As the sun sets on 2008, let’s take a look back at some of the highlights of the year:

THE GAMES

• Wins: 22, Losses: 13
• ACC Wins (including the ACC Tourney): 10, Losses: 7
• The year started… with a loss at richmond, 52-49 (ugh)
• The year ended… with a win at charleston southern, 75-66
• Greatest Win: VT lacked any monumental wins this year (the highest ranked team in the RPI the Hokies beat in 2008 was miami, who finished the season at #33).  With that, this was a fairly easy choice – the 70-69 overtime win at uva on Deron Washington’s buzzer-beating shot (yes, Virginia Tech actually got one of their own) on January 16th.  The win at maryland was also big on February 20th because it turned the season around, but this uva game really got things rolling.  Tech was 1-1 in conference at the time.  The win was the Hokies’ first win at uva since the President Lyndon Johnson era in 1968.  [Note: if my gf is reading this, no I was NOT alive back then!]  Here’s a link to our page that has the highlights, just the winning shot, and the recap: VT 70, uva 69 Highlights/Recap
• Toughest Loss: Had to be the 68-66 loss to unc in the ACC Semi-Finals which pretty much knocked VT out of the NCAA Tournament.  Tech led most of the game, after having lost by 39 at unc a month earlier.  This would have easily been the Hokies’ biggest win of the year if they had pulled it out.

THE PLAYERS

• Leading Scorer: A.D. Vassallo – 632 points or 18.1 ppg
• MVP (Or should I say Co-MVPs): Jeff Allen and Malcolm Delaney – This was tough and hence why I took the easy way out by picking two.  I eliminated Deron since he isn’t around this season.  I’ll get to A.D. in a minute… I see Jeff Allen as Virginia Tech’s best player.  He can do it all – score, rebound, block, steal.  But to me, Delaney is the key to the team.  He’s the one guy VT could not do without, especially as we’ve seen with Hank Thorns injured.  Malcolm is the unquestioned leader of the team.  He was the driving force behind Tech’s great play at the end of last season.  In VT’s 22 wins in 2008, he averaged 13.7 points, while dropping to 11.3 in Tech’s 13 losses.  You can credit that to the fact he’s VT’s best foul shooter and has the ball at the end in wins, but the fact he can hit clutch foul shots adds to his importance.  Delaney has been Tech’s most consistent player this season and is the only guy to score double-digits in every game.  Allen averaged 12.6 ppg in the 21 wins he was a part of while scoring 11.4 in the 12 losses.  Remember, he missed the loss to duke and the win at bc.  Now, why didn’t I pick A.D., Tech’s leading scorer for 2008?  His defense is well behind Allen and Delaney (Allen is the better defender of those two).  And some of A.D.’s biggest games have come in losses – like the 30 against wisconsin, 23 against uga, and 22 against seton hall.  So there you have it, I’m calling it a tie.
• Sad Goodbye: Deron Washington – the four year starter ran out of eligibility, but not before finishing his VT career 10th all time in steals, 6th in blocks, and #1 in flops and nasty, highlight dunks.  Deron was selected in the 2nd round of the NBA Draft by Detroit but is playing abroad.  Washington was the first Hokie picked since Eddie Lucas was drafted in the 2nd round in 1999.  Marcus Travis also graduated from VT.
• Highlight of the Year: It was Deron’s shot at uva (see above) but here’s a sweet dunk of his from the game at georgia tech just to give you something else to watch: Deron Being Deron
• Recruits: Virginia Tech was well represented in the Virginia AA State Playoffs in 2008.  2009 signees, Erick Green and Ben Boggs, each won regional titles.  Green’s Millbrook team won the state AA title.  He is now at a private school, Paul VI, while Boggs is out for the season with an injury.

THE COACH

• Seth Greenberg picked up his 300th win as a head coach in Virginia Tech’s 94-62 win over morgan state in the first round of the NIT in March.  He currently has 310.
• Seth finishes 2008 with 97 wins at Tech.

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Recap | Box Score

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Highlights | Box Score

The Hokies closed out 2008 with a 75-66 win against the charleston southern buccaneers in the North Charleston Coliseum. Tech used a well balanced scoring attack with 4 players in double figures to hold off the bucs. J.T. Thompson, in his third game of the season, had a career-high 15 points on 5 of 6 shooting (and 5 of 7 from the line). This proved to be critical since Victor Davila left the game with an ankle injury one minute into the game (he did not return – status for Sunday is unknown at this time). Along with J.T., the “Big 3″ all scored in double figures with Vasallo and Delaney leading the way with 16 points each, and Jeff Allen chipped in 11. Allen led the Hokies in rebounds with 8 and blocks with 3, while Delaney was our assist leader tonight with 6.

Tech shot very well, hitting 7 of 18 from behind the arc (39%), 47% from the field, and 75% from the line.  The problem was csu was even hotter from long range, hitting 11 of 23 threes.  csu also limited the Hokies to just 7 offensive rebounds.  The difference in the game was VT’s ability to get to the line, getting 24 free throw attempts (making 18) to just six for the bucs (hitting 5). 

Another huge positive in this game was Tech’s lack of turnovers.  The Hokies had a season low of just 6 turnovers.  This was just the second time all season VT has had fewer than 10 turnovers and the Hokies had at least 15 turnovers in each of their last five games before this contest.  No player had more than one turnover and Delaney had a 6 to 1 assist to turnover ratio.

The first half was filled with several runs by each team. The Hokies jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the first 2+ minutes, and then the buccaneers went on a 9-0 run. After a bucket by Cheick Diakite at the 14:54 mark, the bucs went on a 12-6 run to take their biggest lead of the game with 10:46 left in the first half: 23-15. Tech successfully turned things around by increasing the intensity on defense as the 1-3-1 zone forced turnovers and poor shot selection. In addition, the Hokies did a better job penetrating and finding the open look on the offensive end. This triggered a 22-5 Hokies run to finish the half up 9, 37-28.

