A Little Bit of This and That

I just wanted to throw out some Tech-related things that are on my mind today.

• Fantastic win for the football team against Florida State. I thought the Hokies thoroughly dominated the Seminoles in every aspect of the game.
• It seemed like Danny Coale would just teleport himself to any spot on the field where the defenders were missing and just wait for a pass from Tyrod. That's how it seemed when watching at home because you couldn't see Danny running his drag route. It was a great play call, and I feel weird saying that about Stiney... he may be progressing with his play calls.
• Similarly, the wheel route that David Wilson ran in order to get wide open for a streaking TD down the sideline was a thing of beauty, ran to perfection.
• The defense gave up their opening drive score like usual, but this time it was only a field goal. That's progress!
• FSU has a good/athletic defense, and we torched them for 37 points (I'm not counting Gouveia-Winslow's pick six). You have to like that and feel excited about what our offense could possibly do against Stanford's PAC-10 defense.
• I definitely like the Stanford/VT matchup in the Orange Bowl, although I think it's going to be tough for Tech. Our defense was actually the less reliable side of the ball this season, and Stanford has arguably the best quarterback in the college ranks... or at least the one rated highest by the NFL scouts. Logic says this will be a high-scoring game, but logic rarely wins out in bowl games when teams have a month to prepare for each other.
• The basketball team stunk out loud in their last two games. Losing to Purdue at home and then losing to an extremely young UVA team at home with our talent and experience is almost unforgiveable. There's still a lot of basketball to be played this season, but my hopes for an NCAA tournament berth are officially dashed. If this team can't win with Malcolm Delaney putting up 26 points on 67% shooting from the field, then I don't know any scenario where they get another win. That's drastic, I know, but man what a waste of a great performance.
• I know it's only 8 games, but I love that overall Delaney is shooting the ball better this season. He's not looking for fouls *quite* as much, with the exception of the Purdue game where he shot 2-18 from the field. Overall, Delaney is hitting 45% of his shots, including 44% from the 3-point line. I don't know if he can keep that pace up during the ACC slate, but it's a significant improvement over last season and is the main area other than point guard skills where Delaney needed the show the most improvement for the NBA scouts. Unfortunately, Delaney's assist/turnover ratio is brutal right now and completely prevents any NBA GM from considering bringing him onto their team.
• I like the improvement out of Victor Davila so far this season. After laying an egg against Campbell in the opening game, Davila has played soundly. He doesn't have good hands, his free throw shooting is abysmal, and his passing is fairly poor, but he's improved as far as boxing out & grabbing rebounds, blocking shots, and finishing his post moves on offense. I think he's playing with a lot more confidence this season, and it shows. In other words, he's starting to look like the player that Seth Greenberg thought he was getting when he recruited Davila. And one tiny thing that I love... Davila almost always grabs the opening tip off. He's 8-8 in winning the opening tip this season.
• Ben Boggs is transferring after finals, although I'm not sure where he's going yet. He wants more playing time, and I can't say I blame him. On a VT team where Dorenzo Hudson isn't giving us much at the shooting guard position, I am honestly a little surprised that Boggs hasn't gotten a look. This move certainly hurts Virginia Tech's depth this season, but it's probably a good thing going forward. Seth Greenberg wants to bring in another recruit for next season, a shot-blocking & rebounding center of some kind, and that's definitely something VT could use with Allan Chaney's future up in the air and Cadarian Raines looking like he will have a chronic foot problem for his entire college career. Center prospect Adjehi Baru is off the table as he has recently committed to the College of Charleston (extremely shady considering this player's projected talent). Baru's legal guardian has a son who plays basketball for the same high school team as Baru. Guess where his son is going to college?
• ESPN only shows two possible centers on Virginia Tech's radar right now, and neither are rated very highly. Ryan Rhoomes is a 2-star 6'8" power forward from a prep school in New Jersey and Blaise Mbargorba is a 2-star 6'11 center from a different prep school in New Jersey. Personally, I think Greenberg might offer Mbargorba. He's definitely a project, but there's a lot of upside there. This guy is still learning the game of basketball, but his raw athleticism in combination with his height makes him desirable. There's a reason Georgetown, Boston College, and Providence are also hovering around this guy. He feels like a taller Cheick Diakite to me, and that's not a bad player to have.