HOKIES HOOPS CENTRAL: DAYTON (5-4) AT VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES (8-1) 8PM ACCN

HOKIES HOOPS CENTRAL: DAYTON (5-4) AT VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES (8-1) 8PM ACCN

Bring on the Flyers 😤➤ 80s Night: retro student giveaway, along with 80s music and contests➤ VT Club Jump Rope at halftime➤ Looking to move to 7-0 at home this season— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) December 7, 2022

December 7, 2022
Cassell Coliseum
8:00 p.m. ET
ACC Network
Virginia Tech Sports Network

TV Broadcast
ACC Network
Play-by-Play: Dave O'Brien
Analyst: Cory Alexander

Local Radio
Virginia Tech Sports Network
Play-by-Play: Zach Mackey
Analyst: Mike Burnop

Current Spread: Hokies -7.5
Over/Under: -127.5

Break the Wing....
The Hokies (29th in AP Poll/27th in Coaches Poll) look to continue their success at home by beating the Flyers. The Hokies are 8-7 against Dayton, looking to break a two game losing streak. The Hokies come off an ACC opening win over UNC.

The Flyers are coached by Anthony Grant, an alum that played for the Flyers from 1983-1987. He began his college coaching career at Stetson as an assistant coach in 1993. Dayton is his third college head coaching job, with Hokies fans familiar with his time at VCU and Alabama. He took over the Dayton position in 2017 after a stint with the Oklahoma City Thunder and has a 107-56 overall record guiding the Flyers and got his 300th win as a head coach in their win in their last game against Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday.

The Flyers come into this contest on a two-game winning streak. The Flyers losses are all against Power 5 opponents and all their wins against teams ranked 166th or lower in KenPom. The Flyers limp into this matchup with a very thin backcourt further reduced by injury. Starting guards Kobe Elvis and Malachi Smith are both expected to miss the foreseeable future according to Coach Grant. In their last game. Dayton went with five forwards for 89% of the total minutes.

This team does not have much depth so expect to see the starters on the floor more than 30 minutes each barring foul trouble. Grant counters the lack of depth by playing an incredibly slow style of basketball. They have held opponents to 59.8 points per game this season and only three teams have broken 70 points against the Flyers this season. This is a return to more the style Grant used early at Alabama and has not been the norm the last three seasons at Dayton but the coach is having to adapt to the roster he has. The Flyers were ranked 24th in the Preseason Rankings with their highest expectations in Grant's tenure but injuries have derailed those hopes a bit.

The tandem down low of Daron Holmes and transfer Toumani Kamara are the only reason this team has had the success it has, accounting for nearly half the teams points and rebounds. R. J. Blakney at 6'6" will e the shortest player on the court for Dayton so this will be a pretty unique roster challenge for the Hokies to counter.

Coach Grant defensively uses as an aggressive man-to-man defense, especially on the perimeter. Many times he extends the defense the entire floor to further slow opponents. The Flyers are holding opponents to only 38% shooting (26th Nationally) and only allow opponents to shoot 28% from the perimeter. They further complicate things for opponents by rarely fouling. Opponents average less than 15 attempts per game from the line.

Offensively, Coach Grant uses a motion offense but tweaked to account for the roster by looking to pass into the interior and operate from inside of six feet when possible. Dayton is a poor perimeter shooting team (27.6%) but shoots well in the paint (55.6%). They also are averaging almost 22 attempts per game from the line. Holmes averages five made free throws per game.

The Flyers Backcourt
Koby Brea (#4, SO, G, 6-6, 174) 2.0 Pts, 1.3 Reb, 0.0 Ast

Injured (Not expected to play)
Kobe Elvis (#24, SO, G, 6-2, 170) 10.1 Pts, 4.0 Reb, 3.0 Ast
Malachi Smith (#11, SO, G, 6-0, 170) 5.3 Pts, 4.5 Reb, 4.5 Ast

The Flyers Frontcourt
DaRon Holmes II (#15, SO, F, 6-10, 220) 15.9 Pts, 7.2 Reb, 1.9 Ast
Mustapha Amzil (#22, SO, F, 6-10, 220) 11.1 Pts, 4.8 Reb, 1.3 Ast
Toumani Camara (#2, JR, F, 6-8, 220) 11.0 Pts, 9.3 Reb, 2.0 Ast
Mike Sharavjamts (#55, FR, F, 6-8, 180) 8.3 Pts, 2.0 Reb, 3.0 Ast
R.J. Blakney (#23, SO, F, 6-6, 195) 6.8 Pts, 2.7 Reb, 1.2 Ast

What to expect from Dayton?
As a team the Flyers focus on getting the ball inside to score or go to the line. This is much the same as UNC but with healthy bigs underneath with a bit more size than the Tar Heels. Most of the game barring foul trouble will see two 6'8ers and two 6'10ers rotating around the court. They average 34 points in the paint and 15 points at the line accounting for 63% of their total points.

The Flyers want the pace of this game to crawl to help keep their thin bench fresh enough to steal wins in a low scoring slugfest. To give you an idea of the type of game to expect, their loss to Wisconsin was a 43-42 final score. Dayton counts on being able to out-muscle and bully teams inside. The big flaw here is they struggle with turnovers and sticking to faster guards defensively.

Turnovers are almost 15 per game, and nearly 18 in their losses. Dayton opponents have converted these turnovers into almost 19 points per game. In their losses, points off turnovers account for nearly a quarter of an opponent's total.

Rebounding has been consistently in Dayton's favor this season. NC State is the only opponent to outrebound the Flyers this season. This leads to limited second chance points for opponents. It also has given Dayton double-digit second possessions in six out of nine games this season.

The Hokies
The Hokies need to speed up play and take advantage of converting turnovers into fast points. The Hokies guards need to run these bigs ragged and Coach Young should look to go 5 deep on the bench to constantly have fresh legs on the court. This would require the Hokies bench to contribute offensively though which may limit this strategy.

Dayton gets frustrated by this style of play. The Hokies will need to be even more vigilant with their interior defensive improvements over the last two games. Holding Dayton below 50% from the floor would almost guarantee a victory.

Similar to UNC, working the ball inside puts Dayton at its biggest risk by potentially forcing them into using their bench due to foul trouble. The ability for this roster to beat the Flyers on the dribble or by getting separation on cuts to get open perimeter looks should give the Hokies another opportunity to separate themselves.

Tech only needs to hit their average from outside (36%) to create another ten to twelve-point advantage. Dayton does excel in blocks on the perimeter simply from the average height difference which makes it critical the Hokies use motion to create space.

Highlight of the UNC game

El Niño 🌀🏆🫡 Best player on the court Sunday🫡 Best player in the ACC last week🏆 https://t.co/wYsP3NfpLX pic.twitter.com/dnE1F0NsHK— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) December 5, 2022

Butts for Mutts

In Closing
The Hokies looked good down low the last two games. This opponent though proves a bigger challenge inside so Mutts and Basile must be able to use their mobility and ability to create a shot with their back to the basket to adjust the defensive position of the Dayton forwards.

Dayton would be happy if this game looked like it was being played in amber. The Hokies need to create sprint opportunities and convert turnovers. The free throw differential may be nearly as bad as the UNC game in this contest so the Hokies have to counter this where they can.

Sean Pedulla, Hunter Cattoor and three other Hokies will be in double-digits and the Hokies break that 70-point plateau to lock in a 9-1 start. Hokies win 73-61.