While the first half swung back and forth like a pendulum, the Hokies’ lead in the second half hovered between 3 and 6 points most of the way. The bucs did get within one point at the 9:55 mark, but Tech quickly answered with a three and charleston southern never got any closer.

The bucs were led by Jamarco Warren, who Niemo highlighted in his preview as the offensive player to watch. Warren shot lights out from 3 point range. At one point he was 6 of 10, but then finished the game with 2 missed desperation threes. Warren ended up as the game’s high scorer with 22 points. The big surprise of the night was center Giedrius Knysas. Knysas, who was averaging 3.6 points per game coming off the bench, scored 15 on 6 of 8 shooting. I’m sure Coach Greenberg will be lighting a fire under Diakite, Witcher, Allen, and Thompson in practice the rest of this week after that (lack of) defensive performance.

Next up is #5 duke in Cameron Indoor on Sunday. National TV, ACC opener. We will finally get to see what this team is made of.

Wick’s Final Thought:
This game scared me, especially since this season has progressed just like the last few Novembers and Decembers under the Greenberg era. The only thing missing is a disappointing loss to a mid-major. Correction, a mid-major that Tech should beat. I’m not referring to the butlers and xaviers of the world. Since Tech joined the ACC, the Hokies always trip up against one mid-major team that they should have easily beat (on paper):

• 2004-05: lost to vmi 71-68
• 2005-06: lost to bowling green 72-71
• 2006-07: lost to western michigan 71-68 and marshall 59-58
• 2007-08: lost to richmond 52-49

Whew.

Barring a loss at home to richmond on Jan. 14th (revenge game, Hokies), Tech might actually avoid this dubious feat for the first time under Greenberg.

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THE SETUP

The Hokies head to South Cack-a-lacka for their final game of 2008 and final non-conference road game of the season on Monday, December 29th.  Tech will take on the charleston southern buccaneers at the North Charleston Coliseum (I’m guessing this is on the opposite site of town from the csu campus).

The Hokies will use this game as a tune-up before they begin ACC play next Sunday on natioinal TV at duke.  VT should have no trouble beating the bucs, but putting weaker teams away has been a problem most of the season.  Tech seems to be finding their groove, having scored 79 or more points in three of their last five games, and having won by double-digits in each of the last three games.  The Hokies were held to 65 or fewer points in three of their first four games, but have scored 72 or more in six of the last eight.

All Time Series: VT 3-0 (VT blew out csu 79-49 last year at the Cassell)

Projected Starters:

Virginia Tech

1. #23 Malcolm Delaney – 6’3″
2. #5 Dorenzo Hudson – 6’5″
3. #40 A.D. Vassallo – 6’6″
4. #0 Jeff Allen – 6’7″
5. #14 Victor Davila – 6’8″

csu

1. #23 Tovi Bailey – 6’1″
2. #5 Jamarco Warren – 5’11″
3. #1 Kelvin Martin – 6’5″
4. #34 Omar Carter – 6’5″
5. #33 Billy Blackmon – 6’10″

Apparently Cheick Diakite remains in Seth’s doghouse since Davila is listed as the projected starter.  Cheick did not play at all against st. john’s in VT’s last game and was benched for most of the longwood game.  A.D. Vassallo sat for the first seven minutes of the columbia game and there were reports of him being arrested and charged with shoplifting, but nothing has come of it yet.

Hank Thorns is expected to be out a couple of weeks with a knee injury and will not play in this game.  With Thorns out, Malcolm Delaney is Tech’s lone quality ballhandler (and he’s really a two-guard by nature).  Delaney played all 80 minutes of action in New York and was the MVP of the Holiday Festival, scoring 47 points combined but also committing eight turnovers.  That won’t cut it against duke so he will need to protect the ball better in this game.

Early in the year, Malcolm seemed hesitant to drive to the hoop.  All his points were coming off three pointers or foul shots late in games when VT led.  In the Holiday Festival, Delaney was more aggressive in going to the hoop.  He was scoring with ease on easy layups.  Perhaps he’s realizing how much of a threat he can be driving while teams double A.D. or refuse to leave Jeff Allen.

In the st. john’s game, Virginia Tech ran a 1-3-1 half court trap the entire game.  This may have been due to Tech’s lack of depth at guard.  Zones allow you to avoid having to run through screens and therefore not have to work as hard.  Also, since Delaney is at the bottom of the zone (see below), he’s less likely to get into foul trouble guarding players up top.  Or this may have been just because the team was tired in general and was only playing eight guys.  We’ll see if the Hokies continue to use this defense a lot or if it was just for the st. john’s game based on circumstances.  Since this is the last game before duke, I expect we’ll see a preview of the defenses VT will run against the blue devils.

Here’s how the zone looked:

          (Hudson or Bell)

Vassallo – Davila – Allen

               Delaney

                [hoop]

You may wonder why you have a guard as the deepest player but that is because he often has to run the most, flashing out on the wings as the ball is swung to either corner.  The opposite wing on the zone then has to drop down low to pick up low post players.  Offensive rebounds can be a concern if your guard is stuck trying to check a bigger low post player so the middle three guys must all collapse into the paint.

Since Tech has historically run man-to-man, I’m guessing the zone was just a temporary thing due to st. john’s lack of three point shooters and because the Hokies were playing on back-to-back days.  It also helped protect Delaney from drawing fouls.

