Make sure you “Cheick” out the block by Diakite; the Dominique Hawkins-like windmill jam by Deron; and the in-your-face power slam by Allen. The offense was a little shaky, but the defense was wicked awesome.

To read the Tech Hoops game recap, click here.

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I think über stats geek Niemo superbly recapped the win last night. Though, one set of stats that I did not see was a comparison between this year’s trio of freshmen, Jeff Allen, Hank Thorns and Malcolm Delaney, and the freshmen of yore; Zabian Dowdell, Coleman Collins and Jamon Gordon.

Allen, Thorns and Delaney have combined this season for:
26.8 pts | 13.3 rebs | 7.9 assists | 76.5 min

Dowdell, Collins and Gordon as freshmen:
29.3 pts | 11.1 rebs | 8.3 assists | 90.7 min

That’s not too shabby. Though, this year’s crop of freshmen have a lot of work to do when it comes to managing the offense. The two most important areas of improvement they need to focus on before entering ACC play include better shot selection and taking better care of the ball. Tech forces a lot of bad shots and seem to have trouble moving the ball around and getting into any kind of offensive rhythm.

Niemo can correct me if I am wrong (highly likely), but it looked like gwu was running either a 2-3 zone or even a matchup zone, but at one point, they switched to a straight up man-to-man defense and it gave the Hokies fits. It looked as though the Tech freshmen were more comfortable with a zone defense where they have more room to work. Once gwu got in their faces, I saw their inexperience show. Regardless, this is one heck of a group of rookies and I am not ashamed to admit that I actually get giddy as a school girl when I think about how great this team will be.

The defense, like Niemo wrote in his recap, is just sick. Coach Greenberg really has these kids playing relentless and aggressive D.

Overall, it was a nice win against a quality program that has three consecutive 20-win seasons and three straight NCAA Tournament appearances. Next up … Liberty on Dec. 19. I will be at that game, too.

One last note…
About the attendance at tonight’s game … Virginia Tech has to do something about the ticket situation with the men’s basketball team. Every game is “sold out” this season which means that if you want to go to a game and you aren’t a student or a season ticket holder, you must use a message board or a ticket broker designated and endorsed by the university.

I had a pair of tickets to the game (thanks Wick!), but needed one more. I tried using the ticket broker, which said it had 17 tickets available under $100 (I should hope so). But, when I clicked on the link to show me the tickets, it said there were none available. Luckily, we found a guy who was selling three tickets, but it was a complete pain.

Once the game was underway, there were empty seats everywhere. It was absurd. I had a jim dandy of a time getting a ticket and the Cassell was barely half full. J-Weave needs to make it easier for season ticket holders to put their unused tickets back into the system. I know I am probably preaching to the choir, but I this whole ticket thing is new to me. I used to be on press row or on the floor with a camera. Yep, that’s how I rolled back in the day. So, this is how the other half lives, huh?

Niemo’s Three Cents:

• The word “geek” and “Niemo” have no business being in the same sentence. I prefer “stat guru”.
• The man defense has given VT problems this year. The main reason, as I see it, is Delaney is not as strong a ball-handler as I would have hoped. He has trouble dribbling and penetrating in a crowd. Also, teams don’t respect Thorns penetrating. They don’t leave their man to help stop him, which would free someone else up for a kick-out or dump inside. Instead, they know the defender can catch back up and block his shot fairly easy due to his 5’9″ stature. Dorenzo Hudson is not strong on the dribble either, so don’t look for him to add much help. This is a similar issue VT faced in Gordon/Dowdell’s early years. Neither was a strong ball-handler. This will take time.
• Dorenzo Hudson is the “Jamon Gordon” of this group of freshman. He is a big, strong player. He will be able to physically man-handle other guards. I expect that by the end of the season, he will be getting the most minutes per game of Thorns, Delaney, and Hudson. However, since he is not a strong ball-handler, that might cost him minutes.
• Keep in mind that the stats for Collins, Gordon, and Dowdell above were for the whole season, not just eight games. Will be interesting to see where these stats are at the end of the year.
• Your stats were a bit off, I fixed them [guru].

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[Gary Cope-acabana will be adding his thoughts from the game soon...]

The Hokies played their best game of the season and got their first quality win of the season in a 68-36 woodshed victory over former A-10 rival george washington university. The series is now tied at 36-36. The Hokies won their 18th straight home game against a non-conference foe.

