Let's talk turkey. We'll go with Hokie basketball today and football tomorrow. The VT men's basketball team kicked off their season yesterday with a 69-55 win over Brown University. That's right, they are indeed the red-headed step-child of the Ivy League, both in academics and in this case, basketball. The Bears were one of the worst teams in the Ivy League last season and they were not predicted to get much better this season. This is mostly because they rock a ton of underclassmen and also because they have a hard time recruiting talent. The smart athletes who can also play a little basketball go to Cornell, Princeton, and Penn. So you can see why I am a little disappointed in our 14 point win... I thought we were going to make some noise in the ACC this year, and we definitely still can, but good ACC teams usually blow out a bottom-dweller like Brown, and we didn't come close to doing that as we let them within 5 points twice in the second half and within 6 points as late as 8 minutes left in the half. That's not so great, but the history of Virginia Tech is to play up to (in this case "down to") our competition, so the result was not a huge surprise. However, a win is a win, and we'll take it!
You might be interested to know that Andrew McCarthy played in this game and scored a team-high 14 points! Andrew... loved you in Mannequin.
You might be interested to know that Andrew McCarthy played in this game and scored a team-high 14 points! Andrew... loved you in Mannequin.
I subscribed to the CBS All-Access application yesterday in order to watch the game, but what I didn't realize is that I had to watch the game live. I thought I could watch it from the beginning any time I wanted to, and so was forced to learn a $9.99 lesson as I turned the game on with about 2 minutes left. I will be canceling the subscription after this month... book it. So my thoughts on the game are cheapened by the fact that I didn't really see the game, I just read the recaps and checked out the box score. With that said, here are some things I was thinking about:
- Delaney was exactly what he needed to be... great. He shot well, hit his three-pointers, got to the foul line and made his shots for the most part, directed the offense, and seemingly was active on defense. My only beef... he played 38 of the 40 minutes. Why? This isn't on Delaney, it's on Seth Greenberg. I realize that you may not trust Erick Green because he's a freshman and so you only gave him 3 minutes at the point, but he made his only shot (a 3-pointer) and regardless of whether he makes huge mistakes, he just needs more time against these crappy opponents to get ready for ACC play! If we continue to put Delaney out there for 38 minutes every game, he's going to be so battered and bruised by January that we'll get destroyed in conference play. That's what happened at the end of last season, and I don't want it to happen again.
- Terrell Bell got the start on the wing in place of the departed AD Vassallo, and he played well. Bell is not going to be the big time scorer that AD was, but he showed the same ability to rebound that Vassallo had, and Bell is a much (MUCH) better defender. He tacked on 8 points, which is enough... we just need him to continue to be a defensive presence on the floor. I had thought JT Thompson might start for us at the 3, but Greenberg decided to have Thompson back up Allen at the 4 and Bell at the 3, which gave him quite a few minutes. Thompson didn't have a good game (shot 1-7 and turned the ball over 3 times), but I think that's not always going to be the case, so I give our coach some love for the smart move. JT has played his best minutes in past seasons at the 4, so I thought it was wise to have him play both at the 4 and the 3 instead of playing JT entirely on the wing at the 3 where he seems less comfortable.
- Delaney was exactly what he needed to be... great. He shot well, hit his three-pointers, got to the foul line and made his shots for the most part, directed the offense, and seemingly was active on defense. My only beef... he played 38 of the 40 minutes. Why? This isn't on Delaney, it's on Seth Greenberg. I realize that you may not trust Erick Green because he's a freshman and so you only gave him 3 minutes at the point, but he made his only shot (a 3-pointer) and regardless of whether he makes huge mistakes, he just needs more time against these crappy opponents to get ready for ACC play! If we continue to put Delaney out there for 38 minutes every game, he's going to be so battered and bruised by January that we'll get destroyed in conference play. That's what happened at the end of last season, and I don't want it to happen again.
- Terrell Bell got the start on the wing in place of the departed AD Vassallo, and he played well. Bell is not going to be the big time scorer that AD was, but he showed the same ability to rebound that Vassallo had, and Bell is a much (MUCH) better defender. He tacked on 8 points, which is enough... we just need him to continue to be a defensive presence on the floor. I had thought JT Thompson might start for us at the 3, but Greenberg decided to have Thompson back up Allen at the 4 and Bell at the 3, which gave him quite a few minutes. Thompson didn't have a good game (shot 1-7 and turned the ball over 3 times), but I think that's not always going to be the case, so I give our coach some love for the smart move. JT has played his best minutes in past seasons at the 4, so I thought it was wise to have him play both at the 4 and the 3 instead of playing JT entirely on the wing at the 3 where he seems less comfortable.
