MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE TIME OF THIS GAME
ALSO IF YOU ARE A STUDENT LOOKING TO GET IN TO THE LOTTERY YOU HAVE UNTIL MIDNIGHT
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Practicing @barclayscenter in preparation for tomorrow's game. #Hokies #NYC pic.twitter.com/xXrWOmqU9s— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) December 21, 2015
Our test before the Holidays is in full swing Hokie fans!! How do the Hokies fare against a mid major foe with a solid track record coming into this game on a neutral court? Tech takes on a St Joe's team that comes into the Barclays Center having only lost games to Florida and #8 Villanova this season and on a four game winning streak. Florida and Villanova are currently #3 and #4 in the RPI. They have proven they can win the close games, having won four of their games by one basket or fewer. Their signature win so far is probably their overtime win over Temple. The one big disappointment is that this game wasn't picked up by a major network considering the time its being played, the location of the game and the fact it's a big vacation week with people looking for something to watch on TV. No, we are relegated once again to ESPN3 hell.
As it is, the Hawks come into this game ranked #65 in the RPI compared to Tech who is #158 with the likes of Hampton and Pepperdine. Most of our low ranking has to do with our 256th ranked Strength of Schedule out of 351 teams. The game against Grambling, while a win, dropped us almost twenty spots in the RPI.
In terms of Sagarin Ratings, we are a closer match to St Joe's at 76 vs 94 respectively. The strength of schedule again is the major factor. Sagarin rates our SOS at 344 out of 351 teams.
That said, on paper these teams seem very similar, with larger guard/wing players playing predominant roles, not much consistent contribution from the big men they have, and a few quick guards to keep people off balance.
Its all about the HAIR baby!!
The Hawks are led in scoring by Junior Forward Deandre Bembry, (#43) 6'6, 210 Lbs, providing 15.9 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 4.5 APG and 1.6 SPG. Bembry does most of his damage in the lane, shooting 55% from 2 point range on the season but will still step back and attempt a three if left open (about 4 attempts per game). He is also one of their top defensive talents, with 1.4 BPG to go with his steals and rebounding. He is able to disrupt shots with his size and length even when working against taller competition. Expect to see Bembry and Leday mix it up most of the game, and whichever of these two controls the foul situation best may impact the final result of this game.
Bembry is joined in double digit scoring by Isaiah Miles, (#15) 6'7, 225 Senior Forward, giving his team 15.5 PPG, 7.5 RPG, and 4.5 APG. Miles and Blackshear because of the mobility of each, will likely start out opposing each other in this game. One of the big reasons we need Blackshear here is that Miles is one of St Joes best perimeter shooters. Having the ability to force his game more inside is likely to create turnovers.
The only other Hawk in double figures this season is Aaron Brown,(#2) 6'5, 225 lbs Senior Guard. The Hokies will need a healthy Clarke or Bibbs to defend here. Brown is putting up 10.6 PPG and 4.4 RPG. The scary thing here is that three of the top four shooters for St Joes all shoot better than 50% from inside the arc. Many of you will remember Brown playing for the Cousins a couple years ago.
The remainder of the Hawks rotation is made up of James Demery(#25) 6'6, 186 Lbs Sophomore Forward, Lamarr Kimble(#0) 6'0, 197 Lbs Freshmen Guard, Shavar Newkirk (#1) 6'0, 170 Lbs Sophomore Guard and Pierfrancesco Oliva (#24) 6'8, 207 Lbs Freshmen Forward. Demery seems to be the floating starter and sometimes sixth man off the bench. Giving his team 9.4 PPG and 3.9 RPG as the third or fourth forward. The rest of the forward minutes seem to be going to Oliva, whose role is slowly increasing game to game as he picks up the nuances of playing basketball in the United States, very similar to Blackshear.
Kimble and Newkirk seem to be splitting the point guard position between them, although Bembry remains the primary ball handler on the court for this team in what I have seen.
This team very much seems to play a consistent 2 guard/3 forward look as a slightly undersized roster. Size/speed wise Tech matches up very well with this team so its going to be interesting to see who has the most success.
