#138 R.P.I. Virginia Tech @ #1oo R.P.I. Notre Dame:

Virginia Tech men’s basketball returns to close out their very final regular-season date to the 2019-2020 docket over in South Bend, Indiana.

The Hokiebird just went Phoenix and rose right on up in a downright sharp-looking Senior Night effort vs. streaking Clemson to keep seemingly sagging O&M post-season hopes alive another day. Now they must sojourn precisely 550-miles Nor-by-Nor-West to face a smart Fighting Irish hoops squad in a Saturday matinee. As Notre Dame checks in at a very respectable 19 up and 12 down overall. Although a very middleocore .474 or 9-10 inside of All Coaching Conference play. Nonetheless, you wanna know who is gonna win and by how much, right? So, read on… to find, out!

Notre Dame Head Coach: Michael Paul Brey: Age=59, 529–267 (.665) overall, 430–215 (.668) at Notre Dame.
$2,120,177.oo

Baller Brey graduated from legendary scholastic hoops factory DeMatha Catholic High School in 1977. As a two-year letter winner under all-everything coach Morgan Wootten, Brey helped the team to a 55–9 mark. He enrolled at Northwestern State University, where he played varsity basketball -as a Forward- for three years (1977–1980). Brey was a standout guard in his collegiate playing days, competing for three seasons at Northwestern Louisiana State (now Northwestern State) from 1977-80. He led the team in assists and steals all three years and still ranks among the top 10 in career assists at Northwestern State. He played his final collegiate season at George Washington in 1980-81 after sitting out the 1979-80 season as a transfer. He averaged 5.0 points and 4.8 rebounds per game for the Colonials, serving as team captain and eventually earning the team’s Most Valuable Player Award.

Coach Brey returned to his former high school, becoming an assistant coach under Morgan Wootten. In 1987, he was hired by Duke to assist under coach K, and in 1995 he took over his first head coaching job at Delaware. Brey guided the Fightin’ Blue Hens to a pretty flighty looking 99–51 record over five years | leading Delaware to two America East Conference Championships and subsequently two trips to the NCAA Tournament. After that, in 2ooo, he got the big whistle job for the Notre Dame Irish. Notre Dame had not been to the NCAA Tournament since 1990.

Brey led the Irish to the NCAA tournament in his first three years as head coach (2001–2003), notching a Sweet-16 appearance in 2003. He has led his team’s to tournament appearances in 13 different seasons at two different schools. He has won six conference championships, four Conference Coach of the Year awards and five National Coach of the year awards (all for the same season: 2o11). Good for two Elite-8’s and three Sweet-16’s overall. Coach Brey has only suffered one negative (<.5oo) L’ing season in 21 years. And his teams have enjoyed a post-season in all less three months of March. Coach Brey teams attend with an overall skillful, offensive and a shooters marksmanship rep’.

Brey serves on the Coaches vs. Cancer National Council and has helped raise over two million dollars for the organization; felicitations on that.

Peep Brey was born March 22, 1959, Brey is a 1982 graduate of George Washington with a degree in physical education.

Daddy Brey has two children – Kyle and Callie – and a granddaughter, Olivia Marie. Kyle was a Te/Fb for the University of Buffalo from 2006-09. Brey’s late mum (Betty) only held the world record in the butterfly events and competed for the United States at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. God Bless.

N.Dame at a glance:

• 1st best in Assist to Turnover ratio!!!
• 1st fewest fouls “whistled” against!!!
• 2nd fewest Turonvers!!
• 10th in Assists itself!!
• 16th most 3-point makes per game!
• 65th in defensive rebounding.
• 91st in swats.
• 3o2nd in FT-Attempts!
• With only 2 metrics north of 300th! (wow, dang rock-solid team here folks, nearly nothing to exploit/target exists)
• 2 pretty key injuries, however, (Coach God twice bless).

