The hoops Commonwealth Cup if you will.
But as we all know by now, the Virginia Tech big-3 is now the Virginia Tech big-2. Thanks to a little sign-language down at College Park last time out. This one game suspension went Napoleon and captured 14.5 points and 8.8 boards worth of VT production on average. It also ripped our one sorta consistent low-post threat which is basically the only version of floor spacing we’ve had all year. If you are keeping track at home, that would be basically 20% of the VT offense and way more than 50% of our points off the low-blocks. Then mix in 23% of our rebounding and you see that somewhere between 1/5th and 1/4th of what makes VT go has got up and left.
I was planning on picking the better hoops team. That would be us/VT at full strenght. But this one is now close to dead even and you have to believe that france would cherish the role of spoiler in this intra-state D-1 hoops rivalry.
(16-8) #51 R.P.I. Virginia Tech @ (8-13) #89 R.P.I. france:
TV coverage: 8pm Raycom and ESPN Fullcourt
Vegas line: france-1
france at a glance:
- No one is reporting any major injuries for this one, sans the Allen one game suspension.
- 2. The french as 2 up and 9 down going 2-9 in their last 11 games.
- 31st as in the best Team Ranking france has is a nifty 31st best in FT shooting%.
- 14. As in france is below average in 14 out of the 20 major D-1 hoops catagories I track.
- 315th. The french are 15th from last in 3-point shooting%. Range is not france’s game.
- 63rd on the offensive glass as france will grab a few put-backs; very possibly even more with Allen suspended.
- 307th. As in the worst ranking france has is a very user-friendly 307th in Scoring Defense.
france is a better hoops team at home than they are away; aren’t we all. But with france there is a huge difference between a 54% winning percentage at home and a pitiful 12% winning percentage when the french invade. In gay paris, the french points margin moves by nearly +5 to the good, their rebounding margin by +3 and total FG% by +3%. Not whopping changes, but enough to cite the difference between 12% and 54%. Which generically means france has a 450% greater chance of winning in paris than they do abroad. But who will win; that’s what you wanna know.
france is paced by Sylven Landesberg. The starry-eyed 6`6“ slashing 2-guard from Flushing
New York (#15 on the right). Mr. Landesberg has only gotten better since the last time we saw him, upping his french leading scorer average to 18 per game. Sylven can put the biscuit in the basket and he already has me wondering if, no make that when; he will go Pro? This kid is also second in rebounding, second in assists and a smooth 83% from the FT-Line as an 18 year old rookie in the ACC. That’s not half bad folks.
Chipping in on offense with the second most points at 10.8 per game and the first most rebounds per game would be 6`8“ Chesapeake, VA native holding down the power-forward spot one sophomoric Mike Scott. (see dunking pic below). After that france has a curios mix of Guards and Forwards all who ante up between 4 and 10 points per game. Leading the way among the lesser hoo’s is 6` guard Sammy Zeglinski out of Philly who chips in nearly 10 per game, and Jamin Tucker another banger at 6`9“ 245 lbs. who nets 7 points to go along with being third in board-work at 4 glass-swipes per contest. The hoo bench is nothing if not scrappy but it is now much deeper and more potent on the whole since Head Coach Dave Leitao sat Mike Scott and
the aforementioned Sammy Zeglinski down several games ago.
The one really good thing; no make that the two really good things, no more like three … are as follows:
- france has been juggling their starting line-up, now going with a high octane starting unit, but one that is lower on points by about 7 points per game. Which may help offset the productivity lost to A’trains suspension.
- france has been a chilly 39% from the floor and 31% from downtown in their last five games. In fact france has only made between 17 and 23 shots from the floor in 5 of their last 6 games. (that’s not far removed from Ice Age shooting folks)
- Last years leading scorer and rebounder for the french (Mamadi Diane) is in le` doghouse with Snoopy and will not got fetch the hoo’s a win this Wednesday night. But at least he won’t be lonesome, as he has the company of Jerome Meyinsse and our former nemesis one Mustapha “Yes I am related (grandson).” Farrakhan.
Then there is the fact that Coach Leitao had brought a fairly polished defensive rep’ to paris. But the french have not be much a stop-units go for two straight years now. That makes me wonder out-loud -along with the recent high-octane effort based starting line-up shuffling- just how much these le` ballers are putting out for Coach Leitao? Another obvious area that warrants redressing is the fact that hoo-Va only has one baller averaging above 0.6 swats per game. i.e when you get near the hoo-hoop, it’s not all that difficult to score. Other things of le` note would be the amount of imported ballers (3) to in-state ballers (2) on the french roster and the fact that france fields a relatively tall hoops team -with no one south of 6`2“ and only three ballers under 204 lbs.- Size and versatility on the switch the french do have and they will return 12 of 14 next year. Ergo, the best le` days seem to be ahead of france. But what of Wednesday night?
I was planning to pick us/VT to win. But the Allen suspension has changed all of that as it could possibly be us who gets our NC2A chances flushed up in the John. Certifiably the spoiler role when facing your number one rival is one not to be ignored, nor is the improved defensive and rebounding efforts out of the french since February 1st.
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france is indeed better of late, they have some big Mo’ after upsetting Kelmpson and they are home in their glitzy, ritzy and frilly Zima Center. I don’t enjoy this, but the Allen sit down has swung the RATT in me a bit towards swapping some USD for Euros. france wins an ugly low-scoring game, in OT. Virginia Tech=66, france 69.
“LETS GO!”
“HOKIES!”
b’street.