Shout out to Mr. Dan Rickenbach for his support!

THE LOW POST:

Just to mix things up, I tracked how many times we fed the post today.  Note that these numbers only include passes into the post to our bigs (i.e. I didn’t count touches via offensive rebounds or passes to our bigs on the perimeter — this truly represents their touches inside of 10 feet).  Also, I only counted one feed per possession — i.e. if Raines got the ball down low then fed it to Barksdale, it only counted for Raines.

• Possessions: 64
• Raines: 12
• Barksdale: 1
• van Zegeren: 5
• Beyer: 1

That’s 19 feeds to the low post in 64 possessions by my count (30%).  It’s no surprise based on the numbers above that Raines had 8 FG attempts and 3 assists, while CJB had just 3/2 (most of his work was on the perimeter or after other guys touched it down low).

Just wanted to share… given Cadarian’s low post moves, I like this ratio.

HALL OF FAME:

Had we lost, I’d have added Travis McKie to our Opponents Hall of Fame.  He had 20 points and 15 rebounds today, including a double-double in the first half.

Coming into today, he was 12/41 on 3-pointers (29%).  Today he was 4/6 today.  That’s the way it has been over the last 10 games.  But the Hokies still found a way to win.

THE TALE OF TWO HALVES:

• First half: wake — 15 offensive rebounds and 5 made 3s (averaged 9 offensive rebounds and 5.3 made 3s PER GAME coming in)
• Second half: wake — 2 offensive rebounds and 2 made 3s — that’s how you make a comeback — getting stops.
• First half: EG — 1/8 FGs — 4 points.
• Second half: EG — 7/10 FGs — 18 points

FLIP THE SCRIPT:

• The Hokies came in the #1 FT% team in the ACC at 73%… they won going 8/16 from the line for 50%

THE TALE OF TWO GAMES:

• wake vs clemson: 44 total points and 0 fast break points
• wake vs VT: 65 total points and 18 fast break points

HOKIES AND 2ND HALVES:

Going into today’s game, Tech had not led in the 2nd half (not counting overtime) of their previous ACC 3 games and had only been tied for 24 seconds (the final 0:24 vs georgia tech).  Well, they took the lead 2 minutes into the 2nd half today.  That 1-point lead lasted 35 seconds, but obviously they off and on in the final 6:30.

Here is the plus/minus VT stats from today (Green, Eddie, and JvZ led the Hokies with a +5 while Brown had a tough -4 on 2/11 shooting).

In Coach Bzdelik’s final trip to Blacksburg as the head coach of wake forest, the Hokies downed the deacons 66-65 behind Erick Green’s 22 points (18 in the 2nd half), Jarell Eddie’s 18 points, and Cadarian Raines’s 8 points and 13 rebounds.

The Hokies pulled out another come-from-behind win this afternoon, 66-65, over wake forest.

The demon deacons held the nation’s leading scorer, Erick Green, to just four first-half points. But they couldn’t contain him for an entire game as the Winchester Rifleman dropped 18 points in the second half and led the Hokies with 22 for the game.

While Green was being double-teamed in the first, Jarell Eddie stepped up with 15 points in the opening half. He finished with 18.

Cadarian Raines had a huge game, scoring eight points and pulling down 13 rebounds, tying his career high.

Tech trailed 37-31 at the half, but opened the second half with an 8-0 run to take a 38-37 lead. wake called a timeout and then went on a 6-0 run to retake the lead.

The deacs took a 51-43 lead as part of a 15-4 run, but VT answered with an 8-0 run of its own to tie the game. From there it was a back and forth game.

wake took a 65-64 lead with 24 seconds left, and when everyone thought Green would take the final shot, Robert Brown, who had struggled the entire game, got the ball and drove the lane, made the shot and got the foul. The basket gave the Hokies a 66-65 lead with about 12 seconds left.

Brown missed the free throw and wake got the rebound and called a timeout. The deacons got two decent shots after inbounding the ball, but couldn’t get either to go and Eddie pulled down the rebound off the second miss, securing the victory.

While he didn’t play a lot of minutes, Christian Beyer, a walk-on, had a critical series in the second half that helped spur Tech’s rally. After a wake miss, Beyer fought hard for a rebound, got it and fed Green in transition who made the basket and got fouled. Beyer’s play has been impressive and his confidence is growing. Like this kid.

Hokies have now won two straight and are 2-2 in ACC play. That’s all for now. Time for some Mike’s Grill!

Spread: VT by 4.
My first post was a preview, so it is only fitting my 1,001st is, too…

The worst coach in the ACC, Jeff Bzdelik* — 7-29 in ACC games and 30-49 overall in three seasons — will make his final trip to Blacksburg on Saturday (at least as the head man of the deacs). The Hokies will look to get to .500 in the league against a team they’ve owned since joining the ACC. Tech has won eight of 10 against wake, but lost last year in Winston-Salem in their only meeting, an embarrassing start to a rough 2011-12 ACC campaign. But this time the game is in Blacksburg where the Hokies have won four in a row over the deacons (every game since Chris Paul left for the NBA).

Erick Green still leads the nation in scoring, 0.8 ppg ahead of Doug McDermott of creighton-barrel (Momo Jones has dropped to 5th). As for the rest of the Hokies, let’s just hope they are all available Saturday and the flu bug doesn’t bite us anymore.

wake is led by senior guard C.J. Harris and junior forward Travis McKie (a former high school rival of Cadarian Raines). They are the ONLY vets on this team that see significant minutes. Six of their nine guys that play regularly are freshmen, and Chase Fischer (a deadly 47% 3-point shooter), is a sophomore. They are young. Can you blame the other guys for leaving? And the freshmen are probably counting on having a new head coach next year.

Codi Miller-McIntrye was a teammate of Montrezl Harrell at Hargrave last year and is a decent shooter, but not much of a defender. He’ll look to score off the dribble but has a poor assist-to-turnover ratio for a point guard (barely above 1). Devin Thomas is the best low post player of the freshmen, grabbing 7 rebounds per game. He already has an ACC body at 6’9″ and 240 lbs.

But their best players are Harris and McKie. McKie has shown he can spot up and score off the dribble, even with a pull-up jumper from about 18-feet in. But that’s not really a good thing — check out how much time he spends behind the 3-point line, almost like a Jarell Eddie-type player. That’s a waste with all his low post skills (but bad coaching is bad coaching). He’s attempted 41 three-pointers and made just 30%. He does average over 6 FTs per game so he gets to the line a lot.

Harris, meanwhile, is cold-blooded from deep. He’s made 28/60 (47%) and must be watched. You can’t leave him or Fischer to help on defense. With Tech not doubling in the post recently, this should help resolve this potential issue (though gt still made 8 three-pointers, well above their average). Harris isn’t just a long range bomber, though, he’ll attack the tin and get to the line a good bit. Both he and McKie are good from the stripe.

But, this team is not good. And they are young. And they push the ball, which leads to turnovers. Focus on limiting Harris and McKie and dare the baby deacs to beat you. clemson just held them to 44 points this week on 25% shooting. Their two wins are against uva and bc, two teams in the lower half of the league, and they also lost at duke by 18. This is a game you need to win at home (flu or no flu). Tech couldn’t beat lowly bc at home, so they need to hold serve here unless they want another last place finish in the league.

*Bzdelik was 36-58 (10-38 in the Big 12) at colorado before wake. How did he get this job? Easy, he’s friends with the AD. This hire has to rank right up there with Terry Holland hiring ricky “program bomb” stokes at ecu after how he fared at VT.