longwood looked rock solid in the first 10 minutes of each half, but went flaccid in the second part of both halves. If the Hokies had played like this against maryland Thursday, they’d have lost by 17.  But in the end the Hokies pulled out their 9th win in 10 games.

The Hokies trailed 15-10 at the 10-minute mark of the first half, and were outscored 17-16 in the first 10 minutes of the second half. But Tech dominated the final 10 of both halves. The Hokies finished the first half on a 19-4 run to lead 29-19 at the break and went on a 16-2 run late in the second half to blow open a fairly tight game (VT was up just 51-40 with 9 minutes to go before that run made it 67-42). longwood closed the game on a 10-3 run to prevent a Bear Fight and establish the 70-52 final score.

Plays of the Game:

• Green’s baseline block while back-pedaling midway through the second half.
• The back-to-back fast break finishes by Bell (dunk) and Green (layup) to put VT up 25.
• The substitute PA Announcer who clearly was bucking for the full time gig.  He clearly had the most energy in the arena, treating this like it was Game 7 of the NBA Finals in Chicago.

Malcolm Delaney led the Hokies with 23 points. It marked just the second time all season VT won when he scored 21 or more (the other was unc-greensboro). Tech is 2-4 when he surpasses 20, 11-1 when he doesn’t. Malcolm took advantage of a lot of whistles and converted 10/12 free throws. He hit 6/14 from the floor, but just one 3-pointer.

Erick Green had 14 points to make him a ‘Perfect 10′ — he’s reached double digits in points in all 10 games he’s started (in a row).  His three-point shot has been off the last 5 games (1/10) but he continues to knock down mid-range jumpers, something Tech was sorely missing early in the year with Hudson’s struggles.

Tech was awful from behind the arc other than Manny “Millions” Atkins. He hit both of his 3-point attempts. The rest of the team was just 3/17. Tech started 2/14 from deep.

Jeff Allen, whom I had penned in with a double-double, had just 6 points. He did have 10 rebounds but for some reason was unable to take advantage of the 6’2″ guy guarding him most of the game.

The Hokies played mostly man defense tonight for the first time in a long while.  They showed some of their now base 2-3 zone defense and even used a 1-3-1 halfcourt trap at one point.  I expect to see Tech back in the zone against the yellow jackets on Tuesday.

Antwan Carter, longwood’s leading scorer with 17 ppg, had 14, but just 4 in the first half. Aaron Mitchell also had 14.

Random Stats:

• VT had just 3 first half turnovers but 8 in the second half.
• Tech shot just 30% in the first half. The problem in the second half was the giveaways.
• The Hokies shot 16/26 (62%) in the second half.
• Manny “Millions” is red hot from deep – he’s hit 8/13 over his last four games and is heading to his sort-of hometown Atlanta on Tuesday.
• Tech finished 15/17 from the line (88%), their 2nd best effort of the season (92% against the now 5-1 fsu ‘noles).
• longwood had just 1 offensive rebound in the first half (they’re tiny) but 8 in the second half.
• VT won points off turnovers 24-13 and fastbreak points 14-5 (longwood slowed the game down despite being an up-tempo team).
• This was the 6th straight game Tech has taken a double digit lead in the first half.
• The lancers are now 10-95 all-time on the road since joining D-1, 0-11 this season.  (Paul Hewitt-like numbers)
• Tech moved to 7-2 at home this year with 5 games left. Unless they lose all 5 remaining ACC home games, and a NIT home game, they clinched at least a .500 record at home.  Tech has only had 1 losing record at the Cassell and that was under… you guessed it… ricky stokes.
• VT finished the out of conference slate with a 10-3 record.

Halftime: VT 29, longwood 19 (below was written at halftime…)

Apparently the Hokies thought the game started at 7:30, but eventually came to life and pounded longwood. longwood went flacid after the first 10 minutes. The lancers jumped out to a shocking 15-10 lead, but the Hokies closed the first half on a 19-4 run to take a 29-19 halftime advantage. The lancers scored just 1 point in the final 6:45 of the first half.

