2/2/22 Jackets Face Hokies on the Road

[Connell62]

Tonight will be an interesting matchup.
Aluma is a really skilled big who presents unique matchup challenges. Howard can handle him on the block, but not sure he can matchup with him at the elbow or on the perimeter. Don't think Meka or Saba is ready, so will see how CJP aligns defensively to limit his looks.
If we over-focus on Keve, they have shooters that can bomb away. They take about 20 threes per game. Catoor shoots 50% from 3 and takes a lot of them. Went 9-11 against FSU last game. Alleyne & Murphy are both upper 30% range and willing to fire any time. Pedulla off the bench can shoot (64%, small sample size) and so can Maddox (48%, small sample size)
Mutts is their jack of all trades and is a wild card. Not a big guy, but leads them in rebounding and has a nose for teh ball. Plays tough D and can also score.
I would expect them to have Mutts on Usher or Devoe. Need Jordan to keep playing the way he has been (high energy, attacking the rim) and for someone else to step up as the third option so Mike gets some breathing room on offense. If it's a two man show, we will struggle, but if someone else can make them pay attention, I think we can take this one.

Good stuff... I agree, it is an uphill battle. While VT is a much better team than their record indicates, they've also had their own shares of struggles, in addition to having **** luck. Sound familiar?

Don't get me wrong, we have to play really well to win this game, but I agree, this is one we can take. Like the majority of our games this year, it will boil down to can we make shots?

If we don't shoot it well from the perimeter, then we will most likely take an L. The lack of a post presence presence combined with an inability of our guards to finish at the rim has hurt us offensively.

Fingers crossed that we can get another strong game from Khalid, the good Michael Devoe, and some contributions from Kyle or Deivon tonight and hit that SHEETZ!

We need a big game from Mike tonight!!

 

[YlJacket]

Tonight will be an interesting matchup.
Aluma is a really skilled big who presents unique matchup challenges. Howard can handle him on the block, but not sure he can matchup with him at the elbow or on the perimeter. Don't think Meka or Saba is ready, so will see how CJP aligns defensively to limit his looks.
If we over-focus on Keve, they have shooters that can bomb away. They take about 20 threes per game. Catoor shoots 50% from 3 and takes a lot of them. Went 9-11 against FSU last game. Alleyne & Murphy are both upper 30% range and willing to fire any time. Pedulla off the bench can shoot (64%, small sample size) and so can Maddox (48%, small sample size)
Mutts is their jack of all trades and is a wild card. Not a big guy, but leads them in rebounding and has a nose for teh ball. Plays tough D and can also score.
I would expect them to have Mutts on Usher or Devoe. Need Jordan to keep playing the way he has been (high energy, attacking the rim) and for someone else to step up as the third option so Mike gets some breathing room on offense. If it's a two man show, we will struggle, but if someone else can make them pay attention, I think we can take this one.

Nice overview - VT is like Miami in that they are going to play a spread offense on the perimeter with a lot of movement and force Howard or any other big to play in space against a guy who is essentially a stretch 4. So if we want to play big we likely will have to be in the zone most of the time. They may well shoot us out of the zone. If we have to play man then Howard has a shot at keeping up but beyond that (and I am ducking now) we will likely need to play small.

On the other side their guards can be beat. If they play Mutts on Devoe then hopefully we have Usher on a guard and let him go wild. That matchup comes especially if we have a big in the game for Aluma to match up on. Though I think Usher can drive Aluma as well. With Khalid, Deebo and even Kelly we will have a size advantage and someone needs to take advantage and hopefully get one or more of their shooters in foul trouble.

We are a 10.5 point dog at VT tonight. That seems high to me for 2 teams close in the standings and given the way we have started to play lately.

 

[Connell62]

Nice overview - VT is like Miami in that they are going to play a spread offense on the perimeter with a lot of movement and force Howard or any other big to play in space against a guy who is essentially a stretch 4. So if we want to play big we likely will have to be in the zone most of the time. They may well shoot us out of the zone. If we have to play man then Howard has a shot at keeping up but beyond that (and I am ducking now) we will likely need to play small.

