But last weekends post game quotes turned this here Maryland game into a pure make or
break affair for the rest of the year. I’m real serious when I typed that, if this potential problem is not solved by Maryland, letting it fester to try to lance it at Home only means it will grow larger for the insalubrious delay. This is now the proverbial swing game, after a failed drug test courtesy of BALCO, a swing game on steroids. We either show some stones, or we might have to wait until Fall 2008 to win another hoops game folks. But what I’m looking for is a gutty, scrappy Hokie effort. That might make the homestand a winning one no matter the Terrapins result.
That reads pretty tough, does it not? It reads real tough because the post game comments and there heretofore subjective effects are indeed tough. In short, Del Jr. went off in his postUNC comments. The extra tough part is defining how they will effect this team for Maryland??? IF we do rally, we should all take a look at Delaney as a future leader, maybe even a present tense one which is very rare for a true freshman. If not, we will look back and be reminded of Lombardi’s lockeroom motto: “What you say here, what you see here, what you hear here, let it stay here when you leave here.” But lets look at some nuts and bolts of this one that we can reliably quantify first.
- It’s Away, we are 4 games below .5oo on the road, Maryland is 9 games above .5oo
at home. - Maryland is 13th in Defensive FG% allowed, and 6th in Blocks. So points will be very hard to come by.
- Maryland is nearly peaking right now, that might be a little hyperbole on my part, but it ain’t much, as the only team to beat the Terps in the last 6.5 weeks is named Duke. and Maryland did take down UNC.
- In our last 5 games, our defensive FG% allowed has risen by 7 %. In an index sense, our defensive market is experiencing a bearish 18% change for the worse over those last 5 games. Further Hokie Rebounding is off by a -9 Margin in those same 5 games, a 28% change for the worse from an index perspective.
Rebounding and defense: those are effort based stats folks, they are effort stats because unlike shooting, they kan’t go cold. Soooooo…….maybe Del Jr. is right after all?
One thing I know from all my years playing sports, is it’s easier to be called out from
above, than from below; be that right or wrong, that’s just how it is. It’s easier to hear it from a Coach, a starter ahead of you, or from an Upperclassman, all things being equal. It’s tougher to hear it from down the depth-chart, and prolly toughest of all to hear it from a true freshman. So I’m dicey as to how this postgame harangue will play out. I am sure Maryland is playing rather well right now, and I am sure that we are not. Virginia Tech 70 Maryland 77. b’street
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