJuan Johnson took advantage, nailing a hook shot with 8.8 seconds remaining to tie the contest. In overtime, Dorenzo Hudson made just 1-of-2 free throws to give Tech a one-point lead, which was quickly erased when Johnson made a 15-foot shot to give the Boilermakers a 56-55 lead they would not relinquish. The Hokies finished 15-of-21 (71.4%) from the charity stripe.
Hudson also continued his season long struggle, making just 2-of-5 shots and finishing with 5 points. Seth Greenberg even went as far as to putting Erick Green in down the stretch in regulation instead of the slumping Hudson. The fact that Delaney and Hudson combined for just 14 points and the Hokies had a chance to win was astounding.
Not all was terrible for the Hokies on this gloomy night. Junior forward Victor Davila arguably had his best game in a Tech uniform, tallying 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 blocks before fouling out with 1:46 remaining in regulation on a questionable moving screen call. Jeff Allen led the Hokies with 14 points and seemed to stay out of foul trouble despite finishing with four infractions. Green, returning for the first time since the Cal State Northridge game last Thursday, was a welcome surprise off the bench tallying 8 points, including one of Tech’s two three-pointers.
Overall, the Hokies did exactly what I said they needed to: don’t turn the ball over, contest shots, and rebound misses. Tech turned the ball over just 13 times, forced Purdue into a 36% night from the field, and out rebounded the Boilermakers 42-34. However, Tech couldn’t stop JaJuan Johnson who scored Purdue’s first 11 points en route to a 29-point effort.
In the grand scheme of things, these are the games that year after year the Hokies need to win to get themselves into the NCAA tournament. They failed to do so yet again, and now find themselves probably needing 10+ wins in a weak ACC to make the expanded NCAA field. Sure, it’s early December, but this one is probably going to sting come March.
Comments
i agree, but to a point.
it is rather hasty to be making comments on how this loss is going to screw us over come march. it is still SO EARLY that we just don't know what could happen. we could beat duke and win the acc and this could be a moot point, which is why it doesn't make sense to make conclusions now. i have never been a fan of preseason and early-season polls because they are baseless predictions on subjective observations, and as thus, i don't think it is rational to say our season is over right now.
PROOF? prior to last night, we had a higher RPI than michigan state.
I don't think Kevin said we were screwed by the loss, out of contention, or the season was over. He made a fair point, when we put our resume in front of the committee this loss could, and almost definitely will, negatively distinguish us from the at-large field. Knight said as much toward the end of the game, he called it a "bad loss", and it was. Obviously if we win the ACC tournament the whole regular season is a moot point, but these losses don't inspire any confidence in that happening.
The guys need to do a complete 180 and hopefully playing UVa is the spark that lights the fire up their asses.
bad loss.
i find it amusing that it is a "bad loss" when an unranked team loses to a ranked team, which is why the polls are crap and the determination at this point of the season is little more than witch-doctory (i hope that is a word, if not i am trademarking it).
for the record, purdue had an rpi of 120 going into that game. this means, if anything, that purdue is on the outside looking in if they lose. we aren't in as bad of a situation as people think. i am not claiming to be an expert, but then again the experts get it wrong frequently in college basketball.
Polls
The RPI is a mathematical formula, and like any formula calculating over a limited dataset (think week 1 of the BCS computers), it's way off (for right now).
I am not considering either of the polls though, I'm speaking more to what I watched. It's a bad loss because we were at home, to a down Purdue team (no Robbie Hummel), had leads, had chances to pull away and instead we did everything we could to give the game away, and we did.
man.
i was trying to find something cool and typed "lol rpi" into google, but the results are disappointing because this was the first picture:
clarification
yes, it was a game we should have won (not just for our resume, but because we are the better team), but we can't be worrying about whether we are in contention for a bid or not right now. that is my biggest point. when you play football, you don't worry about what bowl you are going to in september, so why should you care about postseason basketball in november/early december?
rpi.
seriously though, the rpi is where it is at, NOT the polls.
http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_Men.html
i missed
the 2nd half an OT ...
glad i did, i would have been pissed.
agreed.
you made a smart choice.