Hokies Beaten Easily by NC State

Virginia Tech was beaten in every phase of the game by NC State on Sunday, falling 70-58 in Blacksburg.  Tech finished the regular season 15-16, with a 4-12 mark in the ACC.  NC State is 20-11 overall, and they have a 9-7 record in league play.

Cadarian Raines

Cadarian Raines finished with 15 points, 5 rebounds and two steals, while Dorian Finney-Smith had 14 points and eight rebounds.  Erick Green had 12 points for the Hokies, but most of them came late when the game was already decided.  He scored Tech’s final six points of the game, but the Wolfpack already had a big lead before the short burst.

NC State shot 51.1% from the field.  It was the third time in the last five games that an opponent has shot more than 50% against the Hokies.  Virginia Tech shot just 36.7% from the field, only 25% from three-point range and only 50% from the free throw line.  Even the normally reliable Dorenzo Hudson was just 1-of-4 from the charity stripe on his Senior Night.

Tech only turned the ball over seven times, but they were all critical turnovers.  NC State picked off five bad passes by the Hokies and took them all the way coast to coast for layups, creating 10 easy points for the Wolfpack.  Marquis Rankin in particular struggled, committing five of Virginia Tech’s seven turnovers.

The Hokies were also outrebounded 40-25 by NC State, and the Wolfpack scored 36 points in the paint.  Tech had trouble yet again keeping their opponents out of the lane, despite using a mixture of man-to-man and 2-3 zone, as well as a 1-3-1 zone mixed in on one possession.

NC State controlled the game from start to finish, but the Hokies stayed within striking distance most of the time.  A layup by Erick Green made the score 51-47 Wolfpack with 10:31 remaining, and it seemed as if Tech was finally starting to get the momentum.  However, that didn’t turn out to be the case, as NC State immediately went on an 11-0 run over the next five minutes to take complete control of the game.  At that point, the Hokies had basically no chance of a comeback.

Virginia Tech is the #10 seed in the 2012 ACC Tournament in Atlanta.  The Hokies will take on #7 seed Clemson on Thursday night at 7pm from Philips Arena.  If they win, they’ll take on #2 seed Duke on Friday.

Box Score

15 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Thanks to Hokiestud, who is the guy that always calls in to the shows after devestating losses to praise Coaches or tell us to buck up. Give me a break. I remember when VT
    could hang with anybody at the Coliseum, fer sure not any more. There is a lot of
    Quit in this team. When Jim Weaver retires for his health, Seth Greenburg will be gone
    2 minutes after We hire the next AD. Trust me on this one, boys. The Women’s BBall
    Coach was another Idiotic hire, it defies logic-so far the results are abysmal. Also, Frank
    Beamer will be forced to juice up the Offense, or that Team will quit on him too! The Clemson and Michigan Web Sites said that the Va. Tech Offense was a joke, said that we
    must have drawn it up in the dirt like Little League. But, I’m quite sure Hokiestud can continue to make excuses for our Pathetic record in Big Games!

  2. this team has given up playing as a team months ago. if they would have cleaned up some things on and off the court and the coaches would do their jobs by taking care of everything,what a difference things might be in this overall weak league this year! SETH take charge!

  3. Raines has been a pleasant surprise, Would have been use full to have him playing this well earlier in the season.

  4. What I saw last night reminded me of a Ricky Stokes coached team.

    Can someone explain how NC State and many other teams VT has played can get in the paint and we can’t. Last night it appeared that NC State had a better offensive scheme. It was certainly different.

  5. Let’s just put this season behind us and hope our freshman mature into solid basketball players for their sophmore, junior, and senior seasons.

  6. As long as Jim Weaver is pleased, then that’s all the Effort that is needed from the MBB program. Cassell Coliseum shows those kind of numbers in attendance, He might wake up. This program is heading in the wrong direction, IMHO.

    1. YHO is wrong. Freshmen…we have a lot of them…NC State does not. When we play the mature teams, we often compete but just don’t pull it out. In the next couple of years, we’ll become the mature team who wins the tight games. DFS is showing signs of improved shooting…once he becomes an outside threat, his ability to cause matchup problems will help us win a lot more games.

      Last night, NC St was playing for their tourney lives. We were actually better off ACC tourney-wise with the 10 seed….wouldn’t you rather win and face Duke than UNC?

      We had a horrendous shooting night from our VETERAN players Hudson and Green. When you can’t shoot vs. a talented offensive team like NCSU, eventually they’re going to pull away.

      1. The effort wasn’t there last night and really hasn’t been there the past few games. They are getting destroyed on the boards and continually making lazy, sloppy passes that result in turnovers.

        I agree the DFS is showing improvement offensively and is also starting to be more aggressive. However, the lack of effort is alarming and is something that goes back to coaching in many respects. The offense also appears that it is still incapable of solving a basic 2-3 defense. That too is coaching. We can blame our lack of success on youth, injuries, etc… But at what point do we have to start having some success?

    2. I disagree. We have a very young and very inexperienced team, and yet we have been very close in almost all of our losses.

      Remember, many people thought that the football program was going in the wrong direction after a 2-8-1 season in 1992 and wanted Frank Beamer replaced. But VT had been close in almost every game that year, losing them in the 4th quarter. Dave Braine saw that and very wisely stayed the course with Beamer. The results since 1992 speak for themselves.

      I think that if Weaver is patient with Greenberg, the same thing can happen with our basketball program too. In fact, had we had the services of Allan Chaney and J.T. Thompson available to us this year as had been expected, I think that many of our close losses would have, in fact, ended up as wins instead.

  7. Yikes, here’s an ugly stat: after starting the season strong from the FT line, the Hokies have made just 22 of their last 45 over the last three games.

    1. That is indeed puzzling. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the legs are tired at this point in the season. But poor FT shooting has cost us at least two wins this year, including what would have been a huge win at Duke.

      1. Part of it is Raines going to the line more. He’s 5-13 over that stretch. Still, the rest of the team is 17-32, barely above .500.

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