HOKIES HOOPS CENTRAL: Virginia Tech (11-7, 1-6 ACC) at #19 Clemson (15-4, 7-1 ACC) 6PM ESPN2
Hokies ๐ Tigers โข Round 2๏ธโฃ๐ 6PM๐บ ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/G2XNMzmvqZโ Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 21, 2023
Clemson (15-4, 7-1 ACC)
vs. Virginia Tech (11-7, 1-6 ACC)
January 21, 2023
Littlejohn Coliseum
6 p.m. ET
ESPN2
Virginia Tech Sports Network
TV Broadcast
ESPN2
Play-by-Play: Doug Sherman
Analyst: Cory Alexander
Reporter: Angel Gray
Local Radio
Virginia Tech Sports Network
Play-by-Play: Zach Mackey
Analyst: Mike Burnop
Current Spread: Hokies +1.5
Over/Under: -141
๐Littlejohn Coliseum pic.twitter.com/0GlhYbiaZyโ Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 21, 2023
Opposite Directions...
The Hokies go on the road to face Clemson for a second time. These two teams have been trending in completely opposite directions. Clemson was ranked for the first time in program history this week but promptly lost to Wake Forest so will be looking to salvage the week by sending the Hokies home with their seventh straight loss. This will be the 42nd meeting between these teams with the advantage to the Hokies 23 to 18.
The Tigers are coached by Brad Brownell. He began his college coaching career at Evansville as an assistant coach in 1991. Clemson is his third college head coaching job, taking over the job in 2010. He has a 233โ170 overall record guiding the Tigers.
The Tigers started 7-0 in the ACC before losing to Wake. Beating Duke is really their only signature win during that seven game run but Hokies fans can attest to any given night in the ACC nothing is a given.
The Tigers are a team that heavily relies on its starting five, in a three guard two forward set. The regular rotation is surprisingly light on transfers with only one.
This team is led by Forward Hunter Tyson, in his senior year. Tyson is averaging a double-double with 15.6 points, and 10.1 rebounds per game. Kidd and Poteat will be called on in stretches to cover Tyson to limit Mutts foul trouble.
Defensively, they play primarily man-to-man defense, varying their levels of pressure depending on personnel and their opponent, in terms or how hard they guard, how far they extend the court. An occasional zone but not the norm for the Tigers. Clemson usually wins the rebounding battle, allowing very few second chance points.
Offensively, Coach Brownell is running what he refers to as Gap Attack Zone Offense, a variable on Motion Offense, which puts an emphasis on dribble penetration to draw multiple defenders to create an open shooter, lead to defensive fouls or baskets at the rim. They will push the ball on misses and turnovers which leaves them vulnerable on extended missed shots. Brownell expects his team to constantly be in motion.
The Tigers Backcourt
Chase Hunter (1 JR G 6-3 204) 14.0 Pts, 2.7 Reb, 4.3 Ast
Brevin Galloway (11 SR G 6-2 215) 10.8 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 2.5 Ast
Alex Hemenway (12 SR G 6-3 185) 9.8 Pts, 2.5 Reb, 1.5 Ast
Joshua Beadle (0 FR G 6-3 170) 2.8 Pts, 1.3 Reb, 1.2 Ast
The Tigers Frontcourt
Hunter Tyson 5 SR F 6-8 215 15.8 Pts, 10.1 Reb, 1.6 Ast
PJ Hall 24 JR F 6-10 235 13.7 Pts, 4.8 Reb, 0.9 Ast
Ian Schieffelin 4 SO F 6-8 225 5.4 Pts, 4.0 Reb, 1.6 Ast
Ben Middlebrooks 10 SO F 6-10 225 3.6 Pts, 2.8 Reb, 0.4 Ast
RJ Godfrey 22 FR F 6-7 225 3.2 Pts, 1.5 Reb, 0.4 Ast
What to expect from Clemson?
