Hokie Hoops Statistical Notes: Volume 11

The second tetralogy is in the books and the Hokies sit at 7-1; one game better than the inaugural CMYBall season. I was hoping for an undefeated record to this point, but did see us slipping up, most likely, against Penn State. Unfortunately for the Hokies, they are now down Cartier Diarra, who opted out in the midst of this four game stretch.

Scoring
It was a three horse race, but Naheim Alleyne led the team in scoring in this volume at 12 ppg, topping Keve Aluma and Jalen Cone's 11.75 ppg. Radford dropped off in scoring, falling to 8.35 ppg. Cattoor rounded out the 7 ppg club, getting 7.5.

Rebounding
Aluma continues to lead the team in rebounding, getting 7.75 boards per game. Surprisingly, Freshman David N'Guessan came in 2nd with 5 rpg.

Assists
Bede leads the team with 15 assists, to 7 turnovers. Hunter Cattoor had a fantastic 8:1 ATO margin over these last few games. Jalen Cone hasn't been too shabby with his 5:1 ATO margin. It gets scary when Mutts has the ball, netting a 4:13 ATO margin.

Experience/Depth
Minutes were shared throughout the team. Radford led the team with 28.25 mpg, followed by Bede (26.5), Aluma (25.25), Alleyne (24.25) and Mutts (21.75). Four more Hokies averaged more than 10 mpg, led by Cone (18.75), Cattoor (16), N'Guessan (12.75), and Pemsl (12.25)

Next Four
Hold on to your ass, Fred, it's Conference Play time. Yes, the Hokies are already 1-0 in the ACC, but now they won't see somebody from outside the conference until March (God willing).

4-2 (0-1) Miami opens the slate. They have, what appears to be a good win against Purdue, but got taken to the woodshed by Pittsburgh (relatable). We are going to be at a size disadvantage in the post, as we see an ACC 7-footer. They're averaging 67.8 ppg; 6 ppg fewer than the Hokies.

Then the Hokies open the new year taking a short drive up the road to UVA, a team that has seemingly done all they can to avoid playing quality teams. They've beaten nobody, lost to San Francisco, and skipped out on a game against #4 Michigan State. We'll see if they're any good when they face #1 Gonzaga. They do have another 7-footer, and they're scoring along the same clip as the Hokies, while allowing six fewer ppg, although that's against Towson, San Francisco, St. Francis (PA), and Kent State.

Hokies head out west then, to Louisville. The 4-1 Cardinals lost their only game against a major conference team (getting obliterated by Wisconsin in the ACC-B1G challenge ((again, relatable)))
The Hokies match up well in the height department, and in the scoring/allowed scoring departments.

Rounding out this tetralogy of games will be returning home to face Notre Dame. I would say this Notre Dame team looks like their 2-4 record, but those for losses are to #13 Michigan State, #22 Ohio State, #21 Duke, and 6-2 Purdue, although one of their wins is against Kentucky (I know they're 1-5, but they're still Kentucky, you take the win when you can). They have a couple of near 7-footers, but this Notre Dame team doesn't seem to know what they're doing right now.

Prediction
I'm going in order of confidence. I am most confident against Notre Dame. I know they've had a brutal schedule, but they should be able to do more than have their only win by more than 1 point being an 8 point win over Detroit. 1-0. Then I expect a win against Miami in Blacksburg. We have the ability to shoot them out of their comfort. 2-0. Louisville is an interesting challenge, and I can't remember if we've beaten them in Louisville, but I think we might have a leg up in that we've played some decent teams to this point. 3-0. I will say talk to me after the Gonzaga game to make a more accurate prediction for UVA, but based on when I've seen, 4-0.