(was: #62) NOW #6o R.P.I. Virginia Tech vs. (was: #112) NOW #88 R.P.I. Syracuse:

Virginia Tech men’s basketball is no longer gettin’… (say it wif me now): …” rolled!”

The Hokies are now officially off a truly fugly 7, that’s a (7) game schneid and me and Chicken Little had been forecasting ‘mostly cloudy’ head games for O&M messages boards, everywhere! Now though? Maybe the lid is off the rim? We are a basketball school again, or we are still a basket-case(s) school!!! LOL… give me, yourself, V.P.Eye, TOS everywhere, and Will & Chris a freakin’ break. Ginkgo… we have all seen this Yonngling movie before folks. Recall my last two articles… they went 2 for 8 last year and all of you selfie-centric nag’s flipped out— then they flipped the switch, flipped the script, and won the whole damn A.c.c. So, take the O&M chill pill and let us see how this full-starting line-up in return unfolds. Are they about to go on another ’22 finishing kick? A.c.c.ordinly, “next” up in the All-Coaching Conference fold however are the zoned-out Syracuse Orangemen. ‘Cuse comes at yah at a post-season qualifying 13 up against 7 down overall and a pretty dang useful .667 in A.c.c. play (6-3). Nevertheless, what you wanna know is… who is gonna win and by how much, rights? So, read on… to find, out!

Syracuse Head Coach: James Arthur Boeheim: Age=78, 1,011*–434 (.700)*** overall and at Syracuse, alike. Jimmy -of course- enjoys the Dean of 2-3 Zoning reputation and for playing
old-school early Big East big-ball down-low.

$2,695,375.oo (with: $130,000 every time Syracuse qualifies for the NCAA Tournament.
He also gets $77,000 in insurance/vehicle allowance and $40,000 in deferred
compensation | i.e. a steal at this level)

Baller Boeheim was a walk-on 6′3″ Pt.Guard with the freshman basketball team at Syracuse. By his Sr. year, he was the team captain and a teammate of all-American and future Mayor (of Detroit) Dave Bing. Dave was his freshman roommate, and Dave is only in the Basketball Hall of fame himself for his work with the Detroit Pistons. The pair led Coach Fred Lewis’s Orange to a 22–6 overall win-loss record that earned the team’s second-ever N.C.A.A. tournament berth. After graduating from Syracuse, Boeheim played professional basketball with the Scranton Miners of the American Basketball League, during which he won two A.B.L. championships.

Coach Boeheim has only guided the Orange to nine Big East regular-season championships, five Big East Tournament championships, 28 NC2A Tournament appearances, and one National Championship (2oo3 with ‘Melo Anthony). He only has 13 conference titles, six National Coach of the Year awards, and four Conference Coach of the Year awards. He is only a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and the College Basketball Hall of Fame as well. He has only won six International Gold Medals three of which are Olympic. He sucks; fire him, now! Nevertheless, coach B was forced to vacate a backbreaking 1o1 total wins from the 2004–2005, 2005–2006, 2006–2007, 2010–2011, and 2011–2012 seasons due to recruiting violations. He is also down eight schollies over the next year and was suspended for the first nine games of 2016.

Boeheim had prostate cancer in 2oo1, and subsequently became a major fund-raiser for Coaches vs. Cancer, he and his wife also inaugurated the Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation to help kids from Central New York; God Bless.

Coach Boeheim had previously stated that he would retire in April 2018. However, in March 2o17 he extended his contract to beyond the 2o17-18 season.

*(yes, Jimmy’s win total wears an asterisk for his (alleged) brushes/scrapes with the KayCee (Kansas City) suits rulebook(s), quite plural).

Boeheim and his wife, Juli, have three children together: Jimmy and twins, Buddy and Jamie;
he has a daughter, Elizabeth, with his ex-wife Elaine.

