#3o2 R.P.I. Lehigh @ #58 R.P.I. Virginia Tech: 

Virginia Tech men’s basketball returns to the still a bit unseasonably warm New River Valley court to host Patriot League Lehigh on Thursday evening at an early kick-off time of 6 PM on the A.c.c. Network.

The Hokies just totally whooped, electric-woodshedded, and curb-stopped feckless Delaware State on Monday nite; while missing one starter at the Four-spot (Mutts). Now they host just got done out by fellow All Coaching Conference stalwart Syracuse (72-9o), Lehigh. Lehigh checks in a o up and 1 down on the early voting returns for 2o22-2o23 so far. Last season they were seemingly off a bit and finished up at: 13 W’s against 19 L’s tho’ they did better in-conference with a winning Patriot League record of: (1o-8). Their coach is known for a mini-me Goliath or sling-shots in the post and yet what you wanna know is… who is gonna win and by how much, rights? So, read on… to find, out!

Lehigh Head Coach: Brett Reed: Age=fiddy, (5o), 246–209 (.541) overall, and @Lehigh. Has a rep’ for slaying Goliath; and a tag of ‘player development.
$400,000.oo

Baller Reed, a native of Waterford, Michigan, Reed attended Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida where he contributed as a One or Pt.Guard and helped lead his team to a conference championship and NC2A Tournament appearance. Reed graduated with honors from Eee.Cee.edu. His daddy is the Oakland coach, so you know he’s come up 1 through 5 straight A’s.

Reed received a bachelor’s degree in literature from Eckerd College in 1995. He earned both a master’s degree in 1998 and a freakin’ Ph.D. in instructional technology with a cognate in sports administration in 2oo3 from Wayne State University. Major terminal degree holding .edu proppers @Reed here! As Dr. Reed is one of only two Division I men’s basketball head coaches in the entire nation to have earned their doctorate degrees. Reed was also honored during his academic career with a number of awards including the prestigious Thomas C. Rumbell Fellowship. WoW!

Although he has not fielded a winning season since 2o19, Coach Reed does wear 3 Patriot League Championship blings. He was the fastest coach to 100 wins in the history of the Patriot League. So, there is that, and there is also his officially confirmed: TITLE: of the: Murray H. Goodman ’48 Head Coach. (Whatever that means?)

Poppa Reed and his wife Kindra reside in Bethlehem with their sons
Brendan and Calvin, and daughter Makenna.

Lehigh at a glance:

• 64th in FT percentage.
• 1o1st in 3-point shooting percentage.
• 1o2nd in Assist:Turnover ratio. (this is not a turrribel b.Walton backcourt team).
• 289th in Rebounding Margin.
• 296th in Scoring D allowed!
• 3o4th in 3-point FG% allowed!

Mountain Hawks Returning Starters=3.

Lehigh Strengths:

• #5, one, Two or Lead-G Evan Taylor is the alpha here. He led Lehigh as their high point man last year (14 ppg) and is off to a fast ’22 start this year (2o ppg). EeeTee is a 6′6″, 2o5 lb., a final year hoopster (Sr.), and an early Will Smith (Indy’ Day) looking near clone. Just a little lighter complexion is all. #5 is no.1 for the Hawks and he could prolly help us off the bench with a scoring spark. Does have a history of ding/dents (wears double knee/leg sleeves for it; St.Culbreth and St.Nikon bless). High 30’s career 3-point shooter, is a pure offender, however; Taylor is an offensive driver and he knows it on D. Does have the knack to net a few clutch makes; that’s useful. Was something of a Chi-Town or Windy-City scholastic recruiting coup for Lehigh. Was said to be a better H.S. rebounder than anything else, so the O is a bonus here/now. Honor Roll kid, .edu props on that. Eats a lot of ‘pop-tarts’, must have some Lamar Odom (sweet-tooth) in him. Can still D-1 rebound when he wants to… right at 6-n-change backboard gets for Evan’s career says so. Was named all-conference (see: below). Then Evan was also named: to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honors Court and to the: Academic All-Patriot League Team just a week ago. That Patriot.edu counts!

  

• J.T. Tan is the Hawk’s oversized Five or C. 6′8″. tho’ a downright burly looking 280 third-year lbs.! 7 ppg and nearly 9 rpg says so. Not an offensive weapon, tho’ a no-fun night of gear-griding uphill deep down in the paint for whoever has to check him.
• Dominic Parolin got in here ’cause I wanted to see where he hails from. He is from: Coquitlam, B.C. That is British Columbia, “eh”. Said to be the biggest sleeper in several recruiting seasons for Lehigh. The stats say he is something of a Baltic Ave. man’s stretch-F. About 8 ppg and 5 rpg so far with a very nice/deft 44% range behind the arc for this 6′ 9″, 245 lbs., juniorific season baller.
• (This Space Left Intentionally… Blank).
• The Hawks do have some measure of backcourt experience… so, there is that I suppose.

