With the way it looks like the ACC will play out this year, this is a big game for the Hoos. I know we keep talking about being in the top 4 for in the ACC, but it is just more than hype. First off, finishing in the top four means a first round bye into the ACC Tournament, and even finishing 3rd means that it means that team will see a very winnable game. Secondly, and most importantly, the conference is heading down a path to another year of limited bids to the NCAA. With Duke and UNC being locks, and the early and impressive play by Florida State, it looks like they could have locked up a bid as well, even with those bad non-conference losses. The only other two viable candidates for the post season from the ACC are Virginia and NC State, and this contest Saturday is the only time we will see the Pack all year. Enough pressure for ya'll?

Team

The Packs record is not super impressive at 15-6 and 4-2 in conference, but it a little deceiving. Their only non-conference losses have come to Vanderbilt (which at one point was impressive), Indiana (who is having a great season), at Stanford (who like Vandy was playing good), and Syracuse (nuff said). They have a good win over Texas, which matches up with the Hoos win over Michigan, and the rest were par for the course. In the ACC they have beaten Wake, BC, Miami, and Maryland, with the Terps representing the most “impressive” victory, creating that dividing line between good and bad teams. The loss at UNC on Thursday was not unexpected, but the home lost to woeful Georgia Tech by 11 was. If you could find a team most like Virginia in record only, this would be them.

Players

Mark Gottfried’s first order of business was to speed up things for the Pack after the Sydney Lowe era, but still implement the value of the set offense.  The result? A massive jump in points per game for their top 6 leading scorers. F Scott Wood, F C.J. Leslie, G Lorenzo Brown, G C.J. Williams, C DeShawn Painter, and F Richard Howell all average above 12 points a game, up an average of about 5 points per game from a year ago. They are very upperclassmen heavy, with only reserves Alex Johnson and Thomas de Thaey being the most used freshmen by the Pack.

Game Plan

They are very big and long at all the positions, with their starting guards both checking in a 6-5. This will create a matchup problem for Evans and Z, so working help around in the form of Harris or Brogdon will be essential. To counter that, NC State will look to go inside to Leslie and Painter all game, with small forward Scott Wood being able to score from everywhere on the court, even behind the arc (see Harrie, Joe). They are one of the best assist teams in the country, so they can work it around an can create a shot or get it to the high percentage post players. Thankfully, if we can keep them out of the low paint, their shooting percentage is very similar to ours, meaning we can keep them to one-and-outs. In addition, while they can go very deep to rest players, production seems to fall off when a majority of the starters are not in the game. I know this is not a game we seem to play a lot this year, but we have to find a way to get at least 1 or 2 of their interior players in foul trouble early and on the bench, allowing us to dig out of a hole or establish an early lead.

Prediction

Before the Virginia Tech game (and the Sene injury) I would have seen this as a game that we could have gone in, played our style of game, and emerged victorious. Now, I am not that confident.  The only way NC State lost to GT, was that the Jackets shot 51% from the field, 60% from 3, and 75% from the line down the stretch, while allowing the Pack to score 71 points. Even if the Hoos could come anywhere close to those numbers, the points will still need to be down in the 60s, sorta like the Duke game. Virginia has never been out of a game all year, and they should be in the mix throughout this game, but unless we can find someone else to step up besides Mike Scott, we won’t be able to pull this one out. And since I can’t pick out one other player at this point in the season, the nod goes to NC State.

The UVa Sports Podcast #22: Back To Business

Miss me? I'm sure you didn't, but I sure missed all of ya'll. It has been real lonely for yours truely sitting around waiting for my foot to heal. I don't wish this on even the worst Hokie (well, maybe a little), but not being able to get out an hang with my Wahoos have been a little fustrating. Luckily, I still have this podcast and I can connect again with all of you. This week we wil.

1. Talk about all the games we missed the past couple of weeks.
2. Get caught up with the upcoming season with previews for the next 3 games.





CLICK HERE FOR THE PODCAST!!! 

Well, if there was ever a time when Virginia and their fan base needs a pick-me-up, this would be it. Thankfully, the Hoos entertain Boston College tomorrow night. I don’t want to say that this will be an easy game or that this is a game that we have to win, but both apply to this situation. Sitting on the outside of the top 4 of the ACC with two losses, the Cavaliers can’t get back into the race, but they can surely be on the outside looking in for a long while with a loss. As the ACC in all it’s craziness is sorting out, we want to stay relevant, and beating the teams the teams at the bottom of the league is a must. So what are we in for Thursday night? Here is our quick preview.