Tech could really use one of its super-fast starts so I am hoping to see Hudson, Clarke, Bibbs, Leday and Blackshear starting this game. I think that Buzz should press St Joes on defense to see how they handle it as it doesn't appear they have run up against it in many of their games this season. St Joes doesn't turn the ball over a ton so creating opportunities to get some turnovers early on could swing this game.
On defense, expect to see mostly man to man early on unless the Hokies are getting too successful driving the ball to the rim, than it could very well be a switch to zone to protect the lane better. Either way, St Joes will constantly have a hand in your face, so far holding opponents to 38% shooting on the season.
On offense, the Hawks play very much a similar style that the Hokies employ, guards driving, working the ball into the lane, big men getting open looks down low or getting fouled in the process. The Hawks average 22 attempts from the line per game so far and shoot better than 50% inside the arc as a team.
Either way, the one thing that has helped St Joes so far this season is that they rarely foul, opponents only averaging 16 attempts from the charity stripe per game. Considering the Hokies have been relying on over 25% of their scoring from the line so far this season, it will be telling to see which way the trend goes in this game and could have a major impact on the final outcome.
The biggest keys for Tech in this game is that Leday and Blackshear stay out of foul trouble and provide good interior rebounding. St Joes has been pretty even with its opponents on the boards this year but the Hokies have more than 80 more rebounds this season than the Hawks. (473-389) Winning the battle of the boards, especially on our offensive end could be the few baskets necessary to turn this game.
Clarke, Bibbs, and Allen all need to shoot better than 50% from the field and the team as a whole needs to hit 70% of their free throws.
Last but not least, we really need an appearance of TYRONE tonight, both in energy and takeaways to really drive the Buzzsaw for the Hokies.
I have hope that the Hokies can pull this one out but bottom line I am not convinced, especially with how well St Joes has done in close games. I unfortunately see this one slipping away late, 74-70. I of course hope I am wrong and that Tech is able to come out and take the next step in its progression towards being a consistent competitor against any opponent. Deliver the keys above and the Hokies could win going away, falter and its a much closer affair.
Want to know what we're up to in NYC?? Follow @gregdonlon43 as he takes over the VTMBBALL snapchat account today! pic.twitter.com/bMRNP9BYRg— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) December 21, 2015
Comments
Posted this early so people could plan for it. Also students needed to see the Lottery post if they hadnt already.
Well damn. Looks like I'll have to catch the replay. Unfortunately I have do "work" tomorrow which is code name for "not watch basketball."
I'm gonna do both. I don't even like basketball, but it's the last day before the holiday break so I'll be watching the game doing some data auditing since things are slow. Also, I like Virginia Tech, so I'll watch.
Had to shove it in my face didn't you? Some of us don't get Christmas Eve's Eve off...
You gotta get you one those cushy gub'mint jobs.
Especially in Virginia! We had like 17 holidays a year and then when Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Years fell close to a weekend, the county board of commissioners would pass a resolution to close on those buffer days.
Please Seth, do not be so selfish w your shots.. 1 for 7 from 3 the other night w back to back air balls w open looks.. Seth your game is penetrating.. trust me the scouting report laughs at your long term range and encourages you to shoot the 3. This is not a good thing, I love Buzz but sincerely hope he does not condone your shot selection
Who picked a 1 pm game time? I want to lodge a complaint. I have to work in the field this afternoon, so can't sneak the game onto the second monitor at work.
Looks like I know what I'll be doing on my lunch break. And lunch might last a couple hours.
Just remember... no matter how bad a day you have, there will be a kid in a mascot outfit flapping his arms nonstop for an entire basketball event (pregame, game, postgame, etc) in the name of tradition.
That kid gets a full scholarship to do it.
For sure.
I am right there with everyone else, going to have to find a way to sneak it in here at the office since I wasnt able to take today off.
I REALLY like Buzz so far. Hopefully, our team will start winning when it matters.
I'm a pessimistic Hokie bball fan, but I actually think we win this one by 3.
Sirius & XM is actually 145 & 201 respectively.
And it is the VT feed, already playing the pregame.
So I asked and apparently management doesn't approve of watchespn as a valid project for me to charge time to. Le sigh. Looks like I'll be keeping up with the play by play gamecast, f5ing this thread on my phone, and I'll catch the replay tonight.
10 Minutes to Game time. Hope you have all found a way to catch at least some of the game.
You want to update the OP for those in need?
