BUZZKETBALL CENTRAL: JACKSONVILLE STATE GAMECOCKS (2-1) VS VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES (0-1) 7PM ESPN3

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Jon Laaser & Mike Burnop
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Joey Truncale & Mack McCarthy

Well Hokie Nation, hopefully Buzzketball got a good wakeup from the loss to Alabama State. The lack of off ball defense was critical in keeping the Hornets in the game and if they play the same way against Jacksonville State, we could see the same kind of results. The Gamecocks are shooting 46% through three games while putting up 87 points per game. They have four players scoring in double digits and eight total players putting up six or more points per game. This is another guard heavy roster with the ability to hit open shots. The perfect recipe for disaster if Tech plays like it did last game.

That said, Jacksonville State comes into the game 2-1, with a loss to Central Michigan and wins over Fort Valley State and Oakwood. Don't worry if you haven't heard of a couple of those teams, because neither had I. These aren't quality wins by any stretch of the imagination. Oakwood has a total of two games against Division I opponents this year. Fort Valley State is a Division II school with a handful of D-I opponents.

They likely haven't faced a single player that would be considered a solid bench player in the ACC, but just like any good shooting team, if you leave them open, they are going to score. The Gamecocks RPI usually hovers around the 300 mark out of 351 teams.

The Gamecocks seem to rely on one person from each class right now, most heavily on Sophomore Guard Malcolm Drumwright (#21) 6'2, 165 Lbs who so far this season is averaging 17 PPG and 5.2 APG. He is shooting 40% from outside and 93% from the free throw line. This is the player that will have the ball in his hands late looking to put us away if we let it come to that.

The other option for the Gamecocks coming down to crunch time will be Senior Guard JaQuail Townser, (#2) 6'3, 195 Lbs, who is putting up 13.3 PPG and 3.3 APG, while hitting nearly 47% from outside the arc and 88% from the charity stripe. These two players will play the traditional guard roles in this four guard and sometimes five guard set for the Gamecocks.

Playing more of a wing role, and relied upon to play big is Freshmen Guard Jared Hamilton, (#13) 6'4, 190 Lbs. He has come in this season and contributed 14 PPG and 9 RPG. It will be critical that we put a real big man on him and force him to foul early and often in his hybrid wing role.

The last guard in double digits so far this season is Junior Guard Erik Durham, (#15) 6'4, 190 Lbs, who also is seen as a hybrid wing type player, contributing 11.3 PPG and 5.7 RPG.

The "big men" on this roster seems to be a combination of three or four guys that range from 6'6, 200 Lbs to 6'11, 227 Lbs. None of these bigs are averaging over 20 mpg right now, the closest being Freshmen Forward Christian Cunningham, (#31) 6'6, 200 Lbs contributing 7 PPG and 4.3 RPG. It would seem the one big they want to have out there is Senior Forward Jeremy Watson, (#32) 6'7, 200 Lbs but he cant seem to stay out of foul trouble. Hopefully Tech takes advantage of that tendency and puts him on the bench early.

I would hope to see us abuse the Gamecocks in the lane, continuously feeding the ball to Leday, Blackshear and whomever else is down low. Our guards are big enough that they should also be able to drive their way to the hoop against this much smaller roster. I really hope Buzz takes advantage of our height/weight discrepancy and puts this game away early. I also hope that Buzz slows this team down a bit in offensive transition to cut down on the unnecessary turnovers we saw last game. We threw away at least five possessions on transition passing. Focus on controlling possession, getting the ball into the hands of open shooters or a big man that can create a high percentage shot in the lane. This will limit the number of possessions for our opponent while also scoring more consistently on our own possessions. While we have the speed on the roster now to run with a team like this, it would be better in my opinion to force the Gamecocks to slow down, making their mistakes all the more glaring and helping these young Hokies learn to trust themselves and each other.

On defense, we do not want to get into a shooting battle with this team. We need players to stay on their assignment and have a hand in a shooters face, contesting each shot. Our bigs have to make sure they get proper backside position to cut down on the offensive rebounds allowed. Too often against the Hornets we allowed much smaller guards and forwards to get easy put backs because all of our lane presence shifted to the shooter side.

Lastly, we need our returning players to remember who they are, especially Bibbs and Hudson. Getting 64 points from our new players was great but we wont be successful long term if the rest of the team isn't contributing. A combined 9 points from Hudson, Pierce and Henry over 29 minutes played is just not going to get it done.

And after all that is said and done, we hopefully wont have to discuss the free throw line again real soon. 25 of 40 is completely unacceptable. We know it, they obviously know it and hopefully they address it tonight with improvement.

This is another game that the Hokies should be able to build a double digit lead in the first half and control the tempo of the game from there. The key word there being "should", as we have unfortunately seen too often over the past four years of Tech basketball, the Hokies seemingly always have the ability to lose these type of games. I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt with the Alabama State game and figure that Buzz will have been on these guys mercilessly about defense over the last few days and the Hokies will come out ready to play ball. Final score is Tech 75 – Jacksonville State 65. If the scores start going higher than that, all bets are off because it will mean that Tech failed to play defense.