Highlights from the woodshed beating of wake on January 15th, 2011 at the Cassell.  You can see Prince Parker’s debut, and first points, at the end, as well as Paul Debnam’s assist and 4 points.

VT 94, wake 65 (Recap)

Boxscore

VT is 2-2 in ACC play. Their record last year? 2-2. Here we go…

The Hokies won a game they absolutely had to win, and in convincing fashion. Virginia Tech, after a 7-0 wake run to start the game from the demon deacons, absolutely dominated the game. I thought VT -19.5 was a high spread. Well, VT covered by then and then some. The Hokies cruised to a 94-65 win.  This was Tech’s biggest margin of victory ever in an ACC game (the previous high was a 27-point win over uva in 2007).

For once VT had balance, even in the first half. The Hokies had six guys finish in double-digits, and none of them were Malcolm Delaney. Tech got a huge effort from their bench.  Manny Atkins led the Hokies with a career high 16 (he was deadly from the right corner behind the arc), and freshman Jarell Eddie had 8 in the first half and finished with a career high 12 points.  Eddie and Atkins have put together two very good games back-to-back, which is crucial given VT’s lack of depth.  Erick Green and Jeff Allen had 10, Victor Davila had 14 (mostly off dunks — see picture), and Terrell Bell had 12.

Somewhat surprisingly, it was wake that opened up in a 2-3 zone while VT played man-to-man.  Tech had played nothing but zone against fsu and unc, but those teams had more bulk inside.  I assume Seth opened in man because of wake’s ability to penetrate.  The Hokies did play a lot of zone though, also.

Seriously, when I saw the spread was -19.5, I thought wake would cover. When they jumped out to a 7-0 lead, I thought we might lose. But that 17-2 run to put the Hokies up 17-9.  Later in the first half with the score 24-16 in favor of Tech, the Hokies went on an 11-0 run to burst ahead 35-16 and the game was all but over. I thought back at that point to when Tech was up 18 in the first half I thought back to Thursday when the Hokies were up 31-15 over unc, yet you knew this was different.  This is a terrible wake team that wasn’t going to put up a fight and were ready to head back to Winston-Salem for some Four Lokos.  VT was up 44-24 at the half thanks in large part to 7/14 shooting on 3-pointers.  After hitting just one three-pointer against florida state, Tech has answered with 19/40 from long range in their last two games.

wake has an awful defense. VT shot 59 percent for the game, over 50 percent in both halves. Tech also finished 18/21 from the line (86 percent). This is a good VT team. They took a wake team behind the woodshed that deserved it.

wake, which is turnover prone, lost the points off turnover battle 26-11. They also lost points in the paint 44-20 to a VT team that has no inside depth. Like I said, wake might be the worst ACC team ever.

Great stat line from Delaney: Nine points and nine assists. One turnover. That’s a great game.  He’s showing he can contribute without having to score 30 points.  The nine assists moved Delaney to third on Tech’s all-time assists list with 476, just ahead of Al Young – VT All-Time Leaders List

VT had 22 fast break points to four for wake.  The Hokies did an excellent job of pushing the ball and actually converted fast break opportunities for once!

It was Ace Custis Night, but Ace was unable to attend. Instead, we got a pre-taped video message from him in Japan (he plays for the Panasonic Trions). So, no arm curl opportunity. In case you missed our interview with Tech’s 10th highest scorer, 3rd highest rebounder, and 7th greatest thief (steals) back in April, here are the links:

• Ace Custis interview Part 1
• Ace Custis interview Part 2

Niemo’s Notes:

• As I thought, VT answered the tough loss Thursday with some anger in their blood and took it out on wake.
• VT is 6-1 all time in “short turnaround games” — once per year each ACC team plays a game less than 48 hours after their last ACC game.
• Eddie had this second good game in a row – 3/4 from the field.  5 rebounds.  12 points.
• Atkins is money from 3-point range (see below).
• Tech is 10-1 this year when Delaney scores 20 points or less.  They are 1-4 when he scores 21+.
• The Hokies are 7-2 against wake since joining the ACC and now lead the all-time series 27-26.
• VT loves playing teams from the North Carolina Triad this year — having scored 94 against wake and 92 versus unc-greensboro, their second and third highest scoring outputs of the season respectively.
• wake is now 0-3 in the ACC with their losses by a combined 69 points (-23 per).  If they aren’t the worst ACC team ever, they are in the neighborhood.

