#2oo R.P.I. North Carolina A&T  @ #78 R.P.I. Virginia Tech:

Virginia Tech men’s basketball returns from Christmas Break to host little ole North Carolina A&T right before beginning the 2o18 march though the Atlantic Coast odyssey.

The Hokies are 10 up and  only St.Louis and #7 ranked Kentucky down. They are #1, #2 or #3 in every single major team ranking offensive category —vending a very fan friendly and likewise a very television network suit friendly version of scoring, scoring and more scoring roundball. They seemed destined for the post-season; again, and most would have me say the NC2A tournament and March Madness in ~64 more days give/take. As Coach Buzz and company really should win here, though by just how much? Read on to find, out…

North Carolina A&T Head Coach: Jay Joyner: age=42, 14-4o overall and at NC.A&T. Has a rep’ for: G-play, outside (3-ball) oriented offensive sets, program building; and not for defense itself.
$124,528.oo

Baller Joyner played his college basketball at South Carolina State under Cy Alexander, and was a part of the Bulldogs 1996 NCAA Tournament squad. After college he exported himself and played overseas for the CB 1939 Canarias in Spain’s Liga ACB, but retired due to nagging knee problems with his first child on the way; (God Bless).

Before making the jump to collegiate athletics, Coach Joyner was an assistant boys basketball coach at Centennial High School in Franklin, Tenn., for the 2oo2-o3 season. Coach Joyner’s college coaching career began under Alexander at Tennessee State, where he served as an assistant coach. He’d then move on to assistant coaching jobs at Columbia State, Rutgers, and Cumberland before returning to Columbia State as its head coach. In three seasons with the Chargers, he compiled a a very sporty 61-23 record and two Tennessee Junior and Community College Athletic Association regular season titles.

When Alexander was named the head coach at North Carolina A&T, Joyner once again joined his staff as an assistant coach. He was elevated to the head coaching position on March 7, 2o16 after Alexander resigned.

Joyner holds a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Middle Tennessee State.  He is a native of Amityville, N.Y.  He and his wife have three children.

North Carolina A&T at a glance:

• 44th most FT’s made (2o7).
• 69th in 3-point FG percentage D allowed (31.3%).
• 291st in scoring D allowed (78.1 ppg).
• 297th in FG percentage defense allowed (46.7%).
• 3o9th in 3-point FG percentage (30.6%).
• 333rd in swats (1.8 bpg); drive that damn lane!

Aggie Returning Starters=2

NC A&T Strengths:

• The Aggies -surprisingly enough- were indeed #1 last season in the M.E.A.C. in 3-point shooting as alpha conference marksmanship honors went from range.
• One #25, Femi Olujobi is the Aggies leading scorer with a bullet -or by ~220% mo’ than anybody else- and if you called that one back in September please raise your hand. I neither, and neither did any of my preview magazines. As all any of ’em did was list his (Roster) name. Femi is a 6′8″, 233 lb. numbers guy of a P/F who does just that, he gets you, numbers. As Olujobi leads A&T with: 21.9 ppg, 9.1 rpg, .6 bpg, and in 3-point shooting at 35% per game. Not half bad work from a Oakland transfer r-junior who looks like he could easily hang another 10+ lbs. of right mass. Femi came up in Long Island, NY; he nets a nifty looking 58% of his shots from the floor and a likewise attractive 83% from the charity-stripe on by far and away the team led at a whopping 1o4 FTA’s already. So you know he goes hard in the paint and is not contact shy for it. And he got to NC A&T so late that his bio’ page is 100%, blank. Tho’, and nevertheless: I did however find this blurb in his Oakland biography: “Power forward that can score both inside and out … Consistent mid-range jump shot that can also step outside the arc and knock it down … Missed most of his high school senior season due to an injury suffered in the summer 2013.” God Bless on that.

  

•  6′7″, 2o4 lb. r-sophomore transfer (Wagner College) Japhet Kadji is a string-bean looking imported Doula Littoral Cameroon native. Kadji plays a springy bouncy game as the silver medalist in resounding at 6.7 rpg and his 7.9 ppg with 35% shooting from distance is serviceable enough. Actually, it may be more than that when you consider that he averaged 6 ppg and 4.1 rpg scholastically down in Florida. I do get that he has a brother (Kenny) who did ball for the Cavs and the Bucks —and is now collecting Lira’s balling professional overseas in Turkey. Still yet, not may kids with those disinfected looking high school numbers get a D-1 schollie, be that Family Genome Potential Project based or not
• Devonte Boykins is a 6′2″, 18o lb. graduate transfer final year Pt.Guard by way of Georgia Southern.edu. Props on degree holding just like that; and second in scoring at 10.2 ppg as the new kid on the block does not suck. Neither does Devonte’s 3.4 rpg and 3.2 dimes dropped. Devonte has a hard-nosed stretty rep’ and he is said to be a pretty solid collar worker-bee type defender (1.1 spg). His shooting is semi-okay, at 35% from deep a barely passable 41% overall.