Tech suffered shooting shrinkage in the first half. After easily shooting over 50% against maryland, the Hokies finished the first half just 9/30 (30%). VT was just 2/12 on 3-pointers. The key? They were in the bonus less than 7 minutes in to the game and hit 9/11 free throws in the first half (Delaney had both misses, if you can believe that, including another front end of a one-and-one). longwood was charged with 11 fouls (including 3 by their star, Antwan Carter) to just 4 by VT in the first half.

Malcolm Delaney paced the Hokies with 11 first half points. No one else had more than 6 (Atkins and Green). Allen is making me a terrible fortune teller again – he had just 2 points at the half despite having undersized men on him (I predicted an easy double-double for him).

Surprisingly, the lancers did a great job on the defensive glass early. They had a 6’2″ player (Aaron Mitchell) guarding Jeff Allen early, but held Tech to just 1 offensive rebound early. Then Tech started sending 4 or 5 guys to the glass and the result was a tsunami of offensive rebounds. Tech finished with 9 offensive rebounds at the break, to just 1 by longwood.

I thought this game would be a good dress rehearsal for Tuesday. longwood, much like georgia tech, like to push the ball and play out of control. But the lancers focused on milking the clock after getting up early. It looked like 4-corners at times and they suffered a couple of shot clock violations in the first half. longwood had 8 turnovers at the break to just 3 by VT.

Tech returns to action Tuesday against tech in Atlanta on your regional ACC channel.

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

Update on Delaney at 7:37pm: Coach Greenberg sent out a tweet an hour ago: “MD MRI negative! Bone bruise and ankle sprain. Not a high ankle! We will proceed with caution!”

—

The Hokies finished their holiday feasting by gobbling up the lancers from longwood this afternoon 85-50. Unfortunately, it came at a price. The ACC’s leading scorer, Malcolm Delaney, sprained his ankle 90 seconds into the game and did not play the remainder of the contest. He was fouled while driving to the basket and fell hard to the court. Delaney was in serious pain and was not able to put weight on the injured leg. He had to be helped to the dressing room. Delaney later reappeared in the second half on crutches with his ankle in a boot. I can’t believe he will be playing on Saturday against the pirates. Coach Greenberg described it as a “severely bad sprain” in his post-game interview.

It was the Erick Green coming out party as he led all scorers with 15, shooting over 60% from the field. Jeff Allen came one rebound short of recording another double-double, but he finished with 13 points and 9 boards. The Hokies out-rebounded the lancers 48 to 37, although longwood did grab more offensive boards by a 14 to 8 margin.

The Hokies shot better from the floor than the line today. Not sure how you do that, but they did it. Tech was 30 of 51 from the field (58.8%) and 23 of 41 from the line (56.1%). I am sure Seth will have the team doing double time on the charity stripe before their flight south of the border. The Hokies also lost the turnover battle, which typically is not a good sign. Tech turned the ball over 18 times vs. 17 for the lancers.

First Half

The Hokies got out to a quick 7-0 start and led 43-21 at the half thanks to healthy contributions from Erick Green, Dorenzo Hudson, and Terrell Bell. Given that Malcolm Delaney and Jeff Allen only played a combined 5 minutes in the first half, it was great to see the team respond in this positive manner on the court. The threesome of Green, Hudson, and Bell scored a combined 27 points in the first half as freshman Erick Green led all scorers with 10 points. Green was 4 of 7 from the field, 1 of 1 from three point range. Dorenzo Hudson scored 9 in the first half with 5 rebounds. Hudson led all Hokies in rebounds after the first half. Bell had 8 at halftime on 2 of 2 shooting, 4 of 6 from the line.

The Hokies shot 51% in the first half compared to 18% for the lancers. From the line, the Hokies were 16 of 25 while the lancers were 8 of 11. Both teams were 1 of 3 from three point land.

longwood did something in the first half that I am not sure I have ever seen. Two players had four fouls at halftime. E.J. Dawson picked up his fourth foul with 1:02 left in the half and Antwan Carter picked up his fourth foul with 3:17 in the half.

