#235 R.P.I. Virginia Tech vs. #1o6 R.P.I. Miami:
Last time I opened this column by saying if you are still reading this thank you; and yet after what is teetering on the brink of being a 1-17 finish to a 9 win year … if you are still reading this? Thank God!
As Virginia Tech is just not a very good basketball team that is mired in the midst of a not very good year; and therefore has officially arrived as a status symbol for a not very good men’s D-1 power conference basketball program. Don’t believe me? Just ask the following metrics…
324th in FT percentage (65.1%), 328th in scoring offense (63.2 points per game), 326th in FG percentage offense (40.6% made), 324th in Turnover Margin (-4.6), and just dead freakin’ last in steals at 345th outta 345 (3.3. spg)!
Ouch!
However, of all the damnedest things; guess who coach J’s boys drew in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship tournament’s very first round? The one team they beat twice all year; the Miami Hurricanes.
Now all we need now is a 5-o run to get in!
Miami Backcourt: (returning starters=zip!)
| Deandre Burnett | G | out for season – Wrist – 11/27/13 | notes |
| Huge H.S. scorer, 4th best in America last year! |
|
Cornelius Elder |
G |
Out indefinitely – Knee – 1/26/14 |
- Rion Brown: experienced streaky scorer who is a high-flyer by trade. Fast S/F with a loquacious or intense variety of game; leads Miami in scoring (14.5 ppg), in glass-work (6.0 rpg), in FT shooting (79%), and is second in assists (2.3). Can you say team M.V.P.? #15 Rjon is a major Georgia high school recruiting snag that has never quite lived up to his home-state reputation, or at least not consistently. As I already said, this is a streaky player who tends to hump or slump; for games plural and he has been humping it of late. Averaging right at 20 per contest in the least two weeks. (also: he looks like Sam Perkins, there, I just had to say it!)
Rice-o-Rion 1o1… - Garrius Adams: Adams has a history of ugly knee problems, and what was a promising career has been injured or truncated a bit for it. Part-time Pt.Guard, part-time lead-G, part-time hurt; still yet, Adams is manufacturing a second best 9.9 ppg and a very sporting 4.5 rpg while fearlessly attacking the hoop. He also leads the U in steals at 1.3 swipes per game. Those numbers look all the better when you consider he is doing that on 25% from beyond the arc and one outta three from the floor. Such makes you consider, or at least wonder, what this former Hokie recruit could do on two good wheels? Best of luck to this would be N.B.A. General Manager as well. Kan’t say I’ve ever read that one in a bio’ before?
- (NOW subing-in) Davon Reed: versatile player who can cover from the One up to the Three (S/F). Rookie year baller who is said to be upperclassman D-1 polished; already. 6.8 ppg on 36% from downtown seem to hint at this. As does Davon’s community service record; where he has already pocketed numerous off-court awards accordingly. Good egg, the kind you can never have too many of in today’s game.
Miami Frontcourt: (starters back=zer0)
- (NOW subbing-in) James Kelly: 1,000+ points and 600+ boards of JuCo digits does not suck. Combo-Forward who can cover two or maybe even three positions, due to his size and quicks. 6.9 ppg with 4.o boards on a team leading 41% from beyond the arc is not bad work on top of all of that. Especially when you consider that this is Mr. Kelly’s senior year of ever playing basketball in the game of life, as he only took up the sport at age 17!
- Donnavan Kirk: DePaul transfer, back to Miami, after starting at Miami in 2oo9; go fig’?!? Some forecasted Kirk to be the Canes best Post defender, scorer, and rebounder. No biggie there. Ironman type DePaul graduate who is working on his Masters, props on that! Kirk is third in scoring with 9.1 ppg and first in rebounding (5.8) and blocks (1.9). Has a history of lumbar injuries in tow; God Bless on that.
Miami Bench: (depth=3+)
- Tonye Jekiri: Nigerian native, and a big-time H.S. recruit with the accompanying big-time 6’12’’ 235 lb. legitimate big or true-C frame. 10-12’ range, runs very fluidly, and is said to deploy a very high R.P.M. red-line efforting kinda motor. 4 ppg, 3.7 boards and now up to 43% overall. One of the VERY few ‘Canes to be significantly improved since I first wrote this guts of this preview a couple of months ago.
