HOKIES HOOPS CENTRAL: Richmond (23-9) at Virginia Tech (18-14) 9PM ESPN2
It's a postseason gameday at the crib 🏰🔥🏆 NIT First Round🆚 Richmond🕘 9PM ET📺 ESPN2#StoneByStone x #Hokies pic.twitter.com/7sWq8AKmde— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) March 19, 2024
Richmond (23-9)
At Virginia Tech (18-14)
March 19th, 2024
Cassell Coliseum
9 p.m. ET
ESPN2
Virginia Tech Sports Network
ESPN2
Play-by-Play:
Analyst:
Local Radio
Virginia Tech Sports Network
Play-by-Play: Zach Mackey
Analyst: Mike Burnop
Current Spread: VT -1.5
Over/Under: -149.5
No idea
The Hokies host the Richmond Spiders in the first round of the NIT. This will be the 109th time the Hokies have faced the Spiders and the first time since 2009 which the Hokies won 62-48. The teams first played each other in 1915. The Hokies lead the overall series 69-39.
The Richmond Spiders squad comes in having just lost to Saint Joes in the A-10 Tournament and to George Mason in their final regular season game. They are 23-9 on the season and 15-4 in the A10. The Spiders have been coached by Chris Mooney since 2005. Richmond is his third head coaching job with stops at Beaver and Air Force before Richmond.
Richmond lost eight players at the end of last season. The Spiders transfers of Jordan King, formerly of Siena and ETSU, who has surpassed 1,200 career points now entering his graduate season. He was the sixth leading scorer in the Southern Conference last season which definitely helped provide a punch on offense as their leading scorer. Delonnie Hunt transferred in from Wagner after posting career numbers in points (11.1) and steals (1.2) and carried that through this season for Richmond. The freshman class is Collin Tanner, a 6'6" guard who was the No.2 ranked recruit out of North Carolina, Mikkel Tyne was the No.10 guy out of Maryland, and Trevor Smith was the No.5 best prospect out of Virginia. Only Tyne has played a minor role so far this season.
Richmond lost Jason Roche to a knee injury, reducing their bench depth in the frontcourt
Richmond returned 35.8% of minutes played and 37.9% of scoring return from 2022-23 roster. The Spiders five starters average at least 26 mpg and have four more benches guys that play at least 10 mpg. The starting five are King, Bigelow, Bailey, Hunt and Quinn. Walz, Tyne and Harris are the primary subs off the bench.
Mooney's focus is a variety of zone defense focused on matching opponents strengths. His teams use a variety of man-to-man principles while playing zone. Against the Hokies I expect to see a combination of 3-2 zone and 4 out-1 in zone concepts due to the Hokies preference of finding perimeter shots.
Offensively, the Spiders use a modified version of the Princeton offense. Focus inside the perimeter is on pass and cut lay-ups and driving lay-ups from various spots on the floor. The team this season have relied on perimeter movement of the ball to shoot at times but their primary focus is in getting into the paint. They rely on starters to score nearly 61.7 of their 72 points per game.
Spiders Backcourt
Jordan King
2 SR G 6-0 175
18.4 Pts, 3.8 Reb, 2.5 Ast
Isaiah Bigelow
24 SR G 6-7 185
11.1 Pts, 6.4 Reb, 0.7 Ast
Dji Bailey
4 SR G 6-5 175
10.0 Pts, 4.5 Reb, 2.3 Ast
Delonnie Hunt
3 SR G 6-0 160
9.5 Pts, 2.9 Reb, 1.8 Ast
Mikkel Tyne
12 FR G 5-10 180
4.0 Pts, 2.2 Reb, 0.9 Ast
Tyler Harris
9 SR G 6-7 195
2.5 Pts, 1.9 Reb, 0.5 Ast
Spiders Frontcourt
Neal Quinn
32 SR F 7-0 280
12.7 Pts, 5.4 Reb, 3.9 Ast
Michael Walz
21 SO C 6-11 250
2.8 Pts, 2.5 Reb, 1.1 Ast
Aidan Noyes
35 SO F 6-7 190
2.9 Pts, 2.5 Reb, 0.1 Ast
What to expect from Richmond?
The Spiders will run a four guard/single forward set looking to push the pace and create as many possessions as possible. They are led in scoring by their starting guard Jordan King. He and Bailey split duties at the top of the key but they look to King to drive the offense. The Hokies will need to account for him from 40 feet in as he is shooting 42% from the perimeter and 49% inside.
Neal Quinn will be one of the biggest opponents the Hokies have seen this season. Seven feet tall and 285 pounds banging around underneath. Even Poteat may struggle to counter him. That said, Quinn does allow himself to get into foul trouble early and often. As a team though, fouls are very minimal. The use of zone defenses and changing them up allows Richmond to employ double teams that force opponents to adjust.
One area of weakness for Richmond is rebounding. They consistently come up short, especially on the offensive end. That is a big positive for the Hokies, who normally allow significant second chance points.
In losses, one glaring item stands out and that's poor perimeter shooting. In seven of nine losses, the Spiders shot less than 30% from outside. That only occurred in four of their 26 wins this season. In those four wins, their opponents highest shooting percentage was 37% and 30% from outside.
