The 76 Classic

I'm back after a long weekend of turkey and sports! I have to say that Thanksgiving dinner with my wife's family was delicious, and I ate way more than a human being is meant to eat. We're still trying to kill off the leftovers. It was a pretty exciting weekend for Virginia Tech basketball as the Hokies took on Cal State Northridge, Oklahoma State, and UNLV in the 76 Classic in Anaheim, CA. VT handled Northridge pretty easily with a 72-56 win, then gutted out a comeback W against OK State 56-51, and finally dropped a stinker in the championship game against UNLV losing 71-59.

• I don't have too much to say about the game against Northridge... Tech needed to win that game convincingly since the disparity of talent definitely favored the Hokies, and for the most part they did win convincingly. The Hokies were active on defense and forced 25 turnovers, which was nice to see since that is supposed to be Tech's identity under Greenberg. Malcolm Delaney shot the ball well and had more assists than turnovers (finally!)... although he still gave the ball away 5 times. Erick Green went down with a calf strain on a dunk attempt (where he still managed to put the ball in the basket), and had to sit out the rest of the tournament. This proved to be a pretty big loss for the Hokies as freshman Tyrone Garland was forced to deal with the pressing defenses of OK State and UNLV, and didn't do too well, although he was effective against Northridge. Defensively, Green is a much better play than Garland and his presence was missed every time an opponent blew by Garland.
• You know what, I'm not going to go game-by-game... I'm just going to give my impressions for the weekend. The first is that somebody needs to go find Dorenzo Hudson. He was missing this weekend... I think he must have let some other dude from the Local Y play in his place. The guy wearing Zo's jersey was extremely ineffective all weekend and couldn't hit a bucket from distance to save his life. Whoever that guy was, he didn't seem to have any confidence in his shot.
• Malcolm Delaney had a bit of a coming-out party against UNLV... it was his first dominant performance of the season. Too bad nobody else showed up for it. Delaney was 7-9 on 3-point shots and carried the Hokies when everything else seemed to go wrong. For the weekend, Delaney was 18-33 (54.5%) from the field, 10-17 (58.8%) on 3-pointers, and shot 17-22 (77.3%) from the foul line. That's dominant, especially considering the volume of attempts. He did average about 5 turnovers per game, and that's still way too high. However, overall, he was by far the best player for the Hokies in the 76 Classic.
• Victor Davila was pretty decent, which was a nice change of pace. He didn't have a great game against UNLV, but when you look at his weekend as a whole, he was 9-12 from the field and averaged a little over 5 rebounds per game. The shooting that we were hoping to get from Davila last season seems to have arrived... let's just hope it hangs around for a while. That dude really needs to learn how to shoot free throws in games though. He shot 50% on the weekend. I said it once and I'll say it again: I have no idea how a guy with that nice of a shooting stroke at the foul line can fail so miserably.
• Jeff Allen. I'm getting pretty sick of his shenanigans. I think we know now that he is never going to overcome his fouling ways. He gets too hyped up when everything is breaking down for the Hokies and commits dumb fouls. That's just what he does. He gets frustrated and reaches in to try to steal the ball or power his way through a grounded defender, and I think that's always how it's going to be. VT's ability to defend and rebound down low rests almost solely on this guy, and he's way too erratic to count on.
• I was happy to see Terrell Bell get his act together when we needed him the most... against OK State and UNLV. He got hit with some hideous foul calls that he didn't earn, but for the most part he managed to overcome that and be a nice compliment to Delaney. Right now I would definitely call him the 2nd most important player on the team. He really fills up a stat sheet.
• After a hot start, Jarell Eddie has definitely cooled off. I think he feels a little overmatched right now and it's showing in his shot selection and knack for picking up dumb fouls. When he is open, he has been able to hit his long-range 2's, but not his 3's. Granted, he's being asked to play the power foward position pretty often, and that's just not his spot. Eddie's production might be helped by Cadarian Raines' health and a home game or two (remember, VT has only played one so far!).
• Speaking of which, Raines is definitely not ready to contribute as much as he needs to. It looks like Greenberg shut him down for most of the weekend and only gave him a few minutes here and there. During that time, Raines picked up a smorgasborg of fouls and didn't add too much.
• I don't know if I like Greenberg's rotations right now. I think Davila and Allen are playing together too often, which occasionally leads to both players being pulled off the court due to foul problems. Cadarian Raines or Jarell Eddie needs to be complimented by either Davila or Allen so that VT has at least one offensive presence in the post. Man I wish we had either Allan Chaney or JT Thompson this season... they would have helped out so much. There's no use crying over spilled milk though.
• All-in-all, the Hokies got a decent win against Oklahoma State, but failed to capitalize again on winning a game that the selection committee will value highly. They really need to beat Purdue this week. That's all there is to it... this has to happen.
• I think the win against Oklahoma State could be a big X-factor for the Hokies down the stretch. They have a fairly easy out-of-conference schedule, with their only truly tough game coming against Gonzaga at the end of the month. There other two tests in the out-of-conference schedule are Alabama and Stanford... both winnable games for the Cowboys. As for their Big 12 schedule, they have a good one. They only play Kansas State, Kansas, and Missouri once... they get K-State and Mizzou at home. They get Texas and Baylor twice... plenty of chances for them to pick up a big win here and there. In short, I think Okie State has an outside chance to finish as a top-25 team in the RPI, and I have a hard time seeing them finish worse than 50th in the RPI. This should end up being a quality win for VT.