THE OPPONENT

Offensive Player to Watch: Jamarco Warren – 21.5 ppg – The 5’11″ sophomore is a long range bomber.  He has hit three or more three pointers in every game but one and has nailed six three pointers three different times this year.  Against toccoa falls (no idea who the heck that is) he hit all six threes he attempted.  Jamarco has had as many as 29 points in a game.  VT must guard him from anywhere inside half court.  If Tech goes zone, he could be very dangerous if he finds open spots.  If the Hokies play man, the guy on him (likely Bell or Hudson) must fight over screens instead of going under them and potentially giving him room to pull the trigger.

Defensive Player to Watch: Billy Blackmon – 1.1 bpg – The 6’10″ junior transfer will be the tallest player on the court. However, Billy is just an average shot blocker.  Despite being shorter, Jeff Allen and Cheick Diakite average more blocks per game.  Billy is just tall and that’s it.  The Hokies can out-quick him and go around him.  They just can’t pull up right in front of him where he can use his tall stature.

Boring Facts about csu:

• Conference: Big South (vmi, liberty, gardner-webb, radford, etc)
• Founded in 1964 as baptist college
• Enrollment: ~3000
• Type: Private
• One of their logos has the same stupid crossed swords as uva
• They play FCS (I-AA) football
• csu lost by 23 to fsu, the only other ACC team they play

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Folks – sorry I’m so late to chime in.  Happy belated Championship to VT.  And an early Merry Christmas to all!  I got stuck in New York on Sunday and didn’t make it to my final destination until 11 PM Monday night.  But enough about Tallahassee Part II…

The Hokies now have won four championships in Madison Square Garden:

• 1973 NIT (won all four games in MSG by a combined five points)
• 1995 NIT (won final by one point in OT just like 1973)
• 2007 Holiday Festival
• 2008 Holiday Festival

Other Notes:

• Malcolm Delaney played all 80 minutes in the tournament.  This demonstrates how thin the Hokies are in terms of ballhandling.  They have Delaney and Hank Thorns (who is injured).  That’s it.  Not only are shooting guards Terrell Bell and Dorenzo Hudson averaging less than four points per game and shooting under 31% from the field (and a combined 20% – 8/40 – on threes), they also have weak handles.  Erick Green, Lamont Jones, and Ben Boggs come on down!
• The Hokies had a solid 35-26 advantage on the offensive glass for the tournament, including 20-14 against st. john’s (though they had more opportunities on the offensive glass in the second game).  Three Hokies (Thompson, Allen, and Vassallo) had four offensive rebounds or more in the title game and Vassallo had eight for the tournament.
• The 20 offensive rebounds against st. john’s was a season high, beating the 16 against elon.
• Delaney’s nine rebounds against columbia and five steals against st. john’s were career highs.  His 25 points in the columbia game and eight assists versus st. john’s tied career highs.
• At least turnovers are on the decline – since a season high 23 giveaways against longwood, they had 19 against columbia (still too many) and 15 against st. john’s (about the limit of what you can accept).  Delaney had an eye-popping seven turnovers against columbia, though since he had to play all 40 minutes at point you can sort of understand it (sort of), and Vassallo had six.
• Vassallo isn’t the only one accused of stealing (sorry, I couldn’t resist… too soon?) – the Hokies had 10 steals against columbia and 12 against st. john’s.  They now have had 10+ steals in three of their last four games.  That is the only times all season they have had 10+ steals.
• Victor Davila’s 24 minutes in the title game in place of Cheick Diakite was just one minute short of his season high 25 minutes against wisconsin.

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According to HamptonRoads.com (or PilotOnline.com … make up your mind, people) senior forward and Tech’s leading scorer A.D. Vassallo was arrested and charged with shoplifting in Christiansburg last Thursday by Virginia State Police. This could be why he missed the first seven minutes of the columbia game. Jim Weaver, Tech’s athletics director, said that Vassallo hasn’t been suspended because 1) he (Weaver) hasn’t seen the police report yet and 2) he doesn’t believe the Vassallo did anything wrong. For the program’s sake, let’s hope not. With all that has happened to this team so far this season, it’s a miracle we’re 8-4.

On a lighter note, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!

Oh yeah, here’s the link to the article: click here.

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Box Score

The Virginia Tech men’s hoops team defended is Aeropostale Holiday Festival crown today with a convincing and impressive win over st. john’s, 81-67. The Hokies were led once again by sophomore Malcolm Delaney who was named the tournament MVP after a 25-point performance yesterday and a 22-point outing today.

Senior A.D. Vassallo led all scorers with 24 points and was named to the All Tournament team. Jeff Allen battled foul trouble, but recorded his fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds. And though he didn’t impress in the stats, J.T. Thompson played a major role in this win with his hustle and energy. He scored only two points – a highlight reel steal and monstrous dunk – but it was his play that powered Seth Greenberg’s team to their second straight Holiday Festival title at the world’s most famous arena.

Speaking of MSG, the Hokies are 6-1 at the WMFA under Greenberg and have won five straight games on that court. The win is the Hokies third straight and snapped the red storm’s seven-game winning streak.

The Hokies came out determined in this game, unlike previous games this season in which they have looked sluggish and struggled to find a rhythm. The red storm’s game plan, at least early in the first half, was to double-team Vassallo and force the rest of Tech’s team to prove that they could beat them. Delaney and Thompson were more than up for the task as they took control of the game and paced the Hokies to a 39-35 half time lead. Their patient and attacking style of play forced st. john’s to abandon the double-team of Vassallo and A.D. made them pay with a couple of back-to-back treys that put Hokies in the lead.

Both teams came out in the second half firing and exchanging buckets, but Tech pulled ahead and built a double digit lead that they would nurse, despite foul trouble for Allen and Vassallo. Poor shooting by st. john’s definitely helped. The red storm made their first three three-point attempts, but went just 2/21 the rest of the way and struggled from the charity stripe as well, going 14/26.

