Was just informed I have brunch plans at 1, so I guess Iām missing this one entirely since CW is a nightmare to watch on my phone. 
I think Ugo is going to be important today to try and match their front courtās athleticism.
Iām pretty confident weāll contain Hammond better today than we did in Blacksburg.
Hoos by 6-8.
I also usually like their announcers. Isnāt Childress with them? And that GT player from around the same era?
3D - Dennis Scott?
I think Childress and Scott are both ACC-N. Gminiski and Bonner (maybe?) are CW, I think.
Just a few reminders of the greatest āathleticā achievement in the history of their programā¦
Go āHoos!!
You were right - Itās Thom Brenneman and Brian Oliver (from GT)
I like Gminski and Bonner (I know a lot of people donāt). Childress is good too. I think mostly I want my color guys to one, be soft spoken, and two, mostly just talk about the game.
Not sure if folks saw this yesterday, but Goodman reports that Young is back, win or lose:
https://x.com/GoodmanHoops/status/2029948540475093016?s=20
Good call. I donāt think theyāre gonna do better than Mike Young without shelling out money they donāt want to spend on not-football.
BUR preview:
#57 Virginia Tech at #19 Virginia (-11), 12 PM ET, The CW.
This is a really simple game for the Hokies: win and youāreā¦probably in? While not a gospel, Virginia Tech zooms up to 72% to make the field of 68 by winning this game at Torvik, and with a loss, they drop to 28%. The good news: Tech already won this game once, very early in the conference season, by defeating Virginia at home when UVA was arguably playing better than they are now. The bad news: Virginia had their fourth-worst 3PT% day of the season, shot 26 fewer free throws than Tech, had three fewer OREBs, and had three fewer TOs. It took Tech three overtimes to win this specific game, including Ben Hammond going 16-18 from the line.
Tech is generally better offensively against teams that send two to the ball on a drive and/or canāt defend the rim without additional help, which is, well, not Virginia basketball. The Cavs arenāt quite as special at defending straight-line attacks as youād hope, but this UVA group generally prefers to let those drives happen rather than sending secondary help. Any sort of frontcourt action against their tremendous defensive frontcourt is not likely to end well in an efficient manner.
However, the flipside of this is really intriguing to me. As mentioned, UVA had their fourth-worst 3PT% day of the year, but Tech also forced UVA to take over half their shots from deep. Thatās nothing shocking given UVAās offensive structure - extremely attack-and-kick heavy - and given that Tech has generally preferred to drop and sit deep against opponents this year. My fear here is Tech needing another really bad UVA shooting day to survive, and that equation feels bad given UVAās huge edge on the boards/the interior. - Will Warren
My only quibble here is that it felt more like a strategic misfire to go away from the interior on our part, not something we were forced into (in game #1, I mean). Reminds me of the Duke game (see @Cuts_from_The_Corner nice write-up) where we let the defense dictate to us, rather than try to push against it a bit.
Iād imagine a hoops coach can stay employed in Blacksburg for quite awhile as long as theyāre pretty consistently on the bubble and has around a .500 record against us.
One more year then Frazier takes over unless it completely falls off the rails
The WF dilemma. Pay for a new coach or keep coach and pay for a better roster. .
TheTVApp website has the CW. Iāll be in the same boat at the airport. Itās usually pretty reliable.
Whoās Frazier, an assistant?
Yeah, came back over to Blacksburg when Devries went to IU. Itās his second stint, heās a solid recruiter and super well liked. He could have gotten a better assistant gig, so this checks out imo.
My parents are extremely convinced this is happening and have been saying āthis season or next for MY and then Frazier takes overā since Frazier came back.
I always hesitate to take anything Will says about us seriously because he hates us, and picked us as the most likely first-round upset in the tournament.
Hammond dropped 30 on us last game. Not happening today. We need to hammer them. If we play fast and are opportunistic, we will beat them soundly. Channeling @plegard - play with Joy!
