Here’s the plus/minus from the two games in Vegas.  I have no comment about the colorado state ‘game’.

bradley: Barksdale has had solid +/- totals all year, even when he wasn’t scoring, but he had a real stinker against the braves (-10) in his 18 minutes of action.  Guess who had the best +/- for the Hokies by far… you got it… Christian Beyer, the walk-on, who posted a +12 in 27 minutes of play.  Rankin added a +6 off the bench.  The Hokie starters were -14 on the night while the bench was +19.

Boxscore

The Hokies absolutely stole a victory from the jaws of defeat in Vegas on Saturday night, capturing a 66-65 win in the Las Vegas Classic Semi-Finals. Tech will face the winner of cal-state-northridge and colorado state (just assume it will be colorado state) on Sunday night at 11:30 PM EST in the Championship Game.

When I say VT stole this win, I mean it. The Hokies took a 2-0 lead to open the game, then trailed for the following 34 minutes. With just under 5 minutes to go, Erick Green put the Hokies on top 53-51 from the foul line. The final 5 minutes were anything but pretty, but Tech led 55-53 with 20 seconds to go. With the shot clock running out, Erick Green was stripped of the ball and Lemon, Jr. outran the Hokies for a layup to tie the game with 9.7 seconds left. After a timeout, Tech’s Robert Brown passed to Erick Green for a potential game-winning shot at the buzzer but just as with the wvu game, it was not meant to be and we were headed to overtime.

In the extra frame, bradley took a 65-60 lead after a wild sequence. VT stole the ball down 63-60 with 50 seconds left but Marquis Rankin committed Tech’s 24th turnover of the game and instead of having a chance to tie the game, bradley converted to go up 5 with 40 seconds left. After Joey van Zegern made 1/2 free throws, VT trailed 65-61. The braves missed the front end of a one-and-one, and Erick Green drove and got a 3-point play to make it 65-64 bradley. Then, an unexpected hero took center court. Walk-on Christian Beyer stole the ball and passed to Erick Green to put the Hokies ahead 66-65 with 18 seconds left.

After bradley’s final timeout, Lemon, Jr. missed two free throws but Tech fumbled the ball out of bounds with 9 seconds left. Lemon, Jr. had another shot to win the game but missed, and after a scramble, VT had their victory.

Erick Green recorded a career high 31 points and 8 rebounds. The 31 points marked his 11th straight 20+ point game to start the season, but his first time ever reaching 30 points in his career.

I mentioned Tech’s 24 turnovers. bradley came into this game as one of the leading defenses in the nation in terms of steals and turnovers caused, and VT committed 16 first half turnovers (while compiling just 1 assist). That’s, uh, not good.

And stop me if you read this after the wvu game — but a bad 3-point shooting team lit up the Hokies. bradley averaged less than four made 3-pointers per game and shot just 27% from deep… they had six made threes at the half. After starting 5/9 from deep, they cooled off considerably, finishing just 8/23 (35%) from deep. They had their typical balanced scoring with Simms-Edwards leading them with 15.

Tech trailed by as many as 13 in the first half and were behind 35-25 at the break. And of those 25 points, Green had 11 and Raines 10. Raines, who had been held scoreless in the last two games, responded with 16 points (tying a career high) and 9 rebounds. Jarell Eddie, who had just 2 at the half, finished with 12 but was just 2/8 from deep. Robern Brown tallied just 2 points on 1/6 FGs, his second straight rough game.

Tech was just 25% on 3s, meaning for just the 2nd time this season the team that shot a higher % from deep (bradley in this case), lost.

MAJOR PROPS to walk-on Christian Beyer – he had 3 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 steals (including the game-winner) in 27 minutes. We’ll see you tomorrow night on CBS College Sports! Late night, baby!

Spread: VT by 2.

Let’s stop all the boo-hoo’ing and the crying. Tech had a tough loss on the road in Morgan-hole at wvu, a rough first half against mvsu, an embarrassing stinker against georgia southern, and a critical injury to a bench player in Marshall Wood. But there still is talent on this team, and we are not playing kentucky or duke this weekend. This is the first real test for Coach Johnson, so let’s see how he responds, and in turn, the team responds. VT can win this tourney that features bradley, colorado state (8-2), and cal-state-bakersfield (4-8). Not exactly world beaters. But JJ must light a fire under this team. If the Hokies have the same indifference on the glass they had the last few games, bradley, and most teams, will send the Hokies out of Vegas quicker than a card-counter.

bradley is very experienced and extremely balanced. Their top six feature three seniors and three juniors. So they’ve been there, done that. But they were a combined 19-45 (6-30 in the Missori Valley Conference) over the last two years. They’ve already surpassed the 7 wins they had all of last year (2-16 in the MVC, which is a quality conference). But just one of their eight wins is against a top 100 RPI team (#58 central michigan) — and they lost to #3 michigan by just 8 and #134 south florida by 19.

Speaking of balance, no one averages more than 13 ppg for the braves. They have six players averaging between 8.5 and 13.0 ppg (VT has 3). They have three players averaging over 3 assists per game (VT has just 1 – Green, though Brown is close). They have five guys averaging more than 1 steal per game (VT has just one – Green).

In terms of common opponents, bradley beat georgia southern by 19 (VT lost by 5) and mvsu by 35 (but it was just 9 at the half — VT beat mvsu by 21). So not real favorable there.

Here’s what bradley does really well and the Hokies must address:

• Turnover margin – bradley turns it over less than 12 times per game — similar to VT, but they cause 17 turnovers per game. That’s 5 extra possessions per game, in a matter of speaking, for the braves.
• Steals – The braves pilfer 11 steals per game! That’s an insanely high number (VT averages 5). Tech must protect the ball and watch out for the aggressive bradley defense.
• Assists – You’d expect a good TO margin from a veteran club, and you also see unselfishness in this group. They really share the ball well, as evidenced in their three guys with 3+ assists per game.

Other items:

• Rebounding – We all know VT must rebound better. They’ve given up 57 rebounds in their last three games (Tech is getting just 58% of their opponents misses). Luckily, the braves aren’t a great rebounding team. Their rebounding numbers and their opponents are exactly the same — they are getting 34% of their misses which isn’t that high. But again, this comes down to effort and VT must fight for rebounds instead of looking like they don’t care. Forget depth and fear of fouls, the Hokies must attack the glass.
• 3-pt shooting – VT must do better than the 13/57 from deep they’ve had the last three games (23%). They must get back closer to that 40% mark to win. bradley is not a good shooting team from long range – they shoot under 30% and average just under 4 makes per game.

HO-KEY TO WINNING: the braves must cause turnovers since they don’t shoot well from deep. If the Hokies can win the 3-pt % battle (which always signifies the winner in VT games) and hit 40% from deep, they should win the game. bradley must force turnovers to win and hope VT isn’t hot from deep. Rebounding, as always, will be the x-factor. Let’s hope we see passion on the glass so the Hokies can advance to the Las Vegas Classic Championship Game at 11:30 PM on Sunday night on CBS College Sports (consolation game is at 9 PM Sunday night).