• Tech’s 81 points is a season-high.
• Senior Cheick Diakite dressed, but did not play (attitude correction).
• Delaney has scored 20+ points in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.
• st. john’s only two losses are to ACC schools (boston college and VT)
• Unfortunately, the red storm’s nine wins are against cupcakes

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Box Score

Malcolm Delaney picked the perfect time to have one of the best games of his career. The Hokies needed every one of his 25 points (which tied a career- and season-high) and a career-high nine rebounds to edge the columbia lions 64-52 at Madison Square Garden. The Hokies advance to play the winner of the st. john’s (8-1) vs. marist (3-6) game. [Update: st. john's won 65-44]

Tech had to overcome some adversity to win this one. For starters, Hank Thorns, one of Tech’s two true point guards, is out for a couple of weeks with a knee injury. And Jeff Allen, the team’s leading rebounder and second-leading scorer had to leave the court after spraining his ankle early in the first half. He returned, but wasn’t 100 percent and also got into foul trouble in the first half. Still, he managed 13 points. And to make things even harder on themselves, leading scorer A.D. Vasallo was benched for the first 6:30 of the game after violating “team guidelines.” Coming off the bench he struggled to find his rhythm, but worked hard for his 16 points.

And then there were the turnovers. The Hokies had 19 turnovers. Following the game, Tech Head Coach Seth Greenberg was blunt about his team’s performance: “We weren’t very good, let’s be honest … we’ve got to get a whole lot better.”

Tech was hoping to get a confidence boost from the return of sophomore forward J.T. Thompson, but the long layoff had clearly taken its toll. Thompson turned the ball over with his first possession and ended up with only two points. Greenberg, however, was not concerned saying confidently, “We know what we’re getting with J.T.”

The Hokies struggled out of the gate and fell behind 13-18, but used a 15-2 run to close out the first half after falling behind 18-13 to the lions. Tech’s defense was aggressive and stingy giving up only 20 first half points, a season-low.

The second half saw the Hokies stretch their lead to double digits, but couldn’t put the lions away. Tech’s size, depth and athleticism finally prevailed in the final five minutes as Tech used a 17-4 run to put the game away. The lions hung around despite not having their leading scorer Patrick Foley, who missed his second straight game with an injury. That’s probably what made this game so unimpressive from Tech’s point of view. Foley is the only player for columbia that averages double digits in scoring and he didn’t play. Tech also got abused on the boards, at least in the first half. Greenberg spent most of this game shaking his head in disbelief, until the final four minutes when they finally pulled away.

Let’s hope that st. john’s wins against marist as expected because that will present the Hokies with an opportunity to get a quality win (well, you would think a 9-1 record would mean a quality opponent) which Tech desperately needs on their resume. The tournament selection committee won’t be impressed with the near misses the Hokies have piled up this season.

Tomorrow’s championship game for the Aeropostale Tournament will begin at 2:30 p.m.

Cope-a-cabana’s Thoughts:

J.T. Thompson will be fine. He just needs a couple of games under his belt before he gets back up to game speed, but when he does, watch the chemistry, communication and confidence of this team improve. Thompson adds an emotional element that this team has been lacking. Not only is he expected to fill the highlight reel shoes of Deron Washington, the fans and his teammates desperately need his leadership and emotion on the floor. A.D. and Malcolm are quiet leaders and relatively reserved, as are Allen, Diakite and Davila. Thorns can be fiesty and flashy at times, but Thompson could be the heart and soul of this team once he’s back in the flow.

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According to the Daily Press, Hank Thorns sprained the medial collateral ligament in his knee during practice Wednesday and is “doubtful” for this weekend’s games in New York City. Thorns averages 3.5 points and 19 minutes a game so far this season.

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THE TEAMS

• columbia (3-5)
• marist (3-6)
• st. john’s (8-1)
• Virginia Tech (6-4)

THE SCHEDULE

• Game 1: Saturday, 2 PM – columbia vs Virginia Tech
• Game 2: Saturday, ~4:30 PM – marist vs st. john’s
• Consolation Game: Sunday, Noon – Game 1 loser vs Game 2 loser
• Championship Game: Sunday, ~2:30 PM – Game 1 winner vs Game 2 winner

All games are being televised by MSG.  For Comcast customers in the DC area the games are on Channel 262 (part of the sports package).

THE SETUP

The Hokies look to defend their Holiday Festival championship in the Big Apple this weekend.  Tech continued their mastery at the self-proclaimed most famous arena in the world, Madison Square Garden, beating hofstra 84-59 in the first round and st. johns 54-48 in the title game in one of the ugliest games ever played.  Watching that championship game was like getting a root canal and a swift kick to the biscuits at the same time. 

The Holiday Festival title last year was Virginia Tech’s third tournament championship won in Madison Square Garden.  VT also won the 1973 and 1995 National Invitational Tournaments in MSG.  Tech is 3-0 in Aeropostale play.  The Hokies beat seton hall in the first game of the Aeropostale Classic in MSG in 2006.  That game was similar to the BB&T Classic in that is what not a tournament, just a four-team, two-game showcase.

For the Hokies, the rest of their season starts now.  That sounds pretty obvious and not the type of thing you come here to read, but what I mean is starting this weekend, Tech will have their full roster.  J.T. Thompson should be fully recovered from his hernia surgery and sprained foot injuries.  The Hokies have really missed his defensive and rebounding intensity.  J.T. should also provide another offensive option, something Tech has desperately needed beyond the Big 3 of Allen, Delaney, and Vassallo.  Now we should be able to really judge the Hokies and their prospects for the rest of the season once Thompson gets into the flow of things and we see how he fits in.

Expect Thompson to play a wing spot, instead of in the low post where he mostly played last year.  At least that’s where he was working out in the practices I saw this Fall.  If he is in at the same time as Vassallo, I would expect he’d guard the other team’s shooting guard since he is quicker than A.D.  Vassallo will likely match up with an opponent’s small forward or ‘slower’ wing player.

