I will start with the bad, recap the good, and then look for hope tonight in the Hokies vs. dook game. So the bad was the Wizards the game, I actually watched a fair amount as the Wiz kept it close most of the night, but in the end they fell 109-103 to the Orlando Magic who were looking for their first win in five tries. This could have been a great opportunity to pick a road win against a good team that was struggling and the starters didn't really seem to show up. Here are the totals for J. Wall, J. Vesely, and J. Mcgee combined: 72 mins, 8pts, and 13 rebounds. Those are the combined totals for three starters in the NBA! admittedly they might not start for every team but that is pathetic. 8 points! No one else was much better Seraphin had a decent game playing for Mcgee most of the night who had foul trouble. But during his good stretch he and Crawford basically played two on five and it felt like they took the other three players on the court out of rhythm. Not much more to say, the team looks a little better under the new coach but they are still a long way away for getting wins against teams like the Magic.
Just to recap on signing day, it was a great day for the Hokies and you can read on all the players in yesterday's post. It is a good feeling to close on signing day and get some of the big guys that usually get away. Joel Caleb is gonna be huge and I can't wait to see the back field next year. Also Frank Beamer took some time to recognize the walk-ons, saying it could be one of the best groups of them he has signed. He couldn't speak of them by name but did remind us of a few walkons from the past like John Engelberger Cody Grimm, I am sure he has a couple gems in that group as well. It still hurts to lose Kirven and Blue but I still think they got a great haul. As I wrote yesterday Blue got an ear full from Charley Wiles and apparently the word got to Miami coach Al Golden as he felt the need to tweet: "Give people enuf rope and they hang themselves." That's a pretty strong shot from a guy in year two of taking over a struggling program with some sanctions more than likely heading his way. Apparently the way it got out was a reporter was with Blue when he made the call to Wiles and Wiles didn't know about it. Obviously he wouldn't have said some of the things he did if he knew it was going to reported on but oh well. I don't think it is that big of a deal, it sucks that the kid switched at the last minute but those things happen and the kid wanted to be closer to home. And like I said yesterday, if they don't wanna be a Hokie then we don't want them to be one. The bigger thing is Al Golden's shot at coach Wiles and how much more fuel that will add to the fire that is a VT vs. miami game. Should be a good game this fall.
Moving on to tonight. Tech has a big match up with the dookies in Blacksburg at 7. At first glance most people probably don't give Tech a shot (including me) and for good reason. Tech's offense has been abysmal to be nice and frankly we don't have anywhere near the offensive talent that dook has. To begin with dook has all five starters averaging over 10 points a game and we have one (Erick Green 15ppg). Then you look at three point shooting and where they have 3 guys shooting 40% plus from beyond the arc and 2 at 45% plus. Having to guard all those shooters is gonna be tough which makes it easier for them to get the ball down low where they guys that are giants compared to our post players. All that said I do give Tech a shot at this one for a couple of reasons. First it's a home game and say what you will about Cassell but that place has housed some great games over the years and when the big boys come to town the Hokies tend to turn it up a notch. Second kind of piggy backs on the last one but this years team seems to play more to the competition than other Greenberg teams I have seen in the past. They play good against good teams and bad against the bad teams, I can't explain it it just looks that way to me. Lastly we play some good defense we are 43rd in national defense efficiency and they don't play much defense as they are near the bottom of the ACC in almost every team defense category. I think Jarrel Eddie and Robert Brown along with Davila and Raines are all going to have to have great games defensively to keep us close in this one. And Dorian Finney-Smith has to find some way to score he has been in a drought for long enough and hopefully the dookies will bring the best out of him. I worry about this being a heart breaker where we can't hit a shot when we need it but you never know, maybe Dorenzo has another game winner in him at the end of the game. Either way should be a good one. Go HOKIES!
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