Erick Green’s last second shot bounced off the front of the rim, and Virginia Tech lost their first game of the season, narrowly falling to West Virginia 68-67 in Morgantown. The Hokies dropped to 7-1 with the loss, while WVU improved to 4-3.
Tech trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half, but rallied to take the lead in various parts of the second half. Robert Brown banked in a three-pointer with 17 seconds remaining, and that put the Hokies up by a point. However, a huge defensive breakdown with only five seconds left in the game gave West Virginia the win.
On West Virginia’s last possession, Juwan Staten beat Robert Brown off the dribble and was heading towards the basket. Erick Green was in a position to get in his way, but he chose to vacate the area to defend the kickout to the three-point line. Once Staten cleared Green, there was no help on the inside, and the Mountaineers got the easy layup to take the lead. Tech got a good look on Green’s last second shot, but it was just off.
Three things happened in this game that cost Virginia Tech the win…
1: West Virginia’s offensive rebounding. The bigger Mountaineers grabbed 23 offensive rebounds against Tech, and they got a lot of second chance opportunities. WVU shot just 35.3% for the game, but the offensive rebounds helped them out on the offensive end.
2: West Virginia came into the game shooting only 23% from three-point range. They shot 10-of-24 (41.7%) against Virginia Tech. Sophomore forward Kevin Noreen, who entered the game averaging just 1.3 points per game in 12.5 minutes per game, played 33 minutes and scored 14 points while pulling down 12 rebounds. He made two of his three 3-point attempts. Noreen also had seven offensive rebounds.
3: Jarrell Eddie picked up his fourth foul early in the second half. He played just 20 minutes, and only scored five points. With Eddie on the bench, Tech had to play Marquis Rankin for 25 minutes. Though he had four rebounds and two assists, he didn’t score and was 0-of-5 from the field.
Erick Green paced Virginia Tech with 23 points and 10 assists. It was his first career double-double. He didn’t commit a turnover. Robert Brown added 21 points for the Hokies.
Virginia Tech returns to action on Monday night, when they host Mississippi Valley State. Tipoff is scheduled for 7pm, and the game will can be viewed online on ESPN3.
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I will take credit for this one… I couldn’t watch every second of the game but caught it in bits and pieces. Everytime I got to the TV, Tech was up. it must have been my bad charma but shortly after I would begin watching, we lost the lead. I would walk away for a few minutes and when I got back we were up and again, while watching, we would lose the lead. This happened all throughout the second half… and, YES… I stayed to watch the final minute.
I apoligize…
Unfortunately, this team resembled Seth Greenberg’s teams a bit too much. There was a lot less trust out there. Slow offensive sets. Too many one v one shot attempts. What happened to the new and improved James Johnson offense? You know, the offense where everyone is moving without the ball, the ball is being passed quickly, guys are trusting each other, everything was happening with pace. That pace was gone against WVU. That sense of team wasn’t really there. We were not looking at the same team that went 7-0. This was a game that was lost simply because they forgot who they are, and played like what they once were. Shake it off boys. Get back to trusting each other and playing with pace, intensity, and quickness.
No comment about WVU NOT being called for traveling when running the baseline on their game winning inbounds pass? The player throwing the ball inbounds with second left and VT up 1 was not allowed to “run” the baseline yet he moved each foot at least twice and moved a foot or two to the left before the inbounds pass.
There is a ref assigned to watch for this violation on the inbounds pass yet no call. This is not like a judgement call as to blocking v. charging. This is an absolute black and white call that the ref closed his eyes to and gave to WVU. Should have been a turnover to VT with a one point lead and 5 seconds left.
MAJOR SCREW JOB!!!!! Again, not a “judgement” call just a screwed up call.
I saw that too and I hate to argue the small things but that would have changed the outcome of the game. Besides, the guy took at least five steps, he didn’t just change pivot feet. Those are the no-calls that don’t even show up on the radar of the selection committee in March. I just hope that one doesn’t come back to be the difference between a tourney bid and a NIT bid.