Sirius 145
XM 201
SiriusXM online is probably blacked out but also worth a try.
Logos are wrong on the scoreboard at the bottom of the screen. Good start.
Edit: At least ESPN noticed too and fixed it.
they fixed it pretty quickly
allen is stone cold so far ugh
why is Buzz wearing a UNC tie?
Need to rebound.
Johnny Hamilton sighting!
When did Hamilton get back?
Wow... this team is still really bad...
Pretty poor shot selection by our guys. Painful watching this terrible video feed from ESPN. Sad that the Emerald Classic feed was so much better than the sports juggernaut in television.
Anybody else lose the feed, or is it my connection?
You arent the only one. I have had it cut out at least three times so far.
ive seen alot of open shots missed so far
are we a second half team?
bad defensive rotations wilson needs to learn to shoot clarke jus needs to shoot and stop driving they are keying on it.
frustrating to see a 4-on-1 come up empty like that
Seth Allen had a 4 on 1, forced the shot, and turned it over.
4 on 1 fastbreak and a STJ defender knocks the ball off of Seth Allen's leg. Ugh
Wow, I don't know much about basketball beyond "ball in hoop scores points", but this is baaaaaad basketball.
As bad as this game is, it's still only a single digit deficit. Need to come out more focused in the 2nd half.
Biggest frustration to me is knowing who their top players are coming in and letting them score more than their game average in the first half. No one else is having to do anything for St Joes because Bembry and Miles are having a field day. You cant let their top two scorers have open looks essentially every trip down the court if you hope to win. Those two have scored 29 of St Joes 35 points so far. Shut them down and force someone else to do something in the second half or face getting blown out.
Interesting to see Hamilton back from suspension. The program didnt put anything out about that before hand.
Terrible shooting is killing us though, 38% from the field and 14% from behind the arc. Wilson, Bibbs and Allen a combined 0-6 from outside. Really was hoping to see a Clarke/Hudson pairing to energize this team and get to the basket.
We also only got to the line 4 times in the first half, compared to our average of 14 first half attempts. This comes primarily because we are forcing up jump shots rather than taking the ball to the rim.
Next half we need to see a steady diet of Leday and Blackshear inside to score or force this team to foul. We also cannot get clowned on the rebounds again. Currently we are being outrebounded 26-17 by a team that is all around smaller than us.
Question....why does Buzz let his bigs chase out top when in man-to-man? We constantly see their man beat them off the dribble or back door...plus it doesn't allow our bigs to help in the lane.
Buzz seems to think pure man to man is the best fit, while I agree with your assessment, it puts us behind the interior penetration to often either by pass or drive. Our bigs need to concentrate down low until they can cover off the dribble.
and there goes another easy offensive rebound and soft put back because we cant seem to maintain position underneath. Its killing us on both ends.
We pass up the open three point looks midway through the shot clock only to take a contested three later in the shot clock, and of course we miss that one.
Scary part is that we held them to 35% shooting so far, but with all the extra possessions because of the rebounding deficiency, they have more baskets than we do.
and here we go again. First possession of the second half we let them get an offensive rebound and foul on the way back up to give them two easy points at the line. Terrible way to start.
Here we are not even four minutes into the second half and we have almost put them in the bonus from ticky tack fouls.
Score update? Usually when I ask and we're winning and we end up losing. Here's hoping we're losing and end up winning?!?
Good guys - 40
Bad guys - 50
14:00 to go
Can we move the floor mic away from the guy calling for an and one any time St. Joe's is near the rim?
Also, I'm not sure that anyone would remember to rebound if it wasn't for that guy.
That was a sweet bounce pass by Allen there!
As good as each team played defense against shots in the first half is as bad as each team has been this half. And Allen with another terrible turnover in the lane leading to an easy transition basket because he was on the floor on the offensive end.
Wow Bembry getting away with murder there. That definitely should have been a foul and the official was right on top of it. Gives the ball back to St Joes to build on their 13 point lead.
Looks like Bembry should be going through the concussion protocol but the officials are letting him play.
Terrible foul call there, this game is definitely leaning all St Joes way in the second half.