Fast paced contest. Clemson will constantly be running fresh players into the game. Expect two or three substitutes at every stoppage. Brownell uses this to keep opponent defenses from getting a good bearing on what to expect. They have worn down opponents at the end of games, allowing them to pull away in the last few minutes of each game. That said, barring foul trouble Hunter, Tyson Galloway and Hemenway will see 30+ minutes tonight.
The Tigers have scored 70 points or more in 16 games and are 14-2 in those contests. Their lone win scoring less than seventy was beating the Hokies. All five starters average 9.8ppg or higher so expect pretty even scoring.
Fouls are usually pretty even at around 18 for and against the Tigers. In their loss to Wake though, the Demon Deacons went to the line an incredible 33 times. Clemson shoots 78% from the line as a team. Tyson and Hunter average around 4 attempts each at the line. The Tigers have won ten games by double-digits this season, but are 5-3 in games decided by less than ten.
The Tigers have only been out-rebounded four times this season. In ACC play though they have allowed ten or more offensive rebounds in five of eight games. Allowing the Hokies that many second chances with Cattoor back could be a deciding factor in this contest.
Perimeter shooting can make or break a game for Clemson. In three of their four losses the Tigers were held below 31% from the outside including the recent loss to Wake. In only three games did they shoot lower than 31% and still win, including shooting 17% against Duke.
The Hokies
Cattoor is back so considering the Hokies only lost to this Clemson team by three last time out and the Hokies as a team shot 49% against UVA, his being on the floor should be a big boost.
The Hokies offense against UVA was surprisingly smooth considering the prior five games. They have been protecting the ball consistently the last few games with only eight turnovers against UVA. The key will be avoiding major defensive lapses at critical moments. They did allow UVA to shoot 50% and 45% from three. Getting second chances by rebounding the basketball will be a big part of this game.
Another huge performance from Justyn Mutts, hopefully not wasted. He needs to take the ball at Tyson early and often. Tyson sat significant portions in all three losses due to foul trouble.
Highlight of the UVA game
Team offense looked good
He's a ๐๐ผ๐ธ๐ถ๐ฒ through and through ๐ฏ pic.twitter.com/DmFIMl6QoWโ Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 19, 2023
In Closing
The Hokies go on the road with a bit of confidence regardless of their loss to UVA. They must play better defensive basketball. Put that together and it definitely puts Clemson out of the rankings.
This game comes down to how the guards fair against each other. A critical matchup to watch will be Maddox and Hemenway. That matchup could decide this game.
Hokies overcome the lingering doubt of the streak to win 78-71
This is a three Popcorn Decision. I am surprisingly hopeful we see the Hokies get in the win column,.
Confidence Factor: | ![]() |
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Top 6โค๏ธ pic.twitter.com/KxmBeuZZC9โ JAYDEN "Juke" HARRIS (@Juke2Timez) January 20, 2023
Comments
LET'S GO......
HOKIES
one update that changes things in the Hokies favor, Hemenway is out with a foot injury and Chase Hunter is questionable due to a foot injury as well that happened in the Wake game. That would be 24 points off the floor for Clemson
Go Team Go Sports!
A non-RSN game!
LET'S GO!
This is the fullest I have seen Little John EVER
Not the best start. Shooting 1 of 5 from outside.
Can we get a sponsorship from Charmin already?!?
Maddox not shooting anything within 15 ft lol
That wasn't a fucking flop he tripped
Collins gets stiff armed to the ground but its a tech on him for saying something
Yet PJ has a tantrum under the basket after his goaltending call...nothing
And said something to the Hokies bench after making that three
We were a finalist for him coming out of high school, right?
Yes
I'm still livid over both of those "flopping" technicals. Almost like this ref came in determined to call it.
I think the first one was a flop, although players do it all the time and it doesn't get called they just play on. Mutts even smiled after.
The second was just egregious and a power trip by the same ref
Yeah I think that's mostly my frustration, it happens all the time and doesn't get called. I hate Mutts having to play the rest of the game with a technical he got in the first couple of minutes
Clean steal called a fouls got Mike young fired up
Clemson defender blew right through Mutts' chest on that screen and went down ...nothing from the refs.. just ridiculous
Pedulla driven to floor...just a held ball
These refs really doing the most to fuck us
Really dumb on Kidd. Situational awareness defensively completely lacking. Probably turns a 6 point lead into a 3 point lead at the half.
