Virginia Tech Postgame Thoughts

[M2MPrinciples]

FT's weren't the difference, but man did they help. A historic night at the line for us.

 

[swish7]

Because how things have looked at times this year, it seems pretty remarkable to even have a chance this late. We're clearly a different team as of late and were tied with Clemson at the under 4, it doesn't take a big leap to see us pull off an upset.

It's also significantly more fun to talk through a potential tourney push than who's staying/who's going.

I hear you, but fear that losing to FSU, BC, & GT have created this must end at 7-1 Avengers Endgame scenario. Cool to be positive, but that will be challenging.

 

[OptimusOtto]

I hear you, but fear that losing to FSU, BC, & GT have created this must end at 7-1 Avengers Endgame scenario. Cool to be positive, but that will be challenging.

Call me naive but I don't believe those are as backbreaking losses as we think they are.

BC is a Q2 loss and they've been better this year than their expectation. The Johnnies are a bubble darling with a neutral court loss to them (worse than on the road).

Georgia Tech is 2 games away from being another Q2 loss and they've also beat Duke, UNC and Clemson. They're not Georgetown/DePaul.

FSU is Q3 which doesn't look great but they're more than likely to finish top 8 and have been a much better team with Primo Spears in the lineup.

 

[dasher]

He is 6'8" and skinney as hell playing center. He shouldnt be there. Of course this is gonna happen agains athletic taller bigs. Hima should have been in for a bit unless he was hurting cause Carey is not strong enough in there at all.

I was told that Hima was sick last night.

 

[CbusCuse]

Great to get another W obviously. On offense, lots of good stuff by most.

One question i have is regarding offensive rebounding. I know we have a small lineup. But we don't even attempt to get one. I mean there is zero effort by everyone. Anytime a shot goes up, especially a three, everyone either stands and watches or just retreats back on defense. It makes no sense to me. Its not like when we get back on defense we are making stops. Why not turn up the effort and get in position for offensive boards? it baffles me. We make rebounding so easy for other teams. We have to be the lowest rated offensive rebounding team in the country. Anybody know what that stat is?

To add to this. With Boeheim, we played all zone and were theoretically efficient stopping teams on defense in the half court. Also when playing zone it is harder to get rebounding position. So then it made some sense to just get back on defense. This is not the case anymore as we play mostly man 2 man. We need to start rebounding with effort on the offensive boards. It makes no sense that we are not. We are stopping nobody in the half court anyway. Its infuriating for me to watch.

 

[djcon57]

To add to this. With Boeheim, we played all zone and were theoretically efficient stopping teams on defense in the half court. Also when playing zone it is harder to get rebounding position. So then it made some sense to just get back on defense. This is not the case anymore as we play mostly man 2 man. We need to start rebounding with effort on the offensive boards. It makes no sense that we are not. We are stopping nobody in the half court anyway. Its infuriating for me to watch.

We lost 2 guys who had a Total Rebound% of 16.5% and 12.9% in McLeod and Benny and replaced them basically with Bell at 4.7%, Carey at 9.6, and Hima at 7.8%.

Brown's doing the best he can and everyone else (especially Copeland) is basically trying the best they can. It's just not in their skill set. They can do better in spots, but expecting this team to offensive rebound isn't realistic

 

[CbusCuse]

We lost 2 guys who had a Total Rebound% of 16.5% and 12.9% in McLeod and Benny and replaced them basically with Bell at 4.7%, Carey at 9.6, and Hima at 7.8%.

Brown's doing the best he can and everyone else (especially Copeland) is basically trying the best they can. It's just not in their skill set. They can do better in spots, but expecting this team to offensive rebound isn't realistic

Sure on the defensive end Cope does a decent job and Malik and Taylor are OK. They give good effort. Our team is still not great at looking to box out and not good at getting at the optimal position to prevent the other team from getting a board. I'm not expecting us to outrebound teams and I'm well aware of the size discrepancy. But I still call BS that we can't be better on the glass, particularly offensive boards. All you have to do is watch the games and the effort put forth in rebounding to deduct that. The reason we don't get any offensive boards is not only because of the size disadvantage. The fact is nobody even tries to get a board on offense. That needs to change.