Irish Returning Starters=

Notre Dame Strengths:

• There is a metric ton of Experience back here… as every major player from last year that I previewed returned this year; a rarefied 100% A.c.c. retention rate.
• 2017 all-A.c.c. Academic Honor Roll winner, one #10, TJ Gibbs is a 6′3″, 185 lb. final-year lead-G for the Irish with a rep’ as an energizer bunny or (hardest)-worker-bee mentality that drones on and on when others wanna nest. This makes sense when you see that Gibbs leaned his body by a quicker looking –11 lbs. shed this off-season. Gibbo was the no.62 baller in all the land according to scout.com as TeeJay gives you 12.9 ppg; which has dropped into second place in scoring since we saw him last. T.J. however is now netting a very nifty looking 41.2% long and 41.1% from the floor so you don’t have to guess where he shoots most of his shots from here. (although his 3-point netting is up by nearly +10% this campaign). Still yet. Gibbs is now third in apg (3.3) and third in spg (1.1); so TeeJay’s box score is rounding out a bit. Poppa Gibbs balled football for the Pitt Panthers and older bro’ (Ashton) is an export hoopster for the Kangoeroes Basket Mechelen in the Belgium Basketball League. The other older bro’ (Sterling), only played basketball at Texas, Seton Hall, and Connecticut and was a member of the Washington Wizards NBA Summer League team in 2016. He played professionally in Russia and in the Hungary A League in 2017-18. So the Gibbs Sporting Genome Project has game indeed. And oh yes, Gibbs refuses to take <18 credit hours so he and his handsome academic standing are on their heady way. And you’d have to figure that little bro T.J. is quite possibly on his way to an overseas career in his own right. Making this a pretty cool fam’ if you ask me. Even if Gibbo has been a bit late-winter chilly on O recently. (with: only two 3-point makes in his last fortnight+ of ball!)
  

  

• 6′9″, 245 lb. John Mooney is a strong arse horse or equine like P/F in the paint down on the low-blocks who actually prefers more of a Dirk looking stretch-4 style of game. As Mooney can fadeaway and his former 56% from beyond the arc were threatening to become leading-man great. However, he’s down to a now more centrist -although still useful- 29.9% long. As in he would have been the leading 3-point man in all of the D-1 basketball nation last year— if John had kept that kinda distancing up! I’d have to say that counts, as do his now alpha 16.8 pointing and his team-leading and still growing rebounding acumen at 12.8 boards. All that with a swipe and a swat; as the only dig is his free-throwing. As John has recanted by nearly 20% since last season all the way down to 62% on his 15′ set-shots this far. Which is not exactly what you’d fourth-year expect from the AAAAAAAA (that’s octo-A) Florida Player of the Year gents. As in, and although Mooney has improved, you have to wonder if he is better suited to more of a crescent moon type of workload which would (prolly) not leave John as late-season physically starstruck as he has been in March of this year. i.e. this has been a Rolling Stone type Man o’ War or workhorse beast-of-burden 1o1.
• r-Jr., Juwan Durham is a virtually 7′, 223 lb. P/F defensive specialist who swats a nifty 2.2 bpg and then chips in-and-around the rim with 7.8 ppg, with 4.6 rpg on 58% bunny or put-back type shooting. The Sr. season UConn Husky transfer baller is dogging all of that after an ugly scholastic right-knee blow-out (may St.Nikhon help) and you have to wonder what he’d be doing on two good wheels as well? (as poor Juwan only nets ~17 mpg game of P.T. (playing-time) as is). Dang… this from Rivals no.47 kid who also blew his knee back in High School ball and he only took up roundball in High School itself! Dang sum mo’…
• 6′3″, 175 lb. Prentiss Hubb is a second season Point.G masquerading as a protein shake kegger just looking for a headstand weight-room party-animal funnel to happen. As this is one lean kid who on an lb. for lb. basis is about as confident as they come. Finding a whole entire 9 off-season lbs. prolly helped. As has his now upwardly mobile 12.2 ppg and team pacing 4.9 apg which is not bad for being this young/lean. Although his 38% shooting overall does need to dormitory Raman noodle microwave oven warm-up more than a bit. Hubb was a top-40 high school recruit consensus wise prior to a senior year knee whammy (may St.Nikhon help some more)— whereafter Prentiss only finished ranked no.83 in one national recruiting service. So here again, what would this cocksure One be doing on two good twigs?

Notre Dame Weaknesses:

• not many as you could see statistically above…
• …the bench is a little shy on depth for the two Irish hurts… FILE that one away for future use and remember that after their first A.c.c. Tourney game!
• Stanford transfer and necessary sit-down Cormac Ryan is a 6′5″, 190 lb. sophomoric baller with rulebook eligibility issues. As one would have to think that his ~9 ppg and 3.5 rpg would sure come in late-season handy right about now.

