HOKIES HOOPS CENTRAL: #6 VIRGINIA (17-3, 9-2) AT VIRGINIA TECH (13-9, 3-8) 12PM ESPN2

HOKIES HOOPS CENTRAL: #6 VIRGINIA (17-3, 9-2) AT VIRGINIA TECH (13-9, 3-8) 12PM ESPN2

XXL Gameday! It's 🆙 at noon in Cassell 🏰🔥ℹ️: https://t.co/PkIpRfst6E🤝: @SmithfieldBrand#CommonwealthClash | #BeatUVA pic.twitter.com/ZFBa7a61bw— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) February 4, 2023

Virginia (17-3, 9-2 ACC)
vs. Virginia Tech (13-9, 3-8 ACC)
February 4, 2023
Cassell Coliseum
Noon ET
ESPN2
Virginia Tech Sports Network

TV Broadcast
ESPNU
Play-by-Play: Dave O'Brien
Analyst: Corey Alexander
Reporter: Angel Gray

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

Current Spread: Hokies -1
Over/Under: -129

Rivalry game. You know they had to show out 🏰🔥🦃 @5Alive_ 🦃 @DevWil_XI 🦃 @gregdonlon43 pic.twitter.com/DWk2Mlj7W2— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) February 4, 2023

Season at Stake Take 2

The Hokies take on the Virginia Wahoos with their season really on the line outside of another ACC Championship run. The Hokies get one of their last few opportunities at a Quad 1 win. The Hokies are 56-99 against Virginia. It would be really nice to keep UVA from reaching their 100th win in this series.

The Wahoos are coached by Tony Bennett, who has been at Virginia since 2009. The Wahoos are 333-120 under Bennett, who is now 402-153 as a Head coach with his only other stop was three seasons at Washington State. The Wahoos have reached the post season ten of his thirteen seasons so far with eight NCAA appearances, one tournament cancelled, one National Championship and another NCAA appearance locked in for this season.

Coach Bennett's Wahoos come in 17-3 and 9-2 in the ACC. They closed out January with easy wins over FSU, Boston College, and Wake Forest but struggled to win against Syracuse. Their losses are to Pittsburgh, Miami and Houston. Their top wins are over Illinois, Baylor, UNC and Michigan. All three losses were by three baskets or less. The key to beating this team is on the defensive end. Preventing Virginia from having access inside plays a huge role in limiting what this team does overall. Offensively against them only Michigan shot better than 50% from the floor. Miami and Pitt also had the two most free throw attempts against the Wahoos all season. Houston beat them by getting baskets before UVA was set in their defense.

Ben Vander Plas is the most prominent of Virginia's new additions. He transferred from Ohio. Virginia also added four freshmen this year. Isaac McNeely is the only one of the freshmen playing a consistent role this season.

Defensively, Virginia is one of the best at executing the "Pack Line Defense". It is a high pressure, man to man defense that sags to the middle of the court. It is designed to prevent penetration by driving the basketball. The "pack line" is an imaginary line two feet inside the three-point line that all defenders not guarding the current ball handler are never supposed to be outside of. The defender that is on the ball handler is expected to be up close, hand in face to create turnovers on the outside. One other critical aspect of this defense is that it's designed to deny the baseline. Defenders are taught to position themselves to not allow any baseline penetration, relying on help defense to close an adjusted drive to the center of the lane. At the top of the post, expect to see defenders attempt to position themselves somewhat in front of the opposing offensive player to prevent the easy pass to the top of the lane.

The key weakness of this defense is if a team can find open shooters on the perimeter AND hit those shots, the integrity of this defense begins to fall apart. The best way to attack this defense is not allow it to get set by beating the defense down in transition. After that though, employing a four out – one in offense, initially sending shooters to both corners with the ball handler and a second post player or fourth guard at the top of the key evenly spaced to either side, with a post player establishing to the ball handler side of the lane. Then the shooters need to begin constantly rotating around the baseline. This allows the offense to create opportunities either to find an initial open shooter or dribble penetration with the intent to kick out.

Another aspect that can help in attacking this defense are two quick perimeter passes across the top to get the defense moving their feet side to side, and then employing the dribble penetration back across the lane to force defenders to try to reverse their hips. If done quickly you either find open lanes or reaching defenders. Pedulla under control is the best option here but we have not seen Pedulla under control in quite some time. Employing blur screens under a teammate after passing them the ball opens gaps as well at the side, drawing a defender deep into the corner.

Offensively, Bennett has his team running what is called a Blocker Mover Offense on the other end of the court. This is a variation of the Motion Offense, allowing the primary ball handler at the top of the key to attempt to use a screen provided by one of two lane personnel near the top of the key. At the point of the screen, the ball handler decides either to drive the lane, kick out to an open shooter or attempt a down low pass to their second lane player, who usually moves across the basket down at the baseline block to create space for the driving guard. The defensive rotation is what drives the guard's decision-making process as he assesses what is in front of him. The guard essentially has three options coming off the pick or can spin back out to reset for another play. The key for the Hokies will be to limit the times where we allow dribble penetration by Clark or Franklin or allow a clean pass into the lower lane player for an easy layup by Gardner or Shedrick.