On the other side their guards can be beat. If they play Mutts on Devoe then hopefully we have Usher on a guard and let him go wild. That matchup comes especially if we have a big in the game for Aluma to match up on. Though I think Usher can drive Aluma as well. With Khalid, Deebo and even Kelly we will have a size advantage and someone needs to take advantage and hopefully get one or more of their shooters in foul trouble.

We are a 10.5 point dog at VT tonight. That seems high to me for 2 teams close in the standings and given the way we have started to play lately.

It won't surprise me at all if we see a lot of the small ball line-up tonight. Aluma is very good big, but he likes to float to the perimeter which makes him more guardable for Ush.

Personally, I'd like to see a good mix of small / normal line-up as this is the type of opponent that I think we can play both against with some success.

 

[YlJacket]

Yep - neither team is going to play a lot of post up offense. There will be a lot of cutting and driving for which it would be nice to have some rim protection. But their primary focus is going to be to 3 point us out of the gym. They also don't get a lot out of their bench so if we can be aggressive driving the ball and get any calls it would helpful. Not that I have a lot of hope for a reasonable whistle

 

[GTbball2016]

feels like we need something like 5 threes from Coleman and Kelly combined to win this. As for Aluma, let him shoot from the perimeter all day. We have no one quick enough inside to guard him out there.

 

[gte447f]

Can we extend the amoeba zone to defend their elite 3 point shooting without giving up drives/cuts/passes to the baseline and lobs to the basket?

 

[YlJacket]

Can we extend the amoeba zone to defend their elite 3 point shooting without giving up drives/cuts/passes to the baseline and lobs to the basket?

That is the $64K question. Generally it can do a decent/good job of defending top of the key through foul line extended but good teams will get open shots in the corner and will drive defenders flying out to run them off the 3 point line. Especially when the big underneath has to fly out to the corner.

 

[gte447f]

Can we extend the amoeba zone to defend their elite 3 point shooting without giving up drives/cuts/passes to the baseline and lobs to the basket?

That is the $64K question. Generally it can do a decent/good job of defending top of the key through foul line extended but good teams will get open shots in the corner and will drive defenders flying out to run them off the 3 point line. Especially when the big underneath has to fly out to the corner.

Good answer. Thanks for your input. I hope we can defend them effectively in the zone defense. I don’t know why, but I think our guys tend to over help in man to man and get out of position so badly that we give up more, and more open, 3 pointers in man than we do in zone.

 

[CuseJacket]

 

[Connell62]

Yep - neither team is going to play a lot of post up offense. There will be a lot of cutting and driving for which it would be nice to have some rim protection. But their primary focus is going to be to 3 point us out of the gym. They also don't get a lot out of their bench so if we can be aggressive driving the ball and get any calls it would helpful. Not that I have a lot of hope for a reasonable whistle

One of these nights, we have to end up on the other side of one of those 41-12 free-throw disparity games.

 

[TampaBuzz]

One of these nights, we have to end up on the other side of one of those 41-12 free-throw disparity games.

I don't see how that will happen. We don't have the guys attacking the basket to draw shooting fouls. We shoot way to many jumpers and little baby hooks instead of stuffing the ball down the defense's throat and into the basket.

 

[augustabuzz]

I don't see how that will happen. We don't have the guys attacking the basket to draw shooting fouls. We shoot way to many jumpers and little baby hooks instead of stuffing the ball down the defense's throat and into the basket.

Actually, driving to the basket is a key part of Devoe's game. It seems that this year it is ok for the defender to put Mike in the front row.

 

[Connell62]

I don't see how that will happen. We don't have the guys attacking the basket to draw shooting fouls. We shoot way to many jumpers and little baby hooks instead of stuffing the ball down the defense's throat and into the basket.

Totally agree with you. That’s the biggest thing missing this year from my perspective.

 

[Steverc]

This game is turning into another blowout loss. Perhaps I should watch Olympic curling.

 

[GTbball2016]

This game is turning into another blowout loss. Perhaps I should watch Olympic curling.

I’m surprised people thought it would be close.

 

[daddee724]

Until we move the ball like the teams that have records similar to ours and we should clearly beat, we will continue to struggle. We are better than what we are showing, our offense is funky. Another example of a team moving the ball and getting open shots, everyone is touching it and they are drilling us. I'll continue to go on record saying our offense doesn't match our pool of players. JP knew in the summer we didn't have a solid 5 so the offense should've been modified then. Contrary to popular belief if we move the ball the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and so on scoring options will reveal themselves. We really only did that against FSU and the offense was slightly different which aided in a win. We play Miami & we go back to our old ways. Based on 1st half of this game we appear to be doing the same thing and result azz whooping at 1/2.