I do not understand why Buzz has only Leday in the game as our only "big" we cant get anything done down low. As soon as Blackshear enters, he creates a foul underneath, low and behold.
and then Buzz pulls him right back out to put in Justin Robinson, completely frustrating and now Blackshear back in on offense. WE NEED TO PLAY ZONE DEFENSE WITH LEDAY AND BLACKSHEAR DOWN LOW GOOFIKODENFoedsjngfdkrsfjnbz
I am not sure what Buzz is thinking right now. Bibbs seems to be playing against essentially their center on defense and is getting manhandled. Leday is guarding the perimeter so no help in rebounding. We are chasing our tails instead of playing basketball today.
Well, I didn't see this coming. Young teams will drive you crazy.
and now Blackshear headed to the locker room with a possible concussion trying to save the ball from another bad handling by our guards.
Looks like I'm skipping the replay of this when I get home. I really don't want to watch Isaiah Miles put up 40 on us.
Yeah, we stopped Bembry, only letting him have two points in the second half but Miles just has been allowed to do whatever he wanted because he is being covered by guards. He has ten points from buckets four feet and in and is 11-12 from the line because we are allowing them to draw our bigs out of the lane because we continue to play man to man defense for some unknown reason rather than keeping our bigs down low in a zone.
Leday and his little hook blocked for the turnover for the fourth time in the second half.
Wow. I'm not sure what I expected, but this isn't it.
Miles and Bembry have outscored the entire Hokie roster.
that is all
45-29 rebounds bad guys.
Buzz just cant seem to imagine playing any other kind of defense. Its embarrassing to watch the Hawks laughing on the court because of how out of hand this has gotten.
Well this game went about as someone having Odell Beckham Jr on their fantasy roster heading into Championship Weekend is going to go...
Seth Allen guarding Bembry??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Its just ridiculous out there today.
Wow, I wish I wouldn't have even discovered this reminder thread. I had figured the game was later on tonight and would have surely missed this shitshow.
I think a good barometer for this season would be the breakdown of how many games are watchable vs the games that make you violently ill. I think this game marks 4, Alabama St, Jacksonville State and that drubbing from ISU. So we're putting a decent product, by my standards out around 2/3 of the time. Lets hope we can beat this pace through the remainder, otherwise this is going to be another embarrassing ACC season for us.
Really happy I didn't get tickets to this game.
Buzz's decisions have been really frustrating this year.
...and now Leday messes with the ball on the rim after Allen drew a shooting foul. Leave the ball alone and see if it goes in so its an and one situation rather than having it waived off because you touched it in the cylinder. BASIC BASKETBALL STUFF.
I don't normally question our coach's decisions, but I don't understand some of the things Buzz is doing. No Pierce? Maybe he isn't great, but why is he not playing 5-10 mpg to prepare for the ACC schedule? If he thinks we can play with anyone in conference with Leday and Blackshear as our bigs.... I don't know what to say.
He didnt even really let Blackshear and Leday play together as bigs today so not seeing Pierce or Henry is no surprise. Blackshear only got 14 minutes on the floor today and four minutes of that was without Leday. We got outrebounded 48-32 because our bigs were not even in the lane for a good portion of the game because they allowed St Joes to draw them outside constantly in the man to man defense we were attempting to play. If he continues to play like that we are going to get manhandled in the ACC slate by just about everyone.
Buzz needed to slow that whole thing down by going to a zone, keeping our bigs down low. On offense we needed essentially the same thing but instead Buzz had them running the four guards around the perimeter with one big man down low for most of the game.
This game was frustrating any way you look at it. It wasnt a good developmental tool, it wasnt a well played game, it wasnt a chance to experiment with different approaches. It was just bad all around today. Hopefully they watch tape and see how often they got beat man to man and consider some zone defense at a minimum.
Their version of Joey Galloway getting to score on us and we continue to throw the ball away even against scrubs. Perfect way to end this debacle.
A couple hours of my life I will never get back. Head scratching game from start to finish.
*deep breath*
Well, this is what happens when you have a young team. Hopefully, we learn from this and move forward and get better. There is too much talent on this roster to get run out of gyms like that by teams like that. Just a bad day.
You guys know 36-4 is still possible
Everybody back on the hype train!
First of many BB disappointments, so sorry to say. I think discipline is a good thing, however, sometimes, when applied, really affects continuity. I hope I have to eat my words, but I feel we are in for a long season.
