THE SETUP:

It is the first ever Maroon Monsoon!  At least this is one of Virginia Tech’s colors, unlike the black out. 

The jor-ja bull-dawgs will try to hunker down and beat the Hokies for the second year in a row as the two teams meet in what could be a snow covered Cassell Coliseum Sunday.  Tech will attempt to win their third game in a row since losing to temple last Friday.  georgia has already won three straight since starting out 1-2 with losses to wofford and uab. 

georgia is 5-1 all time against Virginia Tech and has won five in a row, including a 90-73 win in the 1982 NIT (georgia was led by Dominique Wilkins).  georgia defeated the Hokies by just one point last year, 67-66 (Recap), it what was a bad loss for Tech.  This is a game the Hokies should have won on paper, but Tech was never able to take control of the game.  This was a real slugfest, as neither team led by more than five in the contest and in the final five minutes neither team led by more than two.  georgia took a one point lead on a layup by 6’11″ big man Albert Jackson and the Hokies blew a couple of good opportunities under the hoop in the final seconds.  Of the Hokies back this year, Delaney and Allen both had decent games with 11 and eight points respectively.  Tech fell to 5-4 with the loss but rolled off nine of 10 after it.

The dawgs, who shocked the SEC by winning the 2008 SEC Tournament, finished just 12-20 last season and 3-13 in the SEC.  Their Head Coach, Dennis Felton, was fired last January in his sixth season.  He was replaced by Mark Fox, nevada’s old coach.

SIX PACK OF KEYS TO WINNING:

1. Bully the bullies:  Tech has not done well against barbarous teams the last few years.  mississippi pushed the Hokies around in the quarterfinals of the 2008 NIT.  georgia grabbed 15 offensive rebounds to just eight by the Hokies last year in Athens.  baylor beat up Tech in the paint, backing down the Hokies way too close to the basket last year in the NIT, and went on to collect 32 points in the paint.  That must stop Sunday.  The Hokies have done a great job on the glass to date this year, and as I mention in my Offensive Breakdown Article, have a 37.7% offensive rebound percentage, good for 56th best in the nation of 347 Division I teams.  And VT’s opponents are getting just 31.1% of their misses.  But temple outscored Tech 34-16 in the paint in the Hokies’ only loss.  Tech did a good job on the glass but they continue to play poor post defense, allowing opponents to setup near the hoop and receive feeds for easy, short hooks or jumpers.  The Hokies must battle inside.  A big key will be Victor Davila – can he keep up the strong defense he showed against iowa?  Or will he look like the pussycat he’s appeared to be at times against stronger foes?  If it is the latter, expect Cadarian Raines to see some time and try and impose his muscle.
2. Home cooking:  Teams shoot better at home.  You are used to the surroundings, the shooting background, the bed.  Hopefully the Hokies will see an improvement on their 39.8% shooting percentage and 29% three-point percentage.  But, Tech was just 1 of 13 on threes in their last home game and they are just 20 of 36 (56%) on free throws at home.  Let’s hope that is a thing of the past and the Hokies start lighting it up at home.  Heck, iowa who earlier in the season couldn’t hit a tree even if Tiger Woods was driving, went 12 of 27 on threes the other night.  You have to think familiarity was a factor. 
3. Swagger: I like what Goodraisin said in his comment the other day.  He talked how he felt the team would be confident and fired up after the win at iowa.  Let’s hope so.  This team has played hard, but at times seems to lack confidence.  Getting a tough win on the road against a name team should give the Hokies some swagger upon returning home, plus as Goodraisin said, they will want some revenge for last year.
4. The Fresh Makers:  The freshmen have started getting more and more opportunities.  Ben Boggs played 15 minutes the other night and hit two big three-pointers early.  Manny Atkins saw action for the second game in a row and Erick Green had a couple of minutes.  Cadarian Raines has been cleared to play, coming off a foot fracture, and may see his first action Sunday against the physical bulldogs.  We shall see if they continue to have more of an impact as the veterans struggle.
5. Sellout: The game likely won’t be a sellout and certainly won’t be full with the lousy weather, but we need our fans to come out and support the Hokies.  But what I’m talking about here is the players.  The Hokies aren’t going to out-talent many teams, though they do have more talent than the bulldogs.  What I’m talking about is hustle: diving for loose balls, hitting the boards aggressively, sprinting back on help defense.  This team is going to continue to win games because they out-work other teams.  No let downs, ever, or this team can lose to anyone.
6. Don’t drink Malt Liquor: I always like to finish with a ‘beer/six pack’ reference.  The Weekend Warrior has informed me that malt liquor was a bad choice for the iowa game.  Since it is going to be cold and perhaps snowy on Sunday, try a bourbon stout to warm you, such as jefferson’s Reserve.

THE OPPONENT:

[I could copy and paste this into every preview...] This is not a good team.  georgia lost to a 4-5 wofford team, and got worked but a solid uab team.  Their wins are over new orleans, saint louis, unc-a’ville, and jacksonville state (whom they only beat by three and trailed most of the game.  They lost three starters off their team that went 12-20 last year, including leading scorer Terrance Woodbury.  But, they have the exact make-up of the Hokies’ kryptonite – they are big and strong inside, much like temple. 

georgia will go five deep on their bench.  When you don’t have a ton of skill, and just one real star (Thompkins), you might as well have fresh guys on the court.  They have 10 guys that have played in every game and no one averages even 30 minutes per game.