Quickie 2–3 tutorial:
The zone-defense concept was invented due to a leaky basketball gym roof vs. … freakin’ w.v.u. back in 1914 during WWI! (Of all the things!?!)

strengths: The 2-3 is a zone designed to: force outside shots, hide weak(er) man defenders, slow/control the tempo, and allow fewer offensive shots, period.

weaknesses: The 2-3 zone defense is (in theory) … susceptible to: 3-point shooting (due to packing/sagging) the key) and to High-Post/wing shooting mid-range or 3-ball shots in particular. It is also known to be a so-so rebounding set (surprisingly); due to defending a spot on the floor and not blocking out a man naturalistically. Although it slows a game it is not a good D to play when giving chase on the scoreboard accordingly. And the degree of difficulty° or learning-curve effects effectively takes a minute or three to gel and get the timing/spacing of the 2-3 zone down pat.

Syracuse at a glance:

• 6th most in S.W.A.T. team work!!! (now: 9th best in bpg or ⇔/nearly equal here!!!)
• 16th most personal fouls ‘whistled’ against!! (now: wildly enuff, the same! ≡ here!!)
• NOW up to: 58th best in  FG-percentage O & 47th in 3-ball percentage itself)! (wow!)
• 54th best in FG-percentage D allowed! (now: 60th or pretty lateral/⇔ here).
• 6oth best in Swipes/game. (now: 83rd in spg, jus’ a little ⇓ here).
• 71st best in Turnover Margin. (now: 77th best or highly similar here, ⇔)
• 76th in FT-percentage makes. (now: 1o5th or a bit off here, ⇓)
• 321st most 3-point attempts/game! (Inside playing team). (now: 323erd most, nearly identical, ⇔)
• (was 1 injury listed, now 2; Coach God (twice) Bless).

Returning Starters=2*

Syracuse Strengths:

• * Rivals 2o2nd ranked: Joseph Girard III is a 6′1″, 19o lb., lifer backup utility G for the Orange. Who is your starting One or Pt.Guard1/Qb1, now. For it… JG3 nets you: (a surprising and team-leading) 17.5 ppg on 2.9 rpg while pacing you with a serviceable 3.3 apg and a downright handsy .9 spg. The fourth-season Girard III is one of those gym-rat self-made kids who comes to practice early, often, and late. He also (somehow) cut over 5-lbs. that he mighta been best off to keeps. He also sports a whopping three that’s (3) New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) Class B state titles blings! And he sports them in: football (2016, 2018) and basketball (2019). Girard III was second to “no, no, no, no, noooooo-body” in New York scoring. Nearly averaging 40 ppg in High School play with a career-high of 69 scholastic points if you need ’em. A pure blowtorch of offensive output in senior prom terms. Thus, Girard III was the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year, and The Basketball Coaches Association of New York picked him as its Mr. Basketball. Which is a lotta production for the mere 221st (247Sports) ranked kid in the country. Some did knock his shot selection (34.4% total and 36.3% from 3-point land… last year); tho’ this kid can flat-out put the biscuit in the basket when he gets it going on. As this year JG3 is netting you a Most Improved flavored: 41.4% overall, the team FTA lead at 83.9%, and a gotta guard him 38.6% from deep. That is respectful netting in my book. As this is prolly something of a worker bee Pedulla if that helps you peg him any? As this pseudo-One can score and distribute; tho’ he has a peg that notches turnovers (2.8 tpg historically, now: 2.3 tpg) when he tries or is output forced to do too much. Girard III is an overseas pro’. And that’s not the worst Dale Solomon life, is it? (Albeit the pasty buzz or Lurch hair-swagg may or may not be his best, cut).
  (UPDATE: nearly everything offensively (sans: FT%) went up or noticeably up, this is VERY hard to in-year do, hence two ⇑⇑’s are well merited here. Bra-vo Joe!)
• * Parttime previously now full-time, finally; starter, final-year, 6′11″, (now ~15 lbs. to) 23o lb. true-C by way of Amsterdam, NLD, (1 rpg, 1 bpg, 1.4 ppg on 43% shooting) Jesse Edwards has a history of bum ankle turns | St.Philip bless). Tho’… look what his two better wheels are doing this year? 13.6 ppg with a team and near A.c.c. leading 1o.6 rpg and the team/A.c.c. lead with 2.9 bpg! All on a nifty twine-ticking 58.9% overall! wow… ‘nother Most Improved (league-wise on this scaling) candidate right here men. His older brother (Kenneth) is a star out at Nor.Iowa so the family tree blossoms round-balls here. Jesse is said to be a skillful low-post baller with legit low-post moves and yet another metrics-based tough match-up for us in the key. Does look stronger in the film room, arms in particular. Although, does not seem to love physical play just the same. Has international experiences in Italian and Netherlands play alike. Also went and got dat 2o22 FIBA Eurobasket. Whereby, Edwards was a member of the Dutch National Team that competed in the 2022 FIBA Eurobasket and was said to impress the scouts on the rim-protection board-work sides. Is a Dutch-boy import technically. A technically sound Five with really good footwork/low-post training. Curious kid if he can keep this pace of upward mobility, up? As he keeps a Ric Flair streak in his ‘fro and you needs to be keepin’ it real to be keepin’ dat! Last year, however, Edwards was sidelined for a bad part of the 2o22 season due to a fractured left wrist. Goodness, St.Julia bless! This year however he is making a Euro play-check push. Biotechnology major to boot, so he should have that to fall back on if there is another injurious stone in his ‘cuse.edu.hooopz, shoe. And frankly, he is springer than I expected medical-jacket-wise on film, even if Winter Has Come. (UPDATE: cooler baller of late; one that coach Jimmy just took a “mystery” dig at due to his hard to ‘splain semi-slump in recent terms. If said ‘dig’ strikes Orange-gold, ‘cuse will be noticeably harder to coach-speak mine in their very own backyard).
  (UPDATE2: has slightly dipped nearly everywhere since we saw him last, tho’ nothing too bad, hence the lateral or ⇔ vote here).

