WBB hosts Marshall Mar 22 at 3:30 on ESPN2

The Ladies open their NCAA Tournament play today at 3:30 against Marshall. The Hokies are 24-7 and 15-0 at home. Marshall is 26-6 and 12-5 on the road.

Marshall has not yet played a top 25 team this year; we have played several. However we ended the season losing 3 of our last 4 games. Marshall is on a 10 game winning streak.. In our one common opponent, they lost to Wake Forest by 7 and we beat Wake by 9. So by the transitive property of sports scores, we should win by 16. The Wise Guys think we will win by 10.5.

The rosters show a big advantage to us in height. Their tallest player is 6'1". Except for Amoore, everyone who plays regularly for us is 6' or taller.

Marshall runs a fast paced offense and a full court defense even on missed shots. They play a lot of players and substitute freely to keep their players fresh. If we don't have this game under control by the fourth quarter, fatigue may be an issue for us.. Like the Hokies, the Thundering Herd shoots a lot of threes. We average 9 made threes per game; they average 10.8. They have attempted 1013 threes this season to our 801. Defending at the arc is going to be important in this game. 44.5% of their shots are from beyond the arc; we shoot 41.5% of our shots from deep. Marshall averages 71 shots per game to our 62. They achieve this high rate of shots by playing aggressive defense with the full court press all game; but they also average 16 offensive rebounds per game. Typically only the shooter stays back while the rest of the team crashes the offensive boards. Blocking our on defense will be important. They don't worry too much about fouls from their aggressive play because they play so many players; 12 players play at least 11 min/game; no one plays over 30 minutes and only two players average over 25 minutes.

Stats for both teams:

Marshall

Virginia Tech

Marshall scores 86.4 ppg and allows 71.2; we score 74.8 and allow 61.7. This game is going to be a battle of contrasting styles. Marshall wants to run and we play a more methodical game. They can't run if we don't miss or if we can be more aggressive on the offensive boards. We cannot afford to let their aggressive defense force into to turnovers.

With Kitley, I think this would have been an easy tune-up to get back into playing shape after the long layoff. Without Kitley, this should still be a win; but it may be a closer game than we are comfortable with. And if we get into the fourth quarter with a close game, I will be very concerned about fatigue. They are probably going to play twice as many players as we do. Hopefully the big advantage we have in height can mitigate their aggressive approach to the offensive boards to cut down on their second chance opportunities.

I think we are going to need some players to step up. Amoore can't carry the entire load. Ekh and King need to make some shots. And Clara Strack could have a very big game if they can get the ball to her where she can shoot before the double team arrives. Strack could also be a big factor if she can find the open shooter and we can make our threes.

LET'S GO HOKIES!