The story for the dawgs is their big men.  Their leading scorer is Trey Thompkins, a 6’9″ 247 lbs. sophomore.  Cheick Diakite did a good job on him last year, as Trey went 0 of 5 inside, but he hit two shots from deep and had nine points and seven rebounds, including three offensive rebounds.  Albert Jackson, a 6’11″ and 265 lbs. senior, had four offensive rebounds and seven points.  Jeremy Price, a 6’8″ and 264 lbs. junior, also had three offensive rebounds off the bench for georgia last year and had six points.  Chris Barnes weighs in at 240 pounds and stands 6’8″ tall and he had 11 points last year in the VT game on 4 of 4 shooting.  In other words, they have lots of bigs and all four are back.  Tech must force these guys away from the hoop (I’d take my chances on Thompkins beating Tech on threes) and put bodies on them to box them out on shots.

The dawgs have a brand new backcourt this season.  Their top guards are Travis Leslie and Ricky McPhee.  Leslie is a 6’4″ sophomore guard who has raised his scoring average by five points, up to 11.8 ppg.  He does not shoot from outside, having attempted just two threes on the year.  He is a slasher and gets to the foul line a lot.  Tech can drop off him and dare him to shoot outside.  When he drives, if he beats his man, Tech must play good help defense with the post players rotating to stop him and other players collapsing to pick up the vacated post player.  McPhee is a fifth year senior who averaged just 3.6 ppg last year.  But he has improved greatly to help fill the loss of Woodbury.  He is up to 9.5 ppg and is hitting 48% of his shots and 39% of his threes (12/31).

georgia is a grind it out team, as you would expect for a big team.  They average 65 possessions per game, slightly higher than VT but very low compared to the rest of the nation.  georgia scores approximately one point for every possession, slightly less than Tech’s 1.02.  And they play decent defense, allowing 0.95 points per possession on defense, slightly worse than VT’s 0.92.  georgia is second-to-last in the SEC in points per game at 65 ppg, but allow just 61.5.  They shoot free throws well at 71%, especially Thompkins who is 15 of 16, but are in the bottom half of the SEC in field goal percentage and three-point shooting percentage at 44% and 30% respectively.  Their effective field goal percentage is 47.9%, much better than VT’s 43.8%.

Since georgia is mainly a team of bigs, they don’t shoot a lot of threes.  McPhee is the only guy that is averaging making more than one per game (he is making two per game).  They make 4 of 13 threes per game (VT makes 4.7 of 16.1).  They get to the line the same amount as the Hokies, at 21 attempts per game. 

Again, Tech must work their butts off on interior defense and get four or five guys on the glass.  If they can secure rebounds, they should be able to beat the bulldogs down the floor.  Plus, with an all new backcourt, the Hokies should be able to create some turnovers that could lead to transition points.   georgia is committing over 15 turnovers per game and that has been the Hokies M.O. to winning.

STATS:

STARTERS:

*Note: Jeff Allen came off the bench last game in both halves, perhaps to prevent him from picking up early fouls which were issues against campbell and temple.  If he comes off the bench, JT Thompson will likely start.

BORING FACTS ABOUT georgia:

• I almost went there, but chose the Hokies over them
• Though the biggest rumor is the Hokies will play tennessee in the “Peach” Bowl, other sources are saying there could be a rematch of the 2006 “Peach” Bowl, featuring the dawgs and the Hokies
• Uga VII, the live bulldog mascot of georgia, died of a heart attack just last month in just his second season.  He was the first Uga not to serve for at least seven seasons.
• Hairy Dawg is their “human in a mascot outfit”.  But believe me, he plays second fiddle to the dog.
• Type of school: public land grant
• Founded: 1785
• Students: just under 35k
• The school was closed during the last half of the Civil War
• It was not integrated until 1961
• The state pays the cost of in-state tuition for any student that has a 3.0 GPA (and they used to have to get a 1300 on the SAT)
• Their football team shared the 1942 national title and won it in 1980, and have 12 SEC titles, two Heiman winners (Frank Sinkwich in ’42 and Herschel Walker in ’82) and three Super Bowl MVPs (Jake Scott in ’72, Terrell Davis in ’98, and Hines Ward in ’05)
• They won the 2008 SEC Tournament.  The tournament was interrupted by a tornado that hit the Georgia Dome and did damage.  So georgia had to win two games on the same day after the tourney moved to georgia tech’s arena and still win the Championship Game on Sunday.
• Dominique Wilkins, who is still my favorite basketball player of all time, went to uga and is maybe the most underappreciated player in NBA history.  Did you know he wasn’t on the NBA’s 50th Anniversary top 50 players list several years ago?  What a crock.  He was the Human Highlight Film.
• georgia made their only Final Four in 1983, the year after Wilkins left (sounds like uva and Ralph Sampson), losing to Jim Valvano’s nc state team
• The bulldogs won the 1990 College World Series and have made six trips to Omaha

Famous Alums:

• Bill Goldberg (the wrestler… played football for uga)
• Kim Basinger
• Wayne Knight (Newman from Seinfeld)
• R.E.M. – all four went to uga
• Ryan Seacrest (Ha!  I wouldn’t brag about that)
• Matthew Stafford – last year’s #1 NFL pick
• Fran Tarkenton
• They’ve produced 17 future Governors of Georgia
• Crawford Long – inventor of anesthesia

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