No. 24 Virginia Tech has 20 games remaining in the regular season, 19 in ACC play. However, the Hokies have to take care of Grambling State first.
The Tigers are no pushover. With a 6-3 record and two wins over Colorado and Vanderbilt, they’ve proved they can hang with some more talented teams.
The Hokies and Tigers clash at 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon from Cassell Coliseum. The game will be televised on RSN (regional sports networks).
On Friday, we’ll preview Sunday’s top-10 women’s basketball clash between No. 5 Notre Dame and No. 6 Virginia Tech.
Grambling State
Donte Jackson is in his sixth season at the helm of the Tigers. He’s a Milwaukee native and was a successful D-II and NAIA coach before taking over at Grambling State in 2017. Here are his records in six years in the SWAC, along with adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency rankings, according to KenPom:
2017-18: 17-14 (13-5); 336 O, 190 D
2018-19: 17-17 (10-8); 318 O, 165 D
2019-20: 17-15 (11-7); 328 O, 235 D
2020-21: 11-11 (9-6); 324 O, 264 D
2021-22: 12-20 (9-9); 331 O, 245 D
This year, Grambling State is 6-3, 312 in offense and 124 in defense. As the trends show, the program’s defense is usually solid; instead, it’s the offense that needs some work. Since 2000, the school hasn’t had a top-250 offense, per KenPom. The highest was 257 in 2002.
On defense, the Tigers’ best rank since 2000 came in 2018 in Jackson’s first season when they were No. 190. At No. 124, they’re playing above that level this year, which is insanely impressive. Grambling State actually won the SWAC regular season back in 2017-18, its first regular season title since 1989, but it was ineligible for postseason play due to serious APR violations.
They’ve never made the NCAA tournament at the D-I level, one of 35 eligible programs to never do so. Bethune-Cookman is the only other SWAC member to never make it.
A quick tangent – seven schools that have never made the NCAA tournament are currently in the top-200 in KenPom. As someone who grew up in the Williamsburg area, I always hoped William & Mary would make an appearance. The Tribe were close a few times under Tony Shaver, but they’re still one of four teams that have been eligible for every NCAA tournament but have failed to make one.
UMass Lowell (116 in KenPom), Utah Valley (121), Youngstown State (152), Quinnipiac (162), UC Riverside (164) Purdue Fort Wayne (171) and High Point (193) are the seven top-200 schools that haven’t made the Big Dance. And at its current pace, Grambling State (238) could scratch its name off the list, too. Those moments are always unique.
The Series
Virginia Tech and Grambling State have met once previously: Dec. 19, 2015. In the second year under Buzz Williams, Tech played three SWAC schools: Alabama A&M, Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Grambling State.
The Hokies beat the Tigers by 35, 87-52, behind 31 points from Justin Bibbs. At the time, it was a career-best performance. He scored 32 against Wake Forest less than a month later, though. He did, however, tie Malcolm Delaney’s then-school record of 3-pointers in a game, making seven of his 10 attempts. Hunter Cattoor and Justin Robinson both hold that mark now with nine apiece.
Reading Chris Coleman’s recap from that Saturday night, I couldn’t help but chuckle – Williams benched his regular starters due to them not performing well in practice during the week. Instead of the usual five – Devin Wilson, Jalen Hudson, Bibbs, Chris Clarke and Zach LeDay – Williams rolled with Robinson, Seth Allen, Matt Galloway, Kerry Blackshear Jr. and Shane Henry.
Blackshear Jr. became the first Tech freshman since Jeff Allen to record a double-double in back-to-back games while Robinson posted eight points and seven boards. Allen and LeDay were close to double-doubles, too, combining for 27 points and 16 rebounds.
The Hokies lost their next game in the Barclays Center, ironically, to St. Joe’s. In 2022, though, they’re 5-0 in that arena.
Virginia Tech is 6-1 all-time against SWAC programs. The one loss came in the season-opener in 2015-16 to Alabama State.
The Grambling State Roster
Nine different players have started a game for Grambling State this season. Only three have started every game they’ve been available. The Tigers have 12 players who have scored 16-plus points through nine games and 11 that have attempted double-digit shots.
Here’s a breakdown of the contributors by points per game:
Carte’are Gordon (6-9, 235, r-Jr.): 13.8
Cameron Christon (6-6, 190, Gr.): 11.7
Shawndarius Cowart (6-3, 180, Sr.): 10.7
Virshon Cotton (6-2, 170, Gr.): 6.0
Jourdan Smith (6-7, 180, Jr.): 5.7
Zahad Munford (6-3, 170, Sr.): 4.8
Quintin Murrell (6-4, 175, So.): 4.2
Jonathan Aku (6-11, 255, Jr.): 2.7
Malik Lamin (6-11, 235, r-So.): 2.6
Two other players – Terrence Lewis and Tra’Michael Moton – have missed the last few games. Gordon, Christon and Cowart have started every game they’ve been available while Cotton and Aku each have five starts.
The starting five in the team’s 64-62 win over Vanderbilt on Friday: Cotton, Cowart, Christon, Gordon and Aku. In fact, they’re all transfers, from New Mexico State, Hofstra, Boise State, Northwest Florida CC and Stephen F. Austin, respectively.
If the Tigers use the same group against Virginia Tech, that matches Justyn Mutts up against Gordon, who was recently named the SWAC Impact Player of the Week. Hunter Cattoor and Darius Maddox will have tough guards with Cowart and Christon, too.
Mucking It Up
One of the most intriguing parts of the Tigers’ style is how they muck it up. While they have 115 assists to 129 turnovers on the year, their opponents have 102 assists to 147 turnovers. For comparison, the Hokies have a ratio of 1.6 (158 to 96), which ranks sixth in D-I. Tech’s turnover percentage (13%) also ranks third in the country.
Against Vanderbilt, Grambling State found plenty of success in that aspect of the game. As my colleague Aria Gerson noted, the Commodores “turned the ball over 19 times to the Tigers’ seven,” and they missed six of their last seven field goals.
Vandy took 27 free throws too, making 21. The 24 free throws Virginia Tech attempted in Brooklyn vs. Oklahoma State on Sunday were the most this season.
If the Hokies can stay calm and composed, they’ll be successful. They’ve only turned it over more than 10 times twice this year – at College of Charleston, vs. Minnesota – and point guard Sean Pedulla has settled the team down.
As noted previously, Grambling State isn’t a good offensive team. Yet, the Tigers often find success on the offensive boards; their offensive rebound rate of 32.3% ranks 87th in the country.
Tech did a good job in stretches this season but lost the last two battles on the glass to Dayton and Oklahoma State. The boards were also a problem in Charleston against Old Dominion when the Hokies were outrebounded by 14.
Grambling State is turnover prone and shot just 39% in its win in Nashville, but Vanderbilt wasn’t much better at 40%. In the end, the physicality got to the Commodores, and despite three players fouling out, the Tigers held on for the win.
In the 83-74 win over Colorado earlier in the season, they used a similar formula. The Buffs turned it over 19 times and only had 12 assists, and Grambling State shot 50% from the floor.
The key, as Grand Canyon and Arizona State pointed out in November, is to force turnovers on the other end and respond with good defense. Despite mucking it up, the Tigers had more turnovers (36) in those two contests than made field goals (35) and lost 81-48 to Grand Canyon and 80-49 to Arizona State.
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They were forced to do that when they went to a 20 game regular season schedule.
I thought ACC play had already begun with the win over UNC. Granted it begins in earnest after this game.
for the past few years, the ACC has been scheduling one league game per team in early December, before returning to a few more OOC games for the remainder of the fall semester.