Saturday, March 21, 2009

Fitting End to Basketball Season

This year's Hokie basketball team was known for coming out flat and then having to regroup and make a comeback attempt. With the notable exception of the win over Wake Forest, this was S.O.P. for Tech.

So, naturally, the Hokies came out as slow and sluggish as they ever have against Baylor in the second round of the NIT and were promptly dispatched, 84-66 by the Bears.

It didn't help that Baylor couldn't miss from the field. The Bears shot 66.7 percent in the first half. Center Josh Lomers scored 12 points, all in the first half, to pace them early. Baylor made 10 of 21 three-point attempts in the game.

The Hokies were the polar opposite as they shot 32.4 percent for the game and 24.1 percent in the first half. Tech's "Big Three" of Malcolm Delaney, AD Vassallo and Jeff Allen combined to go 2 for 17 from the field in the first half.

It was an embarrassing opening 20 minutes from the Hokies. Baylor played excellent defense and forced Tech into poor shots. However, the Hokies hurt themselves by being generally lazy, especially while passing.

The entire game can be encapsulated into a stretch with just under four minutes to play. Baylor's Henry Dugat stole a lazy in-bounds pass and reset the offense. Baylor missed a three and Tech got the offensive rebound. However, another lazy pass at midcourt was again stolen by Dugat, who this time took the ball to the rim and jammed it home.

The Hokies were a horrible basketball team to watch this year. They were inconsistent and at times it seemed they were unmotivated. A very disappointing season that had a lot of promise in the preseason is thankfully over.

Linkage

Hokies

- Tech Hoops offers its take on the loss.

- BCO has an accurate visual representation of today's performance.

- VT Fan found it hard to get excited about the NIT.

- The North End Zone has joined the Twitter.

- The Hokie football team dished out some awards.

Atlantic Coast Conference

- As bad as Friday was for the ACC, Giglio says it could have been worse.

- The Buzz Blog says you only have to look at the coaches to see why some ACC teams are still dancing and some aren't.

- My thoughts on Tech's bball season are similar to All Canes' thoughts on Miami's bball season.

- Section Six sees a correlation between beating NCSU and winning in The Tournament.

Randomness

- EDSBS has Erin Andrews naked.

- Anne at Sabretooth's House does her best furrer4heisman impersonation after last night's loss to Philly.

2 comments:

Hokie Guru said...

Win or lose, I'm a fan of Hokie men's hoops.

Anonymous said...

I'm just glad it is finally over. Considering how bad the acc did this post season it says a lot about the basketball team and coach. Yes you Seth Greenberg.