A perimeter-oriented team like ours isn’t gonna win many games shooting only 27% from 3-point range. We won’t shoot this poorly very often.
I am still very pleased with this team. You can say this costs us the game or that cost us the game. But the one thing that caused all of the this or that is that we did not have enough intensity. Intensity is something that is harder to find on the road than at home.
On another note, there must have been a lot of fans disguiesed as empty seats. The next time someone accuses VT fans of not being in the seats should take note. We aren’t alone.
I was at the OSU game last weekend and it was outstanding. We had a great crowd and a loud crowd. We should embrace this team and focus on more that is right than what is wrong. If this team stays healthy, we should be dancing.
Yeah, hate filled atmosphere I was anticipating didn’t really seem to be there, or at least it didn’t come through on TV. WVU crowd was reasonably loud, but I, like you, saw quite a few empty seats for what was touted as a sellout.
A very hostile environment early in the season simply is a good preparation for what is to come in the ACC. If we can go better than 50-50 in the ACC, it will be a good year.
I feel like every year we play a team with a really unathletic, borderline D1 talent who lights us up and has the game of their career. I remember the random kid from BC a few years back had a hell of a game against us.
The Noreen kid shot the ball from his hip and looked like he just learned how to shoot a basketball last week but he made some big shots for sure. There offense as a whole looked very limited and unnatural to say the least. They looked uncomfortable on O and didn’t see to have any scorers or real pure shooters. Their dominance on the boards seemed to seal the deal. There were several possessions where they had three and four opportunities. Some nights when we aren’t hitting threes we are going to struggle.
Erick Green is playing lights out and I like the mentality and confidence the team seems to have. They didn’t seem intimidated in a hostile environment and played with a lot of effort. We are just thin on the front line and MR seems to really really hobble us offensively. He seems to offer minimal benefit while in the game other than giving green or brown a breather.
WVU hit 5 or 6 three’s in a row during the key last part of the 2nd half. We weren’t hitting anything all night and still managed to stay in it. Tough loss!
Agreed, those 5 straight 3s broke our back in a tough game..I hate WVU, I became ill on each of the 5 3 point makes during that run. WVU and their foul mouth coach will enjoy losing 70% of their games in the Big 12.
Maybe it was me, the guys seemed to get bogged down in their half court sets
Noreen killed VT, but even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while. No one guarded Noreen all night. He looked like a flash back from the 50s or 60s when HotRod Hundley and Jerry West were shooting set shots for WVU. I’d say JJ was not too happy with overall performance.
I watched the guy shoot and kept thinking “terrible, terrible shooting form” and the bleep kept going in. He was just on.
The announcer said Noreenhad been”Mr Basketball” in Minnesota. I’m not so sure this was a case of having a career night. I’m guessing he uses that old set shot and, at 6’10”, he has a higher launch point than most set shots. It’s an ugly looking shot today but he’d fit in with the great WVU teams from the early 60s. I think he’s just a freshman. Future opponents will have film on him and won’t let him take those set shots uncontested. We should have been better at rotating someone over to him to contest that shot, especially in the 2nd half.
Should have beat these guys by 10, easily. Need that 3rd scoring option in Eddy. Refs were crappy, but in the end we got beat by a slow clunky guy who we treated as a self check. Was that Barkesdale’s guy? Also, Rankin is a liability on offense. Even Jontel Evans can find the basket now and then.
MH
I agree, on a normal night we should beat these guys by a minimum of 15. It was the perfect storm of us shooting poorly, WVU shooting lights out (especially that stretch from 3 in the 2nd half), Eddie in foul trouble all game, and us having our worst game of the season.
P.S. if Rankin ever shoots another 3 they should yank his scholarship!
We were saying the same thing about EG his first couple seasons. Hopefully Rankin’s shot will improve. I’m guessing JJ would give him the green light if Rankin was missing shots in practice.
Great game guys! Close but no cigar in a hostile environment! It’s gonna be a fun year for Hokie fans! GooooooHOKIES!