The game last night was played at a frantic pace... definitely not what we're used to as VT fans, but this Hokie team has done a good job of adjusting to other styles of play besides the slow-down style we prefer. The game against VMI is a good example of this. The difference in this game came down to foul shots. Wake fouled VT a lot. VT didn't foul Wake as much (although I'm guessing most Wake Forest fans are not in agreement here, but they're a bunch of punks anyway so they can go cram it with walnuts). I thought the defining play of the night was Dorenzo Hudson's Sportscenter-worthy dunk with about 12 minutes left in the game. That dunk seemed to fire up our team and give them the encouragement to beat the Demon Deacons. Until that point in the second half, we basically traded baskets for 8 straight minutes. I wanted to hurt things during that stretch. Tech was shooting so well, but so was Wake. Then the rim-rocking jam by Hudson changed the course of the game. Since I am prone to making bullet points, here are some other things to note from last night's game:
- Terrell Bell was a man. 7 offensive rebounds and 7 defensive rebounds (that's 14 total for all you liberal arts majors). He also had 4 blocks in the game. He didn't light up the scoreboard, but he lit up the crowd with some huge plays.
- Jeff Allen was basically a non-factor in this one. He got in foul trouble keeping him out for long stretches and he turned the ball over when he was in the game. He had a few nice baskets, but you'd like him to be more of a presence against Al-Farouq Aminu. Instead...
- JT Thompson showed why he's a legit candidate for sixth man of the year (you know, if such an award existed at the college level). He gives great defense despite being constantly outmatched in the height department, and he gives you scoring exactly when the team needs it. He made 5-10 shots from the field, but hit all 6 of his free throws... not bad for a 58% foul shooter (although he's really been much better than that in ACC play).
- Malcolm Delaney seemed to at least BEGIN to understand that he can't look for contact on every single shot. There were a few plays he made where the Malcolm Delaney from two games ago would have given himself no chance to hit the shot and gone barreling into the defender hoping to get the foul, whereas this time he decided to put up a difficult but open shot. He made almost every shot he attempted that would fall into this category. I really hope that this is the Malcolm Delaney we see going forward... the one who knows the right time to draw the foul and yet also knows when to avoid the defender and put up the shot.
- Obviously, a lot of credit needs to go to Seth Greenberg. At halftime, he realized that the Hokies had chances to shot fake and get their opponents up into the air for either easier shots or else chances at fouls, and the VT players capitalized on those chances. He also decided to play some zone defense to try to force the Wake Forest players to shoot long jumpers. I've been going back and forth with a few friends about whether this was actually successful or not. In my mind, Ish Smith destroyed us in the zone because he knew exactly where to drive the ball and then kick to the open man once he got double- or triple-teamed. And frankly, I thought the announcers gave Aminu far too much credit for Smith's good play... at least half of Aminu's points were easy dunks and layups made available by Smith drawing defenders to himself. At any rate, I need to watch the game again to see if I am remembering correctly. My initial thought is that LD Williams, a piss-poor jump shooter, torched us from the outside to the tune of 9 for 11 while we were dealing with Smith in the zone. I'll know more after another viewing.
- Back to Greenberg... I just feel like he's done a better job with his halftime talks this year. The Hokies have rarely come out looking like they didn't know what to do in the second half this season, as opposed to last season where it felt like we were frequently out-coached in the second half. In all likelihood, it's not that Greenberg has gotten better or was worse last year, but it's that the players are more experienced and have been able to execute his advice better. Either way, I freaking love it.
- Chas McFarland is a dirty piece of horse crap. I can't say it any nicer than that. I can't tell you how happy I was to see that the refs gave him his deserved technical foul after he walked directly towards JT Thompson and bumped him. I was afraid they hadn't seen this. Just in case you don't remember, McFarland did the same thing to Malcolm Delaney last year (starts around 1:10), except he threw a much harder shoulder into Delaney, and he did it from behind so Delaney didn't see it coming. Classy guy with a classy trash-stache.
- Aminu is athletic and he can rebound, but what else can he do? I didn't see much of an ability for him to create his own shot and he doesn't seem to be a great shooter. So why is this guy an NBA lottery-pick in the making? Let's see what happens to his career when Ish Smith isn't around to inflate his stats.
5 comments:
Nice post. I'm still not completely on board with the idea that we've punched our ticket without another Top 50 win. If we beat BC and NC State and lose to Duke, MD and GT, that makes us 2-5 against the Top 50. I don't think that our RPI will suffer too much under that scenario, but the same "VT lacks quality wins" criticism that applied before last night will rear its ugly head again.
Ideally, we take out Duke or GT on the road and earn a huge quality road win. That would make our case ironclad. But a home win against Maryland should also do the trick.
I can see how you would say that, and I am not saying you're wrong. But if we finish with a top 25 RPI win and a top 50 RPI win without having any bad losses (even if UNC ends up a "bad loss", the committee won't see it that way), then I would think we're getting in. I'm not saying wins over BC and NC State makes us a lock. I'm saying it probably means we're on the bubble but ultimately included. We'll have 23 wins with 2 top-50 wins and no bad losses... I'm willing to bet that no team has ever been left out of the tournament with that resume.
Two things. I think we are dancing. Probably no lower than a 13. Secondly Chas is dirty last year he poked Malcolm in the eye.
Thirdly i know i said two things, The zone worked. We were able to limit Ish in the second half until about 3 mintues left. By this time we were in the zone and making things happen.
Pat - We were the first ever ACC team with a winning conference record to be left out of the tournament, so we're pretty good at being the first team to get royally screwed by the selection committee. When it's all said and done, I'm hoping this conversation was one big moot point. No offense or anything.
I feel you Eric, but the ACC also had only 8-9 members for the majority of its history. So it's not so strange that teams with a winning record have never been left out of the NCAA tournament when you consider that you're talking about the top 4 or 5 teams in the ACC rather than the top 6 or 7. You also have to consider that for many years, the ACC was the undisputed best basketball conference, but that's not true anymore. The Big East has been the best basketball conference pretty much since the first year that VT came into the ACC. That's pretty unlucky for us!
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