Cope-a-cabana’s Notes:

• Former Tech walk-on football player Prince Parker scored his first points as a Hokie with a layup in garbage time
• Atkins is 5/7 from three-point range in his last two games
• Paul Debnam scored four points, much to the crowd’s delight

Next up for the Hokies are the maryland terrapins on Thursday at College Park.  maryland nearly knocked off #7 villanova on Saturday.  The terps led by 12 with less than 10 minutes to go in the second half, but a 19-0 run by the ‘cats launched them firmly into control and gave them a villanova win.

Spread: VT by 19.5 (wow)

It’s Ace Custis Night! In case you missed our interview with Tech’s 10th highest scorer, third highest rebounder, and 7th greatest thief (steals) back in April, here’s a link:

• Ace Custis interview Part 1
• Ace Custis interview Part 2

As for the game, this is a contest the Hokies have to win. wake is terrible (in the 250s of the RPI surrounded by northwestern state, illinois-chicago, and utah valley), it’s at home, and a loss would severely dent the Hokies’ NCAA Tournament bandwagon, which is already leaking oil, gas, and some strange odor we can’t identify. A win means nothing to VT’s tourney hopes. It just means Tech notches a much needed ACC win.

Let’s not throw the 2010-11 media guide in the trash just yet, either. Remember, the Hokies started 1-2 in ACC last year with a loss at unc and florida state. All Tech did after that is win 7 of their next 8 ACC games. As last night showed, this team, even depleted, can play with anyone in the ACC. They also can lose to the bottom feeders of the ACC, and wake forest is clearly the ‘catfish’ of the ACC.

Tech will respond one of two ways on Saturday night: come out pissed off for the win they let slip away Thursday and dominate the deacons like I dominate women at arm wrestling, or, as Cope said, they let carolina beat them twice and don’t show up tomorrow night. Knowing Greenberg and how his teams tend to react, I expect a beat down, even if it takes a while.

As I said, the deacons are bad. Real bad. They are ‘maybe the worst team in the history of the ACC’ bad. Last year, their coach was Dino Gaudio. But their AD said, “Gaudio, you gotta go.” And he was fired. The result? This year their fans are saying, “God, ee-ooh do we suck!”

wake lost their first two ACC games by a combined 40 points. And that was to nc state and maryland, not duke and unc. The deacons have also lost to stetson, vcu, winthrop, unc-wilmington, and presbyterian among others. They only beat unc-greensboro by a bucket. Yeah, they are that bad.

Allow me to go Antonio Cromartie for a moment – [bleep] wake forest and [bleep] everyone that went there! Thank you, carry on.

HO-KEYS:

• Will El Ocho Become Siete? Hopefully Green (cramps) and Atkins (knee) are OK to play or this might turn into Hoosiers where Coach Dale plays with 4 on the court. The good news is because Allen sat most of the first half, his groin should be OK despite the short turnaround between games.
• 48 Hours: Each year each ACC team plays a game with a short turnaround time (around 48 hours). This year for some reason VT has to do it twice (gt/maryland later in the year though the gt game is an early afternoon game). Tech has been amazing in the back end of these short turnaround games since joining the league – they are 5-1 in the second game. That should go to 6-1 Saturday.
• Less Delaney: Here’s an odd stat – the Hokies are 9-1 when Malcolm scored 20 or fewer points, and 1-4 when he scores 21 or more. So here’s hoping he gets 20 or less.
• Key on McKie: Travis McKie, who played against Cadarian Raines a few times while at Marshall HS in Richmond, is built a lot like Jeff Allen. McKie is just 6’7″, small for a power forward. But he plays bigger than he is like Allen. Hopefully Jeff can shut him down, and he should be able to score on McKie since he doesn’t have the long wings John Henson did that blocked many of Jeff’s shots. But that’s if 7′ Ty Walker is lurking on the back end – he averages 3.2 blocks per game.
• wake’s Weaknesses: wake is #1 in the ACC in FT% and #3 in 3-point %. How do they lose so much? They get dominated on the glass (dead last last in Offensive and Defensive Rebounding %s) and are dead last in Turnover Margin. Tech did a great job of creating turnovers early against unc with the zone because the Hokies were intense on defense. wake has only had a few days to prepare for the 2-3 zone so I expect they’ll have similar issues. I’d also use the 1-3-1 trap both in the half court and full court at times to put pressure on the wake guards (assuming VT has 8 bodies… otherwise, they can’t press). The result should be some easy buckets.

SERIES:

• Overall: Tied at 26
• At Tech: VT 19-9
• ACC: VT 6-2

The Hokies have owned the deacons since joining like I own the entire Magnum PI DVD series (don’t hate!). Tech is 3-0 in football against wake forest, and 6-2 in basketball. VT has won 6 of the last 7, and in that one loss our current senior class blew a late 10-point lead and lost 77-75 at wake. The Hokies have won 3 straight in the Cassell versus wake, including an 87-83 win last year (RECAP) where Tech overcame a big first half (and early second half) lead. See the first part of the video below for highlights from this game, including an awesome block by Raines and dunk by Hudson (miss you guys)…

Watch VT Plays of the Week | 02.21.10 in Sports | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

STARTERS:

wake forest is young! Their top two scorers are freshman (J.T. Terrell off the bench and Virginia native Travis McKie). Clark, their third leading scorer, is a senior. But the fact he’s scoring 11.5 ppg this year shows how bad they are – he hadn’t averaged more than 3.2 ppg in his first three seasons. wake’s fourth and fifth leading scorers, Ari Stewart and C.J. Harris, are both sophomores. They have been forced to go young this year due to attrition and they are taking their lumps for it. This is a hard league to grow up in.

The Hokies face a 7-footer for the second game in a row, but comparing Carson Desrosiers to Tyler Zeller is like comparing a Hyundai to a Porsche… or for those of you that liked the McDonald’s theme… it’s like comparing a Filet-O-Fish to a Sausage Egg-n-Cheese McMuffin.

STATS:

BORING FACTS ABOUT wake

• ACC Basketball Championships: 4 (‘61, ‘62, ‘95, ‘96 – in other words, only back-to-backs)
• Final Four Appearances: 1 (‘62)
• wake is the only NC school to win an outright ACC football championship (in 2007) since 1980. Only one school has tied for an ACC title in that stretch: duke. How sad is that, unc and nc state?
• Founded in 1834 in Wake Forest, NC, just outside Raleigh. Moved to Winston-Salem in 1956… that’s right, they aren’t even in the town they are named for!
• Undergrad Enrollment: 4,400
• Type: Private (and uppity)
• Ties: Baptist
• Students: The screamin’ deacons wear tie-dyed shirts to games even though it looks dumb and has the entire seven years they’ve been doing it.
• Biggest Jerk Alum: Billy Packer
• Nicest Alums: Arnold Palmer and Tim Duncan
• Other Famous Students: Chris Paul, Randolph Childress (his performance in the 95 ACC Tourney was nothing short of incredible), Dr. Jerry Punch (sideline reporter… got his doctorate at wake… why does a sideline reporter need that?… played QB for Lou Holtz at nc state… OK, enough about this dude), Brian Piccolo (of Brian’s Song… great movie – see the James Caan version), Rodney Rogers (who recently became paralyzed due to an ATV accident), Lanny Watkins, and Lee Norris (been in a bunch of TV shows I will never watch like 1 Tree Hill and Boy Meets World)