 

[SecretAgentBuzz]

Well, this one got away from us in the first half, and despite our team's efforts, we couldn't get back into it. A few observations on the actual game:

-They quickly negated our normal advantages (zone, aggressive defense) by 1) shooting lights out from 3, and 2) Lots of early ticky-tack fouls. When the refs let us play aggressive defense, we do well. When Usher has 3 fouls in the first 8 minutes, you know we are in trouble. This put us in the hole...
-But we can't dig out of the hole if we can't make open shots. Running the offense through our big man is not the main problem. Too much dribbling is not main problem. Not taking care of the ball is not the problem. The problem is shot selection (too many long or contested jumpers) and hitting open shots. We missed so many opportunities to pull it closer today by missing open or easy shots (same as the Miami game). 40% from the field is not going to cut it.
-Also, we lost our edge on defense. We didn't close out shooters, didn't give full effort and didn't keep active hands. End result--VT shot 53%. Again, that's not going to cut it.
-For all those saying that PG and C are our biggest problems...they definitely were not in this game. Sturdy and Smith combined for this line: 18 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 1 turnover. I liked their aggressiveness. Howard, when we had him in, was +1 with 4 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks. He only played 23 minutes though.

I won't lie. This one stung, because the talent is comparable. They had the advantage playing at home, but we let them get way too far ahead with uncharacteristic bad defense.

On to the next one. Go Jackets!

 

[SandySpringsJacket]

Well, this one got away from us in the first half, and despite our team's efforts, we couldn't get back into it. A few observations on the actual game:

-They quickly negated our normal advantages (zone, aggressive defense) by 1) shooting lights out from 3, and 2) Lots of early ticky-tack fouls. When the refs let us play aggressive defense, we do well. When Usher has 3 fouls in the first 8 minutes, you know we are in trouble. This put us in the hole...
-But we can't dig out of the hole if we can't make open shots. Running the offense through our big man is not the main problem. Too much dribbling is not main problem. Not taking care of the ball is not the problem. The problem is shot selection (too many long or contested jumpers) and hitting open shots. We missed so many opportunities to pull it closer today by missing open or easy shots (same as the Miami game). 40% from the field is not going to cut it.
-Also, we lost our edge on defense. We didn't close out shooters, didn't give full effort and didn't keep active hands. End result--VT shot 53%. Again, that's not going to cut it.
-For all those saying that PG and C are our biggest problems...they definitely were not in this game. Sturdy and Smith combined for this line: 18 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 1 turnover. I liked their aggressiveness. Howard, when we had him in, was +1 with 4 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks. He only played 23 minutes though.

I won't lie. This one stung, because the talent is comparable. They had the advantage playing at home, but we let them get way too far ahead with uncharacteristic bad defense.

On to the next one. Go Jackets!

We also have too many possessions where one guy dribbles for too long and then dribbles into trouble and takes a bad shot. I almost wish CJP would tell them they have to make three passes each possession unless it is a fast break. Go jackets.

 

[Fatmike91]

-For all those saying that PG and C are our biggest problems...they definitely were not in this game. Sturdy and Smith combined for this line: 18 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 1 turnover. I liked their aggressiveness. Howard, when we had him in, was +1 with 4 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks. He only played 23 minutes though.

VPISU is a good team with a bad record. That's a tough place to play for anyone in the league at this point. I expect VPISU to make a run at playing in the post season.

I completely disagree about the 1 and the 5 not being our issues.

We're a bad team right now and it should be obvious why (and it has everything to do with the 1 and the 5).

/

 

[GTbball2016]

VPISU is a good team with a bad record. That's a tough place to play for anyone in the league at this point. I expect VPISU to make a run at playing in the post season.

I completely disagree about the 1 and the 5 not being our issues.

I don’t want to directly attack a player, so I won't.

We're a bad team right now and it should be obvious why.

/

If it’s Howard you’re referencing, I disagree. When he was out, his absence was used as a scapegoat for some losses. It’s just a bad roster outside of two players.