Hokies Struggle Early in 78-63 Road Loss at Louisville

Virginia Tech men's basketball dropped the first of a four-game stretch against ranked ACC opponents.

[Louisville Athletics \ Michelle Hutchins]

The Virginia Tech men's basketball team kicked off a daunting four-game stretch against ranked opponents with a 78-63 loss to the No. 6 Louisville Cardinals Tuesday night. Don't let the 15 point deficit fool you: the Hokies (8-8; 0-3) were never in it. Louisville (15-2; 3-1) came out of the gates with incredible intensity, muscled their way to a 17-2 lead after seven minutes, and never looked back.

It was a tall order for this [insert young/undersized/shorthanded comment here] team; heading on the road against a talented Louisville squad looking to bounce back from a gut-wrenching 71-72 loss to North Carolina over the weekend.

A week ago, the hope was a spunky Hokies team could catch the Cardinals sleeping, with Tuesday's tilt sandwiched between marquee games against Carolina and Duke. Following the Tar Heels' stunning comeback win on Saturday, there was little chance Louisville would look past the Hokies.

For much of the first 30 minutes, the Hokies looked like a 16-seed going up against a top-ranked traditional power. The Louisville frontcourt bullied the Hokies in the paint to create easy scoring opportunities against the considerably undersized Hokies lineup. Cardinals center Mangok Mathiang dropped 10 points in the first twelve minutes of the game, using his incredible reach to hold the ball up and away from the Hokie defenders in the low post.

The Hokie defense struggled mightily to stop the Louisville high-low offense. Defenders continuously collapsed on former Virginia Tech commit Montrezl Harrell in the high post, providing him open kick-outs all over the floor.

"Mangok [Mathiang] played extremely well," noted Louisville coach Rick Pitino. "Montrezl [Harrell] didn't force the issue, he kept passing the basketball — lot of good things."

Despite entering Tuesday's game shooting a paltry 26.2% from distance, the Cardinals went 10-25 (40%) from three against the Hokies thanks to far too many open looks. Terry Rozier and Wayne Blackshear paced the Cards with 16 and 15 points, respectively, shooting a combined 7-13 from three-point range.

In many ways, it felt like more of the same from this Hokies team. Torched from three; dominated in the paint; and continually back on their heels.

Rick Pitino is no dummy. He has coached against Buzz Williams for the last 6 seasons, going back to their days in the Big East. After Louisville's practice on Monday, Pitino noted:

"Virginia Tech is Marquette. Our fans should be very familiar with Virginia Tech because they're exactly like Marquette. Buzz has some size, but he believes that to win a game he has to have what he calls, 'paint touches.' He's still coaching his team the same way and they're still very tough to go up against."

Pitino knew going into Tuesday's matchup exactly what a Buzz Williams team brings to the table, and he combined that knowledge with the Cardinals' athleticism to hound and disrupt the Hokies from the opening tip.

The Hokies repeatedly tried to get the ball into the paint, but seemingly every time one or more Cardinals defenders was waiting. Louisville's active hands and aggressive defense caused a great deal of disruption, and Harrell and Mathiang had a number of ferocious blocks that surely got in the Hokies' heads.

Give the Hokies credit. After falling behind by 15 points, they continued to play hard and repeatedly challenged the bigger, stronger Louisville post players. The Hokies did a much better job boxing out and rebounding the ball, finishing the game with a minus-7 rebounding margin despite a sub-par shooting performance and a clear size disadvantage.

Much maligned freshman center Satchel Pierce was given the start in place of Shane Henry and showed some surprising grit, battling hard to finish with 6 points and 4 rebounds (all of which occurred on the offensive end).

Fellow freshman Ahmed Hill had a fantastic game, leading all Hokies in minutes played (34) and finishing with 14 points and 7 boards (4 offensive). He nailed a pair of corner threes and had a couple of tough finishes near the rim to provide great energy in what could be a turning point for the up-and-down wing.

Adam Smith hit 5 of 7 three pointers for the second consecutive game en route to a 19 point performance that led all scorers. Justin Bibbs quietly added 15 points, 11 of which occurred in after halftime.

The silver lining is that while Tuesday's loss was humbling, there were some bright spots and a number of teaching moments from which to build off of.

"We've got to get a lot better, a lot tougher, play a lot harder," said Williams after the loss. "In all the ways they're good, those are all the ways that we need to improve."

The Hokies return home for four days before traveling to Chapel Hill to face No. 15 North Carolina on Sunday evening. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 and will be broadcast on ESPNU.

Comments

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I just sit on my couch and b*tch. - HokieChemE2016

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I just sit on my couch and b*tch. - HokieChemE2016

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Not the bagman VT deserves, but the bagman VT needs right now.

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-What we do is, if we need that extra push, you know what we do? -Put it up to fully dipped? -Fully dipped. Exactly. It's dork magic.

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"I don't know what a Hokie is, but God is one of them." - Lee Corso

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'Its easy to grin, when your ship comes in, and you've got the stock market beat,
but the man worthwhile, is the man who can smile, when his shorts are too tight in the seat'

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"That kid you're talking to right there, I think he played his nuts off! And you can quote me on that shit!" -Bud Foster

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West Virginian by birth, Hokie by choice

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"That kid you're talking to right there, I think he played his nuts off! And you can quote me on that shit!" -Bud Foster

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"We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior" Stephen M.R. Covey

“When life knocks you down plan to land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up, if you fall flat on your face it can kill your spirit” David Wilson

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

"We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior" Stephen M.R. Covey

“When life knocks you down plan to land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up, if you fall flat on your face it can kill your spirit” David Wilson