Next up is the seton hall pirates in Cancun, Mexico on Saturday at 7:30pm. The game is televised on ESPN2. The pirates are coming off two very tough losses to wvu and syracuse, who are both in the Top 6 of the country.

NIEMO’S NOTES:

• Let us all hope for a speedy recovery for Malcolm. While the team played absolutely great in his absence today and got valuable experience without him, this team will only go as far as Delaney takes them.
• The following players had career highs today: Erick Green (15), Ben Boggs (10), Cadarian Raines (6), and the heart-and-soul of this team, Paul Debnam (6).
• The referees must have been getting paid by the foul – longwood was whistled for 15 fouls in BOTH halves! They had two players fouled out with 15 minutes still left in the game! VT shot a season high 41 free throws but made just 23 as Wick pointed out… that’s missing Delaney who always hits his. Boggs was 8 of 10 from the line.
• VT also had a season high 47 points off the bench, and it wasn’t just in garbage time (well, most of this game was garbage time actually). At the half Jeff Allen (2 early fouls) and Malcolm Delaney had 0 points, yet VT led 43-21. Allen did score 13 points in the second half and will need to become the central figure on offense for Tech while Delaney is down.
• What a balanced attack from the Hokies today – four guys reached double-digits (Green, Allen, Hudson, Boggs), two more guys had 8 (Bell and Thompson), and three more had 6 (Davila, Raines, Debnam). That is nine guys with 6 points or more.
• Tech had a whopping 8 blocks in the game against the smaller lancers.
• Dorenzo Hudson had another solid game with 11 points, 5 boards, and 3 assists.
• Tech attempted just 6 three-pointers and made 2, a season low in attempts. Again, that’s the impact of not having Delaney, VT’s best three-point shooter. This team needs to continue to do what they did today – go hard at the tin either in transition or the half court and pound the glass.
• The Hokies actually lost the turnover battle 18-17, but outscored longwood 23-9 in points off turnovers. Tech also lost the turnover battle against georgia and penn state.
• This is the first time VT has won back-to-back games by 30+ since 1987. The eight game winning streak is their longest since 1995-96 when VT started 12-1 and won nine in a row.
• Tech led by as many as 39 in this game! Ouch. longwood was rather limp today.

Malcolm Delaney suffered an ankle injury just a little over a minute into the game against longwood.  The ACC’s leading scorer was fouled while driving to the basket and fell hard to the court.  He was in serious pain and was not able to put weight on the injured leg.  He had to be helped to the dressing room.  It was diagnosed as a sprained left ankle and he went for x-rays.

Update: Malcolm returned to the court on crutches with his ankle in a boot.  X-rays were negative (no break).  He obviously did not return to play in the game and there is no timetable yet on when he might be able to play again.  They are waiting to hear back about his MRI.

This is obviously extremely sad news for Tech and Malcolm.  The team is really playing great right now and with VT about to play a very good seton hall team on Saturday and kickoff the ACC schedule the following weekend, this could really be a huge blow to the Hokies and their season if he is out for any significant amount of time.  The only silver lining, and it is a very small one, is that Tech had to play the final 38:30 of the game without Malcolm and got some experience not having him, especially for Erick Green who had a career high in points.

THE SETUP:

It is a business-person’s special on Wednesday as the Hokies take on the… hmm, what is longwood’s nickname (inappropriate thoughts going through my head)… let me look it up… the lancers!  PLEASE NOTE: this game is at 2 PM at the Cassell.  I have to believe this is so the Hokies can get to the international terminal at Roanoke Airport (chuckle) and head to Cancun for their game against the seton hall pirates on Saturday.   Don’t want to miss prime sun hours on Thursday!

The Hokies will be heavy favorites in this game and unless tequila bottle worms have invaded their heads already, the Hokies should lay the lumber to longwood.  VT has a significant size advantage inside and a talent advantage all over the court.

