Virginia Tech played good basketball against Notre Dame, North Carolina and Louisville. However, the Hokies played one of their worst games of the season on Sunday night against Pitt, falling 90-71 to drop to 12-10 overall and 4-5 in ACC play. The Panthers improved to 17-4 overall and 6-3 in the ACC.
Turnovers and defense were the difference in this game. The Hokies committed 20 turnovers, and Pitt capitalized by scoring 33 points off those turnovers. Pitt shot 52.9% from the field – partially because of easy shots off those turnovers, and partially because of bad Virginia Tech defense in the halfcourt.
The Hokies shot 23-of-51 (45.1%) from the field and 11-of-21 (52.4%) from three point range. However, another bad defensive performance sent them to their fourth consecutive loss.
In nine ACC games, Virginia Tech has allowed the following amount of points…
NC State: 68
UVA: 68
Duke: 82
Wake Forest: 91
Georgia Tech: 77
Notre Dame: 83
UNC: 75
Louisville: 91
Pitt: 90
As well as the Hokies have played offensively for most of the year, they haven’t played well on the defensive end of the court. They have been able to overcome that for most of ACC play because they’ve won the turnover battle, but on Sunday night their 20 turnovers greatly outpaced Pitt’s 13 turnovers, and points off turnovers were a whopping 33-4 in Pitt’s favor.
Virginia Tech had four players score in double figures…
Seth Allen: 28 points, 5-of-5 from 3-point range
Jalen Hudson: 13 points in 15 minutes (all in the second half because of foul trouble)
Justin Bibbs: 12 points, 6 rebounds
Zach Leday: 12 points, 9 rebounds
The Hokies are playing well this year on the offensive end of the court, and they’ve made a lot of progress since last season. However, their progress will come to a dead stop until they get better on the defensive end of the floor.
Tech returns to action on Tuesday night when they take on Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. Tipoff is scheduled for 8pm, and the game will be televised by The ACC Network. Check your local listings.
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Unfortunately our best defensive players are sitting on the sidelines. That includes a couple of players that were expected to be 3 point shooting threats. So the injuries have really hurt this season.
With what we have left on the floor now we simply can’t win with turnovers. Turnovers are the kiss of death for this group.
I give kudos to Seth for being pretty much the only guy in there giving everything he had to win up until the very end. However, Buzz still needs to find a way to reign him in at times. If anything he should have learned from Devin in previous years that he can’t be the only guy contributing…it needs to be a team offense. Both Kerry and Satchel need to learn how to stop playing defense with their arms and use their bodies…seeing them constantly tangling with the other team’s players is getting out of hand. The entire team needs to learn that they aren’t going to win any more games if they continue to watch the game from the court instead of constantly moving and/or pursuing the ball. Why was one Pitt player seemingly always open for a pass & shot? Because at least one Hokie was consistently watching the ball instead of where his man was.
I definitely feel bad for the players and coaches, though. Two tough road games less than 50 hours apart and over 1500 miles of travel.
When we get a stop on defense we have a much better chance of getting down quickly before they get their defenses set. Teams are learning to plug up the lane to cut off the driving. Even driving and dishing back out is limited because they don’t have to watch everyone. When Wilson and Robinson are in the game outside shots are few and far between.
Serious Question – if you give up 20 turnovers and 33 points on turnovers – Is that bad D or bad O?
Thx
A reply on the board
I was at the game…Wilson, Robinson, Blackshear had awful games
Forgettable nights for all three. Made poor decisions with the ball. Played out of control. Couldn’t hold onto the ball. Just crappy games for all three. They need to forget this game and move on.
WITH the BALL – offense.
Yes.
Our D really stinks this year. We are giving up waaaay toooo many points. You’d think with the players we have vs. what we had lasy year we’d be better. Very disappointing…
I’m confused. Is it 90 or 91 points?
Fixed.
This looks like coaching folks! The game was worse than Duke and against an unranked team.
……and did we have three shot clock violations?
The O was discumbobulated at times. Not sure that there’s too much reliance on Seth. Other players need to be more motivated.
Discombobulated. LOL, I didn’t realized it was actually a word.