sutomcat
2024 Iggy Award (ACC Tournament Record)
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I guess I shouldn't be surprised given the basketball tradition at VT and the comments their fans made on their board yesterday, but wow, it was strange to see such a pathetic crowd for a game against the #2 team in the county. And it is not like the ACC is the Old Big East, where you might have 4 or 5 games against top 20 teams in your arena in a given year (right now the only ranked ACC schools are Syracuse and Duke).
If the size of the crowd was bad, the level of enthusiasm was awful. What a quiet and subdued atmosphere. The only noise I heard all game was the low rumple of the diesel engines of the tractors the VT fans left running in the parking lot as they went in to watch the game. Maybe the diesel fumes made them catatonic?
Anyway, the way VT played defense, there was no way in hell they were ever going to beat Syracuse. They played a really bad zone and at time employed an even worse man to man. SU players had an open 15 foot jumper at any time all game long. They also weren't very good at stopping penetration, and might have been the worst defensive rebounding team I have seen in this millenium. Heck, they made BMK look like Dennis Rodman on the glass. Very rare.
The positives for VT: they did have a couple good outside shooters. That kid Smith with the mini Afro was impressive; he has serious range outside. Given the atmosphere and relative lack of talent, it was almost like old times, with SU playing Rutgers and Smith playing the role of Quincy Douby.
I am not sure I have ever seen SU tilt the zone to take a player away like they did in the 2nd half to prevent Smith from being a factor. He was getting doubled 30 feet out.
You would think this would lead to some serious issues covering people inside and to some degree it did. VT had a couple of beefy but undersized centers who were able to hurt SU somewhat in the paint, but they did it in the most unathletic ways possible. It reminded me of this scene from "Along Came Polly":
Anyway, it was good to see SU make a bunch of open jumpers, get some points inside and have a relatively easy conference victory on the road. Happy that My Three Sons got a little playing time and glad to see DC2 out and about again. Tyler Roberson continues to show signs of developing, that 15 foot jumper early had to help his confidence. Good to see Silent G getting more assertive on offense, we have talked about the need for this and it looks like he is addressing the problem. Also enjoyed watching the cat and mouse game between Hokie star Jarell Eddie and CJ. Eddie was responsible for covering CJ most of the game, wanted desperately to block his shot and blew by him at the slightest hint of a shot fake from Fair. Fair must have gotten 4 or 5 easy mid range jumpers as a result.
My biggest disappointment was with Rak, who ended a mini streak of encouraging games. He got in foul trouble early but I think the nature of the opponent was the biggest thing that cost him minutes. JB wanted BMK out there flying around trying to block 3s from the center position like only he can. His rebounding challenges were not really an issue against the poor rebounding Hokies.
Just one other comment: Grant is struggling a bit converting short and mid range shots but continues to get better and better on defense, where he is great at providing weak side support and cat quick covering the vast areas he is responsible for in the SU 2-3 and rebounding the ball, where he has emerged as our best rebounder. Looks like a good bet he is going to lead the team in rebounding this year, which is something I would not have guessed in the pre-season.
If the size of the crowd was bad, the level of enthusiasm was awful. What a quiet and subdued atmosphere. The only noise I heard all game was the low rumple of the diesel engines of the tractors the VT fans left running in the parking lot as they went in to watch the game. Maybe the diesel fumes made them catatonic?
Anyway, the way VT played defense, there was no way in hell they were ever going to beat Syracuse. They played a really bad zone and at time employed an even worse man to man. SU players had an open 15 foot jumper at any time all game long. They also weren't very good at stopping penetration, and might have been the worst defensive rebounding team I have seen in this millenium. Heck, they made BMK look like Dennis Rodman on the glass. Very rare.
The positives for VT: they did have a couple good outside shooters. That kid Smith with the mini Afro was impressive; he has serious range outside. Given the atmosphere and relative lack of talent, it was almost like old times, with SU playing Rutgers and Smith playing the role of Quincy Douby.
I am not sure I have ever seen SU tilt the zone to take a player away like they did in the 2nd half to prevent Smith from being a factor. He was getting doubled 30 feet out.
You would think this would lead to some serious issues covering people inside and to some degree it did. VT had a couple of beefy but undersized centers who were able to hurt SU somewhat in the paint, but they did it in the most unathletic ways possible. It reminded me of this scene from "Along Came Polly":
Anyway, it was good to see SU make a bunch of open jumpers, get some points inside and have a relatively easy conference victory on the road. Happy that My Three Sons got a little playing time and glad to see DC2 out and about again. Tyler Roberson continues to show signs of developing, that 15 foot jumper early had to help his confidence. Good to see Silent G getting more assertive on offense, we have talked about the need for this and it looks like he is addressing the problem. Also enjoyed watching the cat and mouse game between Hokie star Jarell Eddie and CJ. Eddie was responsible for covering CJ most of the game, wanted desperately to block his shot and blew by him at the slightest hint of a shot fake from Fair. Fair must have gotten 4 or 5 easy mid range jumpers as a result.
My biggest disappointment was with Rak, who ended a mini streak of encouraging games. He got in foul trouble early but I think the nature of the opponent was the biggest thing that cost him minutes. JB wanted BMK out there flying around trying to block 3s from the center position like only he can. His rebounding challenges were not really an issue against the poor rebounding Hokies.
Just one other comment: Grant is struggling a bit converting short and mid range shots but continues to get better and better on defense, where he is great at providing weak side support and cat quick covering the vast areas he is responsible for in the SU 2-3 and rebounding the ball, where he has emerged as our best rebounder. Looks like a good bet he is going to lead the team in rebounding this year, which is something I would not have guessed in the pre-season.
