Tech Talk Live Notes: Buzz on the 2K Classic, Fuente Previews Clash With Virginia

Tech Talk Live returned on Monday night, as both basketball head coach Buzz Williams and football head coach Justin Fuente gave updates on their respective teams. Here are the highlights from Monday night’s Tech Talk Live. 

Buzz Williams

Impact of shot selection on offense in the 2K Classic

“… Like I told them, we took 16 shots that were one pass or less, and I’m ok with that if those are dunks or layups. But they are aware of what a bad shot is and what a good shot is, what a perfect shot is. And that doesn’t mean that the line is not blurred on occasion, but there was never a distinct line against Saint Louis, and so much of what we’re about offensively, we want it to help our defense, so that we’re playing a set defense. That was our worst field goal percentage of the year, and that was because of the types of shots we were shooting. It’s hard to have coach speak when the media asks, ‘What did the defense do?’ Sometimes that’s the case, rarely is it the case when you’re as distinct in what we’re trying to accomplish offensively, our guys know when we need to keep dancing and when it’s time to take a shot. There were too many surprise shots, so we’re never in a position not only to get an offensive rebound, which we’re not going to get very many of them, but not only are we not in a position to get an offensive rebound, but we’re not in a position to get back in transition, because too often times the shot is taken and it’s like, ‘I didn’t know you were going to shoot that.’ And so we’re surprised. Our staff felt that way, if you’ve watched out staff grow over the last three years, and you follow how we want to play, I would say there were people that felt that same way, like, ‘That’s not a good one.’”

Maintaining offensive flow without Justin Robinson on the floor

“Yeah, the pace sure changed. Part of that was because (Robinson) wasn’t in the game, part of that is because we’re so fast, the opponent’s offense wants to help their defense too, and it kind of becomes a little bit of football in time of possession. ‘Hey, they’re shooting 60 percent from the field, and they’re scoring it at a very rapid rate, what can we do?’ Well, we don’t need, the opponent, we can’t take a bad shot. ‘Hey, let’s score in the first 10 or the last 10 (seconds),’ and now all of a sudden the time of possession begins to go the opponent’s way, and then when you couple that with we’re shooting what we would deem to be bad shots, all we’re doing is playing to their hand. It’s a cumulative thing. It’s not a singular thing. It’s how one thing leads to another leads to another, and that’s what happened.”

Conversation between freshman guard Wabissa Bede and assistant Jamie McNeilly

“Well if Chris (Clarke) gets the defensive rebound, he’s the point (guard). He’s second on our team in assists, and I would say per touch, he’s first on our team in assists. And many of those assists come in transition. For sure, Washington was the full game, other than 4-5 possessions, and we’ve played a little bit of zone against the other three opponents — if you’re playing a zone, and Chris gets a touch, it probably leads to something good. It’s the same thing in transition, so when Chris gets the defensive rebound, relative to what we call sequence, that’s what we call our transition, there’s a sequence to the things that we’re looking for, the things that we want to accomplish, and when Chris gets it, Bede, we’re not passing it to you. If we’re passing it to you, Chris is passing it ahead to you, so you’ve got to hurry up and get ahead of the ball. But if you’ve been a point guard your whole life, and you play normal person basketball, and someone bigger than you gets the rebound, then you want to outlet the ball over here to the point. We don’t play like that, so it’s a lot of information coming at PJ (Horne), a lot of information at Bede, a lot of information at Nickeil (Alexander-Walker), and we played four games in their first week of their college career, and that’s a lot. Just that right there is a lot. We’ve got to make sure we’re ‘raising’ those guys in the right way, and sometimes when you’re playing with guys that are playing a completely different style, that education, in of itself, takes a lot.”

Justin Fuente

What Saturday’s win vs. Pittsburgh meant to him, the seniors and the program

“Well, what first comes to mind is that I wish I was a better orator. I wish I could craft my words and adjectives to describe what I saw. It really was a group of guys who refused to lose, that played for each other, and for all of the right reasons, in my opinion. We tried to play the game the right way, found a way to win it. We went through a wide variety of emotions there at the end of the game, and I think it speaks volumes of our kids and their perseverance, their ability to pick themselves up when things aren’t going their way, and find a way to buckle down and make a huge stop there to win the game.”

Importance to seniors of extending the streak over Virginia to 14 straight games

“Well, we obviously understand the ramifications of this game across the state and the Hokie nation, and so does Virginia. It’s not a situation where both sides, or only one side gets it. They certainly do too. We know we’ve got to go on the road to their place, and we’re going to have to bring some energy. We know we’re playing a completely different team than we did a year ago. Last week, we filled up our emotional bucket and poured it all over the field. And this week, we’ve got to continue to fill it all back up and we’ve got to go empty the tank. We’ve got to go all out. It’s all hands on deck. Injured guys that aren’t playing, young guys that are filling in, whatever it is, wherever we’ve got holes, we’ve got to have people prepared to do whatever it takes to find a way to win this game.”

Where Virginia has improved the most since last season

“Well, I think it’s pretty easy. Offensively, they’re just making more plays downfield. You can just see the film and just see it. Their team speed has increased dramatically. Their quarterback (Kurt Benkert) is playing at a high level. I think the biggest thing is the guys on the outside are making plays down the field. I mean they’re getting behind everybody. Not just the lesser teams on their schedule, but the really talented teams, they’re getting behind and making big plays. Part of that is because they can really run on the outside, and their quarterback is accurate down the field. You can tell that they’re in their second year in Bronco’s 3-4 defense. They’ve always been very multiple, and they are to that point now, the numerous looks they give you, in terms of blitzing and dropping people into coverage. They can tell, he even made comments about it last year, that he thought they tried to do too much early on and they simplified things as they went along, well you can tell now that they’ve had two years and that they’re all over the place. Special teams-wise, they’ve been incredibly consistent with good returners, just like those skill guys on offense, and they’re awfully dangerous.”

Virginia Tech has held the Commonwealth Cup for 4741 days. #Hokies

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Virginia Tech has held the Black Diamond Trophy for 4797 days. #Hokies

— Black Diamond Trophy (@BlkDiamondTrphy) November 20, 2017