F‘n Irish Bench: (depth=was 4 or 5 now more like almost 2 and change)

Robby Carmody is/was a now thinner looking 6′4″, 2o1 lb. back-up off-G as a second-year baller who was netting you 5.4 in relief along with 1.6 caroms even if his shooting (9% deep last year | 0% in seven games this year) was still Sr.Prom home alone busy. Robby, however, nuked his shoulder last year (may St.Christopher bless); and this from an interesting Levi Strauss & Co. poster boy looking kid who was actually known for his transition game and for scoring from all three levels. Daddy Carmody is really coach Carmody who has only been the head coach at Mars Area for 20 years and was the Pennsylvania AAA Coach of the Year in 2016. So, hoops are in Robby’s blood and he knew the 1 through 5 whiteboard game well enough. As Rob’ was merely the 2018 Gatorade Pennsylvania Player of the Year and the no.81 national recruit per ESPN.com. Therefore, this is a major backcourt injury for Notre Dame.
(UPDATE: done for the duration, left-knee (A.c.l.), maybe St.Nikhon bless!)

6′6″, 218 lb. Rex Pflueger is, well, was; he was the N.Dame starting One last year and then he and his blown knee (may St.Nikhon bless again) were both done. However, he and his graduated knee and a surprising +17 lbs. are back and are now second in dimes dropped per contest (3.5 apg). Also back is his 5.1 ppg, his impressive 3.4 rpg, and 33% long. Additionally back is the Irish Team Captain for this campaign and his final year leadership plus a ton of backcourt experience that Rex brings with him as well. Rex was the Irish defensive player of the year on-team for two seasons running, and he too was all-A.c.c.edu. Now mix in two full tournament clutch-ass game-winning shots and a lotta late-game trust that now subs in off the pine. As Pflueger is a Gestalt baller or a super-glue guy who you hope does even better in the game of… life. (although Rex’s numbers are a bit truncated this year… poor kid… as you have to wonder what he’d be on two good-sticks as well?) As he already leads N.Dame in swipes (1.5 spg) as rickety is.

Soph. year Nate Laszewski is a 6′10″, 225 lb. somewhat string-bean looking though springy P/F frontcourt baller from Jupiter, Fla. Nate nets you a useful pine-squad 7.4 points with nearly 5 rebounds and a swat in relief and you have to be intrigued by what this thin big man can be if his body every big-baller fills out? As Nate added a 25-lb. ferrous plate this off-season and he prolly could add close to one more. As last year Nate lead N.Dame in FT-shooting and his 31% from deep as a frontcourt big is never a bad thing. Lasze’ was ESPN’s no.51 baller nationally and he sure set a buncha New Hampshire scholastic 3-point shooting marks as a Euro-type Four.

6′7″, 220 lb. final season Nikola -grate name- Djogo got included here just for his grate name and ’cause I wanted to climb his family tree. As you do not see these two Ethnicities paired together too often. Much less when you see them migrating southward to run ball from the Great White North, “eh“. As Nik’ is a Hamilton, Ontario native and this is precisely why assuming make an ass outta me. Nik’ gets you a point and a board in spot-minutes relief and he’s not much of a shooter JIC we senior day see him here. (and may St.Christopher bless some more and Nik’ has a history of shooting-shoulder surgeries to boot). That said, Mister Djogo does field a Triple-A OFSAA Championship ring (from H.S. Canadian ball) that I’d bet nobody else who ever meets Nik’ in the lower-48 does.

Illation, conclusion(s) and OPT digits:

Number of Irish who could Jameson @Tech=6 or 7.

the takeaway:
The takeaway here is… although I cannot type for your committee of one… Eye and my committee of (n)one?

Well, we were chanting: “Cee-I-Tee!!! Cee-I-Tee!!! Cee-I-Tee!!!” at approximately 10 PM on Wednesday night here in the People’s Republick of the 3o4.

---

As we/VeeTee inched another centimeter towards (possibly) qualifying for some level or some variety of post-season Tournament… as opposed to being disqualified and going: 2020 Spring, Broke.

And I likewise gotta wonder out-loud… what would getting a VT-11.5 number right at 6:59 PM would have paid at the Vegas big window come any time after 10 o’clock???

