Virginia Tech lost another game that they really needed to win at Florida State on Sunday to drop to 7-9 in the ACC. Tech has lost 6 of their last 7 games and is heading into the ACC tournament as cold as any team in the nation. Tech lost 63-53 on a night where they turned the ball over 17 times and couldn't buy a basket against a stingy FSU defense.
The Big Three of Delaney, Vassallo, and Allen were monumentally disappointing in this game, combining to go 9-29 from the field... that's not going to win any games. The Hokies looked lackluster and lost all afternoon as Florida State repeatedly took advantage of the Hokies being out of position. The best example of this was on an inbounds play where Coach Greenberg was yelling at Vassallo to get down near the basket, and as Vassallo trotted back you could see Jordan DeMercy skying for an alley-oop dunk. It was an ugly loss and probably the second-worst game for VT (aside from our first loss to Duke), so I think I'm done talking about it. The supporting cast had an okay game, but nothing to write home about. Cheick Diakite did have a career-high 11 rebounds in this game, but that's kind of an embarrassing stat for a starting center. I believe it's called Schadenfreude.
Instead, let's talk about that tattoo on AD Vassallo's right arm. I've never noticed that before... was it new? Because if that idiot got a tattoo on his shooting arm DURING the season, I'm going to have to mail him threatening letters and poisoned muffins. Okay, not really, but that tattoo at least looked like it was freshened up a bit if it wasn't brand new, so I am going to go ahead and stay pissed off at AD for being a complete moron both on and off the court. Actually yep, I just verified that he didn't have that tattoo during the game at Clemson, so it's brand new. Nothing like having a sore shooting arm when you're trying to get your team into the NCAA tournament. Gotta love the stupidity.
Alright, I have decided that was enough bashing of the Hokies... although they certainly deserve to be hated on right now. The NIT tournament looks all but assured for us right now. We would have to win at least 2 ACC tournament games to get into the bubble talk for the NCAA tournament. A lot of Hokie fans are being pessimistic thinking that we need to win 3 games getting to the final game or even win the whole thing, but I don't agree with that. Since we play UNC in our second game, I think we only need to beat Miami then UNC to get an invite. It's time to temper our expectations though... UNC took one of our best efforts of the year at home in Blacksburg, and still beat us by 8 points and led us for the whole game. The Hokies would need more than a great game... they would need a ton of luck, and that is something that seems to be in short supply this season. The NIT will give Seth Greensberg a chance to see what he's got in some of his players who will need to contribute next year. I'm thinking specifically of Terrell Bell and Victor Davila.
Bell has a chance to vie for a lot of the minutes that will be opened up by the departure of AD Vassallo. I fully expect Victor Davila to eat up all of the minutes that will be opened up by the loss of Cheick Diakite, and I'm excited to see what he can do next year. Greenberg has really coached him up and he seems to have responded well. He's no longer just an offensive player... he's shown he can defend some of the better post players in the ACC when he is focused and determined. If Davila can work on hitting a 12-15 foot jump shot, he'll really be a weapon next year.
The ACC tournament starts this weekend and the Hokies will take on the Miami Hurricanes Thursday at noon. I will definitely be taking a long lunch on Thursday. VT beat Miami on the Canes' home court earlier this season, so we know a win on a neutral court is certainly possible. Miami fans do not travel well, so VT will probably have the larger portion of fans in a crowd that is mostly going to be fans of other ACC teams. Hopefully those fans will be rooting for Tech because, hey, nobody likes Miami.
5 comments:
He didn't even have the tatoo against UNC so yeah that's pretty stupid.
Since he probably doesn't go to class at this point, he obviously needed some way to spend his extra time (extra practice is only for players that want to get better).
I think this season can be summed up as follows:
A decent team that needed to rely offensively on three players to have a chance to beat good teams. Jeff Allen consistently disappeared (sometimes his fault, sometimes not), Delany became a streaky shooter at the end of the year and Vassallo was streaky a lot of the time. They could shoot their team into and out of games consistently.
On defense, this wasn't a great man-up lock-down team (oh where have you gone Deron Washington, Jamon Gordon, even Bryant Matthews?).
For Tech to be competitive in the ACC, they need to be a team that can play defense, because they'll never recruit like the Carolina schools.
I have some pictures from the VT-UNC game and it seems he has already the tattoo, but still unfinished.
Anyway, it's really stupid!
He didn't have the tat; it was a recent addition. He has slowly become one of my least favorites stars of all time. He plays lazy defense, makes terrible passes, and as a senior has shown no ability to be a leader. IM excited for this team though. The core returns with some great freshman coming in. Delaney is hurt right now (the streaker shooting is a sum of two injuries one we know of the hip, and one that no one is willing to talk about but there are bigger things going on supposedly.) This team with Jeff getting a chance to add some muscle to that frame now and delany, thorns, davilla, bell, and the oh so crappy hudson returning are in good shape for next year. You through in MO MO if he qualifies, Cadarian raines who has turned into a real monster at Petersburg, and the kid from the 757 and I think you could see be a real head turner next year. Mo MO needs to qualify and needs to shoot the lights out which he has shown he can do.
That would be even stupider if he started the tat before the UNC game then finished it before the FSU game... that's two games with his arm being sore instead of one. What a dumbass. Marty, good point about how we're looking for next year... I'm excited to write that post after the season is over. Who is from the 757? I didn't think any of our recruits were from there.
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