Another game another loss. Another loss to what we thought was a far inferior team to ours at year start.
Just not a good season. Wheels fell off and, welp. Shit happens.
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TV Teddy...and friends.
The rest of it.
It really is. This is ridiculous.
We're parking in the PNC lot on Saturday if you wanna stop by for a beer.
Lol
Man I got a big tailgate planned. I'll have a tech flag flying so if you see it you'll probably find me. Not 100% sure when I'll be setting up because it sounds like parking is gonna be a shitshow, so we'll try to get there early.
Where you sitting?
My buddy got the tickets, not entirely sure where they are. The price point says they should be good?
I'm driving a brown F-150 with a big tacky Caps flag on the hitch. I'm sure we can we figure this out for a beer.
Whats your email? We can exchange numbers. We are gonna be there for a few hours so I got time to wander.
What's yours again?
I'm actually at the most magical place on earth now, flying back tomorrow. I'll hit you up on Saturday after we get set up.
whatchya doin at the north pole?
E-o-r-r 53 @ gmail.com
I assume this doesn't include the dashes?
Let me know if wrong
Team is bad and they should feel bad
This is maybe the best description of this season
Props to Mutts for the closest any Hokie Men's player came to a triple-double. 14 pts, 10 boards, 9 assists.
Are you not counting the men's players who actually recorded a triple double? (Mutts last year and Clarke in 16)
Just this year
Time to rally behind the women's basketball team as they finish the season and the softball team as they start the season. Both currently ranked in top 12.
Baseball team is not far behind at 14, too. Wrestling is top 10.
So the moral of the story is that it is a good thing I have no interest in basketball, right?
At least people will finally stop calling us a bubble team.
Yeah, no danger of that this year.
Sadly, I think we are now a NIT bubble team, so don't think it's gonna stop.
I was saying this last week and immediately got piled on with negativity. Yes, we are an NIT bubble team right now.
The lack of preparedness for inferior opponents and constantly playing to the level of our competition is exhausting.
It's the Virginia Tech way! We invent the future and excel at mediocrity.
And unfortunately, for some reason we don't invent the future anymore. Leaving us with just the one thing to excel at.
But at least fanatics gear is 75% off today. We lose a couple more and they'll be paying us to take the gear
Finally, what it's worth.
I'm not sure what the embedded issue is. But Pedulla and Catoor are just so up and down. That is the common theme. They are killer one game and just invisible the next. Why is this?
This was me last night listening on the Hokie SPorts App (on Biz travel, no ACC network in hotel):
Because they are undersized streaky shooters with average athleticism. 1-8 from 3 pt range.
Those are 7 possessions down the drain. If he shoots 50% we win. Aka a hot night.
Don't apply this to Cattoor. Pedulla and Collins sure but Cattoor was 3-7 from outside, had 7 rebounds, 3 assists and forced at least five turnovers not to mention at least five or six more adjusted shots that GT missed. He may not hit all the buckets every night but he is still over 40% on the year and never takes a night off defensively.
Pedulla and Collins were both dreadful defensively, especially on perimeter closeouts. They struggled all night trying to work around screens. Screens led directly to 2 of Collins' fouls and one or two of Pedulla's as well.
This gets back to game planning and strategy though. If you watch five minutes of GT basketball you know they are good on using offensive screens and to counter that flexing to a 2-3 zone allows switching so you don't lose perimeter defense. The Hokies continued to use Man to Man almost exclusively which as we saw/heard was a BIG mistake. That's on the coaching staff and continues to be an issue. Lack of even in game adjustments is extremely frustrating.
The only game that Cattoor has been down was his first game back from having fractured his arm. The man bleeds basketball, and even with a bum wing was providing lock down defense.
Let's hope he bleeds enough basketball to come back next year.
This season has been such an emotional rollercoaster. On a personal level, this hoops year has given me some great in-person wins vs traditional ACC power teams that I hate, along with fantastic days in Blacksburg with my wife, friends, and family that I'll cherish for the rest of my days. On a Hokie Fan level it's also been a frustrated mess of watching the wheels fall off my favorite VT sport.
This was one of the few times I got to watch VT compete in person. Wife got me tickets 2 rows behind the announcers. It was cool to watch the game from that angle. My analysis is:
Keve/Basile could split time, andPedulla/Storm could split time. Last night, we had 4 points off the bench, Pedulla and Catoor both played 40 minutes, and Basile played 34 (I imagine in part due to his 4 fouls).or we could put Keve/Basile in at the same time to get a little bigger.I remember us doing the former quite often,not sure about the latter.Regardless, I imagine CMY is somewhat limited by the shallow bench.Basile wasn't on the team last year.
ughh.. So that's what I thought, but I saw HokieSports had his stats for the last four years. However, upon closer look, I saw "at Wright State" in very small font...
Always read the fine print kids
If there are depth issues, it's on the coaches, 4 years in with CMY recruiting.
Totally agree - Not trying to absolve CMY of responsibility.
So the whole situation with Maddox... the announcers said something about him being back in Blacksburg but not back with the team...
Anybody know what is happening there? We heard "family matters" but I've also heard a lot of smoke about him quitting in part because of losing playing time.