Team

Boston College is 7-12 on the year and 2-3 in the ACC, and will be the last time the Hoos could face a sub-.500 team the rest of the year (sans the possibility of Wake Forest continuing to tank by the time we get to February 8th). It is a rebuilding year in Chestnut Hill big time, and it showed early on. Losses to Holy Cross, UMass, Saint Louis, New Mexico, Boston University, and Rhode Island contributed to the Eagles 5-9 non conference record. They have shown some life coming into the ACC season with back-to-back wins over Clemson and Virginia Tech. BC’s losses in conference have come at UNC, at NC State, and home against Wake.  The first two not unexpected, but the Wake loss by 15 shows how far they still have to come.

Players

As we stated the turnover at Boston College has been massive, and no other place has it become more evident than in the starting lineup. The Golden Eagles start 5 freshmen and have 4 more on the roster. This is probably the most balanced team that the Hoos have or will face all year as no player averages in double digits in points or rebounds. The problem for opponents is that you can’t know where the scoring will come from, so teams must cover all 5 players on the defensive end at all times.

The go to guys are 7-0 center Dennis Clifford (9.8 ppg, 5.2 rpg), forward Ryan Anderson (9.6, 6.4), and guards Patrick Heckmann (9.6, 2.9) and Lonnie Jackson (7.4, 2.9). Guard Matt Humphrey (9.6, 3.3) is the lone upperclassmen threat coming off the bench, and has been inserted in the starting lineup from time to time. They have a regular rotation of 9, but not too exciting, with the exception of reserve guards Gabe Moton and John Cahill which support 3 point averages above 40%.

Game Plan

While this will be the 20th game on the slate for the Eagles, the freshmen have plenty of game experience, but are still freshmen. They only have a 41.3% field goal average, a 66.8% free throw percentage, and turn the ball over 15 times a game. More importantly, they have not seen a defense like Virginia all year. Boston College will look to work the ball inside and unless Virginia has sewn up the hole left by Sene in the pack line defense, they will be able to get some early scoring down low. They aren’t afraid to play the Hoos slower pace either and hack up a 3 pointer with time winding down. Matt Humphrey has attempted 105 on the season, but is only a 27.6% shooter from downtown, so extending the defensive possessions plays to our advantage. The Eagles will allow the Cavs to work out some of their mid-season offensive scoring issues, but this is a team Virginia will have to put away in the first half if they are going to (1) gain momentum going into NC State or (2) allow the bench to get some quality time on the court. Remember one of our keys this week was to get Akil and Paul more playing time so they can contribute more effectively to the team.

Prediction

I don’t want to say this should be a solid ‘W’, but we have seen what Virginia can do against the bottom of the ACC when we traveled to Georgia Tech. But that was with Sene, and last year we found ourselves looking for an identity when Scott went down, and with the struggles against the Hokies at home last week, we could be heading down the same path. Nevertheless, I think this will be a solid win which will help them gear up for the trip to Raleigh on Saturday.

I know it’s been a while, my fellow Wahoos, but my recovery after surgery has been extremely long (and painful). Shoot I was even awake to watch the UVa game, but Twitter went down so I was without a constant conduit to all of you adoring fans. Oh well. And to parallel the Hoos week in basketball, it has been just as frustrating.

Everyone was looking to see how the Cavaliers would respond to the Duke game, and they came out of the gate against Georgia Tech and completely shut them down. To allow 38 points to an ACC team on the road, albeit a really bad ACC, is an impressive feat. But the good did not come without a bad, as Sene went down with an ankle injury and looks like he will be out until the end of the regular season.

Next up was a game with Virginia Tech and it was a game of complete misses. The Hoos missed Sene in the middle as the Hokies exploited the interior lane where Assane usually patrols. All the other misses were completely Virginia’s problems. We went 1-14 from 3 and 14-22 from the free throw line. Combine that with a 32.6% shooting performance, and I don’t care how good your defense is, you aren’t going to win many games.