  

• One #3, 6′3″, 172 lb., Judah Mintz, combo-G, and he of some very fly game scoots. (Seriously, he must know podiatry huggy-bear to roll what he rolls). He be coming at you by way of: Gonzaga College H.S. and by way of basketball factory famed Oak Hill Academy, Va. So, you know coaching the verb and his pedigree is likely pretty dang tight here. Thingy is, Mintz got minted for a whopping and entirely unexpected un-sweet-16 L’s in his two varsity seasons for these nationally named scholastic squadrons. His younger bro’ (Wisdom) is said to be pretty roundball smart in his own right. Tho’ Mintz is a curiosity to me, really good H.S. scoring digits. May have paired some “e” and “m” in his tEaM. Still yet… for only 16 games into his collegiate career? 15.o ppg with 2.4 rpg and 4.4 apg does not suck. Neither did being tabbed 36th in the Nation by ESPN.com. There is Talent here folks… maybe he is only scratching the surface… maybe he gets an Associative itch’? Lindy’s calls Judah a ‘3-level’ scorer (close, mid, and long-range) and an “exciting” player. I’ma not inclined to disagry. I would however not decline to see him ground himself a bit mo’ and worry about all the off-court things less. The 20% 3-pointing was not commiserating with his résumé, (and nor is his updated 18.4%!) and you would have to think that, that thaws and solves itself at his Level. VERY loquacious baller upon breaking tape, who might just have some hint of Leadership in him for it— as his ‘Cuse teammates already seem to look to him at times. Stronger than his metrics look, streety, and pointy-elbowed nobody wants to have to guard him in shirts vs. skins terms. This Judah is a keeper; well-‘praised’ per his name meaning. The only question is where does he mean to draw his paystub? Domestic or, export? And yes, this kid will dunk on you if you allow the same. (UPDATE: few things went up and a few things went down, so a level or ⇔ grade here. However, that stinky 3-ball has me wondering what is up health-wise (now) to boot. As Mintz has graded: mint prior to this. Godspeed!).

