Nice victories by the Hokies and the heels last night (I had two victory Scotches — Glenlivet XII — one for the Hokies and one for the end of uva’s bowl hopes).

Let’s dive into my tale of the tape…

• Rebounding: GRADE = A… Tech held vmi without an offensive rebound in the first half last night despite missing 14 three-pointers (which tend to lead to long rebounds and more offensive rebounds).  That’s amazing.  Yes, vmi grabbed 10 offensive rebounds in the 2nd half, but a lot of that was after the outcome had been decided.  Tech still gathered 78% of vmi’s misses, which is a very good ratio.  Cadarian Raines had his 2nd straight double-double, and is now tied with Eddie averaging 8.7 rebounds per game.  And van Zegeren chipped in 8 rebounds.  Tech has improved exponentially in this area in the last two games, though they are playing smaller opponents.  But trending up is a good thing.
• 3-Point Shooting: GRADE = A+… Tech is hitting 40% of their 3-pointers on the year (including 11/24 last night), and their opponents’ are hitting just 16%.  That’s assault, brother!  Green and Johnston are at 50%, and Eddie and Brown are at 41%.  Tech is taking good shots from the outside, and hitting them.
• Be Fun: GRADE = A… Three or four dunks last night and 21 fast break points.  Part of that was vmi’s aggressive defense and the fact it is easy to get outlet passes off missed 3s, but still, Tech took advantage.  Tell me you aren’t having a lot more fun watching this team than in past years.
• The Bench: GRADE = B/F… B for early in the game (both Wood and van Zegeren played very well and were around +20 leading up to the final 5 minutes of the game, and Johnston nailed 3 big 3s), but when the walk-ons came in the wheels came off.  vmi went on a 16-0 run as soon as VT cleared their bench.  But I would focus more on the B than the F here since the walk-ons, other than Johnston, wouldn’t have played in a close game.
• Balance: GRADE = A… All 5 starters reached double digits, Johnston had 9 and Wood 6 off the bench.  That’s balance.  No more games of Delaney with half our points… at least for now.
• Overall: GRADE = A… You can tell the guys are playing loose but still playing hard (a tough combo to reach).  Guys aren’t afraid to take shots early in the shot clock for fear of getting pulled.  And everyone is working hard on defense – that is why opponents are shooting such a low % from deep — guys are hustling out to get a hand in their face.  Give JJ a solid A so far.

The Players:

• Erick Green – man, does he look dominate right now.  He is deadly shooting 3s from the corner, his pull-up jumper is automatic, and he is finishing his drives which is something he struggled with in past years (he got to the line but couldn’t finish a lot).  His offensive game is great all around right now.
• Cadarian Raines – Tech did a better job of involving him last night.  He looks as sharp as he did last year at the end of the year on offense (that spin-a-rama was sweet).  The biggest good news is how much his rebounding has improved — two straight double-doubles, the first two of his career.
• Jarell Eddie – man, does he have a sweet shot.  His penetration game is still a work in progress but when he has an open look, put 3 on the board and head back on defense.  And as with Raines, he is doing an amazing job on the glass (8.7 rebounds per game).
• C.J. Barksdale – it was good to see him play well against vmi.  He had 2 points on the season coming in, but tallied 11 last night on 4/8 shooting and with 6 rebounds.  Hopefully the light is coming on… and any nagging injuries are healing.
• Robert Brown – His game is close to Green’s offensively, he just doesn’t get to touch the ball as much.  Outside shooting is fantastic, pull-up jumpers are nearly automatic, and he’s a decent finisher but that will improve with time.
• Marquis Rankin – It was good to see him on the court as he gets back from all the emotion he likely had to deal with for his family matters.  But he was clearly rusty last night – 2 turnovers in 3 minutes and a -16 rating.  Luckily, Tech has time to ease him back in.  It will be interesting to see how he has progressed from freshman to sophomore.
• Marshall Wood – Nice to see him hit a couple of 3s after starting 0/8 on the season.  He was aggressive last night though not quite as aggressive as he was against rhode island.  Tech needs that fire every night when he’s in.
• Joey van Zegeren – Really nice game from him last night – 2 dunks, 8 rebounds, and another block in 18 minutes.  He is playing with a higher motor than I expected and is a lurking shot-blocker in the paint.  I’ve been very pleasantly surprised with his game.
• Will Johnston – 3 made 3s off the bench – that’s huge.  Even if he only plays a few minutes, if he can come in and be a ‘microwave’ with a quick 3, he could contribute.  And Tech could go zone while he is in to minimize his defensive and rebounding weaknesses and play him on the wing.

Highlights from Virginia Tech’s Thursday night win over the keydets of vmi.  Included is Erick Green’s 1,000th point!  The 43rd Hokie to reach that feat.

