#15 UVA Preview

Virginia Tech Hokies football, basketball, athletics blog and forum featuring: unique columns, breaking news, film studies, in-depth analysis, recruiting, videos and jokes.

Who: Virginia Tech Hokies (11-7, 0-4) @ #15/17 Virginia Cavaliers (15-2, 2-1)

When: Sunday, January 22 @ 6:00 p.m.

TV: ESPNU (Jon Sciambi, Hubert Davis, Allison Williams)

Where: John Paul Jones Arena (15,219), Charlottesville, VA

The Opponent: Well we saw about 22 minutes of good, fun, high-energy basketball on Thursday night. Then UNC went on a 26-2 run. Let’s hope we see more of the first 22 minutes the rest of the season as opposed to the final 18 minutes.

This game, however, is going to be drastically different. UVA’s game plan is to slow the game down to a snail’s pace and play defense for 35 seconds. They don’t want to score 70 points a game. They want to score 55 and hold you to under 50. That’s Tony Bennett’s game plan, and so far this year, it’s worked. The Cavs have held opponents to less than 50 points in seven games, and less than 40 points three times, including last time out in a 70-38 win over Georgia Tech.

It’s annoyingly slow to some people, especially when you look at how fast a team like UNC plays. But, it works. Only two teams have scored at least 60 this year, one being Seattle (in Washington), and the other being Duke, who scored just 61. This is the second-best defense in terms of points per game allowed in the NATION. Sounds great for our sputtering offense huh?

Here’s a look at their starting five:

No. Name Pos. Ht. Yr. PPG RPG
1 Jontel Evans G 5-11 Jr. 5.6 1.9
12 Joe Harris G 6-6 So. 12.6 3.9
13 Sammy Zeglinski G 6-1 Sr. 9.3 2.7
23 Mike Scott F 6-8 Sr. 16.9 8.8
25 Akil Mitchell F 6-8 So. 3.5 4.1

As you can see, there isn’t much offense from the Hoos outside of their two starts, Joe Harris and Mike Scott. Harris loves to shoot the three, as he did pretty well against the Hokies last year (6-10 in two games). He’s taken 85 attempts from beyond the arc this year, and is making about 39 percent of those attempts. This year, though, he has started to create a game inside the arc, where he’s shooting right around 47 percent.

The real story for UVA, though, is super senior Mike Scott. After missing the majority of last year with a knee injury, Scott received a medical redshirt and is taking full advantage. He is a legitimate candidate for the ACC MVP and has absolutely shredded the Hokies in his previous four years at UVA. He’s scored 20+ points in each of the last three games and is averaging nearly 15ppg against Tech during his career to go along with eight boards per game.

Sammy Zeglinski has always been a thorn in Tech’s side and usually plays an infamous role in these games. Whether it’s getting destroyed by a Jeff Allen screen or hitting miracle shots to send games into overtime (video clip not available), Zeglinski always seems to be around.

One bit of good news for Tech is that UVA center Assane Sene fractured his right ankle on Thursday against Georgia Tech and will be out for the next six weeks. In his place steps a much smaller (Sene is 7”), but more athletic Akil Mitchell. However, with Mitchell in the lineup, an already thin UVA bench becomes that much more thinner. Malcom Brogdon (6-5, FR) is the only legitimate bench threat, averaging 6.5ppg.

Prediction: Virginia 62, Virginia Tech 54

Comments

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

DANNY COALE ALL THE WAY TO THE THREE

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

February..'96...the steak: ribeye, the whiskey:Lagavulin 16, the lady next to me: a bit**.....

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

"That kid you're talking to right there, I think he played his nuts off! And you can quote me on that shit!" -Bud Foster

Hoo's don't care....they've passed the apex....

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

February..'96...the steak: ribeye, the whiskey:Lagavulin 16, the lady next to me: a bit**.....

hahahahahahahaha:-)

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

In these here parts we got a thing called the Missouri boat ride