The game was over by the first media timeout of the Second Half as VT used a 15-8 run to start the half and go ahead 45-22.

The key for the Hokies was the defense. VT held gwu’s high scorer, Rob Diggs, scoreless on 0/6 shooting. Their second leading scorer, former Hokie wynton witherspoon, didn’t score until the 10:10 mark of the Second Half and finished with just 7 points, all after the game was decided.

gwu’s only chance against the bigger Hokies was to hit three’s, and they couldn’t. gwu shot just 26% for the game and was just 6/25 on three’s. They literally could not hit the broadside of a barn.

In addition to gwu’s poor shooting, VT dominated the colonials inside. Tech got much easier looks than gwu. This led to Tech shooting close to 50% on 28/59 shooting (48%).

A.D. Vassallo led Tech with 18 points. Even more encouraging is he broke out of his recent shooting slump by hitting 7/12 from the field and 4/7 on three’s. Could it be because he finally got a haircut? Yep, the ‘fro is gone.

Deron Washington had 17, including a breakaway Dominique Wilkins-like windmill dunk.

Virginia Tech used stifling defense and a 13-2 run to close the First Half to jump out to a 30-14 halftime lead over gwu. For the second consecutive game, VT held their opponent to just 14 First Half points. Check out gwu’s total points at each media timeout (every 4 minutes):

• under 16: 2
• under 12: 4
• under 08: 7
• under 04: 12
• Halftime: 14

This team is still a work in progress on offense, but the D is really getting good. Tech did a great job of switching off on screens and making it difficult for the gwu guards to penetrate. It is hard to setup your offense when you are way out on the perimeter. Greenberg’s specialty, great defense, is really showing now. Even more impressive, gwu shot just 19% in the First Half (5/27). Greenberg said after the game, “We are making progression defensively… We are starting to understand being in gaps, closing out with our hands above the basketball, not getting split, helping the helper… A good team defensive effort instead of an individual defensive effort.”

Cheick Diakite really played great in this game. He had three blocks, hustled to either get rebounds or deflect them to other teammates, and picked up his first assist of the season on a beautiful pass to Jeff Allen that led to a dunk. Diakite was getting double-teamed on the play. He did tweak a hamstring in the Second Half. The severity is not known at this time.

[Update from Cope-acabana: At the post game Roundball Club soiree, Diakite was walking around just fine. He said it was a cramp in his right leg, which would explain why I saw him using some type of metal rod to stretch his right quad out on the bench.]

Jeff Allen had his fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds. He wasn’t very involved on the offense end but did a great job on the boards and had a steal. He does a great job of getting in the passing lanes on D, similar to what Jamon Gordon and Zabian Dowdell used to do. VT still needs to find ways to get him the ball.

Tech continues to do a decent job on the boards, outrebounding gwu 41-33 and 10-9 on the offensive glass.

The only positive for gwu was clemson-transfer Cheyenne Moore. He had 13 points and was the only colonial that shot over 50%.

Highlights of the Game:

1. J.T. Thompson’s steal and left-handed dunk in the face of a gwu opponent.
2. Deron Washington’s breakaway windmill dunk.
3. A.D. Vassallo’s block on a break where he pinned the ball against the glass.
4. Benchwarmer Marcus Travis hitting a three in mop-up time.
5. Cheick Diakite’s pass to Jeff Allen for a dunk.

NOTE: The crowd wasn’t saying “Spoooooon”, they were “Boooo”ing the VT transfer, #11 wynton witherspoon. He was 0/1 in the First Half and looked nervous in his return to the Cassell. wynton played his first two seasons at Tech. VT’s last loss at home to a non-conference team was to bowling green on 12/12/05. Tech lost by one on a ball that was tapped in at the buzzer by A.D. Vassallo into his own goal. Later, it was discovered that the refs made the incorrect call and the basket should not have counted since it went in after the ball was tapped by a defending player.

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From the story that will never go away …

davidson faces ucla this weekend, and the L.A. Times ran a story about (you guessed it) Stephen Curry. This article dives into Stephen’s desire to play for the Hokies, and contains some quotes from Coach Greenberg.

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Dorenzo Hudson has been admitted to Virginia Tech and can join the team on December 14th.  This means he will only miss one more game, this Sunday against gwu, and will be eligible to begin practicing on 12/14 and can play in the 12/16 game at odu.  He will begin taking classes in the Spring Semester.