Syracuse Weaknesses:

• Gone are all the lil’ Boeheim’s. And you gotta wonder what that does to (not yet) Grandpaw-aged poppa Boeheim’s chi or energy level just a skulled-putt removed from eight-o. (8o). Not quite as: Bo.ho. as b4.
• Ergo, therefore, to wit… Lindy’s and others have panned the ‘inexperience’ of this squad as it rebuilds/reloads a bit this season.
  
• Benny Williams was out indefinitely with a non-cv19 “illness”. Tho’, he was actually upgraded to: “QUESTIONABLE” for the last one. Now CLEAN so far as Google and Eye can see. Also ‘clean’ would be his: 6′8″, 2o8 super-soph’ season lbs. Likewise, his decent looking 7.2 ppg married to 4.3 rpg on 38.5% 3-pointing when subbin’ scorer’s table in. Ditto his younger-mans Yannick Noah (tennis star) looks. This from the no.15 baller in America per Rivals after his stints at: IMG Academy and St. Andrew’s Episcopal School (Md.) prior to that. Where he was a ***** or 5-star consensus recruit. Had good scholastic/prep numbers on epic (there is only one roundball to go around) teams. Ben’ can shoot/finish with both hands, an amphibious and ambidextrous baller for it. Has mo’ of a defensive-stopper and rebounding tag than he does pure O itself. Tho’ everyone needs/wants a halter who is developing a 3-n-D game off the pine-like b.Will’. Godspeed here.
  (UPDATE: Benihana has been a Smother Brothers yo-yo routine since cleared. He gives you good low-teens games or nearly nonexistent games… go fig’ here? grade=⇑ or ⇓, just not: ⇔ itself).
• Peter Carey: is a 6′11″, 2oo lb., 1st-year Five by way of: Sunderland, Ma. Who is apparently done for the duration. As Carey is sidelined due to a right knee procedure (St.Culbreth help); and he has elected to take a medical redshirt for the rest of the season. o.o ppg and a board and a few tenths of a Dime dropped in only spot minutes in 3 games this campaign. Lindy’s says that Pete is: a sleeper recruit or a Spessartite garnet in the rough.
• Finally, zero, that’s (o) All-A.c.c. pre-season nominees (1st-2nd-3rd-string) are a conference-calling rarity for any Big East or Atlantic Coast Jim-Bo-coached clubs.

Orange (pine) Tree: (depth=6’ish)

P/F-Center combo’, 6′10″, 216 lb., Natinga, So.Sudanese John Bol Ajak had (self)-elected to use his r-shirt season two years back and has NO stats accordingly last season. The now r-Junior J.B.A., who is an artist on the side— is said to be less than artistic and downright “raw” on O, although a pure Windex-wiper and defender, and this typically makes for a good anchoring middleman in Jimmy’s 2-3 (match-up) zone. And he is supposed to be still trying to: “bulk up” to get physically ready for the stateside game. And he found one lb. in doing so. 1.3 ppg and 2.1 rpg later and this year we find at an actually +17% improvement from the flooring now up to a very reasonable 5o% overall. Although, there is a lotta ‘moo’ left in this kid’s offensive steak; a Center to be sure. Very. Not to mention, that in H.S. poooooor Ajak, back in 2017-18, he was slowed for most of the season by an Achilles injury. Yikes, and Coach God Help! 480th guy from 247Sports in the nation. Tho’ ESPN and others did have him as a **** latent (upgraded) quad-star guy. Had mid-range scoring and upper-range rebounding/defending scholastic digits to his name. Project… who may or may not project beyond part-time rim-protector in collegiate terms. Time=tell here as well… St.Nikēphóros bless! As poor Ajak struggled last season with getting through COVID-19 protocol and that did not spread his offensive development one iota (1ι). Plus, he has a history of dings all over. Stem to stern. Lower to mid to upper-body (now).
(UPDATE: nearly flat since we saw him, ⇔ here)
(UPDATE2: “QUESTIONABLE” here, with an upper-body ding than has expensed him the last couple of games. Godspeed!)