The Hokies
The #Hokies defend our 🏰@HokiesWBB, @HokiesMBB and @HokiesWrestling have the combined second-highest home win percentage across Division I sports! 📎: https://t.co/byywV8auZA pic.twitter.com/XmnvVM5S6s— HokieSports (@hokiesports) March 18, 2024
This team plays well at home. All the parts that fell in place to make this a home game gives Hunter Cattoor one more chance to play in Cassell and I expect him to take full advantage. Boston College earlier this season shot almost 40% from three and more importantly held Richmond under 30% from the perimeter. Richmond allowed seven opponents to shoot at least 40% from outside.
The Hokies overall will have a size advantage but seeing how Kidd and Poteat handle Quinn in the paint will go a long way on deciding this game. Kidd is not shown on the injury report so hopefully he is able to play.
On defense, the Hokies need to put less emphasis on guarding the perimeter and more focus on denying paint touches and disrupting cuts without the ball. Richmond can shoot the three but their biggest impact is getting teams off balance to find guys cutting to the basket for easy layups.
Who outside of Cattoor and Pedulla can step up for the Hokies? They need Collins or Nickel to create or one of the bigs to to have a big game inside considering how balanced Richmond is across their starting five scoring wise. The Hokies have shown a willingness to go inside but need a much more productive version of that if they are going to be successful. Take the ball right at Quinn early and often. Get him to the bench early and it frees up Kidd and Poteat to create.
In Closing
The Hokies will have a sold out Cassell behind them, although looking at Seat Geek, it may not get as full as everyone wants considering some of the exorbitant prices tickets are listed for on the secondary market. Can the Hokies tap into that though considering the success they have had at home this season?
Who wins the points in the paint battle/free throw line scoring will go a long way to deciding this contest. King is extremely undersized but also extremely quick so Cattoor will have his hands full there. Hokies definitely need to avoid hero ball and their seemingly patented four minute dead periods.
Comments
LET'S GO!!!
HOKIES!!!!
HOKIES!!!
Game time
Looks like they added applique lines to extend the paint areas based on the experimental NIT rule.
And damn I thought Cornell was going to pull off the upset of Ohio State
Both teams playing like they are hungover...
This is just ugly
Tough watch. Hokies should probably be up 10-0
The good news? one assist on one made FG!
Kidd has zero inside presence vs Quinn. Short range jumpers like the one Kidd hit may be it for him. Poteat may be a different story and is probably the better match up.
And, it would be nice to hit an open 3
5 of the least attractive minutes of basketball I've ever seen.
If we keep this up we will be down 10 in a few possessions
This is just disgusting
This is pathetic
Two points in EIGHT MINUTES
And it's not like they're playing really good defense against us! We just can't get a good shot
1-15 from the floor. 0-7 from 3.
Good thing Richmond is only shooting 4-13
Who's getting fired tomorrow?
We're still at one assist on one made FG!
With that air ball, we are officially in trouble
Hokies have to stop going under the screens. Richmond using their big to wall off and give wide open threes
Do they even want to be there?
Pedulla got head checked there
That put back was sexy as fuck.
Too sexy for my
shirtrebound.Hokies now have a better shooting percentage than Richmond. Now to clean up the perimeter shooting and put it away.
Okay. So I stopped watching the game while sitting in font of the basement big screen busy setting up Zelle to pay for a gun raffle ticket for a local non-profit game association. As I was doing so, I heard the multiple scoring possessions but didn't see a single one. Possibly, I should take a play from Forrest Gumps on playbook and only listen to the TV for the remainder of the game???
The way this game started, to be up by five at the half is a major accomplishment.
- Doug Sherman, commentator
They must have had another game on their monitors.
Cassell looks empty from the end of court camera angle
Pretty sure it was the smallest crowd of the year. When we got our tickets the rows in front of us were sold. 3 empty rows except for 6 people that came late. 9pm games are tough to get working people in the seats, especially with essentially 48 hours notice of game time.
LOLuva down 22-14 with 3:44 to go in the first half.
As a Hokie in Richmond I kind of wish we had played at UR tonight. Probably would have been a better overall turnout.
Why do we never get the home court advantage from the refs?
They keep asking if the players wanna be here..:do the refs wanna be here!? Jesus Christ they aren't calling anything we're being grabbed every time
The play where their 7 footer hugged Poteat all the way to the basket in the direct line of sight of the back official and no foul should have resulted in the back official being replaced by the spare ref. That was soooooo bad
loluva... 14 points in the first half... 9 minute, 20 second scoring drought.
how did they get in the big dance?
Now 32-14.
I miss the days where the play-by-play announcer actually described what was going on the court for 90-ish% of the game. These days we're lucky to get 25%.
This!!!
the whole squabble about the start time was grating, the producer should have been screaming in their headsets.
That was straight up a back court violation
How was all that contact on Cattoor not a foul?
All the good refs at the ncaat as well?
Good to have cruised to the W there at the end...finally got in a stride. However, we can't have any of that sloppiness, poor decisions, and poor shooting if we expect to run with or beat anOSU...especially not on their turf with our piss-poor away record. Even still, a W is a W! Go Hokies!
Hokies had 16 points in first ten minutes of each half.
58 points in the second ten minutes of each half.
Are you saying that we need faster-acting PEDs to start each half with?
Exactly! Stop using the delayed-release roids and get that fast acting junk.