A flagrant 1 against Kidd is a horrible call.
Hopefully they keep this up overall. Although everyone will say it's because of who was missing.
Yah I don't care ๐ we can say 4 of our losses we're because of cattor missing too, get that quad one dub
I the tec on Kidd was so weak considering the Clemson player sold it so well it was practically a flop. It seems like everyone can play physical but us.
Agree, I kinda like it although I hate the calls though. Feel like we've looked much more physical in defense and rebounding so far this game and no coincidence we held Clemson pretty well there at the end of the half
I'll keep saying it....Kidd needs more minutes. And that flagrant was bullshit too.
And Maddux needs to sit. He still can't make anything. 0-5 today.
All contact now a foul
Clemson behind at the half. Queue the whistles on VT.
Yep. 5-0 now.
Pedulla has to shoot that three and draw contact. Get three freebies
Wake Forest went to the line for 33 attempts. Hokies have gone 3 times in 25 minutes.
5 times...
We also do a poor job of driving, and getting to the rack. When half our shots are fade away jumpers, we're not going to get many free throws.
Well when we do we don't get fouls called like basile there
Holy smokes we got free throws!
Gotta make the frebies....we are getting so few....
Maddux is lost. 0-6 and missing layups and 2 silly turnovers just now.
Basile gets hit by two guys but "clean block"
Replay clearly showed both fouls
Yeah...Basile got them both in the air, then got contact. No foul.
PJ hall pushes basile into the goal post while the balls in the air and no foul
Cattoor gets murdered and then Basile shoved off the court but 2 points Clemson
Catoor ran into a clean screen, but yeah on basile.. twice
Yeah replay was clearer than in the moment. It was a clean screen arms straight up.
"Another one" -DJ Khaled
We are simply not good. Something definitely happened to this team a few weeks ago. There is no chemistry or cohesion.
Not sure why Cattoor going out seems to speed up the offense leading to so many mistakes. It was that way in the games he missed and almost immediately right there.
Amazed they finally whistled that. Only took four bumps on Cattoor to get it.
But that's a foul on Kidd. Fuckin bullshit. And didn't leave his feet
Can Mutts man up on offense? Just really frustrating. Also where is Poteat? He played a big part against PJ Hall last game.
We need to be playing Poteat more. He's looked good in the limited minutes he gets. He's no worse on defense than anyone else (we're kinda crappy on d in general) but he appears to have some good offensive skills if we actually get him the ball. In games where we struggle to score, which seems frequent nowadays, it's worth putting him out there
Absolutely and he has the defensive stance to keep Hall off balance which is why I was surprised he only played like 2 minutes. Have to wonder if he tweaked something. He played 25 minutes in the last game against Clemson and added 8 points. He also drew at least 3 of Halls 4 fouls in that game. Just curious he wasn't out there.
Pedulla playing hero now come on man
Shooting 2 of 12...he hurts this team with the out of control shots.
Pedulla Cattoor and Maddox a combined 3 for 24
We can't make a bucket inside of 5 feet.
Well we finally did.
THERE YA GO BASILE BE STRONG DUDE
Before Collins's 3. We had scored 8 points this half. In over 14:00.
Calling this quiet gym a "hostile environment" is comical.
Offensive foul on Klempson. Some body call Swofford.
Do we try to go 2 for 1 here with 36 seconds left?
Pedulla just not as talented as he thinks he is.
Yes maddening. Hopefully just showing his youth as he makes some maddening plays often this year
Sophomore slump?
Geesh. We can't make anything easy.
Another missed freebie.
Of course lol happens every game
Of course. They are 11% from 3 tonight...why wouldn't that go in?
Gotta go inside here with a good feed...not something out of control.
Prepared for double hack no whistle on either Mutts or Basile
Goddamnit.
Ugh! Stupid. Just stupid.
Pedulla had that ball went back up and got hacked. No whistle
Yup.
