Virginia Tech won a game on Sunday and the losing streak ends! They defeated Penn State 79-69 in what was a pretty good effort for the Hokies. The Nittany Lions aren't going to scare anyone and are probably going to finish the season as the worst team in the Big Ten (or at least close to the worst). The post players for PSU aren't great, so Seth Greenberg was able to keep Cadarian Raines out of this one, giving his foot some more time to heal. The thing that pleased me most about this game, other than the Hokies actually shooting the ball well, was the limited number of turnovers. VT only had 10 turnovers for the game, which continues a nice progression lately.
In the first 6 games of the season, VT was giving up far too many turnovers, and it looks like Coach Greenberg has put an emphasis on taking care of the basketball since then. Since VT's poor performance against UNLV, the Hokies reduced their turnovers to 13 v Perdue, 11 v UVA, and 10 v Penn State. That range is definitely more reasonable, and the biggest contributor to that improvement has been Erick Green. Green saw 21 minutes against Purdue, 16 minutes against UVA, and 27 minutes against Penn State... committing zero turnovers during that span in spite of the fact that he was primarily playing point guard. Point guards tend to have the ball in their hands more often than the other players on the floor, so their turnover rates are usually higher. That's not true for Green... he has the best turnover rate of any Hokie averaging a turnover every 39.33 minutes. Surprisingly Victor Davila has the best turnover rate of the starters with a turnover every 28.90 minutes. Malcolm Delaney is the worst with a turnover every 7.84 minutes and Dorenzo Hudson is the second worst with a turnover every 11.08 minutes.
As you all have probably figured out, I've become a fan of Erick Green this season. Last season he was skinny and mistake-prone, in addition to unreliable as a shooter. Green still hasn't found his shooting stroke with consistency (it is better, but still not good), but in every other aspect he's an excellent player. He's our best perimeter defender, our most efficient passer, and a guy who will fight for loose balls. I'd like to see him get more playing time, and if that's at the expense of Zo Hudson, then so be it. Zo looks like he's been playing injured as he has lost a step trying to lose defenders around screens and he's been a poor finisher near the basket. That's not the Dorenzo Hudson that we saw on a consistent basis after the Seton Hall game last year. Something has got to be wrong, and until it's not wrong anymore, I would like to see Green get more playing time.
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