Your Basketball Team's Update Thread

[VThokies]

An update on the Hokies:

We are 10-3. The three teams that beat us (Syracuse, Kansas State, and Minnesota) are a combined 35-3. Unfortunately, the ten teams we've beaten are mostly crap. Oklahoma State, who is down this year, is probably the best of the bunch. We beat them in a tournament in New York and will play them again in a scheduled game in Blacksburg on New Year's Eve Day. The good news is that we didn't stumble against any of the patsies on our schedule, as we have in the past. In fact, not even any close calls against lesser division teams, which is more than anyone in the ACC except us, Duke, UNC, and maybe UNC can say. And the patsies weren't all pathetic... St Bonaventure, who we beat by 9, is 6-5 and lost to NCState by 2. Norfolk State, who we beat by 13, is 9-5 and lost to highly ranked Marquette by just 2 points. Campbell, who we beat by 25, is 8-5 and beat Iowa by 16.

Some notes on the teams:

-- Freshman forward Dorian Finney-Smith is turning out to be everything we hoped. He's "long", he's an excellent defender and GREAT rebounder, a decent shooter, unselfish (if anything he needs to shoot more).

-- Erick Green established himself as an ACC caliber point guard in the 2nd half of last season, and he has continued to play well this year.

-- Freshman PG Marquis Rankin missed the first few weeks with an injury, but he has been a very pleasant surprise now that he's gotten some playing time. He comes off the bench and gives us solid minutes at PG, I can't remember the last time we were two deep at PG. No longer will EG have to play 40 minutes every game in conference play, or will we suffer quite as badly when Green is sitting.

-- Freshman Robert Brown has been a pleasant surprise, running the point when Green needs a rest (so he won't have to play nearly every minute like last year), coming up with some key 3 pointers, and looking very good on defense. He was not as highly touted as some of our other freshmen but he looks very good.

-- Forward Cedarian Raines, who missed most of the past two seasons with foot injuries, is healthy and grabbing reobunds and generally contributing to our toughness on defense, which is something coach Greenberg stresses.

That's the good news. All the news hasn't been good:

-- Dorenzo Hudson, who missed all last year with an injury, has not yet returned to the form that made him 2nd team all-ACC two years ago. He is still starting, but his contributions have been occasional at best.

-- Backup G Ty Garland has quit the team and will transfer. He actually started the first game of the season at PG when Green was hurt and Brown was also hurt; but with Green healthy and Brown emerging as a starter as a freshman, Garland is unhappy with playing time and is going to transfer. He is a little guy but he was fearless driving to the hoop, but in the end I guess his size prevented him from being good defense, and his selfishness prevented him from being a distributor-type point guard. I still think he could have been a good shooter off the bench because he is a threat to shoot from outside as well as to penetrate, but it is what it is. He's gone. The [second consecutive] season ending injury to JT Thompson, and the departure of Garland, has cut down on our depth but fortunately we have a bit more depth this year than in recent seasons.

-- Victor Davila, as a senior is -- still Victor Davila. Every once in a while he'll grab 10 or 15 rebounds and singlehandedly help Tech win a game, and get that little hook shot going and put up 15 points. But most of the rest of the time the ball will be bouncing off his hands of stone or his feet and into the opponents' hands, and that horrible free throw delivery means teams know who to foul when they need to. Maybe we fans are too hard on him because we see that he has the POTENTIAL to be better than he actually is. But he's a senior, and if he doesn't get there now, as in 11 days from now when ACC play starts, he never will.

Thanks for the write up! I haven't been able to follow them nearly as much as I would have liked to this fall. Looking forward to seeing them at Comcast in a month.

What have you thought of Barksdale in the limited time he has seen?

Also, just FYI, the Oklahoma State game coming up is actually being played in Stillwater, not Blacksburg.

[SteveA]

Thanks for the write up! I haven't been able to follow them nearly as much as I would have liked to this fall. Looking forward to seeing them at Comcast in a month.

What have you thought of Barksdale in the limited time he has seen?

Also, just FYI, the Oklahoma State game coming up is actually being played in Stillwater, not Blacksburg.

Thanks, I know that now.

Barksdale certainly looks like he's going to be a player. But will he be a scorer or just a defense/rebound type guy?

Not sure yet. But I haven't seen anything of his PT as a freshman that makes me NOT like him yet, that's for sure.

I love this freshman class.