With the news that Hank Thorns likely won’t play this weekend (see the note above), that leaves Tech with just one quality ballhandler: Malcolm Delaney.  Dorenzo Hudson and Terrell Bell will likely lose playing time with Thompson back, which has already started to happen with both.  They did not do much with their opportunity while Thompson was on the shelf.  Hudson is averaging just 3.3 ppg on 28% shooting and Bell is scoring 2.9 ppg on 27% shooting, 2/15 on threes (you should have seen his stats before his 12 point effort against longwood… actually, no you don’t).

If you are a Hokie fan, and chances are strong you are if you are reading this, you hope st. john’s wins Saturday along with the Hokies.  Both teams should have little trouble.  Both the red storm and Hokies are playing small schools that are struggling on the hardwood this year. 

If Tech faces st. john’s in the finals, it would give VT another chance at a win against a ‘name’ school.  Tech is currently 0-3 against the BCS conferences and also lost to xavier, who made the Elite Eight last year and is currently ranked #7 in both polls.  And to think the Hokies would have that feather in their cap if it wasn’t for a desperation half court shot by a guy 0 for 8 up to that point.

BREAKING DOWN THE OTHER TEAMS

columbia (3-5)

Player to Watch: #5 Patrick Foley - Junior Guard (6’2″) – 13.4 ppg and 3.1 apg (both lead the team by a wide margin).  Note: Foley missed the lions’ last game with an injury and his status is uncertain for this game.

In the first round the Hokies take on the columbia lions and their Ivy covered rears.  columbia, the clemson of the Ivy League.

Tech has one common opponent with the lions: seton hall.  columbia lost to the pirates 71-50, a significantly larger margin than what the hall beat VT by.  columbia has only beaten fordham, (kobe) bryant university, and wagner, while losing to seton hall, umbc, albany, stony brook, and st. francis (NY).  Not exactly murderer’s row.

Outside of Foley, columbia is very “balanced” on offense.  By that, I mean they don’t have anyone else.  After Foley’s 13.4 ppg, they have no one else averaging even 8.0 ppg.  Last year they also only had one player scoring more that 8 ppg, and that guy is gone.  They do have five players averaged 7.[something] ppg.

Both Foley and fellow starter Asenso Ampim (7.4 ppg) missed columbia’s last contest on December 9th with injuries.  Their status is uncertain for the Virginia Tech contest, though they will have had 11 days to heal.  Without Foley, this game could be ugly in a good way for the Hokies.

Foley does most of his damage going to the hoop.  He is just a 17% shooter from behind the arc (sounds like Tech’s shooting guards) and doesn’t attempt many.  Foley doesn’t get to the line all that much, either.

K.J. Matsui is the lions’ best threat from behind the arc, hitting two three-pointers per game and shooting 34%.  As a team, columbia does not shoot the three well, hitting just 27% of their shots.  They shoot under 40% from the field as a whole.  But undersized teams tend to shoot more threes when they face a bigger team, such as Tech in this case.  So the lions may chuck more threes in this game to avoid getting their shots blocked inside.

columbia will have the “home town” advantage in this game, being from New York City.  That should help get them 100 fans instead of 50.

Summary: The lions average just 60.9 ppg, despite their weak schedule.  Expect them to slow the pace and turn this into a half court game.  While Tech has tried to run more of late, the Hokies are certainly comfortable playing a half court contest.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Tech use their full court trap in this game more to force the pace since the lions are unlikely to punish the Hokies off the press.  Also, with Thompson likely back in the lineup, that gives the Hokies 9 quality players (if Thorns is out) to split minutes between, reducing the risk of Tech being tuckered for their game on Sunday.  Expect the Hokies to roll in this one.

st. john’s (8-1)

Player to Watch: #1 D.J. Kennedy – Sophomore G/F (6’6″, 210 lbs.) – 14.3 ppg, 6.9 rpg (both lead the team).  Kennedy is a lanky wing player who can score inside or outside (37% on threes, though he doesn’t attempt that many).  Expect Thompson, Bell, and Hudson to draw the assigment of guarding him.

Many people consider the Big East Conference the top conference in the land this year.  Some ‘experts’ believe they may place nine or ten teams in the Big Dance.  st. john’s was not picked to be one of those teams.  The red storm were picked to finish 14th out of the 16 teams in the league (unless they’ve added another school since I started writing this article which is quite possible). 

One advantage st. john’s has in this tournament is MSG is their home away from home.  But all that meant last year was about 3000 lethargic fans.  Home court advantage was not a factor against the Hokies last year, and likely won’t be again this year.  But the red storm are playing better than VT coming into this tournament.  They just haven’t been tested yet, and the Hokies should be a good challenge for st. john’s.

The Bad News: The poor preseason prediction for st. john’s doesn’t necessarily mean good news for the Hokies.  For example, seton hall was picked 13th and they handed Tech their second loss of the season in the 3rd place game in Puerto Rico last month.  Also, the red storm (dare I make a menstruation joke here???… nah, too easy) have won six in a row coming into the tournament.

The Good News: Don’t let the 8-1 record fool you.  st. john’s has gotten their eight wins by beating the little-sister-of-the-poors and east-popcorn-states of the college basketball world.  Their only loss of the season was to boston college by 12, and bc was picked to finish 11th in the ACC, ahead of just lowly uva.  st. john’s most impressive win (and it is a stretch to say that) might be their 19-point win over loyola (IL).  loyola beat georgia by 21 (uh oh, maybe this is actually bad news).  Of course VT hasn’t beaten anyone of note either.