Mounir Hima C, Peter Carey C, and Maliq Brown F-C all conspire to give you 20′ and 7″ with ≅65o lbs. worth of substitute froncourters in relief off of the Syracuse pine. As you can take the (towering, yesteryear) Big East Coach out of the Big East, tho’ you cannot take the (towering, yesteryear) Big East outta the Coach. And guess what? At least ⅔’s of ’em could stand to down 3/3’rds of a protein shake or two. As they needs to weight-room P5 conference bulk-up a bit. Still yet, try as you might: “…you kan’t coach, height”. (Or, Hite for that matter— though I tangent) … and that they gots.

Hima (a: towering 6′11″, 233 lb., true-Soph’, Tillaberi, Niger import with an obscene 7-8 flippin’ pterodactyl -esque wingspan, could be a syntax or accountancy major on the side, per his: quad-lingual 4-way game. This by way of portaling: Duquesne Duke fame. Carey (6′11″, 2oo lb., freshman), who Lindy’s listed as a major sleeper recruit per his near S.A.T. Ivy League acceptance to go student over NC2A athlete itself. A tough nasty defensive match-up (2.3 rpg & 1.3 bpg), maybe the O (1.4 ppg, fiddy%) will eventually come? (⇔, or nothing moving all that much to suitably remark)

Brown (a: P/F-C, 6′9″, 213 lb., rookie/nugget year Culpeper, Va. Blue Ridge H.S. escapee). 4-rings. That’s (4) blings. As in… the Barons only won the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA) Division II championship in each of Brown’s four seasons. That’s all. The Bill Rus’ (R.I.P.) of uncommon CommonWEALTH finger-game. VISAA Division II Player of the Year and first-team All-VISAA, unsurprisingly. Tho’ only *** or 3-stars and only the 43rd ranked P/F nationally (ESPN.com). 5.6 ppg with 4.6 rpg all on: a tasty 69.1% overall are showing some signs… (Gettin’ a bit mo’ P.T. of late of note as well).
(UPDATE: this is a developing baller ‘on the come’, ⇑ grade here fo’ sure)!

Triune BIG-men combined, these three net you: ~8 ppg, they haul in ~9 rpg and they reject ~4 bpg). Granted, these are not Wilt 100-point game offensive wonders, tho’ you gotta wonder how well you match up with them unless you have a true dinosaur-era Center in tow. As they surely toe the baseline well and very actively discourage farriers to the hoop.

Three or S/F, 6′6″, 2o5 lb., t-Fr., Justin Taylor is a double D-1 Commonwealth signature program(s) truantee. Team Captain and much vaunted IMG Academy is not an unsharp look. Nor is being listed as the 126th baller in America from: 247Sports. Nor is being begotten of a hoopology star-mum (Kerri) from J.m.u. wimminz hoops fame. The book here reads that JayTee skipped out on being a homespun T.J. or even 24o6o as he did come up in: Charlottesville, Va. He also is said to be a: ‘tough Wing’ who can shoot and will surprise you with his white-bread athletics by-the-bye. 4.6 ppg with 1.9 rpg on a better 41.% long is not the worst shortstop or short-start at this nubile career stAGE.
(UPDATE: really strokin’ it from long of late… ⇑, need to get in his shirt from range).

…now, this may not be a Stary-eyed ‘cuse bench; granted.

It is however a very deep bench (with six guys logging 9 to 17 mpg in relief), and it is a very solid role-knowing and likewise role-playing bench as well. (And this much depth does bring your
fatigue factor into 1’s or starters’ consideration when finishing late).

 

Illation, conclusion(s) and OPT digits:

Number of Orange who could juice @Tech=7 or so.

the takeaway:
The takeaway here is…

…that it is getting harder and harder to be taken with, Tech. Or at least it was.

Or at least that seems to be the signature and highly social needia predictable order of the done put the cart out in front of the horse, day.

---

---

Me personally?

I said I found that to be a bit premature. What with V.Tech having only been done out by a whopping Σ of eleventeen points or a total of seven shots (one game was OT) in five the last seven L’ing O&M efforts. (The other two were barely double-digits L’s or hardly blowouts). Recall: we were only down 1-basket @hooVa midway in the 2nd half and were only down 2-shots up @’Cuse early in the 2nd half.