I didnt expect us to win this game today but I also didnt expect Buzz to let things spiral the way they did. There were several basic changes he could have made, especially on the defensive end and it could have changed the entire face of this game but I saw little to no adjustments in style of play the entire game and so the small problems got worse and the large problems snowballed out of control. I just have to hope that Blackshear doesnt have any long term effects from the head to head contact he took today. That could make this season very long indeed.
How would you compare that coaching strategy to what Roy Williams does when things start going south by allowing the team to figure it out on their own? I remember in particular when we knocked them off when they were #1 in Cassell where we went on a 20-30 point run and he didn't call a timeout because he trusted them to pull it together on their own, and the long term gain from allowing that meant more than the short term benefit of telling them what to do and saving the win.
The difference there is the quality of roster we are trying to compare. You had a National Championship type roster full of experienced players that have other experiences to fall back on to see the difference and learn a great deal from losing to us.
In this case you have a roster of first or second year players that it was readily apparent were not figuring it out in this game that dont have the experience of an UNC roster to balance it against. I dont think its a learning environment when you continue to let the game go 100 mph for these guys when you have the opportunity to pull them back out, point out a few basic corrections, and then see if they learned from it.
I have more of a problem with the roster that was on the floor though. When its obvious the opponent is using size against us and we fail to put out our bigger lineup to counteract whats allowing them to score consistently throughout the game than I put it on the coach rather than the players. No way Seth Allen should have ever been lined up against Bembry but it happened at least four times in the game and led to three scores.
I thought we made good effort. However, there were too many unexplainable missed shots from the paint. A lot of them seemed practically uncontested. Some quick transition dunks, in one-on-one situations, with no foul, turned into missed buckets also. I would expect at this level those should go down. I hope with maturity and experience those shot will be more successful in the future. It would have been a closer game if they had been today. Also rebounding was a serious problem, and it was usually one guy coming down with it repeatedly. Miles from the opposing team.
It seemed like it was Virginia Tech versus Bembry and Miles. they scored 58 out of the 79 put up against VT. That is 73.4 percent. Why weren't we able to isolate their influence in this game more?
Primarily because we put players on them that were not capable of handling either of their size. We allowed ourselves to be mismatched regularly in this game.
Is that coaching, or just where our players are at right now?
Some of both but in this case I lean more to coaching because we had enough size sitting on the bench that we could have dwarfed their entire lineup had we chosen to, but for most of the game our tallest player on the floor was 6'7 Zach Leday. We didnt take advantage of Blackshear until late and as was noted elsewhere, the only other big to get a few minutes was Hamilton, with no Pierce or Henry seeing the floor at all.
And out best wing defender is hurt in Ahmed hill.
It is becoming apparent that Buzz needs players that will out-effort other teams on defense....they sure aren't going to get any help from defensive coaching/strategy
This is what is beginning to worry me. It seems to happen often enough that it could be an actual thing. If it is then we are in big trouble essentially forever in the ACC. I may know enough about basketball to get myself in trouble but I am definitely not up there with DI coaches so if its jumping out at me than it will be plain as day to most of the Hall of Fame coaches we have in the ACC.
As someone who knows little about the X's and O's of basketball, I'm hoping you can enlighten me a bit on this topic. Are we seeing a breakdown of a system that Buzz is trying to get his guys to play but can't? Square peg/round hold situation? Or is it something else? Buzz had a pretty good amount of success at Marquette, obviously, and is considered a really good coach, so what's the missing link? Is he trying to prove some larger point here through stubbornness?
Any insight or conjecture would be fascinating to hear from someone who knows way more than I do.
He is recruiting players that have the ability to run with just about anyone in the gym. That said, he has shown on more than one occasion either the inability or the unwillingness to be flexible when faced with an expected or possibly unexpected challenge. If its an expected challenge than it may be that he is trying to teach his guys a lesson for not executing what he ran them through in practice.