As part of NCAA rules, a player is eligible as soon as the previous semester ends, which is 12/13 for VT.  Dorenzo did not become eligible in time for the Fall Semester.

Dorenzo was a four-star recruit on Rivals.com and Scout.com.  He is 6’4″ and will play shooting guard for VT.  Hudson has a thick body and will be a defensive terror.  He will likely spell A.D. at the shooting guard position.  I’d expect Vassallo to play more at the 3 with Dorenzo’s addition.

FYI: Niemo has arm curled Hudson, making him the 3rd player on the roster that has been arm curled.

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The Setup

All Time Series: gwu 36-35

At Home: VT 22-9

Last Meeting: 12/3/06 – gwu 63, VT 62 (heartbreaking and very frustrating loss in the BB&T Classic)

Guess who has come crawling back… wynton witherspoon! Well, actually, he’s probably coming on a bus. But the former Hokie will make his return to Cassell. For those of you not in the know, he transferred from VT after the emotional 2005-06 season to be closer to his mom who was battling breast cancer. Yet she lived in the Atlanta area and he transferred to gwu, which is in Washington, D.C. Hmm. wynton averaged 2.4 points in 10 minutes per game his freshman year and 6.3 points in 18.7 minutes his sophomore year, when he battled a fractured foot. FYI: nigel munson is at gwu, too, but has to sit out this year.

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The ACC ran a nice article about the career of Dell Curry yesterday. Check it out.

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ACC Nation Special Feature
Column by Patrick Hite

Here’s the debut of the basketball power poll. It’s early and this will change a lot before the end of the season, but I still want your input.

12. georgia tech – Apparently Paul Hewitt was jealous of all the attention Chan Gailey got for being on the hot seat.

11. n.c. state – After trailing by 32 points to michigan state, the pack is lucky they aren’t one spot lower.

Where are the Hokies? Click here to read the rest of the poll.

For the most ACC coverage, visit ACCNation.com.
ACCNation.com is a collaborative partner with TechHoops.com.

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Since everyone but Niemo and I are slackers, we have added a new team member to TechHoops.com. We would like to officially welcome Gary Cope of VTHokieFans.com to the team. Gary will be contributing in many ways, and we are especially looking forward to his posts and video highlights.

You can find out more about Gary here or at vthokiefans.com.

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The 1/3/08 game at richmond has been changed to 6pm, so Hokie fans in attendance will only miss the first quarter instead of the first half of the Orange Bowl.

Seriously, couldn’t they have moved this to 5 or 5:30?

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Coach Greenberg (and the coaching staff) is now posting a daily blog – Seth’s Hoops du Jour.

I think it’s great to get this sort of regular communication from the coaching staff, but do they really have time for this? Why don’t they leave the blogging to the uneducated losers like us at TechHoops.com?

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The Hokies held the spartans to their lowest point total since President Reagan’s first year in office behind the most impressive defensive effort by Tech all season. The Hokies held unc-g to 27% shooting from the field. unc-g scored 39 points TOTAL tonight, and only 14 in the first half. The 39 points is 33 points below the spartans’ season average. The spartans committed 18 turnovers, shot 1 of 18 from three point land, and had 8 shots blocked.

unc-g’s all-time leading scorer, Kyle Hines, scored 38% of the spartans’ points tonight with 15 on 5 of 12 shooting. Jeff Allen held his own against the senior Hines by scoring 16 and rebounding 12 in only 22 minutes. For the third time this year, Allen got into foul trouble, which limited his playing time.

After Allen, A.D. Vassallo poured in 10 points, but shot just 4 of 16 from the floor. The Hokies shot 41% from the behind the arc for the game. Malcolm Delaney led the team with 3 threes, all in the second half. The big news of the night was sophmore guard Paul Debnam seeing his first action ever, playing 1 minute and scoring his first 2 points.  Tom Amalfe also made his VT debut, and Marcus Travis (Sr) and Terrance Vinson (r-So) made their 2007-08 debuts in the rout.

The battle of the boards was pretty even with unc-g outrebounding Tech 35-34; each team had 14 offensive rebounds but 11 of VT’s came in the first half.  The Hokies did a good job on the boards in the first half, cleaning up most of unc-g’s 15 first half misses.

