The longwood (giggity) lancers come to Cassell on Saturday night for what should be a colossal whoopin’. The Hokies have three games in six days, this being the midde game. When you only have El Ocho, that isn’t good. I’d expect to see more minutes than usual for Eddie, Atkins, and Garland, and wouldn’t be surprised to see a Prince Parker appearance just to give the big’uns some rest in the paint. Tech needs to be fresh for the other tech on Tuesday in the ATL.

This game is a win-lose situation for the Hokies. It’s a win in the sense that, well, VT is going to win the game. But it’s a loss because VT is playing the #329 team (of 345) in the RPI. The Hokies have already played six teams in the bottom 100, so this isn’t going to help their fading strength of schedule. Tech’s RPI shot up 11 spots from 78 to 67 after the win at maryland, but expect it to take a similar tumble after Saturday.

This win will close out the Hokies’ out of conference slate. Tech will finish with a 9-3 record.? The Hokies went 13-1 outside of the ACC last year, but we saw where that got Tech – another trip to the VT Invitational, otherwise known as the NIT. That’s because all VT played last year was poo-poos like east popcorn state and longwood…

SERIES:

VT 2-0 (the last two seasons)

Tech almost double Bear Fighted the lancers last year, winning 85-50 (Recap) in an early afternoon matinee just before New Year’s. That was the game, you’ll remember, where Malcolm Delaney got early very early on. He missed the rest of that game and the seton hall game a few days later. This was when Dorenzo Hudson really started to take over. Green had a good game (which was rare last year), leading the Hokies with 15. Allen had 13 points and 9 boards against the over-matched lancers. Game Film

VT won 79-57 (Recap) two years ago. Jeff Allen unleashed the fury in that game, scoring 19 points and snagging 21 rebounds!

STARTERS:

Yep, that’s right, they have a 6’6″ center. This is gonna be interesting. Go ahead and pencil in Jeff Allen for 16 points and 12 rebounds. Actually, go ahead and write that in pen.

STATS:

How bad is longwood on defense? They are dead last in the nation in defensive efficiency, giving up 1.2 points per possession (the average is 1.01 — VT gives up .87 — 15th best). Side note: maryland, even after last night, is #2 in the nation in this stat giving up just .83 per possession yet VT torched them for 1.1 points per possession.

TOUCHING ON longwood:

The lancers are lead by so-and-so. Their coach, Coach So-and-So, has been there for x number of years. Look, let me be honest. I don’t know crap about longwood and really don’t care to. I know Jason Mraz and Michael Tucker went there and that’s about it. KenPom predicts we win this by 40 (Double Bear Fight!). The Hokies need to jump out early and get a double digit lead in the first half, as they have done in their last five games. Then Tech needs to rest their starters some. Tech can easily survive this game with just Davila or Allen on the floor at any given time. These guys are not tall or big.

longwood lost by 38 to kansas, 31 to marquette, 27 to seton hall, and 32 to vmi. They give up a lot of points.

BORING FACTS ABOUT longwood:

• Location: Farmville, VA(that’s boring enough)
• 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