#284 R.P.I. Arkansas-Pine Bluff @ #194 R.P.I. Virginia Tech:

Fresh off of the most glorious road destination in all of collegiate sports –Hawaii, the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions surf their jet-lagged legs all the way back to little ole Blacksburg Va.

An 8,588 mile turnaround if you are keeping score at home.

All for a virtual 30 point hang-10 beat down bro’ (47-75).

Now, Hawaii in December; for college age guys? Sure sure, that’s a fun loving trip though you’d have to think after ~8.5k miles? These Golden Lions and their pride are all tripped out.

Have to favor Virginia Tech here and strongly; all the more so when you see just how little talent this Pine Bluff basketball squad fields.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff at a glance:

• 350th best or next to last in Team Scoring (54.9 ppg)!!!
• 348th in shooting percentage (36.1%)!
• 344th in Rebounding Margin (-22.1 rpg)!
• 320th in 3-point percentage (28%)
• 294th in FT percentage (63.6%)
• 28th in Steals (7.8 spg)
• NO injuries listed

Returning Starters=3

Pine Bluff Strengths:

• none.
• No, seriously, there is not much meat on these Golden Lions bones.

  

• #22, 6’9” 220 lb. senior G/F combo Swing JoVaughn Love did get some pre-season magazine all-S.w.A.C. love; and he has broken a lotta prognosticator hearts. He is leading the way at 11.6 ppg and 5.8 rpg on 34% overall and 25% from distance and he is the best Pine Bluff has gots! Think about that for a moment or three. The jacket on Love says he is basically an all-conference defender who blocks some shots due to his excessive length at the 2 or 3 spot; and that he is also said to have a nice soft touch in-and-around the basket. That and his bio does NOT say he went to high school? Never seen that one before—–>b.street ……oh well!
• Thaddeus Handley is another frontcourter that was supposed to give the Lions a decent internal punch (along with Love). A 6’6” 200 lb. Sr. who mans the 4 as best he can. Thad’ nets you 4.9 ppg and is second on the glass at 5.1 rpg.
• Ghiavonni Robinson was supposed to be the one (position pun intended) was supposed to be the One backcourter to give these Lions a spark this season in terms of Guard play. Ghiavonni as some pre-season mag’s determined him to be the quickest S.w.A.C. guard in all the land. A pure jitterbug at the Pt.Guard position. Right now the 6.3 190 lb. junior year Robinson is dropping a team leading 1.9 apg to go with 10 ppg on 28% shooting.
• you see what I mean, right?

Golden Lions Weaknesses:

• Said to be one of the thinner benches in the S.w.A.C. by far. As every scouting report only lists the above small-3 as the ones you have to watch.
• as I counted 17, that’s seventeen freakin’ national rankings that were 298th best or worse! WOW!
• NO team in D-1 hoops got whistled for more personal fouls than Pine Bluff did last year. WOW some more!

Bench: ( depth= what depth??? Although 4 guys do rotate through the line-up off the Lions pine)

Illation, conclusion (s) and OPT digits:

the takeaway:
The takeaway here is… all my pre-season magazines have Arkansas Pine-Bluff picked penultimate or in fact dead last in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (S.w.A.C.) for  reason. Some pretty lowly in terms of hooping reach reason(s) as well.

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These Lions do have some height driven size down low, just not much weight; what with only 1 baller checking in north of 220 lbs. when tipping the Toledo’s.

As the way I see this one, there just ain’t enough lipstick for this S.w.A.C. pig, I mean lion. As Arkansas-Pine Bluff is 2 shots away from being o for the year!

***

This just ain’t a good basketball team gents and Buzz and company should be able to name that score in this mismatched of a contest.

Virginia Tech rolls, only question is by just how much
and how early does Buzz empty his bench?

(95% confidence interval)
Virginia Tech=89, Arkansas-Pine Bluff=56

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

 bourbonstreet**