Virginia Tech lost to #6 Duke 66-48 in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday night. The Hokies dropped to 9-18 overall and 2-13 in the ACC, while the Blue Devils are now 23-6 and 12-4.
Tech got off to an awful start. They couldn’t handle Duke’s pressure defense early in the game, and that allowed the Blue Devils to jump out to a 24-4 lead just 10 minutes into the game. The spread was 20.5 points, and it looked like Duke was going to cover easily.
Once the shock of playing in Cameron against an athletic Duke team wore off, the Hokies played better. They managed to cut the lead to 32-20 at halftime, and were within seven points following a Jarell Eddie layup to make the score 34-27 with 17:59 remaining in the game.
However, Duke’s superior talent and experience kept the Hokies at arms length for the rest of the game. The Blue Devils managed to get the lead back up to 20 points before a final layup by Trevor Thompson created the final 18 point margin. Thompson scored the last six points of the game for the Hokies to finish with 15 points. He also had six rebounds.
Thompson was the only Hokie in double figures. Jarell Eddie added nine points and seven rebounds, while Joey van Zegeren finished with eight points and eight boards. C.J. Barksdale came off the bench to score nine consecutive points in the first half, but he was held scoreless for the remainder of the game.
Tech returns to action this Saturday when they host North Carolina at 2:30pm on The ACC Network. It will be Senior Day for Cadarian Raines and Jarell Eddie.
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I agree with Hoaf, and say flush. I see this team getting more Downtrodden. Cough up big MONEY-go after some kind of name. The ACC is a Giant Revenue source that We are not tapping. Not JJ’s fault, He should not have been hired in the first place, I don’t fault Him at all. Will never recruit at Tech-nobody excited about his future at Tech-especially possible Players.
I tip my hat to those FEW guys who played for VT last night. Yes, they got off to an embarrassing start and yes, they lost by 18 points. BUT, they did that with far fewer and much less talented personnel than Duke has at their disposal. VT has a very young and hurt team that is struggling to learn and develop their talents. Lack of senior leadership on VT’s bench and talent superiority on Duke’s bench were the main factors in the loss. Instead of a huge blowout, like we had with VCU, VT kept is close and somewhat respectable with a lot of toughness, hustle, and lack of giving up. So good for them to keep their minds on the game and not on the score. You’ve got to give JJ some credit for the way the guys have stayed resilient and kept playing hard despite the disappointing losses.
One thing that Duke definitely confirmed for me last night, however, is that our guys have little to no technique when it comes to getting position for rebounds. Against other teams we were more lucky because either the other team’s players weren’t good at getting position or because we had a size/length advantage. But Duke you could easily tell was well trained in how to get position to either get the rebound themselves or to prevent our guys from getting a rebound. JJ definitely needs to work on that…along with ball-handling, free throw shooting, passing…
Glad I’m not athletic director and have to decide on coach jj future. He doesn’t get paid a lot and has potential on the roster but my thing with him is failure to teach defense. Tough call on this one. I’d can him and bring in some excitement but I can see giving him one more year
Duke only scored 66 points on their home court and shot below their season average. That sounds like pretty good defense to me, especially since we’re talking about the #6 team in the nation.
All told, I think our defense has been quite solid since we went to playing the 2-3 zone most of the time. We’re losing games because we can’t score enough points ourselves, not because other teams are lighting it up on us.
But any team that’s forced to give two walk-ons significant minutes just to be able to get through a game is gonna have a tough time in the ACC. There’s precious little that a head coach can do when you’re facing that kind of personnel deficit.
JJ should definitely get another year.
Not a JJ lover or hater, but I have not seen anything from a coaching perspective that would want me to keep him on next year. Yes, I realize overall talent is down and injuries are up, but I do not think JJ has made what he could of out of this team. Why so long to make the adjustment to the zone? Why not better plays drawn up under certain circumstances (end of game, etc), why no real player improvement over the years (Eddie).
I realize there is a salary issue (paying three head coaches at once), but if I was Whit, I’d have my eyes and ears open to see if a good coaching fit becomes available and if so make the move after the season. If not, JJ for another year, but I dont see much hope for next year either, then what?
Once you go up on the last place team 20-4, intensity wanes. Otherwise it would have been much worse by the end.
JJ needs to find someone that is an authority at Post play and have that person work with our bigs. You can see they both have a great deal of potential but they badly need help not only on offense but defense as well.
Very accurate point. We leave a lot of points in the paint. Actually Wilson has trouble also at the rim once he breaks free.
I agree. Seems like we haven’t been able to develop our big men well through the years, particularly offensive post moves, and that goes back long before JJ. I don’t know whether that falls on the head coach, assistants, or the players themselves. If a player wants to attend a big man camp (i.e. Pete Newell’s), does he have to do so on his own dime? Can a coach simply bring in someone from outside to work with them? I’m sure wiser posters than me know, but you’re right that Thompson/JVZ could really be difference makers with improved skill sets.
Duke took their foot off the gas and just coasted. Ugly.
Huh?
Game was over early. This is beyond depressing
Time to flush it all and start over.
It may take some time, but it has GOT to be better than this.
We will start over next year. Hopefully we will have a full roster and the influx of talent to contribute.
I really think JJ should get another year. With a full roster and the incoming talent I think VT will be considerably improved next year. There seems to have been no quit in this team. As for Raines I believe teams started pushing him out farther from the basket after the ND game. This kind of negated his footwork and his spin moves. Go Hokies!
Raines’ biggest problem is that he tries to force things when they aren’t there instead of quickly kicking the ball back outside to an open shooter.