But fear not Wahoo faithful, all is not doom and gloom. First off, we are still 15-3 and 2-2 in conference. With Duke losing this weekend and the rest of the parody in the ACC, the quest to finish in the top 4 is still completely plausible. But Virginia will have to prove they can win without the big center to regain the confidence of the players and the selection committee (not that I think we currently are on the outside looking in, but in overall seeding).  There is a chance to get back to form the next two weeks, as it sets up in our favor.

We have Boston College on Thursday in a game that should be one we can win easily. Then we travel to NC State and a very surprisingly good Pack team, but, like us, have feasted off the bottom of the ACC. If we can pull off that victory we will get Clemson at home in another very, very winnable game before heading to Florida State. These next games, the Hoos can figure to go no worse than 2-2, but a 3-1 outcome should separate us from the glob of teams in the middle, with 4-0 just being a dream outcome.

But to get to where we need to be, we need to make some more adjustments, outside of just plugging in Akil Mitchell into Sene position.  Here is what we need to focus on the next couple of days (with a nod to my recent recuperation):

1. Swallow the big pill. I know this will be hard to digest, but it is time for Malcolm Brogdon to take over the starting role from Sammy Z momentarily, until he can get his shot back. In the Hoos two losses in conference, Z is 0-15 shooting. Now I know that all the shooting woes are not on his shoulders, but he has not had a great shoot stretch, and maybe coming off the bench would be the jolt he needs. Malcolm give the Hoos someone who can drive the lane from the back court effectively, or at least more so than Bub. Which leads us to point #2.
2. Know your limitations. Bub can handle the ball. He can on occasion, dribble drive and get a few points here or there. But in the Duke and VT game, he has been taking way to many shots. One of the reasons is that he tends to have the ball in his hands towards the end of the shot clock and he has been unable to find the open man or dish it off to a shooter before it expires. When Evans takes 8 shots in the second half and Scott only takes 2, thats not going to get it done.
3. Allow others to help you. I know we are down to 8 scholarship players, but it is time for Paul Jesperson and Darion Atkins to step up. Atkins looked good on the defensive side of the ball, pulling down 4 rebounds in only 6 minutes on the floor. If he is able to get some quality minutes against BC, he can be useful against a very long, athletic NC State or FSU interior. Paul Jesperson has also shown he can shoot, although he was 0-1 in 4 minutes against Tech and turned the ball over a lot late against Georgia Tech. He is another shooter that with increased playing time can be an weapon in the intermediate to long range game.
4. Give it time. Like the Scott injury last year, it will take time to make these adjustments. Tony Bennett will work on revamping the pack line this week (although holding another team under 50 points is definitely under par for the course), but the middle needs to be secured better. Mike Scott had his back to the driving offensive player too many time and needs to roll over more. Working on the things that we know we have done well in the past (3 pointers and frickin’ FREE THROWS) and we should be able to get through this slight market correction.

Don’t fret everyone. Let Tony take care of his team and we’ll get them next time in Blacksburg. As I heal up, we will have some more content as this week goes on so keep your heads up.

I get one last time to talk to all my fellow Wahoo fans before I head into surgery Monday morning. So I would like to impart to you my impressions of the Men’s Basketball season and our chances in the ACC.

“Dunno.”

I know there have been a ton of articles out there like “What’s wrong with the ACC?” and “Who could have thought that X was going to be Y-Z?”. The thing about most of those stories is that they are being written 3 games into a 16 game ACC slate. We are still in the sorting out period, and while some teams are under and over preforming, it shouldn’t come as a complete shocker when everything balances out over the next few months.

First off to my beloved Cavs: you lost to Duke. Whether it was by 3 or 30, it still is marked in the ‘L’ column. Don’t get me wrong, we played a nearly complete game. The defense was stout. We fed the ball to Mike Scott and he played amazingly. And even the role players had impact moments throughout the game. And even though Sammy and Bub combined for 0-13 on the night, we still lost by three, shows that we can hang with anyone else left on the schedule. But we are still 1-1, and to burst your bubble a little more, we are only a defensive stop away from 0-2. With this extended time off, the Hoos need to do some scouting. Lots and lots of scouting.