Of course 4 years ago at this time I loved the freshman class of Allen, Delaney, Hudson, Thompson, and Bell.

[The Epic]

I'm sorry, but no matter how much I love the Hokies during the year, we all know how it ends at this point.

Tears. Tears, I tells ya.

[PrivateO]

These last few weeks have been utter hell. I really don't want to go into full detail, but the Xavier Musketeers are treading on Red Sox Collapse-level. After starting 9-0 after a drubbing of crosstown rival Cincinnati, everyone and their mother know the brawl happened.

We got spanked by Oral Roberts without Holloway, Lyons, and Wells. Then in the Diamond Head Classic, we got spanked by Long Beach St. without Lyons and Wells. At that point, I wasn't overly concerned because ORU should win their conference and the 49ers are a good team that will be a hot pick in the NCAA Tournament. But then, with Lyons and Tu back, we lost to Hawaii in OT. We narrowly beat Southern Illinois in the 7th place game of the tournament. On New Year's Eve, now with all players back, the Muskies lost to a very good-shooting Gonzaga team. And tonight, they lost again to the LaSalle Explorers 80-70 starting A10 play.

I honestly don't know what to say. This might be one of the quickest and most indiscernible collapses I've ever felt for my team. I know that we were probably overranked as #8 in the country, but I assumed we were somewhere between 10 and 20. The team has no energy. It's like their lives were sucked away after December 10th. Lyons and Holloway have not been hitting shots. The 3 point shooting has evaporated. Our frontcourt (Frease, Walker, Taylor) is soft. A team that had only given up more than 63 points to the opposing team once in the first 8 games has let teams score 64, 68, 84, 77, 72, and 80 in this span.

With the talent on this team and the expectations that people had, these losses are numbing. What was once a team that could contend for a 2 seed in the tournament, now I'm just hoping they can make it. Sure, there's a lot of games left, but the way this team is playing, I'm just not sure what will happen during the rest of conference play. It would be embarrassing to go to the NIT and at this point, that's what many are envisioning.

[PrivateO]

Although Tu Holloway was held scoreless, he had 5 assists as Xavier got a much-needed victory over Fordham, 67-59. Mark Lyons led the team with 20 points. Dez Wells had 13 and another fantastic dunk. Even 3 point specialist Brad Redford got in the box score, with 2 3's and 8 total points.

While I didn't watch the game (I was actually driving back to school during it), I've read that the offense was much smoother than previous games. The guys seemed relax and ready to play. I'd still like to see better perimeter defense, as Fordham went 6-13 behind the arc. Also, the bigs need to stop missing bunny shots.

Luckily for the Musketeers, they will return home to a student section-filled arena (anyone hear about the mandatory reflection sessions we were going to have to go to but then they cancelled them due to backlash from students/alumni/media?) for a 3 game set vs. Duquesne, St. Bonaventure, and St. Joseph's. Time to get back on track and win the A10 for a 6th consecutive year.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Go Bonnies.

[PrivateO]

Go Bonnies.

You a Bona fan/alum, Pedro?

[Pedro Cerrano]

You a Bona fan/alum, Pedro?

My mom and dad both went there.

[PrivateO]

My mom and dad both went there.

Ah OK cool. I don't know if you follow them much, but Nicholson is a helluva player. He hasn't done as well as he did last year, but I'm sure he will produce.

A darkhorse team for the A10 title this year.

[PrivateO]

Xavier put on an offensive show as they beat Duquesne 78-50.

Dez Wells led all scorers with 16 points. Three other Muskies (Frease, Holloway, Robinson) hit double digits, but Wells was a human highlight reel tonight. He had 6 alley-oop dunks, and I would be shocked if they don't appear on Sportscenter's Top Ten today/tomorrow. The team played really great defense until the last 5 minutes of so when the backups came in to play. But really, this was the Xavier we all expected to see this season and hopefully they continue this 2 game win streak Saturday when St. Bonaventure comes to town. The game can be seen on ESPNU at noon. The Bonnies are fresh off a big win vs. Dayton (the Flyers have previously beaten A10 favorites SLU and Temple).

EDIT: Here's a better video. Watch until the end.

[YardBirds13]

I know I don't post much anymore, but just wanted to chime in tonight to say...

ARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....SO CLOSE TO BEATING THEM AT CAMERON!

[Sports Guy]

I know I don't post much anymore, but just wanted to chime in tonight to say...

ARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....SO CLOSE TO BEATING THEM AT CAMERON!

Duke should have won that game by 7-10 points..Missed FTs late made that game closer than it should have been at the end.

Still, UVA has a good squad and play the game very well. Solid fundamentally and good defense.

[YardBirds13]

Duke should have won that game by 7-10 points..Missed FTs late made that game closer than it should have been at the end.

Still, UVA has a good squad and play the game very well. Solid fundamentally and good defense.

Sorry SG, I disagree. Duke is definitely the better team, but most of those missed FT's were from Plumlee, who is god awful from the line. If I remember correctly, the only other guy who missed a couple was Kelly, who admittedly is usually very good.

Still, that was as close as you can come to winning at Cameron without actually pulling it off. UVa went like 0-11 from 3 in the second half (most of them open to wide-open looks) and Sammy Zeglinski, who averages 10 points a game and has hit more clutch shots in his career than the rest of the Hoos combined, went 0-8 in the game. If Zeglinski makes even one or two shots, UVa probably wins the game.

I am incredibly bitter Duke doesn't have to come to JPJ this season. I'm not sure the Hoos are good enough to beat UNC at the JPJ, but they showed they could certainly beat Duke there if they had the chance.

I think it's going to be really tough to make an argument against Mike Scott for ACC POY, by the way, if he keeps this up. His rate numbers compared to the pace UVa plays are absurd.

[Frobby]

Sorry SG, I disagree. Duke is definitely the better team, but most of those missed FT's were from Plumlee, who is god awful from the line. If I remember correctly, the only other guy who missed a couple was Kelly, who admittedly is usually very good.

Still, that was as close as you can come to winning at Cameron without actually pulling it off. UVa went like 0-11 from 3 in the second half (most of them open to wide-open looks) and Sammy Zeglinski, who averages 10 points a game and has hit more clutch shots in his career than the rest of the Hoos combined, went 0-8 in the game. If Zeglinski makes even one or two shots, UVa probably wins the game.

I am incredibly bitter Duke doesn't have to come to JPJ this season. I'm not sure the Hoos are good enough to beat UNC at the JPJ, but they showed they could certainly beat Duke there if they had the chance.

I think it's going to be really tough to make an argument against Mike Scott for ACC POY, by the way, if he keeps this up. His rate numbers compared to the pace UVa plays are absurd.

I was impressed by what I saw from UVa last night. My brother has both a B.S. degree and a J.D. from there, so I pay attention when Duke plays the Wahoos. I'm glad, for the sake of UVa fans, that they finally have a team that appears to be NCAA tournament-worthy after some rough years.

As to Scott, he looked great last night, but there are still 14 games to go in the ACC schedule. Way too early to say who the POY candidates are (though I'm pretty sure none of them will be from Duke). Put it this way, I wouldn't judge Scott on this one game any more than I would judge Zeglinski.

Turning to Duke, this is not one of the stronger Duke teams IMO. I see them going to the NCAA tournament and losing in the 1st or (more likely) 2nd round.

[Sports Guy]

Sorry SG, I disagree. Duke is definitely the better team, but most of those missed FT's were from Plumlee, who is god awful from the line. If I remember correctly, the only other guy who missed a couple was Kelly, who admittedly is usually very good.

Still, that was as close as you can come to winning at Cameron without actually pulling it off. UVa went like 0-11 from 3 in the second half (most of them open to wide-open looks) and Sammy Zeglinski, who averages 10 points a game and has hit more clutch shots in his career than the rest of the Hoos combined, went 0-8 in the game. If Zeglinski makes even one or two shots, UVa probably wins the game.

I am incredibly bitter Duke doesn't have to come to JPJ this season. I'm not sure the Hoos are good enough to beat UNC at the JPJ, but they showed they could certainly beat Duke there if they had the chance.

I think it's going to be really tough to make an argument against Mike Scott for ACC POY, by the way, if he keeps this up. His rate numbers compared to the pace UVa plays are absurd.

1) VT came as close as you can to beating Duke in Cameron without winning..Dockery from half court, at the buzzer, to win.

2) Kelly makes those FTs, its a 5pt game...One missed shot and rebound by Duke and it is all off a sudden a 7pt game with around 40 seconds left.

3) Duke missed a lot of wide open 3s early in the game. UVAs defense was good but Duke had some good looks and missed them, so you have to bring that up if you are going to bring up Zeglinski.