 ***

Our handy-dandy friend the so-called Forum Guide of Graham Houston fame is -for a change- only calling for a –35 VomiTorium of an outcome here for the regular season (virtually) now taken on the whole. On a populous basis, this amounts to a vastly more manageable looking mere single-shot N.Dame forecast advantage of 2.69 points or about one trifecta more/less. The intrigue is found in the fact that the Fighting Gobblers bested the Fighting Irish in not less than a handful of round-robin common-opponent comparisons. The caveat is that VeeTee did not best them by much at all as the comparative final-margin went. Still yet, we’ve not enjoyed anything close to this in nearly two Forum Guide months running. “And that is an encouraging thought.” —Coach Gandalf the Grey

(mid–script: the recent Forum Guide did not yield much of anything… as N.Dame and Vah.Tech only played one team in common (Miami) in each squads’ last 5-most recent contests)

The annualized year-to-date vitals say that… totally insanely enuff, this game is a TIE in shooting percentage margin (both teams are 42.6% on O and N.Dame is only a nominal 3/10ths softer on D); in 3-point percentage margin V.Tech is up a detectable +3% (a little mo’ on O), and N.Dame is up +2 in |absolute value| rebounding margin for the duration as caroming goes (with both teams negative or in the rebounding hole, albeit with N.Dame only about ¼ as bad off the backboard for the duration).

The most recent 5-game metrics say that… the Irish are up +3% in shooting percentage margin (decently better on O with VT a smidgeon better on D); with the Hokies, up +4% in 3-point percentage margin (equally O & D split), and then with the Irish up +5 misses in |absolute value| rebounding margin for the most recent fortnight of Windex work (with both teams negative or in the rebounding hole, albeit with the Irish only about ½ as bad off the fiberglass of late).

N.Dame is up +3% at the FT-Line for the year.
The Irish are also up +3 in R&R in the last couple of weeks.
N.Dame is a .778 host; whereas V.Tech is a 1 in 3 vincula as a guest .

1. The Hokies had their second-best shooting performance of the season in Wednesday’s 70-58 home win over Clemson to snap a four-game L streak. Wherein the Hokies shot 54.2 percent —their first time over 50 percent in a conference game this year!
2. The Hokies outrebounded an A.c.c. opponent for just the third time this season Wednesday. dang!
3. The Irish L to F.s.u. last time out— was the seventh time in the last 10 N.Dame L’s that the Irish fell by one single solitary freakin’ possession! wowowow!
4. Mooney leads the nation with 25 double-doubles, ranks second in rebounds (12.8) and is the only player in Division I averaging 16-plus points and 12-plus rebounds this season. Mooney has 16 double-doubles in A.c.c. play this season, passing Tim Duncan for the single-season A.c.c. record.
5. V.Tech still has an outside chance to earn a first-round bye in next week’s conference tournament. (pink=the bottom-4 which plays the first, day!)
6. The Irish lead the all-time series 8-4.

The Call…

No.82 Net Ranking Virginia Tech @ no.58 Net Ranking Notre Dame:

So, a lotta things seem to point to picking Notre Dame @home here in this early Saturday afternoon inter-league tilt.

I’m not really desperately inclined to forcefully disagree. The Irish are running on their very own So.Bend hardwood and A.c.c. teams only travel successfully right at 3 in 10 odds historically.

–oOo–

The thingy is… N.Dame has dropped off a bit of late… or at least since their bench shortened no thanks to the aforementioned substitute injury (i.e. Carmody). This has effectively disrupted the Irish rotation overall and wore down their primetime performers due to a necessarily increased workload sans Carmody.

The hurrying Hokies finally snapped outta a general overall roundball funk or shooting ‘malaise‘ to mix Will Stewarts’ sporting metaphor all the more.

What you must ask yourself is… which streak is more pertinent and therefore more likely to self-sustain? The Modest Irish dip of late or the immediately recent Hokie uptick?

Because -and although I do favor the Irish @home here- I do not consubstantially and undividedly favor the Irish @home here. I do however sure wish that we/VeeTee were welcoming the Irish “to our house.” Whereby I might just stake a marginal sense of O&M outcome ownership come ~5 PM over in a snowy New River Valley.

As the best I can do is give you a rental agreement on leasing a Tech Triumph as the VisiTor here.

Notre Dame is not beyond our reach; are they however within our grasp?

—Coach Robert Browning please report to the OPT, dancefloor!

🏀🍀🏀

(63% confidence interval)
Virginia Tech=66, Notre Dame=73

please support the VT F.C.A.!!!

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

 bourbonstreet**