 

[billsin01]

Sure on the defensive end Cope does a decent job and Malik and Taylor are OK. They give good effort. Our team is still not great at looking to box out and not good at getting at the optimal position to prevent the other team from getting a board. I'm not expecting us to outrebound teams and I'm well aware of the size discrepancy. But I still call BS that we can't be better on the glass, particularly offensive boards. All you have to do is watch the games and the effort put forth in rebounding to deduct that. The reason we don't get any offensive boards is not only because of the size disadvantage. The fact is nobody even tries to get a board on offense. That needs to change.

not getting offensive boards is one thing. Not getting offensive boards AND getting beat down the floor defensively routinely is another. We are unfortunately doing both things. So I would say at least one has to change. If we're sacrificing offensive rebounding but we are strong in transition defense and getting set up on D, i could live with it.

That said, agree with those who've pointed out that losing Edwards (essentially unexpectedly) in the offseason then banking on Benny to begin with before losing him and McCleod and needing to try to squeeze minutes from an inexperienced Carey and an injured Hima while playing Bell for a ton of minutes of late -- not a great setup for rebounding.

 

[billsin01]

Defense early second half was awful…Red called a TO and we were able to get it turned around.

Judah was damn good.

If these guys can lock in for 40 minutes defensively look out

Thought the primary issue was how quickly we allowed Va Tech to score on like a dozen possessions that weren't necessarily fast breaks. Need to stop ball and at least give yourself a chance to play defense, particularly if you are playing with a lead.

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

Thought the primary issue was how quickly we allowed Va Tech to score on like a dozen possessions that weren't necessarily fast breaks. Need to stop ball and at least give yourself a chance to play defense, particularly if you are playing with a lead.

The amount of straight line drives this team gives up is maddening.

 

[MikeSU02]

Some people in this thread think Maliq, who is our MVP to be clear, can literally do everything, while playing out of position on D and basically being the only guy dependable enough to set screens on O.

He's leading the team in PER (22.2) and TS% (72.1%).

His aggregate averages: 9.4ppg, 6.8rpg, 1.8apg, 2.2 spg, 0.9 bpg on a usage of 13.4% WHICH IS LOWER THAN JUSTIN TAYLOR'S USAGE.

His W/S per 40 is highest on the team as is his Box Plus Minus.

He is playing out of position. Is our best passer. Is our best screener. Is our most efficient player.

Also, you don't see Red having to scream at him or implore him to play a certain way during the games.

 

[Orangezoo]

Some people in this thread think Maliq, who is our MVP to be clear, can literally do everything, while playing out of position on D and basically being the only guy dependable enough to set screens on O.

He's leading the team in PER (22.2) and TS$ (72.1%).

His aggregate averages: 9.4ppg, 6.8rpg, 1.8apg, 2.2 spg, 0.9 bpg on a usage of 13.4% WHICH IS LOWER THAN JUSTIN TAYLOR'S USAGE.

His W/S per 40 is highest on the team as is his Box Plus Minus.

He is playing out of position. Is our best passer. Is our best screener. Is our most efficient player.

Also, you don't see Red having to scream at him or implore him to play a certain way during the games.

Also Kidd is really good on offense- he doesn’t let the defender body him up and has really quick feet which is how he got most of his points on Maliq last night. Maliq went to work on Kidd too given Kidd is a poor defender to say the least and mostly plays on one end.

Also you let Kidd do his thing and don’t let their shooters go nuts which is exactly what we did.

 

[Dcuse]

Some people in this thread think Maliq, who is our MVP to be clear, can literally do everything, while playing out of position on D and basically being the only guy dependable enough to set screens on O.

He's leading the team in PER (22.2) and TS% (72.1%).