- I've been wondering if anyone is going to step up and take some of Vassallo's heavy scoring load this season, and it looks like there could be a few candidates. Bell and Hudson both have the ability to do that... Hudson is more of a natural scorer than Bell, but Hudson seems to be more of a streaky shooter as well. The third guy is obviously Victor Davila, who had 8 points and seemed very comfortable in the post... at least offensively. His defense still needs a lot of work. Davila shot 50% with some nice post moves. I'd like him to shoot better than 50% at the free throw line, and his shot there seems to be evidence that he can shoot better. He has a nice touch and good arc (unlike his predecessor Cheick Diakite). I really want to see him get tough inside and rebound the ball better, but there's plenty of time for him to improve on that.
- As we learned from Hank Thorns last year, Seth Greenberg typically gives players a "green light", "yellow light", or "red light" for shooting 3-pointers. Thorns was given a "yellow light", meaning he could only shoot them when he was wide open and he probably had a limit on how many he could shoot. I think Jeff Allen was in the same boat last year, but I think he has a "green light" this year. Allen shot four 3-pointers, and although he only made one, I think we'll continue to see him shoot from out there. He is a good shooter, and really does need to improve his range to have any shot at playing in the NBA. No NBA team is going to take a 6'7" power forward who can't shoot from outside, regardless of how well he plays in college.
- What surprised me the most was that Ben Boggs got the most minutes of all the freshmen. He played 10 minutes, and seemed to be able to hold his own out there. Boggs was a terrific high school player, but the fact that he only played at the state AA level and missed all of his senior season due to injury made me think he would come in with the hardest road to getting playing time of all the freshmen. He totally rubbed my face in it. I should have known, but the most important thing for Seth Greenberg is the ability to play defense, so if you can do that, you can get playing time. Just ask Marcus Sailes, who couldn't hit the broad-side of a barn, but was a key contributor to our last NCAA tournament team. Because of this, if Cadarian Raines can come back from injury and show the ability to rebound and defend, he could easily steal a lot of playing time from both Victor Davila and Lewis Witcher, regardless of how much he contributes offensively. And finally, Manny Atkins didn't get any playing time, which was a bit of a surprise to me. I thought he was supposed to be a pure scorer, but maybe his defense was too bad to get him on the court.
- Greenberg confused me a bit in that he didn't send the scrubs in to play in the last minute of the game when we clearly were going to win. The only reason I can see for this is that he wanted his starters to get the feel of closing a game with a win. Coach probably wanted his players to show that kind of hard-fought effort in Brown's last possession, and he can't be happy that they ended up getting a basket.
Will this be another unlucky season where the Hokies get beat on several last-second plays? I don't think so, but you never really know. If Tech continues to let lesser opponents play even with them throughout the entire season, there are going to be some heart-breakers. But unlike with my 8th grade crush, my heart will be much better prepared this time around. I've got a sincere little shout-out to Ann and Chip for that golden nugget. granted it's hard for a girl to know you have a crush on her if you don't speak up, but that's neither here nor there...
2 comments:
Love the basketball posts as always. How about breaking down what the Hokies need to do in their non-ACC schedule to have a legit shot at the NCAAs, assuming they do their typcial 7-9 or 8-8 run in the ACC?
Also, I think that the Hokies "play to their competition" because of their style of play. They really want to slow down the game, reduce the number of scoring opportunities and make it a defensive battle. When they can dictate the pace, it means they can have a shot against anyone in the country, but also means they can lose to anyone too (slight exaggeration on both ends obviously). Any thoughts on that?
I like it Gary, I will put together a post about that. There's truth that VT does look to slow the game down and limit possessions, but there are also games like against BC and Wake two years ago where we shoot well AND clamp down on defense. We have not shot well in the last two games... around 56% from the free throw line and we went 1-13 in 3-pointers in our last game. The team needs to shoot better. I like the improved defense we've shown so far, though.
Post a Comment