Rebounding and second chance points were again Virginia Tech’s downfall in a 76-52 loss at Miami on Wednesday night. The Hokies dropped to 10-16 overall and 2-11 in the ACC with the loss, while the Hurricanes improved to 17-9 and 7-6.
Tech trailed just 29-26 at halftime after a late Justin Bibbs three-pointer cut the deficit in half. However, the Hokies got off to a slow start in the second half and could never recover. Their lack of rebounding was the main culprit, as usual. They were outrebounded 40-19 by Miami, and Hurricane center Tonye Jekiri had nearly as many rebounds (15) as the entire Tech team. Jekiri entered the game as the ACC leader in rebounds.
Miami missed 25 field goals during the game and came away with 13 offensive rebounds. They had a whopping 19 second chance points, to just three for Virginia Tech. Devin Wilson led the team with four rebounds, and no other VT player had more than two.
The Hokies also had a down night from the outside, connecting on just 7-of-21 from three-point range. While Tech can be a dangerous team because of their outside ability, their inability to score inside and from mid-range means that this is a very limited team offensively when their outside jumper isn’t falling. After making their first two three-pointers to jump out to a 6-0 lead, the Hokies were just 5-of-19 the rest of the way.
Though Justin Bibbs did score in double figures (11), he was just 3-of-9 from the field and 2-of-4 from the free throw line, continuing his shooting slump. Adam Smith led all Hokies with 15 points, while Devin Wilson added 11.
Virginia Tech returns to action on Saturday when they travel to NC State. Tipoff is scheduled for 6pm, and the game will be televised by ESPN2.
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As I wrote in a previous post, we are one big wide-body away from turning some of our loses into wins. I am sure that this is not news to Buzz and that he is working on finding the missing piece. My advice to all the other ACC teams is this – you better beat us while you can because with the guys we have coming in next year and the addition of a biggee (or two), we are coming after you.
Someone please explain to me why we have historically had problems recruiting a true post player. Some of our competitors in the ACC have 2 or 3 and even our out of conference foes seemed to have recruited better than us. Just don’t understand!
Lost Trevor Thompson(6’11”) to OSU transfer, Maurice Kirby(6’9″) to CC transfer and JVZ(6’11”) to team rules. When your old AD is lazy and promotes an unqualified coach to run the team in James Johnson, expect some regression. When the upgraded AD makes a great hire and the new coach wants his type of player, you’re going to need patience. Add in injury and basketball retirement from a decent PF in CJ Barksdale (6’8″). We had decent big guys but the last 3 yrs have been a mess IMO due to the situation our old AD put the program in.
Not having a talented true big man on our team is killing us. We don’t know how to post up against other big men, we don’t know how to defend them, and as such we’re giving away lots of points each game. Top that with missing free throws and not making as many open jump shots gives us the 20+ point losses as of late.
Still love my Hokies, but man is it hard to watch.
No more wins this season. Men’s & Women’s team will probably finish a combined 3-33. Hopefully things will get better next yr, but It’s going to be long steep hill just to reach 500. We’re the worse combined teams in college ball. Definitely a severe lack of talent on both teams. Attrition will not be a bad thing.