Why? Because their is no separation from top to bottom in the ACC. This means that the difference between 3rd and 8th could be a single win or loss. The advantage that the Hoos have is that we have a little bit of an extended break before we get into the two-a-weeks beginning Thursday at Georgia Tech. So what can we expect over the next few weeks, here is a quick look at the upcoming games for the Hoos

@Georgia Tech: The Jackets played strong against Duke as well at home, and turned that effort into a win at NC State. But over the weekend they look a step slower than Maryland and lost going away by 11. This team comes and goes with Glen Rice Jr. and the Hoos held him in check last year, and will need to do the same this week. GT is a team that scores in the mid 60s already, which means that the Hoos could slow that even more and have a real advantage.

Virginia Tech: Wow. Where to start. This is a team that went from “solid” NCAA talk to zip in 1.5 weeks. On top of that, they get an angry UNC team on Thursday, which means that even with the insane, topsy-turvy ACC, you can count on them coming to JPJ 0-4. They play fast and loose and out of control, which works for them in spurts, but not for entire games. That, and they can’t hit the broad side of a barn. Still, I do not want to come into this game at 1-2.

Boston College: What was considered an easy ‘W’ is now a game that I’m glad we get once this year at home. Now beating VT and Clemson are not the end all, be all, they have shown they can win an ACC game. We will know a little more how they do on the road after they head to Raleigh this week, but the Fab 5 Freshmen of BC play good defense and are very fundamentally sound. Two things that have given us fits over the years.

The Hoos need to emerge from this stretch no worse that 3-2, and a sweep would bode well before we head to NC State. What we do know so far this year is that there is no gifts when it comes to ANY game this season, and picking up wins the next 3 games can help us a lot later, when we play 5 of the next 8 games on the road.

What will happen is anyones guess at this point, but the bottom line is Virginia has to take advantage of winnable games and get these next wins.

Since I still have a touch of the flu and my voice sounds like Tom Waits gargling hot asphalt, we won’t have a podcast this week. Don’t worry, next week I’m sure to be on enough medication after my surgery that it should make for fun times.

There hasn’t been a lot going on the past week and our big game with Duke is tonight. In preparation for our trip to Cameron, we present this amusing piece that surfaced yesterday on ESPN. Jason King (not that one) is a sports writer for ESPN College Basketball. On his blog yesterday, he posted an article called “Wooden Watch: Jason King’s POY ballot”, in which he names his top 5 candidates plus 10 more “on the cusp”. Funny thing is UVa star Mike Scott was not mentioned.

Well, that didn’t sit well with the Hoo faithful. So in another showing of the renewed support for all things Orange & Blue, Cavalier fans took to the comment area and flooded it with pro Mike Scott propaganda. Well a funny thing happened about half way into the day. Most of the comments turned into Mike Scott Facts, similar to Chuck Norris Facts. So to get you ready for the game tonight here are the best ones from the article. If you want all of them (and I’m sure there are more), check them out at the link above.

Mike Scott once got pulled over for speeding... he let the officer go with a warning. (tdiddy331)

Seal Team 6 is just a code word for Mike Scott. (Area 51 Forever)

Superman sleeps in Tim Tebow pajamas. Tim Tebow sleeps in Mike Scott pajamas. (justjamesdee)

When Doc Brown needs 1.21 gigawatts for his flux capacitor, he proclaims MIKE SCOTT! (damojoe)

Mike Scott was what Willis was talking about. (rjbsalemlax25)

Ghosts sit around the campfire and tell Mike Scott stories. (maximumhoo)

Duke players don't flop, they just faint at the thought of guarding Mike Scott. (dsg804)

There's a reason why all the single ladies put MS before their names... (bradleyjah)

There is no 'ctrl' button on Mike Scott's computer; Mike Scott is always in control (primetime1323)

"The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that Mike Scott, for lack of a better word, is good. Mike Scott is right. Mike Scott works. Mike Scott clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Mike Scott, in all of his forms - Mike Scott for life, for money, for love, knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind. And Mike Scott, you mark my words, will not only save Virginia basketball, but that other malfunctioning conference called the ACC. Thank you very much."
--Gordon Gekko on Mike Scott (dsg804)

Mike Scott's calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd; nobody fools Mike Scott (primetime1323)

Mike Scott is Luke Skywalker’s real father (hruva02)

When Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook he had a pending friend request from Mike Scott (primetime1323)

If at first you don’t succeed; you’re not Mike Scott.

Mike Scott never applied to college. He just sent the University of Virginia his acceptance letter. (wahoo206)