The two teams met last year for the first time ever and Tech won 79-57.  longwood was quite impotent in that game, shooting just 29.9% for the game (20 of 67), suffering from a STD (ShooTing Dysfunction… and yes, I’m reusing that joke from last year).  Jeff Allen was the star of that game with 19 points and 21 rebounds, the latter is still a career high.  Malcolm Delaney was relatively quiet with 12 points.  Terrell Bell had a career high at the time, 12 points (he upped that to 13 against iowa this year).  Tech dominated the glass, rebounding 77% of longwood’s misses and getting 48% of their own misses.  The lancers did hang around thanks to 23 VT turnovers and trailed just 56-50 with 8 minutes to play, but the Hokies used a 16-0 run to pull out from the pack.

Note: Jeff Allen is 33 points away from 1,000 in his VT career.

SIX PACK OF THINGS TO WATCH FOR:

1. longwood or bikinis: Will the team be focused on longwood or babes in bikinis?  It is easy to start thinking ahead to your trip to Cancun and just want to get this game over with.  Last year the Hokies took the lancers lightly and longwood hung around for 32 minutes.  This year Tech needs to come out focused and put this game away quickly.
2. Tune up: Tech should safely win this game despite what I said, but this is a chance to prepare for seton hall on Saturday, which is a huge game for the Hokies and their resume.  Even if they get up big early, they need to keep working on their gameplan and prepare for Saturday.  They could be a little rusty with 8 days between games.  Play your minutes and get back to doing what the Hokies were doing before the Christmas break.
3. Dominate the paint: Allen had a huge game last year and there is no reason why Victor Davila and Jeff shouldn’t this season.  The lancers will play three guards out there at almost all times, and their center (Antwan Carter) is just 6’6″ and 225 lbs.  Their other two big men are just 6’7″ and 200 and 6’5″ and 230.  Everyone else that normally plays for them is 6’2″ or less.  Pound the ball inside to Allen and Davila and let them work their post magic.
4. See Spot Shoot: Tech’s guards/wings will also have big height advantages on the lancer guards.  The longwood guards will likely have to help their forwards by doubling down, leaving VT perimeter players open outside.  The big men, when doubled, should look for the open man sliding along the three-point line and kick it out.
5. Win: With a victory, Tech will be off to their best start since starting 12-1 in 1995-96.  VT also started 3-1 that year before ripping off 9 straight wins.  A victory over longwood would be Tech’s 8th in a row.
6. The A. Smith Bowman Distillery of Fredericksburg has come out with a new line of bourbon, rum, gin, and vodka.  The makers of crappy Virginia Gentleman bourbon now have a select Bowman bourbon, single barrel Bowman bourbon, and rum, gin, and vodka.  Check out Virginia ABCs for it.

THE OPPONENT:

The lancers started out this season 0-8 but played several teams tough, including uva, navy, and a good richmond team.  Their three wins are against florida gulf coast, uva-wise, and campbell (yes, the same campbell team that played VT extremely tough down in NC).  longwood lost to lehigh on Monday evening, so they will have a short turnaround (less than 48 hours) for this game.

longwood is an experienced team with all but one of their main players being an upperclassmen.  They start four seniors and a sophomore.

But, as I mentioned above, they greatly lack size.  Their three “big” men play a lot of minutes.  The lancers normally have three or four guards on the court at any given time but may have to change that for Tech.  Expect Jan van der Kooij, who normally is a benchwarmer, to see many minutes to match Tech’s size.

Antwan Carter and Dana Smith are their best players, both averaging over 15 points per game.  Smith is a wing that has to play forward for the lancers.  He led longwood with 13 points against Tech last year but fouled out.  Carter is their center, at just 6’6″, and comes off the bench.  He had 10 last year against the Hokies but also fouled out, hence VT pulling away late.

The longwood guards will look to get the ball to Smith and Carter.  None of their five guards in their rotation average more than 8.6 ppg, but do combine for close to 13 assists per game.  The lancers average 15 turnovers per game and the Hokies will look to take advantage of that.

The lancers don’t shoot a lot of threes, nor do they shoot them well.  They average about 15 turnovers a game which the Hokies will look to take advantage of and turn into transition opportunities.

