Hokie Hoops Central: Notre Dame (10-7) at Virginia Tech (13-5) Noon ACCN

Hokie Hoops Central:
Notre Dame (10-7)
at
Virginia Tech (13-5)
Noon
ACCN

BROADCAST INFORMATION
TV | ACCN
Anish Shroff, PxP
Scott Williams, Color

RADIO | VT Sports Network
Zach Mackey, PxP
Mike Burnop, Analyst

VIDEO STREAM LIVE STATS
ESPN.com and ESPN app stats.hokiesports.com

VT -6.5
O/U: 140.5
ESPN Analytics: VT 59.2%

Irish eyes ain't smilin....
Hokies have been bad, Irish have been worse. We have lost by not being able to close. Irish have done that once by way of the officials at Cal.

Their other two ACC losses to Clemson and Miami were both double-digit. Its when you look at their OOC losses that the inconsistent play becomes glaring. Lost at home to Purdue Fort Wayne, took Ohio State to the buzzer, beat Rutgers, lose to Houston. Their only ACC win was a barnburner.... 47-40 over Stanford....but they won....something we couldn't do.

Hammond will be seeing his Paul VI teammate Garrett Sundra.

Micah Shrewsberry has not been the coach Notre Dame thought they were poaching from Penn State. Reportedly had a good increase in NIL going into this season but the results are flat. May be he invested all of it into Haralson. The freshman was #17 in the 2025 class and has done well. There are two other Top 100 2025 kids in Koehler and Frost but both play minor roles off the bench.

The biggest factor in this game is that the Irish will be without leading scorer Markus Burton. He was averaging 18.5 points.

The Irish are also missing Senior Forward Kebba Njie off the bench. Big bodied, 6'10 forward playing about 15 mpg.

Tyler Johnson remains out for the Hokies

Shrewsberry's offense is intentionally controlled rather than fast. He values shot quality over shot volume, floor balance and spacing and decision-making guards.
Notre Dame under Shrewsberry generally plays at a slower tempo, ranking toward the bottom third nationally in pace. Possessions are meant to end with open perimeter shots, paint touches that collapse the defense or free throws.

The ball-screen game is the backbone of the offense. Use of high ball screens with the intent to force switches or drops
Guards are expected to turn the corner and either hit the roller or pass out to shooters. Forwards are not asked to be dominant post scorers; instead they set physical, well-timed screens and roll hard to occupy help defenders. A big part is to create spacing for guards to operate
Notre Dame's offense often looks stagnant early in possessions because Shrewsberry wants defenders to commit before the decisive action happens late in the clock. The offense rises or falls with guard play.

This season they shoot 52% inside, 37% from 3, and 69% from the line on about 18 attempts per game. Top 100 rebounding at 38 per game. Scoring the 266th fewest ppg. Very defense first and snails pace. They create less than 10 turnovers per game though.

Notre Dame typically plays deliberate, possession-by-possession defense, emphasizing positioning, communication, and trust in help principles over steals or chaos. They use a man-to-man primarily which focuses on strong ball pressure without overreaching. Shrewsberry expects help defenders to keep one foot in the paint. This defense is meant to stop the shot rather than taking risks to force turnovers. This is a man-to-man defense that comes as close to the pack line defense as possible.

Irish Starters
Jalen Haralson
#10 FR G 6-7 220 15.1 Pts, 3.4 Reb, 2.4 Ast

Braeden Shrewsberry
#11 JR G 6-3 189
11.3 Pts, 2.7 Reb, 1.4 Ast

Cole Certa
#5 SO G 6-5 185
8.9 Pts, 1.4 Reb, 0.6 Ast

Carson Towt
#33 SR F 6-7 225
6.8 Pts, 10.2 Reb, 1.8 Ast

Sir Mohammed
#13 SO G 6-6 200
5.0 Pts, 2.5 Reb, 1.2 Ast

Or

Garrett Sundra
#12 SO F 6-11 210
3.7 Pts, 3.5 Reb, 0.6 Ast

Irish Bench
Logan Imes
#2 JR G 6-4 189
4.2 Pts, 3.2 Reb, 1.4 Ast

Brady Koehler
#6 FR F 6-10 205
3.6 Pts, 2.1 Reb, 0.1 Ast

Ryder Frost
#7 FR F 6-6 215
2.6 Pts, 0.8 Reb, 0.1 Ast

OUT
Markus Burton
#3 JR G 5-11 166
18.5 Pts, 2.8 Reb, 3.7 Ast

Kebba Njie
14 SR F 6-10 237
2.5 Pts, 3.4 Reb, 0.2 Ast

The Hokies SHOULD be able to dominate inside on both ends. The question is will they? This is probably the smallest lineup the Hokies will see this year.

Until this teams shows hey have gotten rid of the end of game yips, I will be skeptical on any result.