Lehigh Limbo(s):

• Of four incoming freshmen brought in by Mountain Hawks coach Brett Reed, three are frontcourt players. Henri Adiassa and Tommy Conniff, both 6-11, and Bube -grate name- Momah, who is 6-8. As they played a combined 23 minutes on Monday, producing five points and three rebounds. A.K.A. the newbie or debuting jury is still out here after a mere 4o-minutes of ballin’. Time=tell on did this influx help or just flux things up?

Lehigh Weaknesses:

• Depth or lack thereof… the Hawks nest is about 1 or 2 deep.
• The Hawks do (not) have many measure of Three through Five experience. As in… their seven frontcourt players listed on the Mountain Hawks’ roster have combined for for a not so sweet-16 college starts. Yikes!

Mt.Hawks Bench: (depth=1’ish)

Keith Higgins Jr. (And Tan from up above) will check in here in relief of the base 3-G and 2-F Lehigh looks.

Keith is a good utility guy, a steady 9 ppg off the pine, and with some D (2 spg) and some passing (4 apg). Such is not the worst caddying or backcourt backup look. Higgy checks-in at: 6′4″, 19o lb. sophomore ‘tweener in backcourt terms. Not epic. tho’ a steady misQ free baller.

Illation, conclusion(s) and OPT digits:

Number of Hawks who could mount' @Tech=o.5 to maybe 1, maybe?

the takeaway:

The takeaway here is… still waitin’ on my (replacement) preview mags to arrive after last Friday’s got, took!

So, things will remain a bit thinner until I get them to reup and this swagg (re)starts to glimmer.
Coach God willing of, course.

That (shot-blocked) attempt at levity aside, Lehigh beats Delaware State.

I’ma not as sure of as much sans my preview periodicals.
Tho’ Eye am totally sure of that.

6 PM tip!

Our handy-dandy friend the so-called Forum Guide of Graham Houston fame is calling for a December ask back.

The annualized year-to-date vitals say that… VeeTee is up an absurd (1-game) +26% in shooting percentage margin, and yet V.P.I. is up an even mo’ absurd (single-contest) +33% in 3-point percentage margin, and the Techmen are likewise up a nearly umpossible +28 caroms in rebounding margin year-to-date. LOL… can I bet the Under on any of that remaining on trend for the annualized, duration?!?

The most recent 5-game metrics say that…  nobody is up much of anything pent count-wise in: …shooting percentage margin, in 3-point percentage margin, and in rebounding margin …need four mo’ games to cook.

 ***

Armchair Pt.Guard’s:
“He scored 30 and he probably gave up 24,” Young said. “Plus, six is not going to be good enough here. He’s capable. He’s just a little timid on that (defensive) end right now with how we want to play.“

+24 @Mr. 🍿!!!
LOL…

Basile will get help on Thursday with the return of Justyn Mutts. The V.P.I. all-star Forward is back… and he only led Tech last year in rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, and sat out the opener serving a one-game suspension for playing in an unsanctioned pre-draft evaluation event.

Mutts, who has played 119 college games at three different schools, and Basile, who has played 96 games at two different schools —and who was only a two-time All-Horizon League second-team selection… give the Hokies extraordinary experience and versatility in the frontcourt that Lehigh cannot match. Literally, none whatsoever not at all.

4o8-mile Away Lehigh is even on R&R. (i.e., both ran ball on Monday nite)
Lehigh is (actually) up +2% at the charity stripe for the year.
VeeTee is a 1.oo host; whereas Lehigh is .ooo as a guest.

The Call...

No.299 Net Ranking Lehigh @ no.52 Net Ranking Virginia Tech:

So, best I can auger out via Google previews in lieu of my typical notebook work(s).

Lehigh is at least twice as good as Delaware State.
They are a reasonable mid-major or a middleocore one at least.

They did finish (7-7) better than they began last year (1-1o)

–oOo–

They did put a 6-point scare into Boston College in A.c.c. terms during that betterment run as well.
They did go .8oo (win-percentage) in their last fortnight of spring ’22 play.

So, there is that as well.

They were (surprisingly to me) tabbed 3rd best by the Patriot League media a few days ago. Maybe they are a team: “on the come”?

---

The aforementioned Evan Taylor was named 1st-string All-Patriot on Monday as well.

Eye’ll go good for a ‘could be’ on that one…

…tho’ I’ma just not seeing the 3rd place (with two 1st-place votes) Patriot Love.

Harrison Ford and Eye are hawkish here and do not play that Game(s).

As said, this team beats the lowercase D.S.U., and yet we beat this team too.

Hopefully via 2o-3o points give/take.

💯

 

(95% confidence interval)
Virginia Tech=85, Lehigh=58

please support the VT F.C.A.!

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

 bourbonstreet**