The red storm placed no one on the preseason All Big East teams (13 players were on that list… I guess when you have 16 teams five isn’t enough).  To make matters worse, st. john’s lost their leading scorer from last season, Anthony Mason Jr. (yes, he’s the son of the former NY Knick goon by the same name).  Mason suffered a torn tendon in his foot against bc and will miss the rest of the season.

marist (3-6)

Player to Watch: #44 Ryan Schneider – Senior Forward (6’7″, 200 lbs) – 13.0 ppg and 8.6 rpg (both lead the team)

You may be wondering, “How bad is marist?”  Well, to put it in perspective, they are in the MAAC.  This is the same conference fairfield is in, who VT beat by 17 in puerto rico.  And fairfield, so far this season, has been the best team in the MAAC.  marist isn’t anywhere near as good as fairfield.  That should sum up marist’s chances of beating st. john’s.  Since I expect the Hokies to easily beat columbia, and therefore play st. john’s in the final, I’m going to quit wasting both our times right now and stop this summary of the red foxes (seriously, that’s their nickname!).

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Congratulations to TechHoops.com’s webmaster and founder, the Wick, on the birth of his second child!  His daughter was born yesterday, giving him a boy and a girl.  Despite being born in charlottesville, we wish her, big bro, mother, and daddy all the best.

Needless to say, please bear with us this week.  Some of the links and graphics may not get updated as quickly as usual.  But after a few days off I’m sure Wick will be back better, and fresher, than ever.  We will still have previews, recaps, and other articles coming your way as the Hokies head to the Big Apple this weekend.

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Box Score

Blacksburg, VA – The Virginia Tech men’s hoops team improved to 6-4 this season with a 79-57 win over longwood this afternoon at Cassell Coliseum. Sophomore Jeff Allen dominated the game, notching a monster double-double, scoring 19 points and grabbing a career-high 21 rebounds. Meanwhile, senior A.D. Vassallo led all scorers with 21 points, and was one rebound shy of a double-double of his own. Sophomore Terrell Bell scored a career high 12 points and was named player of the game.

Even though the 22-point victory — Tech’s first double-digit home win this season — looks impressive in the final box score, the Hokies were fortunate to win this game. Seth Greenberg’s team turned the ball over a season-high 23 times, including five times in the first 2-1/2 minutes of the second half. Luckily for the Hokies, the lancers were atrocious from the field, making only 20 of 67 attempts for a 29.9 percent average. The lancers missed 47 shots… the Hokies attempted 52.

Once again, Seth’s boys got off to a slow start, letting longwood hang around and build confidence en route to an 6-9 lead. The Hokies used a 12-3 run to take a six-point lead, which they stretched to 16 at the half, but it wasn’t easy. Tech struggled with longwood’s man defense which led to many of the Hokies’ 13 first-half turnovers.

The Hokies had a significant height advantage over longwood, yet they never really established dominance in the paint on offense. The size disparity did show up on the stat sheet as the good guys out-rebounded longwood 52-27. The 52 boards was a season-high for the Hokies.

The second half began with a 16-point Tech lead, but five turnovers in the first 2-1/2 minutes cut short any hope that the Hokies would be able to put this game away early in the half. Meanwhile, longwood used an 8-2 run to cut Tech’s lead to 10. The lancers would get that lead down to single digits, but only briefly. Trailing by 11, longwood’s e.j. dawson scored a bucket to cut the Hokie lead to nine, but on Tech’s ensuing possession, sophomore Terrell Bell got open along baseline, got the ball and went strong to the rim virtually uncontested for a two-handed flush that put Tech back up by eleven.

The visiting lancers, playing the Hokies for the first time ever, would manage to trim the lead back down to as little as five points, but a 16-0 run midway through the second half put the game out of reach. The lancers played a very aggressive and physical game, which ultimately led to two of their starters — Dana Smith and Antwan Carter — fouling out. Tech went to the free throw line 35 times, scoring 26 points.

When you shoot less than 30 percent, lose two starters to foul trouble, and send your opponent to the charity stripe 35 times, you are going to have a tough time winning games.

Bottom line: Tech won by 22, which is great, but they need to take better care of the ball because 23 turnovers against unc or duke ain’t gonna cut it.

Note: J.T. Thompson was supposed to make his season debut, but sat out due to a sprained foot.  However, his hernia injury has been cleared and it is hopeful that he will return for the Holiday Festival Tournament next week at the ‘Most Famous Arena in the World’ in NYC.

Scoring Between Media Timeouts (overall score in parenthesis):

First Half:

• 20:00-15:48: lu 9-8 (lu 9-8)
• 15:48-11:40: VT 2-0 (VT 10-9)
• 11:40-7:59: VT 8-5 (VT 18-14)
• 7:59-3:44: VT 8-5 (VT 26-19)
• 3:44-Halftime: VT 11-2 (VT 37-21)

Second Half:

• 20:00-15:00: lu 11-10 (VT 47-32)
• 15:00-11:39: lu 14-5 (VT 52-46)
• 11:39-7:51: 4-4 (VT 56-50)
• 7:51-3:12: VT 14-0 (VT 70-50)
• 3:12-End of Game: VT 9-7 (VT 79-57)

Niemo’s End of Game Nuggets:

• Jeff Allen went absolutely nuts this afternoon, scoring 19 points and grabbing a career high 21 rebounds.  His previous rebound high was 17 against seton hall earlier this year. The only negative for him was his 6 turnovers, giving him 10 in his last two games.
• VT went on a 16-0 run from the 8:13 mark of the second half to the 2:44 mark to blow open a 56-50 lead.
• longwood had a STD (ShooTing Dysfunction) in the last 12 minutes of the second half, going 9 minutes without a field goal from the 11:44 mark to the 2:44 mark.

Continue Reading

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Here’s a nice article about Virginia Tech 2009 signee, Erick Green.  It talks about his adjustment to life at Paul VI, a private high school in Fairfax, VA.  It also mentions he has added 15 pounds of muscle since last season.