NC A(and)T Weaknesses:

• 3 wins last year, exactly 33% of which came against D-1 foes is not exactly code for triumphal program hygiene.
• Neither was finishing last in the M.E.A.C., by far.
• Neither was finishing last in the Nation in adjusted efficiency –giving up a whopping 1.2 points per possession.
• A&T’s best two backcourt guys and prolly their best frontcourter are all gone from all of ^that^ as well.
• Almost nobody in the Aggie true production rotation is homegrown. Now, I’m not saying that’s bad-bad though something is indeed south of good when transference works out just like dat.
• (the two touted preview mag’ Aggies are on the, bench)

Aggie Bench: (depth=2 or 3)

The book on 6′7″, 238 lb. Davaris McGowens literally reads: “…he plays with a lot of fight on the inside.” Mmm-k, may not be a guy you wanna try to flop against, as McGowens has a rep’ and it ain’t Charmin’s “squeezeably” soft either. The senior year Maurice Lucas style “enforcer” at the Four looks like it too, as this is one burly looking P/F with the emphasis on the word power or a 22oV industrial type baller. Prolly not gonna go work for the Hallmark channel when he is finished; although in the meantime Davaris the Gulf Coast State transfer splashes you 4.6 ppg and 3.4 rpg and on a per minute basis he’s actually quite productive -if not limited by leg dings/dents- at 9 minutes of PT per game.

5′1o″, 165 lb. Aaren Edmead -who does not look it displacement wise to me- is a final year One who is actually third in scoring netting you 9.2 ppg. This despite shooting a south of accurate 28% from behind the arc and a nearly chilly looking 33% overall. Aaren does lead the Aggies at 87% FT-shooting and that plus his ability to penetrate and get to the rack is prolly what is keeping him on the floor.

Raymon Pratt is a 6′3″, 197 lb. second year off-G who is supposed to have some measure of scoring potential. 5.1 ppg is not what I’d call potentially wowing peeps off the pine; though Pratt has been hobbled all year and is only recently rounding into forum (Godspeed). As this is supposed to be a cat-quick, leaper with some serious dunking ups and a pretty sick looking highlight video did say so. And his 59% shooting tells you just how often he tries to finish fierce right at the basket.

Illation, conclusion (s) and OPT digits:

Number of Aggies who could start @Tech=1 for sure!

the takeaway:
The takeaway here is… when painting in a historic broadsheet sense, North Carolina A&T is the better hooping program here; no doubt about it.

27 conference titles since 1972 says so… and if that does not swing your vote how about a very impressive 10 NCAA March Madness appearances since 1982. Someone double check me and my 36 hours of calc’ and stats in McBryde; although I’m pretty sure that’s way mo’ than Virginia Tech hoops has logged; by a long-shot.

 ***

the skinny…

…from what I can see, even if we are asleep at the Holiday trafficking drive back to campus wheel… even if we ate too much on furlough for Christmas Break… even if we got lumps of coal for Christmas… what match-up(s) exactly can North Carolina A&T rightfully say that they could industrialize in a winning or even in an efficacious way? (Well, not named Mister F.Olujobi, that is…)

Most of my preview mag’s (somehow) seem to think that these Aggies are better this year —as most of those previews have them picked mid-range in the M.E.A.C. field of 10 this campaign. Yes, their record has already doubled last season’s victory notch; yes that is indeed a step in the right direction. So I’ll give Coach J.Joyner his deserved shout-out here…

the call...

…still yet, even if N.Cee A&T does play a Presbyterian great game, I’d have to say that this game gives Virginia Tech revenue sports a very sporting chance at finishing no less than .5oo on the day.

---

Yes, playing stall-ball, slowing/controlling the tempo and/or a whole lotta internal height— as the book on how to beat ’18 Buzzerball may now be out indeed.

It’s just that these Aggies do not look all that literate to me in terms of instituting those particular hooping techniques. Size they ain’t got and their backcourt seems to wish to play at a brisker place than the norm’.

This all conspires to play right into Buzz and companies’ hands as you’d have to think Buzz suffered a motivational coaching-moment after such a constricted -and at times nearly dire- looking game vs. Presbyterian last time out.

Ergo, the roundball Hokies win here; the pigskin Hokies prolly not so much.

(89% confidence interval)
Virginia Tech=87, North Carolina A&T=6o

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

 bourbonstreet**