- Manu Lecomte: rookie Belgium imported backcourter, had a lotta late nite FOX quality West-Coast offers. Said to be the best Pt.Guard on campus –not playing football (Corn Elder). Quicks, shooting, speed, ball-skillz; lot to like here with a Manu not from Argentina; while chipping in with 8.1 points and a couple of boards and 2.5 assists alike off the Cane bench. Needs to acclimate to the more physical D-1 game however.
- (NOW starting) Raphael Akpejiori: experienced career reservist up front, good size, physical player and not much else; also from Nigeria although he has added some physicality to the U’s starting line-up of late. Atlantic Coast Academic Honor Roll member as a Mechanical Engineering major, can’t say I recall reading that from an A.c.c. hoopster before? (major (see the pun) PROPS!)
- (NOW starting) Erik Swoope: experienced mid-range Swing from Cali’, who’s shooting has been cut in half this season on a percentage basis, also has crept into the starting line-up of late. All-academic team member, who does have some hops in his feets with a football absurd 495 lb. back-squat! 2.6 ppg and 1.9 rebounds, this after shooting a burning red-hot 64% from the field last season (not posting 40.4% this year). Known for attacking the basket and for being a yoga instructor. And with Raphael, I suppose that one could aver that Miami may just court the smartest starting line-up in the A.c.c. this side of Duke.
Loading ...Illation, conclusion (s) and OPT digits:
This campaign, Virginia Tech has already beaten Miami by 7 points and by 1 point for an average margin of victory of 4 ppg; and yet Miami is a 6.5 point favorite coming into this one down in Greensboro! Go fig’ on that.
Unless of course you figure in the fact that beating Miami accounts for 22.22% of Virginia Tech’s meager 9 victories alone this season; there is that. As it is the bouncing version of The U that is one game above .5oo and checking in at 16 up and 15 down entering A.c.c. tournament play. So one could easily say that Miami is competing for some lesser version of a post-season tourney bid in this opening round game#2 slated to tip off at approximately 3:30pm eastern time. Or in other words, and barring a 5-o A.c.c. tourney run that would prolly make Cinderella and her pumpkin both orgasmic, the motive is all theirs. We/Virginia Tech do not have a whole helluva a lot left to play for as we have been sub .5oo for the last 14 games; or for the last eight weeks less two days if you are keeping score at home.
Now all that being said, our handy-dandy friend the so-called Forum Guide of Graham Houston British boxing fame … suggests a 1 point Miami win! Or basically a pure pick ‘em or even kinda game. And as I just told will, don’t sleep on the fact that Virginia Tech might just sneak one out down in Greensboro NC. Because if there was a such a thing as a good tournament bracket draw for our beloved Hokies these twice upset Miami Hurricanes were surely it.
In terms of recent 5-game trends for these two Coastal foes compared head-to-head … notice that Virginia Tech is nearly exactly 10 ppg below their season scoring average of 63.2 ppg, shooting is down by 3% from the floor and 6% from beyond the arc. Virginia Tech is a lotta things and clearly and offensive juggernaut is not one of them. Taken purely head-to-head, Miami is out scoring Virginia Tech by 10.2 ppg, out-shooting the Hokies by nearly 10% overall; although 3-point percentage and FT percentiles alike were virtually level. Miami is +6 in rebounding margin in their last 5 games however, and that is extremely significant as the U has rallied to win 4 of their last 6 games outright; as the Cane rebounding margin has skyrocketed by nearly 300% to the great! And yet, Virginia Tech is the better defensive team of late, by 2% less allowed from the floor and by nearly 6% less allowed from downtown. So there is that.
***
And yet now we arrive at the sobering fact that Virginia Tech’s emotional gas-tank is basically sitting on “E”. Especially in latent or second-half terms where we are surely hitting the physical late-season wall per only averaging a football ‘esque 23 points per second half of late. Last time I checked? That’s not good.
Neither are our odds in this one, as the only real outstanding (or remaining) prediction to make is the O/U on minutes left in coach J’s career at Virginia Tech. Right now the O/U officially sits at 40.
As right now Virginia Tech and coach J’s desperately need to defragment our offensive-hard dive; although right now appears to be about ½ past too late.
(69% confidence interval)
Virginia Tech=52, Miami=66
“LETS GO!”
“Hokies!”
bourbonstreet**