Washington Post Article from December 10th

Of note: Erick has been named MVP of an event twice this season:

• Green was the MVP after PVI defeated Roman Catholic (Philly) 60-55 in early December
• Erick was the MVP of the John Stone Memorial Tournament at Christchurch HS (VA)

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THE SETUP

The Virginia Tech Hokies will look to whack the longwood lancers at the Cassell on Sunday afternoon in the annual “Here’s an excuse to take a few hours off from studying for finals” classic.  This is the first time the schools have ever met in basketball.  Before you just chalk this one up as a ‘W’ for the Hokies… nah, I’m not even going to try and sell you on how this might be a game.  Tech’s going to win this one. 

Or are they?!  The Hokies have won just one game by more than nine points, and they have yet to win a home game by double digits. 

Come on, forget it, Tech is going to win this game going away.

Or are they?!  longwood stiffened up on November 18th and beat gardner-webb 85-84, a team the Hokies beat by just three points. 

Give me a break.  Forget the transitive property logic.  By that you could somehow make uva a quality sports program.  Hmm, but I bet that would take a relationships.

Alright, I’ll just come out and say it.  Virginia Tech will leave longwood limp by Sunday evening.  The Hokies will come out and play loose in their only game in an 11 day span and thrust past longwood.

THE OPPONENT

• Location: Farmville, VA
• Nickname: lancers  (hmm… longwood… lancers… you do the math)
• Enrollment: 3700 undergrad, 700 grad
• Student Ratio: 65% chicks!
• History: Became a university in 2002
• Conference: None for basketball, they are an independent; they just entered D1 in June 2007
• Famous Students: Jerome Kersey (bball), Michael Tucker (baseball), Jason Mraz (awful, awful singer), and Pat McGee (singer)
• Other Boring Facts: KD and ZTA were founded at longwood
• The school was NOT named for Davey Woods, that’s for sure

Wins: va-wise, gardner-webb, @md-eastern shore, delaware state, and jmu (man is jmu awful at bball)

Losses: norfolk state, @wvu, @kentucky, and se missouri state

longwood is powered by 6’5″ junior wing man, Dana Smith.  He leads the team in scoring (16.4), rebounding (7.3), and steals (1.3).  He shoots an amazing 58% from the field, despite being 2/17 on threes.  That tells you Dana plays near the rim.  Tech must keep him off the offensive glass, where he averages three offensive rebounds per game.  They almost must force him to receive the ball away from the hoop, stop his penetration, and double him when he gets the ball near the rim.

Ryan Bogan is the lancers’ next best player on offense, averaging 14.2 ppg.  The 6’1″ senior guard is a good outside shooter, hitting 37% of his threes and making over two per game.

The other starters include C Antwan Carter (only 6’6″), G Durann Neil (6’1″), and G Kevin Swecker (6’1″).  Of the guys that see significant minutes off the bench, only one is over 6’2″.  Obviously the Hokies are much longer than longwood.  Tech should be able to post up just about anyone except for Hank Thorns.  The Hokies should pound the ball inside against longwood and let Jeff Allen and Victor Davila go to work, maybe even posting up A.D. Vassallo or Dorenzo Hudson.  The key will be keeping Allen out of foul trouble, which has been a problem of late.

That said, since the lancers will run a lot of guards at you, Tech must fall back on defense and eliminate transition buckets.  Also, help defense will be critical as the smaller guys for lu potentially beat the bigger Hokies off the dribble.

Overall, longwood cannot go deep (that’s what she said).  They are just 57/204 on three-pointers this season, a woeful 28%.  They aren’t all that great inside the arc either, hitting just 40% of their shots.  However, georgia was a pathetic offensive team and Virginia Tech let them explode for 38 first half points thanks to poor help and transition defense.  The Hokies have to get back to play aggressive, tough-nosed defense and really lock down opponents.  They need to sever the longwood offense and render it limp.

Again, the key is to stopping Smith.  Part of that is slowing down Bogan and not letting him drive and score or dish to Smith.

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The Hokies find themselves with a disappointing 5-4 record so far.  This has tended to be a common occurrence under Coach Seth Greenberg in his now sixth season leading the orange and maroon.  Let’s break down his record in November and December each season against how VT did after the turn of the new year.

This table shows that VT has lost at least four games, but no more than five each year.  That tells you that each season the Hokies have been consistently average, no matter what the make-up of the team.  This puts Virginia Tech in a big hole.  Instead of stockpiling wins early and having some wiggle room in conference play, the Hokies have finish over .500 with a couple of big wins each year.  For whatever reason, the team seems to gel after the new year. 

There have also been some either bad or disappointing losses before January 1st each season such as:

• 2003 – odu, ecu
• 2004 – vmi, western michigan
• 2005 – bowling green, odu
• 2006 – western michigan, marshall
• 2007 – penn state, odu (richmond was on 1/3)
• 2008 – None - though I would say georgia is a bad loss – they will be near the bottom of the SEC similar to what penn state was last year

Obviously the winning percentage is much better in the November and December timeframe but that has to do with the quality of the opponents.  The fact that Tech is 38-42 in Big East and ACC play under Greenberg is pretty darn amazing.  Taking it a step further, VT is 37-39 in conference play over the last five years after January 1st.  VT failed to finish above .500 in conference play from 1997-2003 before Seth arrived.  The Hokies did finish at .500 once, in ricky stokes’s first season when VT was still in the Atlantic 10.

Apparently Greenberg’s New Year’s Resolution each year is to start beating quality opponents.  And in every season but 2005-06, it has worked.  Let’s hope he has another wish available this season, and the Hokies can have a strong second half of the season.