On offense, longwood likes to push the pace.  They average 72 possessions per game, which is around 50th in the nation of over 300 teams.  But they are not efficient, averaging just .95 points per possession and giving up 1.07 points per possession (both are in the mid-250s in the country).  Tech needs to get back on defense and limit their transition buckets.  The lancers like to get the ball off quick, as they did last year.  Luckily, with VT’s size, rebounding the many lancer misses shouldn’t be an issue.

On defense, the lancers get 7.5 steals per game (pretty good) but just 2 blocks per game (awful, but not surprising with their lack of size).

STARTERS:

BORING FACTS ABOUT longwood:

• Location: Farmville, VA
• 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

Box Score

Blacksburg, VA – The Virginia Tech men’s hoops team improved to 6-4 this season with a 79-57 win over longwood this afternoon at Cassell Coliseum. Sophomore Jeff Allen dominated the game, notching a monster double-double, scoring 19 points and grabbing a career-high 21 rebounds. Meanwhile, senior A.D. Vassallo led all scorers with 21 points, and was one rebound shy of a double-double of his own. Sophomore Terrell Bell scored a career high 12 points and was named player of the game.

Even though the 22-point victory — Tech’s first double-digit home win this season — looks impressive in the final box score, the Hokies were fortunate to win this game. Seth Greenberg’s team turned the ball over a season-high 23 times, including five times in the first 2-1/2 minutes of the second half. Luckily for the Hokies, the lancers were atrocious from the field, making only 20 of 67 attempts for a 29.9 percent average. The lancers missed 47 shots… the Hokies attempted 52.

Once again, Seth’s boys got off to a slow start, letting longwood hang around and build confidence en route to an 6-9 lead. The Hokies used a 12-3 run to take a six-point lead, which they stretched to 16 at the half, but it wasn’t easy. Tech struggled with longwood’s man defense which led to many of the Hokies’ 13 first-half turnovers.

The Hokies had a significant height advantage over longwood, yet they never really established dominance in the paint on offense. The size disparity did show up on the stat sheet as the good guys out-rebounded longwood 52-27. The 52 boards was a season-high for the Hokies.

The second half began with a 16-point Tech lead, but five turnovers in the first 2-1/2 minutes cut short any hope that the Hokies would be able to put this game away early in the half. Meanwhile, longwood used an 8-2 run to cut Tech’s lead to 10. The lancers would get that lead down to single digits, but only briefly. Trailing by 11, longwood’s e.j. dawson scored a bucket to cut the Hokie lead to nine, but on Tech’s ensuing possession, sophomore Terrell Bell got open along baseline, got the ball and went strong to the rim virtually uncontested for a two-handed flush that put Tech back up by eleven.

The visiting lancers, playing the Hokies for the first time ever, would manage to trim the lead back down to as little as five points, but a 16-0 run midway through the second half put the game out of reach. The lancers played a very aggressive and physical game, which ultimately led to two of their starters — Dana Smith and Antwan Carter — fouling out. Tech went to the free throw line 35 times, scoring 26 points.

When you shoot less than 30 percent, lose two starters to foul trouble, and send your opponent to the charity stripe 35 times, you are going to have a tough time winning games.

Bottom line: Tech won by 22, which is great, but they need to take better care of the ball because 23 turnovers against unc or duke ain’t gonna cut it.

Note: J.T. Thompson was supposed to make his season debut, but sat out due to a sprained foot.  However, his hernia injury has been cleared and it is hopeful that he will return for the Holiday Festival Tournament next week at the ‘Most Famous Arena in the World’ in NYC.