Nonetheless, that would not stop any/all armchair Pt.Guards from digging their 3-Mile Island gone Blacksburg campus steam-tunnel Love Canal fingernails into all things Hokie hoops.

Cat-scratch-fever typically cycles into heat just like dats.
So, and in lieu of getting your O&M knickers in a deeper ride-up twist?

Why not wait-n-see where this team now is with its cadre of 1’s or starters back in full-service and full-employment per the same?

…or did that just make too much (non-pot-stirring), meow-mix; sense?

 ***

Our handy-dandy friend the so-called Forum Guide of Graham Houston fame is calling for a VomitTory-looking 21-point New York curb-stopping here. Yikes, and although this is a single-shot data point; the Forum Guide has yet to outcome miss this year, mind yah. Perfected, thus far.

The annualized year-to-date vitals say that… ‘Cuse is now up a nominal +1% in shooting percentage margin (per: both being better on O and on D alike for the year here; albeit pretty close to the same on each end of the court overall); with ‘Cuse up another nominal flavored +1% 3-point percentage margin (from: Tech betting 3-D better, tho; ‘Cuse nets 3’s better vis-à-vis on O), yet again, nobody is up much of anything off-the-glass or in rebounding margin annualized terms. (As in: VT is better on the D-glass and yet ‘Cuse is better on the O-glass and something has gotta glass-give in this one here).

The most recent 5-game metrics say that… the Orange is now up ~ +8% in shooting percentage margin (due to: mostly to the Orangemen heat-checkin’ from the floor of late on O and from the Hokies playing looser with the D); with the o.Men now up a useful looking ~ +8% in 3-point percentage margin (thanks: mostly to ‘cuse being cracking from the outside recently, merely 2nd best in the USofA in 3-point% in the last five contests if you are keeping score, having slipped all the way from 1st-best in the most recent five contests the last time we contested them mind yah. i.e., STILL blazing hawt-hawt-hawt from depth), and yet again, same as above, these two are nearly knotted in rebounding margin in the last fortnight of play. (Each at a +3 surplus in rebounding margin in the last couple of weeks).

 

Armchair Pt.Guard’s:

“Two ships passing in the nite?”
I mused that last time, and this time VeeTee has won one of their last eight. Whereas, the ‘cuse has (now) reeled off 1o wins in 14 contests. Which is to say the Hokies have won one in forty days whilst ‘Cuse has won ten in fiddy-four days. Does one set of data points seem a bit mo’ encouraging to, you?

“The heat is on?”
The ‘Cuse backcourt: (Joe Girard III and Judah Mintz) has been nearly filthy with heat-checks on O of late. Most of ’em have checkmarked the other side up to boot. With backup S/F2, Chris Bell (6′7″, 18o lb., rookie) has been streaky warming to the cause (nearly 10 ppg) in relief his ownself.

Counting 1o1…
1, 2, 3, fo’, five…. as we just got a k.Kong-sized gorilla off our backs after suffering a brutal stretch that O&M included defeats by one, two, three, four, and five points. i.e., is the lid off the rim, now?

Homesteading 1o2…
This is our second one of four of five @home. Gotta get this one men. A win may not assure us anything (just yet) post-season-wise. Tho’ getting done here seriously limits our Spring Broke margin of, error.

Syracuse is a .5oo guest; whereas V.Tech is .818 as a host.
Nobody is up any% at the charity stripe for the year.
VeeTee is now +4 in R&R in the last fortnight.

The Call…

(Was: No.49) NOW no.52 Net Ranking Virginia Tech vs. (was: no.136) NOW no.97 Net Ranking Syracuse:

So, unlike the previous four less-than-successful O&M outings?

This one is not that awful of a match-up for us in pure 1 through 5 or X’s and O’s terms.

IF/when Hunter can come correct and we get our shooting swagg back on. As now is the time to play these kinda thinner frontcourters for ‘Cuse. Before they really pack it on and really clog the middle up.