Please note the highlights say Monday’s game is at home but the game is at unc-g-spot to give the Hokies some practice playing in the Greensboro Coliseum before the ACC Tournament.

Check out Erick Green’s +/- on Thursday night.  Tech was +32 in the 33 minutes he played, and -17 in the 7 minutes he didn’t.  The +/- for the bench was greatly skewed by those final 5 minutes of the game.  For example, both Wood and van Zegeren were around +20 until vmi used that 16-0 run to cut their deficit in half.  And check out the +/- for Joey Racer — he was -18 in just 4 minutes of action.

Boxscore

The Hokies once again blew a Bear Fight victory, and a chance at 100 points, seeing a 31-point lead with 5 minutes left slip to 15, but did move to 3-0 with a 95-80 win over the keydets of vmi on Thursday night at the Cassell.

The biggest news of the night was Erick Green reached the 1,000 point mark with a pull-up jumper early in the 2nd half. He became the 43rd Hokie to reach the 1,000 point mark. He finished with a game high 23 points, right at his average for the season.

The Hokies had extremely balanced scoring tonight. At the break, EG led the Tech with 11 points, while five other players had exactly 6 points. For the game, VT put five players in double digits (Green 23, Eddie 17, Raines 14, Brown 11, and C.J. Barksdale, who had just 2 points total in the first two games, added 11). Cadarian Raines had his second straight double-double with 10 rebounds to go with his 14 points. Walk-on Will Johnston added 9 points on 3/6 shooting from deep.

I said in the preview the run-and-gun keydets had to be hot from deep (they average 33 three-point attempts per game). They started 2/2 from deep and took a 6-2 lead… then missed their next 13 three-point attempts. During that span, the Hokies outscored the 42-17 and took a 44-23 lead. VT led 46-30 at the break.

Tech stretched that lead to as much as 31, ahead 88-57 with 5:18 to go in the game. At that time JJ pulled the starters and the subs proceeded to look like, well, walk-ons. The keydets went on a 16-0 run and forced JJ to put the starters back in with 2:15 to go. Erick Green answered with a jumper to kill the run and finally put the game away.

The Hokies shot over 50% for the game (36/68 – 53%) and 46% from deep (11/24).

If you are wondering about rebounding, Tech didn’t allow vmi a single offensive rebound in the first half and dominated the glass. vmi did get 10 second half offensive rebounds, but VT did still grab 78% of vmi’s misses, which is a great ratio. Eddie once again had a nice night on the glass with 8 rebounds and Joey van Zegeren added 8 boards.

Tech had a solid 21 fastbreak points against the keydets, which was nice to see. The Hokies had an eye-popping 85 possessions against the run-and-shoot vmi team, easily surpassing their 67 possession per game average.

vmi finished just 8/37 from deep (22%) and fell to 0-3 against Division I teams.

Even though both schools are military colleges, it wasn’t Military Appreciation Night (at least I don’t think it was since neither coach made an idiot of themself and wore combat fatigues).

The next game is Monday night at unc-g-spot at 7 PM.

On Thursday night the mini-keydets head to the Cassell to take on the Hokies.  The two military schools (of sorts) do battle for the 130th time.  Tech, as you’d expect, holds a significant home court advantage – 51-10 all time vs vmi at home, though many of those were played no doubt in War Memorial.

vmi is straight up a run and gun team and have been for several years.  In a way, they have to be in order to stay competitive.  Their starting lineup and first three off the bench consist of just one player taller than 6’6″.  And they have four guys under 6′ on their roster.  Needless to say, they like to push it and shoot a lot of 3-pointers (they are averaging almost 33 three-point attempts per game).

On defense, the keydets will gamble as most run-and-gun teams do.  The object is to keep the tempo up.  Plus, with their lack of size, they can’t afford to defend in the half court.  So the Hokies will likely get a lot of very easy opportunities if they make smart passes and get out with numbers.  They also can feed Raines in half court sets and let him do his magic.  If they double him in the post, which they most certainly will do, Cadarian has shown he can pass very well this season and if players cut off the ball they can get easy looks (something they weren’t doing last year).

Technically the keydets are 1-2 on the season, but do you really count a win over central pennsylvania college?  I don’t even know where that is.   Their two losses sting quite a bit – to fellow military institutions – the citadel and army.  And they’ve averaged just 75 ppg in those two losses, well below what you expect from them (they did score well over 100 against cpc).

Meanwhile, the Hokies have been pretty efficient on offense so far this year and, I won’t go so far to say they’ve been great on defense, they have played well and opponents have shot just 36% from the field and 11% from behind the arc (4/37).  If the keydets cannot shoot a high percentage from deep, they will get run of the Cassell.  This should be a good chance to see how the Hokies do in a true up-tempo game.