AD Vassallo is one smooth criminal, although he wasn't quite as smooth when he was stealing Dr. Pepper on campus and got caught. This time, he stole the hearts of Hokie fans when he willed Virginia Tech to a win over Duquesne in the first round of the NIT. Vassallo had an inspired evening putting up a sick stat line of 33 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 blocks, and only 1 turnover. Vassallo played like he was looking to impress NBA scouts, and I think that's just what he did, however if he really wants to be considered in the 2nd round of the NBA draft, he's going to have to keep it up and put together another great game against Baylor on Saturday morning at 11AM.
Aaron Jackson had a career night for the dukes going 15-25 from the floor, 8-9 from the free throw line, and 8-13 from the 3-point line, good for a total of 46 points. It felt like everything he put up in this game found its way into the basket. Jackson as a monster, and it didn't matter whether he was shooting the three or driving to the hoop. For Hokie fans, it felt like they were playing against a person who was "on fire" in NBA Jam and I kept waiting for the announcers to shout out, "He's on fire! Boom-shakalaka!" It never happened, but it happened in my head. It was a bittersweet night for the senior guard as he had a career night and made a great case for being an NBA draft pick, but his team lost in the end.
As for the game, the Hokies lead for the majority of the game in both regulation and overtime, but it seemed like they just couldn't hold off the hot-shooting Dukes. Everybody on the Dukes was getting into the action and they finished hitting 17-30 3-pointers, many with hands in their face or from several feet behind the 3-point arc. It would have been extremely easy for Tech to get discouraged and slump in their play, but they continued to do whatever they could to hold off and outlast Duquesne. Aaron Jackson finally cooled off in the 2nd overtime and the Dukes' Bill Clark fouled out, opening up the chance the Hokies needed to get some defensive stops. Tech had been getting easy buckets all night on the inside, leading to great games from Jeff Allen (23 pts) and JT Thompson (21 pts). Allen and Thompson combined to go a ridiculous 18-25 from the floor and the Tech team shot almost 60% for the game! I mean, that is just nuts. It's making me visibly ill just thinking about it.
Virginia Tech is in for an even tougher matchup on Saturday morning when they take on the Baylor Bears. Curtis Jerrells is every bit the phenomenal guard that Aaron Jackson was/is, so the Hokies will really have to defend him. The Bears took out an extremely talented, but slacking, Georgetown Hoya team last night, and did so with some easy alley-oops and clutch defense. The Hokies will really need to defend the paint on Saturday and make the Bears beat us with the jump shot. Jerrells is prone to the turnover, so I would like to see Greenberg do a little pressing/trapping in this game. This is certainly a game that VT can and should win if they don't take their foot off of the accelerator like they tend to do. Keep the train rolling, VT!
2 comments:
Why is it we were pushing it so hard on offense at the end of the second half with the lead? We could have easily slowed it down and let JT and Allen continue dominating down low and take time off the clock. Don't get me wrong it made for an exciting game, but also a frustrating one.
I think my best answer for that question is "because we always play right at our opponent's level." I'm sure the guys were excited that they were starting to pull away, so they became chuckers rather than baksetball players.
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