If its an unexpected challenge and he isnt adjusting his play to it than we have bigger worries going forward. I cant know which of these it is since I am not there for practices and strategy sessions. I can only say this, in the hour or two that it took me to write my game write up before this game, I was able to point out exactly who we needed to be concerned with and what type of shots those two primary players were going to be looking for come game time. They have staff guys with gadgets and gizmos way more technically sound than I do so being able to focus a game plan to counteract Bembry and Miles should have been something they had ready to include alternative methods of doing it if the primary method didnt work. You could see there was an adjustment made early in the second half to defending Bembry, although it broke down as the half progressed. There was not much of an adjustment made regarding Miles though and it killed us. If I am not mistaken, he scored 23 of his teams 44 second half points.
Buzz at Marquette ran almost exclusively with a high pressure man to man system that forced turnovers early and often. I would have to do alot more research to try to see how often he utilized zone defenses back then. The difference here is that Buzz usually had his front guard meeting the opposing ball handler on the other side of half court and tried to force their hand rather than allowing them time to decide what set play to run. We either haven't reached the point that this is possible yet or Buzz has changed styles somewhat. We occasionally see it with Clarke or Allen but its not every trip down the court like it seemed when Buzz was at Marquette.
Last year he seemed comfortable enough rotating through defensive styles in most games but did have a few sticking points then as well. This season we have had relatively few times where we werent able to stay in man to man situations but if you were to look at the ones that probably were the case, it would start with ISU, include St Joes and possibly the Northwestern game.
These obviously are the more challenging games on our roster but those are the kind of games with a young roster you need to spend the most time teaching and I definitely didnt see teaching today unless it was the silent treatment to show my disdain for how you grasped what I taught you earlier kind of teaching. I also didnt see Buzz up on the floor shouting instructions to players, I saw Buzz sitting down between two other coaches for most of the second half. That to me is the worst kind of Buzz. He is at his best when he is sweating buckets, chirping at players and officials alike, and making sure that his team understands what it is he is trying to do.
In this game, I would have hoped that Bembry and Miles would have been the expected challenges so its possible Buzz was teaching a hard lesson here. Otherwise I do not understand not changing defensive style, players etc, to see if another method would have slowed the Hawks down on offense and allowed us to chip our way back into the game. We allowed the Hawks 19 offensive rebounds. If we cut that number by half by keeping our big men down low we likely are running about even in this game. We were able to hold the Hawks to 39% shooting but just gave them opportunity after opportunity to get easy buckets down low or go to the line for free throws. We had an 11 point deficit at the free throw line today much of which was on attempted put backs after offensive rebounds.
Part of the X's and O's challenge that Buzz faces though with the current roster is that he wants to run a specific type of defense but he also wants to run a specific type of offense as well. The smaller roster we see most frequently is capable of running the style of offense that Buzz wants but they have some big challenges defensively with the lack of size being a big one. It appears Buzz is more comfortable running with the offense he wants and suffering the consequences defensively rather than run a much stouter defensive team out there that has significant shortfalls on the offensive end. In most games, Allen, Clarke, and Bibbs create matchup nightmares for opposing coaches on offense but defensively a 6'8 forward with bulky bones can back guys into the lane for easy put back buckets.
My opinion is that he needs to find a middle ground to be successful, especially against the ACC this year with this roster. We need to see Blackshear getting 25 minutes a game, and more appearances of Hamilton and Pierce on the floor with Blackshear and Leday. I am not talking 20-30 minutes for H and P, more like five or six each but enough to keep the other team honest. Having them in also allows Leday to bang with a much more like sized opponent rather than having to go in against their biggest guy.
Fascinating. I appreciate the detailed reply. I don't often comment on the basketball threads, just because I'm still learning the intricacies of the game (I am a much more knowledgable football observer), but I appreciate the write-ups you do and the Q&A you engage in with everyone here. Definitely educational.
I have a really bad feeling that he is not "just teaching a hard lesson"
I wondered this myself. However, I have a feeling that buzz hasn't even settled on a starting lineup yet. Too much inconsistency from too many people. His most steady players are probably bibbs and Wilson. I think he is still seeing what's up and giving these games the frank beamer "preseason" treatment.
What is the status of Hamilton? Grades are in...
He played limited minutes.
.....and had minimal impact. He got nine minutes, no points, no rebounds, one assist, and two blocks. The no rebounds is the biggest concern to me. Kind of like Henry last season, if you aren't going to be able to score, than you have to at least contribute to scoring by getting boards and giving your teammates opportunities to score. First game back so probably some rust but not what you want from a seven footer at this level.