His aggregate averages: 9.4ppg, 6.8rpg, 1.8apg, 2.2 spg, 0.9 bpg on a usage of 13.4% WHICH IS LOWER THAN JUSTIN TAYLOR'S USAGE.

His W/S per 40 is highest on the team as is his Box Plus Minus.

He is playing out of position. Is our best passer. Is our best screener. Is our most efficient player.

Also, you don't see Red having to scream at him or implore him to play a certain way during the games.

His only shortcoming at all is , because he is often times a bit shorter than the guy he is checking, he can be taken advantage of on defense down very low. We would also all like to see him develop a short jumper game to become all that he can be.
Definitely my favorite player.

 

[FrancoPizza]

The amount of straight line drives this team gives up is maddening.

I feel like I'm watching my under-10 girls rec league play defense and be completely oblivious to the ball sometimes.

 

[Newhouser]

Some people in this thread think Maliq, who is our MVP to be clear, can literally do everything, while playing out of position on D and basically being the only guy dependable enough to set screens on O.

He's leading the team in PER (22.2) and TS% (72.1%).

His aggregate averages: 9.4ppg, 6.8rpg, 1.8apg, 2.2 spg, 0.9 bpg on a usage of 13.4% WHICH IS LOWER THAN JUSTIN TAYLOR'S USAGE.

His W/S per 40 is highest on the team as is his Box Plus Minus.

He is playing out of position. Is our best passer. Is our best screener. Is our most efficient player.

Also, you don't see Red having to scream at him or implore him to play a certain way during the games.

He is clearly our MVP and has been great. I loved that we actually passed him the ball a little last night to initiate some movement. That said I don't think he is above comments noting that he was getting schooled a bit on the blocks last night. The kid wasn't powering thru him, he was basically faking into uncontested layups.

He's been a rock and I think he needs some days off, but it will be interesting if teams try that iso match-up down the road. That is I guess if they ever tire of taking the buckets we allow by never stopping the ball in the open court or the pick and roll.

 

[ar inj]

I feel like I'm watching my under-10 girls rec league play defense and be completely oblivious to the ball sometimes.

Sounds like they might need a new coach

 

[FrancoPizza]

Sounds like they might need a new coach

The age-old coach vs players debate.

 

[Fly Rodder]

Also, you don't see Red having to scream at him or implore him to play a certain way during the games.

I agree, but last night Red lit into him in the 2nd half after he gave up a few easy baskets to Kidd and didn't even challenge him.

 

[Ozone!]

Great home win, now if we can translate the changes to playing away from The Dome!​

 

[MikeSU02]

I agree, but last night Red lit into him in the 2nd half after he gave up a few easy baskets to Kidd and didn't even challenge him.

After a year playing against the bigs on other teams and having to cover for the ineptitude in defense from our guards and wings, I don't care if he didn't even cross half court and not play defense, he gets a pass. He does not play this position. He has been forced to play it. He plays with poor defenders on his own team. Lots of them.

Of course he isn't going to shut him down. It's impossible to expect someone to keep that up.

So he tries to make up with it with fighting ahead of the post and poking balls away and spiking rebounds away.

I cannot believe that people are like "he was getting schooled". YEAH NO CRAP. He's had to carry the mountain he's only supposed to be climbing.

Like, come on. You are measuring him as though he's Etan Thomas or something.

Congrats, people pointed out he got beat. Amazing. Tell me why.

EDIT for TL;DR:

He's playing out of position, he's exhausted and beat up, plays with bad defenders and still is the best player on our team. He got beat a bunch of times, that's the natural result of what has been asked of him.

EDIT x2:

As President of the MBFC, I get a bit heated when it comes to criticism of him. I apologize. But honestly, you have to give him a pass. If we had even decent defenders and had Maliq having to play out of position, we'd be able to have doubles and quick rotations... but we don't. Maliq is doing this on an island a lot of times. It's not fair to him.

 

[shu 49]

I was told that Hima was sick last night.

Ok thanks

 

[pwong]