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Boxscore

Albert Jackson’s short layup with 28.4 seconds left and defensive rebound with 0.5 seconds left secured the 67-66 win for the bulldogs.  Hank Thorns missed a wild shot in the lane with 5 seconds left.  Cheick Diakite grabbed the rebound away from Jeff Allen underneath the hoop but threw up an off-balance shot that missed, leading to Jackson’s rebound.  After Jackson missed the front end of a one-and-one, the Hokies tried a full court heave with 0.3 left but georgia intercepted the pass.

This game was about as tightly played as any I’ve ever seen.  The Hokies’ biggest lead of the game was five, and that was in the first half at 5-0, 15-10, and 41-36.  georgia never led by more than four.  Tech led 60-56 with 8 minutes to play, but seemed to run out of gas waiting for the under-8 media timeout.  It never came and Greenberg finally burned a timeout with 5:21 to play after the game had been tied.  The game was a see-saw battle after that with neither team leading by more than two.

Tech lost this game on the defensive glass, just like against mississippi in the NIT Quarterfinals last season.  The SEC is a “man’s league” and VT looked like boys again inside.  The dawgs had too much strength inside.  Though the bulldogs 14-9 edge on the offensive glass doesn’t appear that dominating, it led to numerous second efforts for the offensively challenged dawgs.  Had the Hokies cleaned the glass on the defensive end, they win easily.  At one point with 3 minutes to go, georgia missed both free throws, got the offensive rebound, missed the second of the next two free throws, and got another offensive board.  That was the story for much of the night.

Another critical issue for the Hokies tonight was turnovers.  They struggled mightily with georgia’s tough denial defense all night and led to the dawgs getting more than 20 points off VT turnovers.  Jeff Allen had several bad passes.  The Hokies finished the game with 18 giveaways, their second highest total of the season behind the 20 they had against mt. st. mary’s.

A couple of bright spots for the Hokies was the play of A.D. Vassallo, Cheick Diakite, and Hank Thorns.  A.D. had a game high 23 points (14 in the first half).  He was fairly quiet in the second half though as georgia really keyed on him, denying the ball far from the hoop.  

Cheick Diakite was tough inside, one of the few Hokies who was.  He had an amazing six blocked shots in the game.  That is a season high but not career high, just short of the seven he had against st. john’s last year.  Tech outblocked uga 7-0.  Cheick also had six points on 4/6 from the line, which is surprising for a 52% shooter.  He put VT up 66-65 in the final minute.  But he also gave up the bucket to Jackson inside and missed the putback at the end, when he appeared to have time to regroup and dunk the ball, but rushed the shot.

Hank Thorns had his best game of the season, coming off what had been his previous best game of the season against Navy.  Hank had two nice driving layups and a season high six assists.  He regularly found his way down the lane and dished to an open man for an easy bucket.

Dorenzo Hudson saw his minutes slip again tonight.  He started but played sparingly as Thorns outplayed him.  Also, Victor Davila showed some chinks in the armor.  He had two great plays on offense, but his defense is not ACC-caliber right now.  Victor continually (not just tonight but in other games) lets opponents catch the ball all the way down on the low block, allowing them to shoot short jump hooks.  He has to force the guys out and make them catch the ball higher.

Virginia Tech featured their back-cuts more and more tonight, something they have shown at times this year.  They dump the ball to Allen or another big man in the high post, and then a wing cuts along the baseline to the hoop.  It worked beautifully a couple of times.

VT also used their 1-3-1 full court trap a bit tonight and got a steal out of it, but due to tired legs in the second half they went away from it.

The Hokies also did a great job on uga’s leading scorer, Terrance Woodbury.  He came in averaging 13 ppg but had just 5 points on 2/10 shooting.  Chris Barnes and Corey Butler paced the bulldogs with 11 each.  georgia had nine players score in the game with each scoring between 4-11 points. 

A.D. had 23 points and 9 rebounds, both game highs.  Delaney had 11 (all in the first half), and Jeff Allen had 8.  Allen battled foul trouble all game, sitting with 6:33 left in the first half with his second foul, and picking up his fourth with over 10 minutes to go.  He did have 8 points and 6 rebounds.

Both teams played well offensively in the first half.  Tech was shooting 53% at the half and led 41-38, but finished the game shooting 42% which tells you how the second stanza went. 

georgia, who just plain stunk on offense coming into the game, shot just 39%.  Again, that points to how critical offensive rebounds were for them.  Tech appeared lazy at times getting back and gave up some easy buckets in the first half.

As I predicted in the preview, you could build a house with all the bricks from the free throw line in the game.  The problem is VT was almost as bad as uga.  Tech came in 2nd in the ACC shooting 76% from the line, but went just 12/19 (63%) tonight.  Part of the problem was they had Cheick and Terrell Bell and Lewis Witcher shooting 10 of those free throws.  Even A.D., who was 18/19 (95%) coming into the game, missed two of this final three free throws.

georgia was a pathetic 10/21 (48%) from the not-so-charity stripe.  I think I just threw up in my mouth.

The announcer said at the end that, “You don’t have to worry about Virginia Tech, they’ll be alright.”  I disagree 100%.  While there is plenty of basketball left to be played and plenty of chances to punch a ticket to the Big Dance, VT has dug themselves into quite a hole.  The Hokies are now 0-4 against big conference opponents, and only have potentially st. john’s left before conference play begins.  This basically means VT will have one quality win at best heading into ACC play, and st. john’s is not a quality team right now so that might not even matter. 

I’m sorry, but this season is already stinking of 2005-06.  Let’s hope the guys get as fed up with this as Greenberg was at the end and start taking care of business, instead of finding ways to lose.  I think if I had a thermometer right now, it would read over 100 on me (and Greenberg).  This loss really stung as you sensed most of the way VT would win.  They didn’t… yet again.

Final Thought: I’m renaming us the ‘Wild Turkeys’ since you need to be drinking Wild Turkey to make it through our games.

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