#314 R.P.I. Maine @ #69 R.P.I. Virginia Tech:

Virginia Tech basketball tips-off this 2016-2017 A.D. men’s hoops season this Friday night at 9pm inside Cassell Coliseum vs. the Maine Bears.

The difference being, there are expectations -some more realistic than others- regarding the success -yes, I said success- regarding the expected success of Buzz’s tertiary campaign as the big whistle out on the O&M hard-court. How well we live up to said pre-season hype -for the first time in many years, quite plural- remains to be seen? Although the main reason you are here is to read about these Maine Bears themselves; who do not look like they will be all that hard to tame or to Atlantic Coast power-conference domesticate. At least not on pre-season paper…

Maine at a glance: (per 2015-2016 final stats)

• 345th in scoring D (89 ppg allowed)
• 343rd in FG percentage D (49.7% allowed)
• 315th in FT percentage (65.6%)
• 314th in rebounding margin (–5.9 rpg)
• 96th in assists (14.4 apg)
• 14th in steals (8.3 spg)

Bear(s) Returning Starters=2

Maine Strengths:

• Location: these Bears habitat Orono Maine; a beautiful part of the county.
• Aaron Calixte is the remaining leading returning scorer. 10.8 ppg on 38% from downtown and a team leading 88.9% FT shooting ain’t too bad for 5’11” 175 lb. undersized shooting-G who has to play some point.

  

• Head Coach 5’6” Robert “Bob” Walsh may be one of the best coaches you will never ever hear of. 215-112 overall is pretty dang impressive. As he took fellow Nor.Easter Rhode Island to a whopping eight straight NC2A’s, three of which were Sweet-16’s and one of which was an Elite-8! Great for six conference titles in those eight years. Smart coach with smarter lawyer(s) as Rhode Island is still paying him in full. Though Goggle and I could not (quite) discern why Rhode Island let such a successful coach go in the first place? Only coach I’ve read about who strictly declines the use of a company (or faculty) car and a local country club membership as a matter of morality.
• Maine does return one other starter, the former role-player now leading returning rebounder Ilija -Scrabble points- Stojilijkovic. A Nis, Serbia imported S/F at 6’7” 210 lbs. in his second year. 3.7 rpg and 3.6 ppg on 39% overall will have to improve; may the Holy Prophet Ellis bless!
• On the upside, Coach Walsh did manage to ink Gatorade’s Mister Basketball for the state of Maine and convince #0, one Andrew Fleming to stay home and ball. Andrew is a smooth looking 6’7” 210 lb. S/F who unloaded on the Maine high school record books with 28 ppg, 14 rpg and 5 blocks last year! Said to be a transnational and mid-range throwback scorer with a high basketball I.Q. and a 3.54 G.P.A. The whispers say he has added right-mass this summer and is most likely the offensive alpha-dog for these Bears even before this season tips-off.

Maine Weaknesses:

• Location: these Bears habitat Orono Maine; a beautiful part of the county; albeit a hard place to recruit to. And a place that Maine’s top-2 returning ballers from last year, just left. As backcourt stars Issac Vann (16.4 ppg) and (14.7 ppg) Kevin Little, and leading rebounder Devine Eke (6.9 rpg and 9.5 ppg) and two other additional Bears; all transferred out!
• Size: I’d write about it if I could only find some, as Maine’s line-up is 6’7” or less. Leaving the Bears rather poached on the glass, in the key and in the low-post.
• Weight: I’d write about this as well, if only Maine had a roster baller listed heavier than 215 lbs.! (seriously, no joke) In point of fact, only 22% of the Maine roster tips the Toledo’s >195 lbs.!

Maine Bench: (depth= 4)
Maine has three G’s and a Swing subbing in off the Bear bench. Three of the four are seniors so experience is not a problem; although talent and therefore production likely are. Garret Beal G/F 6’6” 215 lbs. Sr., and Canadian Marko Pirovic F, 6’7” 2o5 lb. Sr. give Maine what little size they have; although they are still not starting in their final year –which says a lot to me.

Illation, conclusion (s) and OPT digits:

the takeaway:
The takeaway here is… Virginia Tech basketball is gonna open up 1-o or I will eat these very words! I gar-ron-damn-tee VicTory here, as try as you might, you still can not spell victory without Vee Tee.

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What might have been a .5oo contending Maine men’s hoops club is back to proverbial square no.1; and no matter how great Coach Walsh may be, most of his team must have defected for some reason or reason(s) and that’s not good. In point of fact, that’s a major red-flag for this teal-blue clad crew.

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Maine was not much of anything on defense last year; and appears to apparently be a good deal less this campaign. This should be a user-friendly blow-out kinda of night whereby coach Buzz empties his bench and tinkers and putters freely with his personnel groupings and schematic sets with little -if any- outcome pitfall concerns in play here.

Virginia Tech wins and wins big is what the smart money says.

(98.6% confidence interval)
Virginia Tech=86, Maine=55

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

 bourbonstreet**

V.A.D.A. approved