Not trying to start any rumors about a kid and I genuinely have no idea what happened - just curious.
Auto-Maddox has become Family-Maddox...?
I personally think Maddox is a great talent and we obviously miss him dearly in our lineup. There are times when Collins plays very well but also times when he is so lost. Maddox was playing pretty good D prior to his departure and at least had to be respected on offense.
So I hope he didn't quit and if there was something serious going on with a family member is better and all is well.
If it turns out that one of our players ever quits on the team.... let the natural consequences of that decision play out because his career is over.
The problem was teams were starting not to think of Maddox as a credible threat on offense. For most games he wasn't hitting the broad side of a barn.
Collins was taking his minutes. Heck, Kidd was taking his minutes.
I have heard nothing credible beyond the "family issues" which is obviously quite vague.
It's probably unfair to speculate on what exactly those issues are or how they are affecting Maddox, but I will say that knowing that he is back on campus but not with the team isn't encouraging regarding his future with VT Basketball.
I would surmise that if he has been out for family issues for this long, he may be out of conditioning and may be working with people on campus while the team is on the road.
He had only been back on campus for 1 or 2 days and was not involved in game planning and likely has conditioning issues so him not being there in Atlanta is not surprising. If he isn't on the bench or behind it in street clothes for the Pitt game that will be more concerning.
Honestly I have no idea what's going on but I wouldn't be surprised if he just never rejoins the team. It would mean the 2020 recruiting class is officially extinct (Maddox, Bamisile, N'Guessan).
And this is where I'm beginning to wonder about CMY... His roster management is beginning to be a tad like that of Justin Fuente. We obviously aren't hearing rumblings of locker room turmoil, but his inability to hold onto quality players is a bit disconcerting.
Where did Bamisile and N'Guessan go?
Without knowing what Maddox is dealing with, it's not really fair to lump him in with those other two guys.
Bamisile is now at Okla. (after 1 year at GW) where he plays ~10 min/gm and averages 3.5 ppg.
Nguessan is at KSU, playing about 20 min and averaging ~7pts and 4rbs.
So neither is a star, but certainly would add some quality depth.
That's one of the major challenges in the "portal whenever you want" era and a legitimate area of criticism for CMY. It's one thing for players to transfer and blossom into stars or for more playing time at a lower level..its another thing to have your depth players leave to play pretty much the same role somewhere else.
Yeah but when you are a "depth player" and other teams come in behind the scenes whispering sweet nothings like "Better NIL" and "Priority for playing time" it's tough for everyone to know what's real or not and once they are in its never a guarantee the promises are real. Bamisile and Radford are prime examples. Even more of an example was Nolley who is on his third school also. Penny Hardaway promised him the world and then failed to deliver guys around him.
Same can be said for the talent that has come in though the last couple years that puts those "depth players" either deeper or no better off than when they came in. N'Guessan likely would have played more this season than all but Maddox/Collins early on in terms of bench but he still would have been behind Basile and Mutts.
The other piece though that definitely cut NGuessan's playing time this season was the re-emergence of Keyontae Johnson coming back after his heart related collapse at Florida. KSU didn't even know if he was going to play let alone be a star again when NGuessan signed with them.
It's become a four year recruiting effort with Portal and NIL which is going to lead to constant churn since its essentially Free Agency with money and degrees on the hook.
Let's be honest, if Young was given the "checkbook" that most coaches in the ACC seem to have (looking at Miami, Pitt and Wake Forest most this season. Boeheim wasn't wrong even though he did it in crybaby fashion) he could bring in multiple top guys from yhe portal.
Three of Miami's top 4 scorers are transfers. All Five of Pitts top 5 scorers are transfers. Four out of five of Wakes top scorers are transfers. They didn't come because these coaches all of a sudden offer that much more wisdom or development opportunities.
Agree completely. The college player landscape is completely different than just 2 years ago. Coaches promising who know what these days, playing time, NIL fortunes, etc. Portal makes every year a recruiting year as you say.
Wrestling SB BB!
Yep kill the Vent!
We can't shoot on the road. Not really sure why, but look at the percentages. Watching the games it looks like our passing/motion is not as crisp, which leads to smaller windows and may be a factor. Whatever the cause, I am expecting a first round loss in the ACC tournament and the end of the season. At least the next two are at home.
ROBBLE ROBBLE ROBBLE! ;^)
Vent Threads SUCK. Their only real reason for their existence is to have a pity party for whiners to blame everyone out there for why our beloved Hokies are not winning. It's just a way to keep all the negative garbage confined to one space, and I would never read or post in one. /s If only our teams would win every freaking game, especially the ones they are supposed to, we could truly get rid of these pathetic threads. But until then, fuck TV Teddy, the woman ref who has it out for Brooks and or our team, NARDs, Matt Ryan, CornFu, Chin Balls, Mac Barowptown, Swofford, and everyone else who gets blamed by the masses in a vent thread.
I really hope she isn't covering us tonight. I would love some of the home cooking Duke got when they girls played down there a month ago. I will settle for a fairly called game (which seems to be a minority for Tech unfortunately).
If it helps at all, there's a new Rivals Crystal Ball for Top 100, AJ Swinton to the good guys.