They haven't called a legit foul all game. Why start now?
Drive to the hoop moron!
Announcers kill me. Maddox is 0-6..."Why isn't he in there?"
In amongst the trees doesn't mean it wasn't a clear foul on Tyson. Hit both of Pedullas arms as he went up.
The announcers were pro Clemson all night.
Man this team cant get a break. Nice play drawn up and well executed just off a bit. BEAT DUKE
Bigger disappointment this year? Football team or basketball team?
Basketball no question...there were actually expectations for basketball
What the hell has happened since ACC play started? We have quality non-con wins this year, but we are absolute garbage in conference play.
This team will turn it around, just not realistic to expect an NCAA bid. NIT champs here we come
14 turnovers
poor shooting
can't win like that
I need to know why we are so fucking bad. There seems to be zero chemistry on this team. When they talk it's only business. They never seem to pump each other up. I think coach MY is oblivious to this because he's too technical..
Injuries have certainly played a big role, but the big difference to me this year is not having Storm.
Yeah exactly. He may have not been the greatest scorer but he understood how to control tempo and create shots for others as opposed to shooting a long three or not passing then running into three defenders in the lane and heaving a shot with 20 seconds on the shot clock
It's not so much not having Storm as it is the backcourt play has been bad. Sean Pedulla and Darius Maddox were key figures in the run to turn the season around last year. In fact, we threw some games away early as CMY stuck with Alleyne a little too long when Pedulla/Maddox looked better. It's no accident we went on a run when they got more playing time (and Storm started playing better too). But instead of taking the anticipated growth, both have regressed. Maddox has been terrible all year. I don't think he's put together one good game all year. I think I can recall about 3 halves spread out over the course of the season where he's looked like the player everyone expected this season. Pedulla started off the season fairly well, but right around the time Cattoor got hurt, he's fallen off a cliff. Bad shooting, even worse decision making, and it oftentimes playing out of control. And because of injuries (Rice basically all year and the stretch without Cattoor), we don't really have any other options but to play them heavy minutes. So for much of the last couple of months we've gone into games knowing our backcourt play is gonna be poor. Makes it really tough to win games. To rub salt in the wound, despite the poor play, we've basically been in every game, often coming right down to the final minute. Like if they were just 1% better with that guard play, some of the losses would be wins.
Pain
Ideally you'd hope Cattoor wouldn't bite on that pump fake but it's hard not to react in the moment. Would have rather gotten a final shot going to the basket but they missed a clear foul on Pedulla's rebound so I doubt they'd call a foul on a drive anyway.
Every loss has been close. It's not like we're a bad team. Just haven't been able to close. 338th in luck rating on KenPom pretty much says it all.
Just stop the season and move on. 7 losses in a row?!?!?!? Wtf. Just reboot this sucker.
I think I'm at this point now. A win at Clemson would have been the needed quality win to jump start the tournament push. ACC is a bit better this year, probably getting six or seven teams in. If we got this one and got close to .500 in conference, we'd have a decent chance. But that's a missed opportunity at a quality win and it's a very steep climb. It's probably better to punt this season and focus on development. Play the younger guys more,like Collins, or players you want in a larger role next season. If we lose by bigger margins, so what. Get the live game reps to develop
That's a real kick in the nuts
I don't understand why our players never go up for the shot when they get the defender in the air. It's almost an automatic foul.
I think tonight they were afraid of PJ Hall jump kicking at them.
Which is why I hope we get a better explanation of Poteat not being out there to jump kick Hall in return....although it definitely would have been a tech if he did.
God dammit, fuck fuck fuck
Had a chance to win, jacked a dumb three and that's what we get. Sucks because it's super close but an L is an L. Probably gotta go 11-3 the rest of the way for an at large bid...
Well, we only have 12 regular season games left.
Interesting ๐คฃ so 9-3 then
They aren't getting an At Large. Only hope is to win the ACC Tournament.
It's incredible, over the last month they've played themselves from what was likely a top 4 lock to completely popping their own bubble. It's been a pretty shocking collapse.
