THE SETUP

The 128th basketball meeting of uva and Virginia Tech pits the ACC’s first place cavaliers against the last place Hokies.  Yes, I’m being a little dramatic with that statement.  The cavs, who have the worst winning percentage overall in the ACC at 7-5, won their only conference tilt at georgia tech, putting them in a four-way tie for first.  Meanwhile, the Hokies got blown out at duke on Sunday in one of the worst performances in the Greenberg era, leaving Virginia Tech in a four-way tie for last since only four conference games have been played.  Tech managed just 13 second half points, and only 44 for the game, their worst output since ricky stokes “led” the Hokies.

Tech will look to right the ship Saturday against the team picked to finish dead last, by a wide margin, in the ACC.  And as I mentioned above, uva is at the bottom of the ACC in terms of winning percentage. 

You never like to call a game a “must win”, especially in ACC Game #2.  But if VT cannot defend the Cassell against the bottom feeder of the conference, they’re not going to make the Big Dance.  A loss here, and the Hokies need to start thinking Junior Prom at best — the NIT.  That said, the Hokies had been playing well leading up to the duke game, and the blue devils are on an absolute tear of late.  The Hokies should be fired up for their first home game since December 14th, a span of just under four weeks.

ACC Game #2 was the turning point of the VT season last year, and the Hokies face similar circumstances this year.  Having suffered a heartbreaking loss in their first ACC game at wake last season, and carrying a 9-6 record, the Hokies rallied late to defeat the terps 67-66 at the Cassell.  The win was a springboard for Tech on their way to a 9-7 ACC regular season.  Hopefully VT can build momentum for the rest of the season in this game.

THE SERIES

• All-Time: uva 78-49
• At the Cassell: VT 12-2 (VT won the first 8 games here)
• In Blacksburg: VT 25-16
• Streaks: VT has won 2 in a row in the series and at home; VT has won 3 of the last 4, after losing 4 of the first 5 to uva as a member of the ACC

LINEUPS

THE OPPONENT

The wahoos blow into town led by barack obama stunt double dave leitao. 

Exit sean singletary, enter sylven landesberg.  singletary was third in the ACC in scoring last season at 19.8 ppg.  All landesberg has done, as a true freshman no less, is average 18.3 ppg, also good for third in the league.  Like most of uva, sylven is not a threat from deep.  He has hit just six three-pointers.  Most of his damage comes from the foul line.  He has scored 78 of his 220 points (35%) from the charity stripe.  (By comparison, 86 of Delaney’s 229 points, or 38%, have come from the line).  landesberg is a true slasher.  He will attack the lane and throw himself at a low post defender to draw contact.  Even as a freshman, he has been able to get the calls.  Jeff Allen will have to be wary of this.  Tech needs to do as Greenberg said after the duke loss: shut down driving lanes so sylven can’t get to the low post guys and is forced to pass the ball.  At 6’6″, sylven can shoot over smaller defenders, but Bell and Hudson should be able to match up with his size.

uva’s offense is led from the point by redshirt freshman sammy zeglinski.  sammy is very quick and loves to push the ball.  He averages 12 ppg, and by far leads the hoos in threes with 24.  Just like under singletary, the wahoos want to force the tempo to try and get easy shots to compensate for their deficiencies in the half court and on defense.  uva has been able to jump out to early leads in many of their games as teams adjust to uva’s game speed.  Tech must be ready from the get-go, something that has been a problem the last two years, and Tech must get back on defense from the start.

The biggest disappointment for uva this year has been mamadi diane.  The senior has fallen from 11.8 ppg last season, to 4.6 ppg this year, his lowest average of any season.  He is a woeful 2/25 on three-pointers, including missing his first 21 attempts of the season!  So he’s on a roll now, hitting 2/4 in their last two games.  He has been benched at times in favor of calvin baker, but diane did start the last game.

Inside, mike scott is uva’s rebounding machine.  He leads the ACC in offensive rebounds per game (4) and tied for second overall in the conference with 9.3 total rpg.  scott is third on the team in scoring at 11.3 ppg.

Also inside, the hoos start a 7-foot tall freshman, assane sene.  He, uh, can’t score.  assane’s job is to block shots and rebound, and he averages half of uva’s 4 blocks per game.

Off the bench, calvin baker and jamil tucker average around 7 ppg.  tucker is a hot/cold shooter from deep, while baker likes to penetrate.  He will settle for bad long range shots though if he is kept on the perimeter.

The hoos are 11th in the conference in three-point percentage and 9th in threes made.  And while they shoot for a very high percentage from the line at 74% (just ahead of VT), they are second to last in the conference in FTs made and attempted.  What that tells you is that all of their points come from two-point shots, especially in transition.  The Hokies have to limit uva’s ability to get out and run and score easy hoops.

On defense, the hoos are not good.  They rank 12th in the ACC in scoring defense and FG % defense.  They are 11th in blocks and 10th in steals, so the cavs don’t do much to help feed their need for speed.  uva gives up a lot of easy buckets.  However, VT to date has not been good at taking advantage of transition opportunities or converting easy hoops.  That needs to change Saturday.  If so, VT can roll.

Random Beloved Story of Mine: Before the 2007 meeting at the Cassell, while staying at the new Inn & Conference Center, the hoos were awoken from their sleep around 3 AM due to a fire alarm. The entire hotel was evacuated, leading to several heckles of the wahoos outside.  Let’s just say dave leitao was not happy.  The hoos looked half asleep the next day and lost by 27.  Story

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