Scoring Between Media Timeouts (overall score in parenthesis):

First Half:

• 20:00-15:48: lu 9-8 (lu 9-8)
• 15:48-11:40: VT 2-0 (VT 10-9)
• 11:40-7:59: VT 8-5 (VT 18-14)
• 7:59-3:44: VT 8-5 (VT 26-19)
• 3:44-Halftime: VT 11-2 (VT 37-21)

Second Half:

• 20:00-15:00: lu 11-10 (VT 47-32)
• 15:00-11:39: lu 14-5 (VT 52-46)
• 11:39-7:51: 4-4 (VT 56-50)
• 7:51-3:12: VT 14-0 (VT 70-50)
• 3:12-End of Game: VT 9-7 (VT 79-57)

Niemo’s End of Game Nuggets:

• Jeff Allen went absolutely nuts this afternoon, scoring 19 points and grabbing a career high 21 rebounds.  His previous rebound high was 17 against seton hall earlier this year. The only negative for him was his 6 turnovers, giving him 10 in his last two games.
• VT went on a 16-0 run from the 8:13 mark of the second half to the 2:44 mark to blow open a 56-50 lead.
• longwood had a STD (ShooTing Dysfunction) in the last 12 minutes of the second half, going 9 minutes without a field goal from the 11:44 mark to the 2:44 mark.

Read the full story

THE SETUP

The Virginia Tech Hokies will look to whack the longwood lancers at the Cassell on Sunday afternoon in the annual “Here’s an excuse to take a few hours off from studying for finals” classic.  This is the first time the schools have ever met in basketball.  Before you just chalk this one up as a ‘W’ for the Hokies… nah, I’m not even going to try and sell you on how this might be a game.  Tech’s going to win this one. 

Or are they?!  The Hokies have won just one game by more than nine points, and they have yet to win a home game by double digits. 

Come on, forget it, Tech is going to win this game going away.

Or are they?!  longwood stiffened up on November 18th and beat gardner-webb 85-84, a team the Hokies beat by just three points. 

Give me a break.  Forget the transitive property logic.  By that you could somehow make uva a quality sports program.  Hmm, but I bet that would take a relationships.

Alright, I’ll just come out and say it.  Virginia Tech will leave longwood limp by Sunday evening.  The Hokies will come out and play loose in their only game in an 11 day span and thrust past longwood.

THE OPPONENT

• Location: Farmville, VA
• Nickname: lancers  (hmm… longwood… lancers… you do the math)
• 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

Wins: va-wise, gardner-webb, @md-eastern shore, delaware state, and jmu (man is jmu awful at bball)

Losses: norfolk state, @wvu, @kentucky, and se missouri state

longwood is powered by 6’5″ junior wing man, Dana Smith.  He leads the team in scoring (16.4), rebounding (7.3), and steals (1.3).  He shoots an amazing 58% from the field, despite being 2/17 on threes.  That tells you Dana plays near the rim.  Tech must keep him off the offensive glass, where he averages three offensive rebounds per game.  They almost must force him to receive the ball away from the hoop, stop his penetration, and double him when he gets the ball near the rim.

Ryan Bogan is the lancers’ next best player on offense, averaging 14.2 ppg.  The 6’1″ senior guard is a good outside shooter, hitting 37% of his threes and making over two per game.

The other starters include C Antwan Carter (only 6’6″), G Durann Neil (6’1″), and G Kevin Swecker (6’1″).  Of the guys that see significant minutes off the bench, only one is over 6’2″.  Obviously the Hokies are much longer than longwood.  Tech should be able to post up just about anyone except for Hank Thorns.  The Hokies should pound the ball inside against longwood and let Jeff Allen and Victor Davila go to work, maybe even posting up A.D. Vassallo or Dorenzo Hudson.  The key will be keeping Allen out of foul trouble, which has been a problem of late.

That said, since the lancers will run a lot of guards at you, Tech must fall back on defense and eliminate transition buckets.  Also, help defense will be critical as the smaller guys for lu potentially beat the bigger Hokies off the dribble.

Overall, longwood cannot go deep (that’s what she said).  They are just 57/204 on three-pointers this season, a woeful 28%.  They aren’t all that great inside the arc either, hitting just 40% of their shots.  However, georgia was a pathetic offensive team and Virginia Tech let them explode for 38 first half points thanks to poor help and transition defense.  The Hokies have to get back to play aggressive, tough-nosed defense and really lock down opponents.  They need to sever the longwood offense and render it limp.

Again, the key is to stopping Smith.  Part of that is slowing down Bogan and not letting him drive and score or dish to Smith.