As you know… you gotta beat any 2-3 Zone from 45°. There is a natural set-up/line-up gap there if/when you court the zone-busters who can make them pay from the wings.

Still yet, where are we recently in this you ask(s)?

• Hunter is a quite reasonable 10 of 23 upon return (~44%).
• Pedulla is 6 of 18 upon Hunter’s return (1 in 3%); or better when Hunting.
• Maddox is an entirely reasonable 3 of 6 (fifty%) upon Hunter’s return or when goodwill Hunting.
• Po’ Muttsy, however, is yet to net upon Hunter’s return. Going o’fer o for 3 (.ooo%) when getting caught Hunting sans a shooting permit.

That being Qb1 of hoops squarely struck, and all other things being equal… Eye’d have to like our outside netting chances better when seining in Duck Pond @home. Wouldn’t you?

As do recall that A.c.c. hoops road warriors get rode all nite and hung-up wet about 7 times in 1o.

–oOo–

The VerdicT:

Enter Will’s yesteryear epic blast of ‘Cuse’s so-called: “Jiffy Pop” Dome!
Now gone we want no hassle in our Cassell from any vassal.

573 miles away So’-by-So’-(ex-Big)-East if you are keeping pre-G.P.S. AAA-Trip Tix score @home.

Past may indeed lend itself to prologue here… or an apology from… me.

‘Cause when Eye went back in {sic: to WordPress} and update my notes for this one?

Jim’Bo’ is having himself a fine twilight coaching the verb year.

As in, Viagra jokes notwithstanding; he has (mostly) really improved his (deep)-O face since we saw him last. This less all those sharpshooting family members from last year to boot.

^^^that is^^^ coaching the: verb.

Home is where the heART is…

…that, and the recent grinding from the Orange from a distance has me admittedly spooked a bit in this one. So, I did what I do best… I whipped my Holden Hall (MINE) u.grad out and dug a bit, deeper.

This year thus far… VeeTee moves by a nearly useful +3% (margin) overall (@Home) from the floor. The Hokies also net much better from deep +6%) at the 3-pointer home. Syracuse hits 4% less @Away overall and +3% fewer @Away behind the arc.

Now Ginkgo: that last time that summed to a hurtful cumulative (–19%) Home/Away aggregate spits deficit for the Hokies to NY-roadie overcome. This time however it sorts out to be a +16% Blacksburg-better per their very own home-field advantage. (Thus, making for a mind-boggling 35% swing vote ‘pending upon who holds home court!!!) Kra-kra, ain’t it?

Rain is rumored to be wet and I had to pick ‘Cuse @mid-state NY last time out.

Duh, right?

The Closer…

This time Eye kept digging, and I found the following prospecting Holden Hall style…

…since Hunter got (re)-locked, cocked, and ready to rock?
Benching or substitute minutes have been hard to come by.

As in… in three combined games, six of our subs have only or barely qualified for the ‘spot-minute’ maker having logged five minutes of P.T. (Playing Time) or less thus far with Cattoor back in through the front door.

^^^this^^^ conspires to mean that our 1’s or starters have been logging some mean minutes of P.T.

What with six of our 15 total starters since Hunters return having played 91% of the game or better!
And, and, and, what with 11teen of those fifteen having gone 31-minutes or mo’.

That is called (potential): “fatigue” folks. And tired legs (could) muck around with those homesteading shooting margins as ‘Cuse has been simply sizzling hot in their last five tests: (3 @Home and 2 @Away).

And for a team 10th from last in number of FTA’s, 14th from last in ‘easy-baskets’, and 10th from last again in: Bench Points… that is a tough (closing) row to hoe. Tougher yet vs. a scorching-hot outside team from way downtown, ‘bang’.

As Mr.Popcorn has better mind the T.V. TO’s (television mandatory timeouts) and spread his very own timeouts, out; to keep them fresh enough to have enough to close.

^^^that^^^ and somebody get statboy a cheeseburger, STAT!

🍔🏀🍔

 

(5o% confidence interval)
Virginia Tech=72, Syracuse=7o

please support the VT F.C.A.!

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

bourbonstreet**