This team hasn't won in over a month... my expectations are minimal.
We were one crappy foul call (or bogus technical call) from winning. I think we're turning this train around!!

Those flop calls going to technicals were such poor officiating. Not one all year, and we get two called in the first half? Smh
Not to be "that guy" because I don't think it should happen, but is Mike Young's seat getting warm? How warm would it be if we hadn't gone on our miracle tourney run last year?
If we have another bad season next year, we should be thinking about if there is a better option we can hire.
There are legitimate concerns. We started 2-7 in the acc last year and 1-7 this year. We would not have gone dancing without that epic run (and we really should have lost to clemson the first game without that Maddox buzzer beater when he wasn't even supposed to have the ball)
I don't think we have enough talent and athleticism or the right types of players. But I'll give him another year to right the ship because there is some hope sometimes (acc tourney last year, earned an at large bid in the covid year).
I would like to see 1-2 acc starting caliber transfers to help get things turned around. Someone dynamic and an athletic big ideally
I don't think so still; if we have our best recruits still being redshirted (or medical redshirted) still ahead and our floor general a sophomore prone to boneheaded decisions I'm optimistic about the future. We haven't really given up in any game and despite losing we are in every game until the final whistle.
As frustrated as I am with how the season has gone I like the fact we don't get blown out, we tend to stay in most games even when outmatched, and he's recruiting decent players. Agree that he could do better with his transfer portal additions but I didn't think Kidd would amount to much after last year and now I think he's gonna be a great starter down low next year.
Down by 1 with 11 seconds left and the ball, we draw up a three pointer?
Genius
Yeah...that was painful.
Get ๐ to ๐ the ๐ basket ๐
Preferably, I'd like something more towards the basket in that situation but its not entirely a bad decision. The pros of it are you want the ball in your best player's hands, which is Cattoor and we got that. And you want to get a quality look, which we did, that's an open 3. He just didn't hit it. I'm not overly mad it. I'd just rather see something springing Cattoor moving towards the basket to get a shot and/or draw contact. Or a Cattoor/Mutts PnR where depending on what the defense gives, Cattoor shoots or Mutts slips towards the basket.
We are 1.5 point favorites tomorrow night. I know Duke isn't your typical Duke but we are 1-7 in conference to their 5-3. How are we favored?
Been favored in 6 of our 7 losses by Vegas
They know the bounceback is coming. Same thing happened last year.
This game felt so much like last year's Miami buzzer beater. I was thinking "there's no way we can possibly lose another close game".
Looked at Duke's offensive numbers and the only things they do well are rebound (offensive) and shoot free throws. It's really surprising how mediocre/ poor they are.
12th FG%
13th 3pt %
13th TO's/ gm
Swept by a low rent clown coach- that predictably did not have his team ready to play, BTW- and we still lost. when you lose to Brownell, you aren't good. You just aren't. On to next year. And Fuck PJ Hall. Fuck him.
Yep and we easily win by driving or get fouled and go to OT. Instead we jack an off balance three? That's giving yourself like a 30% chance of winning where under the basket it's definitely upwards of 50% that you make it or get fouled
You do realize the Clemson is actually #1 in the ACC this year right?
Painful but the true state of affairs of ACC basketball this season.
My point stands. He can't coach. he's not big time. If they get to the dance, they will lose in the first round. He stinks.
Contract year, somehow he always gets the job done with job on the line.
They're technically 1 yeah but they're pretty mid man. We should've beat them both times.
They lost to a DOG SHIT South Carolina team early in the year and got smoked by an even worse Loyola team later on. Beat Duke and NC State at home sure, stole one against Pitt on the road by 1. Other than that their resume isn't impressive at all. Haven't played UNC, UVA or Miami yet (who they only play once, like Duke). Resume wise they're really much closer to the bubble than you'd think. 60 in Kenpom way behind us at 49 despite being 16-4. Yeah dude they're mid
This is true as well but just shows how weak the ACC is this year and Hokies are 1-7, albeit by just two possessions in all but 2 games.