The Wahoos have seen quite the spike in scoring since playing the Hokies last, up nearly ten points per game in conference although this can be attributed to playing most of the weakest teams in conference during that time. They are shooting 22.6 three-point attempts per game in ACC play, hitting 8.8 of them. This means the Wahoos find almost 25 points a game from behind the perimeter. The Hokies will have to be able to close out on the perimeter to keep the Wahoos from hitting their usual 39% from outside. That said, they still manage 44 more points per game between the line and inside the arc. UVA has seen their free throws increase from six per contest to nearly twelve made per game in ACC play.

Wahoos Backcourt
Armaan Franklin
4 SR G 6-4 195
Indianapolis, IN Cathedral (IN)
13.1 Pts, 4.5 Reb, 1.3 Ast

Kihei Clark
0 SR G 5-9 160
Woodland Hills, CA Taft Charter HS
11.4 Pts, 2.7 Reb, 6.1 Ast

Reece Beekman
2 JR G 6-3 174
Baton Rouge, LA Scotlandville Magnet HS 57 (2020)
9.7 Pts, 3.1 Reb, 5.1 Ast

Isaac McKneely
11 FR G 6-4 179
Poca, WV Poca (WV) 55 (2022)
6.6 Pts, 2.1 Reb, 0.9 Ast

Wahoos Frontcourt

Jayden Gardner
1 SR F 6-7 235
Wake Forest, NC Heritage HS
10.8 Pts, 4.9 Reb, 0.5 Ast

Ben Vander Plas
5 SR F 6-8 232
Ripon, WI Ripon HS
7.7 Pts, 4.6 Reb, 1.7 Ast

Kadin Shedrick
21 JR F 6-11 216
Raleigh, NC Holly Springs HS 65 (2019)
7.0 Pts, 3.5 Reb, 0.7 Ast

What to expect from Virginia?
All five starters for the Wahoos come in averaging 7.7 or more points per game. Virginia goes two deep on the bench for significant minutes or contributions. The scoring from Franklin and Clark has increased significantly in the last month.

Opponents are averaging an ACC low 62.1 points per game in ACC play. Opponents in ACC play are shooting 41.8% from the floor against the Wahoos, second best in the ACC. Virginia does allows 35% on the perimeter.
The Wahoos are committing 9.2 turnovers per game. Clark and Beekman account for half the turnovers. Virginia though forces 12.3 turnovers per game and average nearly 17 points per contest off turnovers.

The Wahoos commit 14.9 fouls per game. Opponents have shot 14.4 free throw attempts per game so far in ACC play. Shedrick remains the only Hoo that averages more than two fouls per game averaging 2.5 fouls per contest. Foul trouble though has been key in their two ACC losses, forcing Bennett to go further than two deep into his bench while allowing Miami and Pitt to score 15 and 17 respectively at the line.

As a team the Wahoos are shooting 39% from the perimeter in ACC play on 22.6 attempts per game (about 42% of total shots). Franklin, Beekman and McKneely all are shooting better than 40% from the perimeter. Clark shooting just below at 39.7% but that's three shooters on the floor at any time stressing the need for stellar perimeter defense.

Virginia is about even rebounding on both ends. Their defense is designed to alter shots more than box out so this season opponents are averaging 6.9 offensive rebounds per game. There is not one focus point rebounding as four of the seven players average between four and five rebounds per game in ACC play.

The Wahoos rank third nationally in assist to turnover ratio averaging 17.1 assists on 24.8 made baskets per game in ACC play, roughly 67% of all shots are assisted. Beekman and Clark combine for 11 of the 17 assists per game.
The Hoos do not appear to have anyone on the injury list.

The Hokies
The Hokies must force UVA to beat them in the paint. Allowing them to consistently hit perimeter shots is a recipe for disaster due to the strength of the Hoo's defense.

Work the ball into the baseline after drawing the defenders to the free throw line. Mutts passing and Basile scoring, with MAYBE A DUNK instead of ugly layups would be huge for the Hokies.

Tech's seems to have shaken loose from its offensive woes and that started against these Hoos. Getting key buckets from Cattoor will stretch the pack line out allowing better opportunities inside. The Wahoos are not as strong on perimeter defense as they typically are but the Hokies definitely need to be able to beat the zone and score in the paint.

Virginia does not do well against speed but unfortunately the Hokies are prone to mental mistakes the faster they go. One area the Hokies should look at for options is to extend the defense. Virginia has looked sloppy against full to three quarters press defense. While I don't expect to see this happen it would be refreshing to see if it works early rather than after the game is out of hand.

Highlight of the Miami Game
Collins defense before getting hurt.

In Closing
The single most important point of emphasis is defend the Cassell perimeter. Forcing Virginia to rely on Gardner and Vander Plas to beat them inside completely transforms the final result. Other points of emphasis in this one are to get Virginia into their bench, be strong on rebounding on both ends, and create second chances.

Double digit second chance points. Find points inside the perimeter, either by score or by foul. Extend the defense and force Virginia to earn every foot.

Vegas and I both expect this one to be much closer than the last game. Cattoor makes a huge difference on both ends. Hokies come to play and win 65-63 in a heart attack inducing final two minutes. Hopefully they practiced free throws this week.

This is a four Popcorn Decision.

Confidence Factor: