HOKIES HOOPS CENTRAL: VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES (13-8, 3-7) VS MIAMI (16-5, 7-4) 7PM ESPNU
Miami (16-5, 7-4 ACC)
vs. Virginia Tech (13-8, 3-7 ACC)
January 31, 2023
Watsco Center
7 p.m. ET
ESPNU
Mike Monaco and Malcolm Huckaby
Zach Mackey and Mike Burnop
U down for a win....
The Hokies are coming off a good win at home but have struggled on the road. They go up against a strong guard driven Miami squad. Miami has played in a number of close games with eight of the last ten decided by three baskets or less.
Coach giving himself the L
The Hurricanes are coached by Jim Larranaga, who is in his tenth season as head coach at Miami. Larranaga is 242-146 overall guiding the Hurricanes. Prior to Miami, Larranaga had a 14-year run at George Mason where he took the Patriots to the Final Four in 2006. He has led the 'Canes to four NCAA Tournament appearances and an ACC title in 2013.
Defensively, Coach Larranaga primarily employs man-to-man, with the scramble 3-2 zone as a secondary defense. A combination of the two is a series of zones that he calls the Camouflage, which is used strategically as a surprise defense that forces the offense to react to the defense. Once the opponent gets used to a man-to-man and the scramble, the Camouflage defense puts them on their heels immediately. The Camouflage is used most in a full court setting. Each pass, trap, deflection and player responsibility is analyzed.
When they play man-to-man defense, the focus is retaining inside position to facilitate defensive rebounding and limiting second chance opportunities. The ability to box out was also a huge component of Pitt's game plan against the Hokies. Limiting the Hokies second chances will be a huge focus for the Hurricanes.
Offensively, Coach Larranaga typically has his teams playing a form of Zone offense with a specific focus on the use of ball screens to give shooters separation. He emphasizes ball movement, man movement, screening, dribble penetration, and offensive rebounding.
Based on the defensive setting of their opponent, Miami uses three variations of the zone offenses. These are:
Slice & Dice Zone Offense โ Use versus a 2-3, 3-2 or 1-2-2 zone. This offense uses four players on the perimeter and one post to force the defense to move, communicate and change their match ups.
Crack & Carve Zone Offense โ Use versus a 2-3, 3-2 or 1-2-2 zone. This power game offense utilizes two post players inside and allows them to carve out space, set screens and create good shots for themselves and the perimeter players.
Seek & Find Zone Offense โ Use versus a 1-3-1 defense. This offense uses a 4-Out formation and diagonal passing, down screens, back screens and penetration to break down the zone and create open shots. After the game against Pitt expect this to be a common approach against the Hokies for any team with solid perimeter shooters.
Hurricanes Backcourt
Isaiah Wong
2 JR G 6-3 180
Piscataway, NJ Monsignor Bonner (PA) 76 (2019)
16.2 Pts, 4.7 Reb, 3.6 Ast
Jordan Miller
11 SR G 6-6 202
Middleberg, VA Loudoun Valley HS
15.0 Pts, 5.6 Reb, 2.4 Ast
Nijel Pack
24 SO G 6-0 180
Indianapolis, IN Lawrence Central HS
12.0 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 2.5 Ast
Wooga Poplar
55 SO G 6-5 195
Philadelphia, PA Math, Civics and Sciences Charter School
7.4 Pts, 2.9 Reb, 1.3 Ast
Bensley Joseph
4 SO G 6-1 195
Arlington, MA Putnam Science Academy 92 (2021)
5.4 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 2.3 Ast
Harlond Beverly
5 JR G 6-5 185
Detroit, MI Montverde Academy 56 (2019)
3.4 Pts, 1.0 Reb, 1.3 Ast
Hurricanes Frontcourt
Norchad Omier
15 SO F 6-7 230
Bluefields, Miami Prep
13.5 Pts, 10.4 Reb, 1.2 Ast
Anthony Walker
1 JR F 6-9 210
Baltimore, MD Brewster Academy
3.0 Pts, 1.4 Reb, 0.1 As
What to expect from Miami?
As a team the Hurricanes are shooting 36% from the perimeter on 19.1 attempts per game in ACC play. Wong and Miller are their consistent perimeter shooters.
Wong leads the way at 16.2 points per game. Nine players are getting 10 or more minutes a contest so a fairly balanced workload.
Miami has been consistently out-rebounded in ACC play, mainly due to their size. Outside of Walker and Omier their lineup are all 6'7 or smaller. They are however well balanced in this category, as all nine players average at least three rebounds. They are led by Walker and Wong, who both average better than 5 rebounds per game. Brooks and Walker both average almost one block per contest, with the team better than four per game.
The Hokies
The Hokies need to focus on getting Basile or Mutts the ball down low. The Hurricanes smaller lineup has made it very difficult for them to protect inside.
Coach Young will need his guys to keep Miami honest by hitting their open shots on the perimeter. Hopefully Collins and Cattoor can help the Hokies here.
Tech needs to protect the basketball, especially Mutts and Pedulla. Miami forces opponents into 12.8 turnovers per game in ACC play and convert 13 points per game in transition. In addition they must force Miami into mistakes.
The Hokies must slow down Wong, whohas the dual ability to shoot from the perimeter but is more likely to beat defenders off the dribble to the basket.
Basile, Kidd and Mutts must be able to position themselves inside to get offensive rebounds. Miami opponents right now average 11.6 offensive rebounds per game on thirty-two missed shot attempts.
Highlight of the Game
Mutts doing everything to carve a team up.
In Closing
The Hokies must avoid going under screens and must force Miami inside the perimeter.
The Hokies must find a way to balance out the rebounds. They have a major size advantage
There will be at least four Hokies in double figures. Basile continues his trend of improved play. Collins keeps his rhythm, Mutts gets it done inside, and Cattoor is a video game highlight.
Hokies storm in and quell the Hurricanes. Hokies come in confident after the Syracuse performance. Hokies win 71-65.
Three Popcorns: Still never sure what team will take the floor.
Confidence Factor: | ![]() |
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Comments
Sorry Work ran late tooday
Thanks for getting it going anyways!
Hot start so far! Let's keep it going
Score?
Mutts has been very sloppy lately; can't put my finger on it but it's like he's been playing half speed for a while. Am I alone in thinking this?
Did you watch the Syracuse game?
Yeah I've watched em all; liked his passing there out of the pin. Guess I'm saying throw that game aside he's good for about 12 turnovers today at this rate
He has a great game against the zone against Cuse tbh
There just seems to be times he checks out mentally. I've seen it a few times this season where he goes through periods of really sloppy passing and layup attempts.
Was 16-8, now 16-14 woof. Turnovers
I hate Wong. And then a sloppy inbounds for 2 and another turnover for 2..
Kidd stooped the bleeding.
Need a big game from him and Collins....
Mutts is telegraphing every single pass. He needs to take a breath.
We got cocky up 16-8 and weren't sharp in that last stretch. Gotta come out tenacious after this media TO
Lynn Kidd with some great minutes right there, defense and a few buckets
Kidd continues to impress.
Shooting 73% and losing has to be a real statistical unicorn. Got to hold on to the ball.
A dime by Collins and the sweet lay in by Poteat with a chance for 3 the hard way!
And a beauty drop off by Collins for Poteat with an athletic +1.
Kidd has a 64% FG percentage on the year.
A Miami fan was just ejected! Lol
Typical Miami trash
Didn't realize Roger Ayers is from Roanoke.... would have thought he hated us from this year's resume.
Fan ejection. I'd love to find out what he said or did to get escorted out.
Probably said ACC refs suck! Where have I heard that before?
At every single ACC game ever.
These rims are so soft and/or big
Both teams shooting over 65%.
Cmon Pedulla....stay in control.....
I even hate hearing Wong speak
DUNK IT BASILLE
Gotta make that basille
how many bunnies has Basile missed this year?
And yet he's made a bunch tricky shit....i mean i like the guy, but imagine if he can put it all together?
Can't miss bunnies and win on the road.
Cattoor is so good man
Anyone know what the Miami fan did to get ejected from the 5th row?
Bitcoin
Assuming language directed at the officials
My takeaway for the 1H: why are they allowing so much pushing off? Offensively and on D. The blatant shoves in the back are crazy.
All things considered down 1 on the road against a team where games are almost always decided by 4 pts or less isn't terrible. Just need to clean up the turnovers
^this^
We've had some really stupid turnovers. Lazy passes. Telegraphed passes. Not paying attention on an inbounds pass. They have 12 points off of our seven turnovers!
That's got to be cleaned up in the second half.
narrator
"it wasn't."
Run at #15. He's got 3 fouls now 10 seconds in.
โคโคโค THIS โคโคโค
Yet we haven't gone at him once
Only went to him once. Kidd walked after beating him.
Shit. Mutts does too now.
Walk Much?
Basile can't make 2 wide open layups and hits that??
Jesus...run at amir...he's lighting it up! Put him on the bench with 4!
Man Cattoor with a 3 then draws a charge a few possessions later. My guy is all over the floor
Amir back in. Run at him.!
Terrible foul by Basile on that, no need to make it an and-1.
Edit: then draws his own and-1. Lol this fucking guy
If we could make layups, we'd be up by ten.
And not give up 12 points on TO's in the 1H
Basile gets pushed across the court with the lowered shoulder shove. Blocking foul.
Let's get Kidd Poteat and Basille inside just drawing fouls. Bang these guys up.
I would love to see this.
As bad as our passing has been...our movement has been lazy. Last two games we were cutting and slicing. Now we're just kind of jogging.
Right on queue: Catoor with a slashing cut and 3.
Better be a foul on Miami
Of course it's not because ACC Officials so basket counts too
Shouldn't be a fould
Looks like no.
CATTOOOR!
Not a foul. Lotta blood way to stand in there MJ
Bounce pass through the Miami guards legs....love it
Kidd just redeemed himself
MUTTS!
Wow that arena is quiet. Amazing game and you barely hear the crowd.
No way the side judge can see Camdens feet and proximity to the restricted circle in that call smh
Letting amir do whatever he wants. Bullshit.
.
Omiere got away with charge there. Whistle from official completely shielded from play
Much better by pedulla to not rush that and find mutts.
Great intercept by Mutts, and a dime by Pedulla right back to him
Need to get a stop out of this TO and go on a little run
Edit: or we can give them a quick 5 to tie it back up
Lol of course we do the opposite
Going to miss Catoor's D next season. He is all over Wong.
He could stick around for COVID year, he is dating Brooks daughter.
Wtf was that pedulla
Looked like he was trying to sneak a pass to Poteat at the last second who ducked lol
Pedulla out of control leads to a three the other way yet again
Pedulla has to learn to draw contact in those situations. I know he loves trying to be shifty but sometimes getting fouled IS the answer.
Mutts playing with much more energy this half. Really need to get Collins back in if he's good to go and get Camden out he's getting beat by a few steps last few runs from my untrained eye.
Nah you're absolutely right
Man I hope MJ comes back out to stop the bleeding literally and figuratively.
Why do the commentators always say how rare it is for us to turn it over?
We've been a turnover machine in ACC play
We can't have nice things
Basile keeps sucking me back in.....
Wait...that didn't sound right...
Phrasing?
'Squirrels it out'...second time tonight.....I haven't heard that one before....
Also phrasing?
Basile has to dunk that f ing ball
He needs that aggression he was showing at the end of last game. PO'd Basile is good Basile.
BASILE WTF
Basile you HAVE to slam that
Said it before, Basille trash. Game over
Basile's kryptonite is a layup
Good night
Damn. We miss a bunny and they go on a 3-3 run.
All because basile can't dunk a fucking basketball; it's gotta cost us 8+ points a game
How many other PGs routinely finish their drive with a dunk? Honest question.
Edit: read this wrong, but coulda swore it said Pedulla originally.
Basile isn't a point guard
Edit: this occurred to me right after!
Yep, I don't think the original post said Basille either.
Yeah, it did lol
Thank you for making me feel a little less crazy!
Well, that last 3 may be the dagger... got way too sloppy, missed easy shots, and pedulla playing hero ball.
Mutts the turnover king returns
Get the fuck out of here. Video game bullshit.
Of course a third stringer kills us from outside
Pack is literally a starter and great 3 point shooter...
He is the third option behind Wong and Miller and came in averaging 2.4 made 3s a game and we let him go off for a 5 for 5 start to second half.
2 bad posessions just killed us.
Worse than bad those were terrible
Well...Pack just ended us
Almost impossible to come back from that run.
Finally hopped on to check in with the VT family and we promptly fall apart on the court. Signing off and hoping it will help.
out of control turnovers will do it every time
Basile yet again kills us
And our guards can't stay on a hot shooter. No defense out there
Can't hit anything.
When your center misses a point blank shot then fires two threes in the last two minutes >>>
All goes back to missing shots under 4 feet. Consistent story for this team unfortunately.
14 points left in the paint which includes 3 missed layups and 2 dunks.
Miami 22 points of turnovers. That's your game right there.
Our 3-pt percentage dropped 20% in 2H. Theirs went up 15%.
Pack scored 17 of their last 19.
Damb pack getting hot killed us. As did basille missing layups/dunks
3 fouls on omir 10 seconds into the second half and never put another foul on him. Bad execution or planning by the coaches?
Not particularly. He has gotten away with murder on several occasions including on offensive end.
We went at him and he fouled offensively and defensively. They just didn't call any.
T-up Joseph for that response.
Horseshit
Wow....interesting call
Not a travel. Their guy kicked it.
Traveling? Because Omier's leg was on his arm?
6 pedulla turnovers, regardless of that last one, is not good enough
Classy finish by Miami there
You can never use class and Miami in the same sentence.
We are the epitome of every opponent's Sixth Man
I will say this has been the most consistently officiated ACC game I've watched.
Mutts + Pedulla turnovers, team missed layups, Pack going ape shit killed us
Pedulla out of control once again at the end.
Yah he and mutts try and take it into their own hands and almost always end up turning it over in tight games like that. Has been a problem all year as has our teams reluctance to dunk an easy layup. Wouldn't think we lose a game with the shooting percentages we posted but really lost all the momentum on that last miss by basille turning into a pack 3 point fest.
Mutts and Pedulla are averaging 3.6 and 3.0 turnovers per game in ACC play, respectively. That is unacceptable.
Bad game for sure. But that should have been our ball. Not sure he got a piece of pedulla but his foot was on the ball all the way up.
Does that basically seal us an NIT bid (if we don't win the ACC again)? Or are we able to suffer a road loss against Miami if we can win most of the others
Nine games left but really only 2 more Quad One chances. UVA and Miami a second time. Likely need to win both those and 8 of 9 remaining to be in bubble conversation. Even then would need probably two wins in ACC Tourney to get in.
At Duke will be quad 1 as well but I think they beat us
7/9 gets us in probably as long as we get the UVA game (they're far and away the highest in NET). But I agree there's basically zero margin for error. Winning tonight would have had us in a much much better position
so we could lose again in the first round.....
We're 0-7 on the road.
I'm holding the coaching staff accountable for that. Inexcusable.
Players went for the three only way to early when there was still time. Should have driven.
We were up 5 with 8 minutes left and I had to stop watching. What the hell happened?
Basile missed a layup/dunk. Then we forgot to how to play defense and take a good shot.
It's hard to say that Basile missed a dunk, because I don't think he's ever attempted a dunk.
This should go without saying, but everyone needs to come to terms with the fact that we're not dancing unless we win the ACC tournament. We're borderline NIT material. We lost 7 straight conference games.... Buzz Williams caught a lot of flak for his complaints about aTm being snubbed last year (they weren't) and why they needed to be in (we were part of those laughing at him... hell, I even made what I thought was a great meme alteration). Even if we won out but didn't win the ACCT (ending with a 22-9 record without factoring the tourney win[s]) its not going to be enough to get into the field.
Unfortunately we play the good teams in the ACC twice, and the bad teams only once. Our schedule was also front loaded with playing most of those bad teams at the end when beating them won't count for much.
That's pretty delusional. I don't think we're going to win out or make the tournament, but if we did do that we would make the tournament. Prior to us beating Syracuse we were still on the "also considering" in bracktology.
We lost 7 games in a row. The only way we make it in is if we play spoiler in the ACCT and crash the party.
if we did that 2 years in a row, the ACC would cancel the tournament in 2024
We might have lost 7 in a row, but until the Miami loss we were still in the outskirts.