2022-23 Hokie Hoops Statistical Notes: Volume 4

The Men's Team
It's nice when the top story on your team's ESPN page is a question as to why your recent blue blood opponent is struggling.

The Hokies are now winners of four straight, and 9-1 on the season and just a few inches from being 10-0. The last time the Hokies started out this hot, they finished the year one Ahmed Hill 3-pointer/Chris Clarke putback from an Elite 8 appearance.

In any event, CMYoung now has 63 career wins and has tied Bill Foster for 7th best four season start to a career for a Hokie basketball coach. His 63% winning percentage ranks behind only Charles Moir (.642), Don Devoe (.662), and Chuck Noe (.681). Not too shabby considering all of his years have been spent in the ACC and not powerhouse conferences like the late 50s SoCon, and 1980s Metro conferences (/s if you can't tell)

Scoring
So in games against two major conference opponents, and two teams that just may very well make the NCAA tournament in three months, the Hokies were on fire scoring 72.25 ppg, with numerous double-figure games and more than one twenty-point performance.

Leading the Hokies in scoring in this quartet of games was the metronomic Sean Pedulla who has scored double digits in every game this season, but rounds out this window with an impressive 16.25 ppg, followed closely by probably the most overall exciting player, Justyn Mutts, who managed 15.5 over this window despite only making two FT in the blowout win over Dayton. Joining those two in double figures throughout the frame was Grant Basile who put up 12.5.

Significant contributors who also managed at least one game in double figures included Cattoor (8.5 ppg, 1 game at 10+), Mad Ox (7.5 ppg, 2 games), and Kidd (6.25, 1 game). Adding in Poteat, the bench bigs managed to almost put up an average of 10 ppg over this set of games, which is always a good thing, especially when your starting bigs are putting up almost 30 a game. The lone, regular bench guard, Collins, has also contributed 3.25 ppg in the past four games; again, not that much of a problem when the starters are putting up 32.

Rebounding
34.75 rpg is not a good thing to be looking at (as of right now, that would be in the mid 200s, nationally), but it's hard to get rebounds when you are shooting 48% (would be good for 64th on the season). And we're considerably colder shooting than we have been in earlier games, mostly because Dayton is really good at causing bad shots and we still blew them out.

Mutts leads all with 8.5 per game, followed by Basile at 6, Cattoor at 4.75, Maddox at 3.75, Kidd and Collins at 3.5, and Pedulla at 3.25. Only Poteat (1.0) doesn't average a board a half.

Assists
The Hokies accrued an ATO of 58:35 over this window, adjusted to 58:23 when you take into account steals. No Hokie is at an ATO of worse than 1:1, except Poteat. Collins and Kidd are a combined 9:0 with a steal. Mutts and Pedulla have at least 11 assists during this frame, coupled with a combined 6 steals. Basile and Cattoor both have 9, with 3 steals. Maddox has 7 with 2 steals.

Ball movement is good, turnovers are manageable at 9 per game and 3 steals per game helps that out.

Experience/Depth
The 8-man rotation continues strong, lead by Maddox's 33.25 mpg (a bit of a surprise to me, there), followed by Cattoor (31.5), Pedulla (31.25), Mutts (29.75), Basile (28), and Collins (20) in achieving half or more of all minutes played.

Kidd (12.5) and Poteat (8) were the only other major minute earners off the bench, but that was 20 fewer minutes per game that the starting bigs had to play. They should be relatively fresh for the next window.

Next Window
Speaking of, let's talk about those next games. The Hokies will open later today with Oklahoma State, the Pokies are coming in at 6-3 with close losses to Southern Illinois and UCF, and a not-so-close loss to #8 UCONN, their only major conference opponent, so far. The Cowboys run a 9 man rotation, and like the Hokies, have scorers at all positions, as 7 of those 9 average 7 or more points. Everything goes through SR PG Avery Anderson III, the team leader in scoring, assists, and steals per game. He will be the guard attacking the lane. On the perimeter expect to see heavy doses of Bryce Thompson, John-Michael Wright, and Caleb Asberry; all of whom shoot better than 30% from beyond the arc. Down low, it's 7-1 Moussa Cisse all day every day. The Forward puts up 8.4 per game, cleans the glass almost 11 per, and couples that with more than 3 blocks per game. When it's not him, it's 6-9 Kalib Boone who can also put the ball in the basket on a regular basis. The weakness of Oklahoma State is their handling. They're coming in with an ATO of 13.3:14.9.

Next up will be the Hokies' last non-conference game before March, in Grambling. The Tigers are 6-3 with blowout losses to Grand Canyon and Arizona State and a close loss to Incarnate Word. They are coming off a win at Vanderbilt, so they can win in a major conference arena. Like the Hokies, Grambling features an 8-man rotation, but with a 5-3 G/F split. In the paint, the only scoring threat is team leading 6-9 Jr F Carte'Are Gordon at 13.8ppg, who is also their most active rebounder at 8 per game. Regarding their guard play, they don't shoot the 3 ball often (we've taken more than they have with just Basile, Cattoor, and Maddox), but they are accurate with 5 regularly playing guards having 33% or higher percentages. Like the Cowboys, they are in the hole when it comes to ATO, at 12.8:14.3.

Rounding out this triad of games, the Hokies ship up to Boston for a date with the Eagles. Coming in at 5-5 (probably 6-5 by the time of the game) it's not looking good for BC with losses to Maine, Nebraska, Duke, New Hampshire, and Villanova, and only one of those was on the road. The 9-man rotation will feature 3 players who will be in double figures and four more decent scoring threats. As with Grambling, they're not a 3-point shooting team, but unlike them, they can't make them, going 26.8% on the year (345th in the nation) They also play a ton of hero ball, as they have yet to record their hundredth assist (342nd in the nation). That's dreadful, although not the worst the Hokies will face this year. That dishonor belongs to the DEAD LAST Louisville Cardinals who have yet to get their 60th. My wife says FTs win games. Well, BC doesn't do that either. Their 67% is 262nd in the country.

Prediction
BC and Grambling should be the last time for a while that the bench gets to see action as those should be annihilations. I'm struggling to make a prediction with Oklahoma State though. Hokies shoot better in every category, but OkState does get to the charity stripe much more often.

Eh, this is a fan site. 3-0. And CMY ties CMYer for 9th in all-time wins and Howie Shannon for 6th best 4-year start to a career.

The Women's Team
Speaking of amazing, 9-0 for the Hokies as they GSD against 3 major conference opponents, including dropping Tennessee on the road, and punctuated by Georgia Amoore's first triple-double in VT history.

Scoring
Over the preceding four game window, six Hokies scored in double figures, led by Kitley's 18.75, Traylor's 12.67, Amoore's 12.25, Owusu's 11.5, King's 10.5, and Soule's 10.0. Let's not forget D'Asia Gregg's 6 off the bench, including critical 10 against Tennessee. For the season, the Hokies are scoring 78.7 ppg, good for 27th. Additionally, they are only allowing 48.6 ppg, good for 4th.

Rebounding
Predictably, like a broken clock, Kitley is leading the team in rebounding, having pulled down 11.75 per game, 9th in the country. Also contributing with at least one board per quarter is Gregg (6), Soule (5.75), Traylor (4.67), and Amoore (4.25). Only King (2.5) is also pulling down at least one per half.

Assists
The ATO over the four game stretch was 68:50, which is not great, but factor in the 18 steals, and it's a much more respectable 68:32. Leading the Hokies was the aforementioned Amoore with 30, followed by Gregg's 10. Kitley and Soule also managed one assist per half, and Traylor and King added one per game. No Hokie who played every game had worse than a 1:1 ratio. Only Geiman failed to tally a steal among those who played every game.

Experience/Depth
Injuries have kept the Hokies to just six who played every game, and one of those only played seconds. However, Brooks was able to call upon no fewer than 8 Hokies in every game. Unfortunately, this means that the numbers were higher than I'd feel comfortable with. Amoore tallied 36 mpg, Kitley 34.5, King 34, Soule 29.5, Traylor 26.67, and Gregg 24.75 all recorded at least five minutes per quarter, while Owusu managed 17 when she played, Geiman managed 7, Dunn 6.3, and Ford 4, rounding out all Hokies who managed a minute per quarter in games played.

Next Window
Like the men, the Ladies will be finishing up their non-conference slate and continuing on in their conference games.

First up, in just a few hours will be UNC Asheville. The Bulldogs are 4-3 on the year, with losses to Florida, Chattanooga, and Furman. The name of the game is fresh, as 11 players for the Bulldogs will see action, and a lot of it, as all 11 have accrued almost 11 minutes or more per game. They are a guard heavy scoring threat as 5 of their 7 scorers averaging a basket per half are guards who aren't threats beyond the arc. Brooks will likely have his best perimeter defender on top scoring guard McKinley Brooks-Sumpter, the only Bulldog averaging in double figures. They do not shoot well or often from beyond the arc (322nd). Kitley will be towering over everyone, as the tallest player on UNCA's roster is 6-3, but she's only plays less than half the game, so expect the tallest player to regularly be on the court facing her is 5-11.

Stop me if you've heard, but the Saturday game against Notre Dame is a biggie. At 8-1 this is the first ranked opponent the Hokies will have faced and their only loss was by a single basket. They have played 5 major conference opponents as have the Hokies. The Irish have a 8 player rotation with 7 of those seeing 5 or more minutes per quarter. Four Irish are in double figures on the year and have 3 more that are averaging a basket per quarter. You will see a guard heavy scoring front, as the top 3 scorers are all guards averaging a combined 44.3 ppg. Don't sleep on the interior as the next 3 top scorers are F/C who have combined for 24.8. As a whole, the Irish are one of the top scoring offenses in the country, averaging 85.8 per game. Kitley will have a little work cut out for her, as three major contributors for the Irish stand 6-4 to 6-5 and there will usually be two of them in the game at all times. As a result, the Irish are also a top rebounding team. However, their major weakness is that while the VT Women can score and stop the other team from scoring (4th in the nation, again), the Irish aren't as good (179th). They also have a slightly worse AATO at 17.9:8 to the Hokies' 16.2:7.

Wrapping up the Non-Conf schedule is High Point. The Panthers have exactly zero Div-1 wins on the season, don't score particularly well, nor do they rebound, and their ATO is almost 1:1. I had to look twice, but the Panthers only have one true forward and she only plays 3 minutes per quarter, so Kitley will once again be towering over the competition.

Prediction
As with the men, two should be such blowouts we see the bench. The other is the Notre Dame game. At this point, I'd say both teams are equal, but as the venue will be in Blacksburg, I'd give a slight edge to the Hokies. 3-0 on the frame. Enjoy the holidays.