Tech opened with a 11-0 run and closed with a 7-0 run. The game was never close, a rarity for college basketball these days, especially Hokie basketball.

Even though Tech was home tonight, if you had told me that the Hokies would beat the spartans by a greater margin this year over last (74-51), I would have laughed in your face. Then again, I also had no idea that the Hokies would return to what has been their bread and butter over the past 3 years — playing suffocating defense that forces turnovers and lowers opponent shooting percentage.

The Hokies face gw this coming Sunday at The Cassell at 5:30PM.  Welcome back, wynton witherspoon!  (sarcasm)

Niemo’s Notes: Almost a year ago to the day (12/10/06), VT beat appalachian state 69-37 at the Cassell.  In that game, appy state scored just 9 first half points on two field goals in the first half.  unc-g missed the g-spot tonight almost as much, hitting just five first half field goals and scoring just 14 points.  VT wasn’t much better, just shooting 36%, but the 11 offensive rebounds helped make up for that.

unc-g was 1 for 18 on three-pointers?  Heck, I could do that.  Believe me, I could do that.  Heck, my Mom could do that.  That’s just 5.6%.  My car loan interest rate is higher than that.

Jeff Allen, who is built almost exactly like unc-g’s kyle hines, showed the difference between unc-g’s all-time leading scorer (hines) and the best VT post player in the last decade.  Allen was much better, but he must figure out how to stay out of foul trouble.

Of the VT starters, four (Allen, Washington, Thorns, and Diakite) had two fouls at the half and had to sit late in the first half.  Again, VT is playing defense with their hands too much, especially the guards.  Reaching in and being too aggressive is hurting the Hokies.  Foul trouble will kill the Hokies in tight games.  Gordon and Dowdell stole or deflected passes, they didn’t reach (much).

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The Setup

The Hokies continue their road to the North Carolina state title Tuesday night when they take on the spartans of greensboro.  This is VT’s third opponent of seven from the “First in Flight” state, and second in a row from the 16-campus unc system.  The Hokies play as many teams out of conference from North Carolina as they do from Virginia.

Tech is coming off a 65-51 win over unc-asheville, but the game was much closer than the final score.  The Hokies actually trailed by three with seven minutes to go but went on a 24-7 run to close the game.  The vets led the Hokies in the contest, as Deron Washington and A.D. Vassallo poured in 17 each.  None of the Baby Hokies had more than six points.  Lewis Witcher had a career high 11 and reached double-digits for the first time in his career.

Tech shot the three much better in their last game, hitting six of twelve.  However, they shot just 43% from the floor overall.  The Hokies should be able to get open looks from long range against unc-g, having hit 10 of 15 last year against the spartans.

Last season, the Hokies blew out unc-g on their home court by a score of 74-51 in mid-January, sandwiched between VT’s win at duke and their win over #1 unc at home.  Obviously that was a much different team.  Of Tech’s 74 points, 46 are gone.  Vassallo had 17 points and was red hot from 3-point range, hitting 4 of 6. 

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The Hokies snapped their 3 game losing streak with a victory over the bulldogs of unc-asheville, 65-51, in Cassell Coliseum tonight. The W wrapped up a day of celebration for Hokie fans as the football team beat bc to win the ACC Championship, and the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams beat n.c. state!

The Hokies were led by their veterans tonight. Deron and A.D. poured in 17 points each, and Lewis Witcher added 11 on 5 of 5 shooting, clearly his best performance of the young season. Deron also led the team with 8 boards. The Hokies shot 43% from the field and 73% from the line.

The game started out poorly, as only 4 points TOTAL were scored in the first 4 minutes and 10 seconds of the game. The Hokies led 32-23 at halftime. The bulldogs went on a 10-2 run to open the second half, cutting the Tech lead to 1 point with 16:50 left. The game stayed tight for the next 10 minutes, as unc-asheville actually had the lead at 44-41 with 6:55 remaining. The Hokies then went on a 13-0 run, squashing the bulldogs chances of upsetting the Hokies.

Freshman sensation Jeff Allen was in foul trouble most of the night, and only scored two points on 1 for 6 shooting in 20 minutes of action.

The Hokies play next against another one of the 16 schools in the north carolina system as they battle greensboro on Tuesday at 7 at the Cassell.

NOTE: unc-a’s 7’6″ big man, george, did not play.  He had been averaging 6.5 blocks per game.

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