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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THE SETUP

Spread: VT by 3 1/2

From Hokiesports.com: “The Virginia Tech Hokies will play the University of Georgia on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. in Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga. The game will be televised live by regional sports networks.  Below is a listing of networks airing the game.

Fox Sports Net South

Comcast SportsNet Plus (Mid-Atlantic)

New England Sports Network

Fox Sports Network Florida”

On Tuesday night the Hokies will look to get their first win of the 2008-09 season against a major conference opponent when they take on the defending SEC champions, the georgia bulldogs.  This will also represent Tech’s first road game of the season, having played four home games and four neutral site contests.

Speaking of SEC champions, chew on this - the Hokies face the following opponents this year:

• The reigning Big(11)Ten Champions: wisconsin (Lost 74-72)
• The current SEC Champions: georgia
• The ACC Champions: #1 unc

That is a solid slate.  The Hokies need to win some of these games, though.  This game is very winnable.  georgia is not all that talented.  In fact, they were a pretty lousy team last year, too.  The dawgs finished the regular season at 13-16 with a 4-12 regular season record, good enough for last place in the SEC East.  But over the next four days, georgia weathered the storm, literally, and won the SEC Tournament by winning four games, including a doubleheader on Saturday.  That is not a typo, they had to win two games on the same day after a tornado damaged the Georgia Dome on Friday.  The games were moved to georgia tech’s home court and played basically in front of an empty arena as only select friends, family, and school officials were allowed to attend.

Tech started out 0-4 on the road last season, but finished the season by going 3-4, all in ACC play.  That is respectable and hopefully will give the Hokies confidence heading into their first road game. 

THE OPPONENT

Series: uga 4-1, including four wins in a row and a win over VT in the 1982 NIT.

As I said above, georgia is not very good.  They have a similar record to the Hokies at 5-3, but have beaten no one of note.  They have also lost to loyola of chicago by 21, western ky kentucky, and illinois by 34!  Ouch!

The dawgs biggest weakness is on offense.  They are averaging just 62.3 ppg.  georgia has been held under 56 points in four of their eight games and the illini allowed them just 42 points.  Terrance Woodbury, a 6’7″ wing player from VA Beach (757!), leads the team with 13.1 ppg.  Howard Thompkins is their only other serious offensive threat.  The freshman has averaged 11.8 ppg after missing their first four games.

The bulldogs are not going to beat you from the outside.  In fact, their leading three point shooter, 6’3″ senior guard Corey Butler, has just 10 makes on the season in 20 attempts.  A.D. Vassallo has more made threes (21) than Butler has shot.  Only two dawgs have more than five made threes.

uga shoots just 41.5% from the field, 31% on threes, and 62% from the line.  Like I said, they are not an offensive juggernaut.  Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has started attending their games to collect bricks to build houses for the needy.  Their offense would make mike groh sick to his stomach [too soon?  too soon?]  But I digress…

georgia will go deep into their bench, playing up to 10-11 guys, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing.  It just means they haven’t found enough guys to step up and contribute consistently, a similar thing VT was struggling with early in the year.  Only one guy, senior Woodbury, plays more than 26 minutes per game for them.

KEYS TO THE GAME

• Just Win, Baby: Enough excuses.  Enough horseshoes and hand grenades (close games).  It is time to win one of these games against a name team, especially given their lack of talent level.  The Hokies need to find a way.
• Big Donut Stale?: Jeff Allen tweaked an ankle early in the game against Navy Sunday.  With a short turnaround of just 48 hours, we will have to see if there is any residual effects.  He did play 31 minutes in the game Sunday and looked very strong in the second half, including the dunk of the year to date, so hopefully he is fine.
• Tired Legs: Tech has had big gaps in their schedule since leaving Puerto Rico.  They have played just three games in the two plus weeks since leaving the island.  There is a chance Tech could be tired after having to travel to DC and then down to Athens, GA for a game just 48 hours later.  Hopefully Puerto Rico conditioned VT for this situation.
• Play 40 Minutes: Every game Tech seems to have a stretch where they struggle on offense and are lazy on defense.  Against Navy, that led to an 11-0 run in the first half.  The Hokies need to avoid these stretches.
• Bury Woodbury: Woodbury is the only georgia player that can really hurt Tech.  Take him away and force the supporting cast to beat you.  The man guarding him should not leave him to double others.
• Build on Momentum: The Hokies played their best half of the season in the second half Sunday.  They scored 51 points and used a 21-3 run to turn a halftime deficit into a sizeable lead.  Tech got out and ran more and found ways to push the ball.  The result was some easy buckets for the Hokies.
• Swagger: VT is better than this team.  Come out, play hard, and expect to win.  Take it to the dawgs.

BORING FACTS ABOUT georgia

• georgia is currently on Uga VII.  This is his first season at the English bulldog mascot of the dawgs.  Uga VI passed away earlier this season.  The georgia bulldog may be the most recognizable mascot in sports, and was rated as such by SI in 1999.  Uga V was made famous for launching at an auburn WR who ventured too close during a football game.  You can see the clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foGHh14uvKk
• The other mascot of georgia is Hairy Dawg, a bulldog costume with a person inside.
• SEC fans are by far the most annoying fans in the world (on a conference level).  They basically think no other conference has ever beaten a “SEC skoo”, as they pronounce it.
• georgia fans LOVE to wear red pants, no matter how ridiculous they look.  Although they are better than the purple camo pants Baltimore Ravens fans wear.
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