Your South Carolina State basketball preview!

#333 R.P.I. South Carolina State #24 R.P.I. Virginia Tech: 

Virginia Tech men’s basketball returns to the Cassell Coliseum court to face -and prolly pistol whip- now 2 up and 8 down, though fresh off of a major VicTory over Voorhees (New Jersey), South Carolina State on a Sunday 1 pm matinee on the ACCNetwork and streaming over on ESPN3.

The Hokies face a team that just beat *the* D-2 team (90-68) who is/was: No. 1 in Division II in total scoring, No. 3 in Division II in total steals and ranks No. 24 in Division II in scoring offense per game by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). And if I now told you I knew what that meant I’d be lying to you, and as we all know… “lying is for, rugs.” As I’ma still pretty sure that this team still pretty well sucks; nevertheless, much Bulldog dap on that. As I suppose that is a pretty big win as Tyrion Lannister (midget)-fighting goes. And in the same breath… Eye thought we’d beat @O.d.u. and we did overdose up there… so, just goes to show you how little I know. I do however know that the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference -where these Bulldogs bite- is ranked 32nd of 32 D-1 conferences in R.P.I. terms. Still yet, what you wanna know is who will win and by how much; right? So read on… to find, out!

South Carolina State Head Coach: Murray Garvin: age=44, 64-115 overall and at USCSt. Has a rep’ for: toughness, Faith, and a family type coach.
$000,000.oo (I did not find this, I did find they cut his salary by 20% and they only have 11.4 schollies! yikes/wow!!!)

The Pikeville, KY native earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education from Eastern Kentucky University in 1998. He also serves on the Bamberg, Calhoun, Orangeburg County Board of Trustee’s for The Fellowship of Christian Athletes (F.C.A.) and is a member of Epsilon Omega Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

Before entering the college coaching arena, Garvin served as an assistant coach at Tates Creek High School in Lexington, Ky. for three seasons. In the summer of 2011, Garvin participated in the NCAA-Black Coaches and Administrators Achieving Coaching Excellence (ACE) Program. He was one of 12 men’s basketball coaches selected nationwide to participate in a four-day event in Indianapolis, Ind.

Prior to coming to South Carolina State, Garvin served as associate head coach and assistant coach at Winston-Salem State (2008-10). During the 2009-10 season, Garvin helped coach the Rams to the CIAA Southern Division Championship and an NCAA Division II Tournament appearance.

Good guy… tho’ is he a good, coach?

Garvin also served as an assistant coach at Charleston Southern (2005-08) and was the athletic director and head men’s basketball coach at Clinton Junior College in Rock Hill, S.C. from 2001-05.

Big Whistle Garvin enters his fourth full season as the head men’s basketball coach at South Carolina State. This past season marked his 14th year on the collegiate coaching level and 17th overall. Garvin served two seasons as associate head coach for the Bulldogs before being promoted to the big-dog in 2013.

During the 2015-16 season, Garvin led SC.State to its best regular-season finish since 2005 with a 19-15 overall record, including a 12-4 MEAC mark. The Bulldogs finished the regular season tied for second place, advanced to the MEAC Championship game and earned a postseason tournament bid to the CIT (Collegeinsider.com Postseason Tournament), the first such appearance since 2003.

For his efforts, Garvin earned numerous Coach of the Year honors, among them M.E.A.C. Coach of the Year and NABC District 15 Coach of the Year. He was also a finalist for the Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year award, given to the top Minority coach in the country.

Coach Garvin, however, has the smallest hoops staff (and prolly one of the least expensive basketball budget) I’ve ever seen us face as well. (2), as in two whole entire staff members live here. I wonder when it is your day to wash the… jocks?

Daddy Garvin and his wife, Latanza, are the proud parents of two daughters — Khalia Garvin (16) and Jaila Garvin (10) and are members of Saint Paul Baptist Church in Orangeburg, Sc.

So. Carolina St. at a glance:

  • 268th in 3-point shooting (31%).
  • 317th in fewest turnovers (143 ∑).
  • 313th most in personal-fouls “whistled” against!
  • 327th in assists (10.4 apg).
  • 335th in defensive FG percentage allowed (48.8%)!
  • 335th fewest swats (1.7 bpg)!
  • No injuries listed — “THX” @Coach God.

SCSU Returning Starters=2

South Carolina State Strengths:

  • P/F, Damani Applewhite counts as a strength and he may be the only strongman bulldog here. As he leads So.Car.St. in: scoring (19.8 ppg), rebounding (7.2 rpg), shooting (56.6%) and he is the silver medalist on 3-point shooting (44%). Coach Atlas and I both agree… get this kid some Doan’s Backache Pills, stat. As he’s carrying this saggy looking team full born lumbar spinal tap weight, best he can, far as he can, for as long as he can —presuming he does not eventually… tap, out. And he is pretty long at 6′8″ and pretty lean at a jumping jack looking mere 195 third year lbs.! “Call me Jesus, cause I got game” is precisely what his twitter feed told me to tell all of you— so, Godspeed on rolling like dat. Applewhite did have a few (unranked) N.b.a. Draft webpage listings; so there is that and he is listed as a very versatile guy by Lindy’s and has just won Defensive Player of the Week honors for the M.E.A.C., so there is that too. He has some strength to his game, as a 330 lb. dead-lift for such a wiry frame ain’t 110v suggests. And from what I can see, one #35 is prolly a fringe export baller of overseas Koufax or lefty kinda pro’.

    This guy and his ‘tude can both, play.
  • Ozante Fields is a 6′7″, 215 lb. sophomoric S/F who leads the Bulldogs in shooting (.6oo) and in swats (.6 bpg) on 7.5 ppg with 5.4 carroms in addition to that. And beyond that, that’s about all I could find here.
  • 5′9″ and 159 lb. final year Va.Beach is for lovers Janai Raynor Powell is the starting Pt.Guard and he is second in scoring at 10.5 ppg and first in assists (2.9 apg) and in swipes (1.4 spg) as well. However, it is his outside shooting -when this mighty mite can get his shot off- that is sizzling hawt like the sun at 56% from range thus far. Now mix in 85% on FTs and 48% from the floor and you have a pretty sharp player on an inch for inch basis in conglomerate terms. Lindy’s says this kid is known for his ball-handling skilz so I’ll run with that.
  • A whopping 6-man recruiting class means that the future is bright(er); maybe… or at least So.Car.State is surely playing 2019 for 2022.

South Carolina State Weaknesses:

  • A whopping 6-man recruiting class means that the future is bright(er); maybe… or at least they are surely playing 2019 for 2022. And it also means they are… young. As in very what with 54% of the Bulldogs roster listed as raw, nugget, rookie year voters!
  • This leads me to posit, aver and connote… experience could actually be found wanting; here.
  • This is a diminutive roster, with nobody >6′8″, and nobody north of 220 lbs.!
  • That, and they are pretty dang backcourt green-wood or unseasoned in their 3-G sets. As all three 2018 backcourt starters and right at 40 ppg are gonzo here.
  • Absolutely zero biographical info’/411 lives here. NONE. Never seen a website with zippo,  zilch, nil, nada… well, not ’till, now. As their website only listed height(s), not weight(s). Way to save four nickels on the 20% dollar fis¢al throat-slash indeed.

Bulldog Bench: (depth=3 to 5)

Second-year Four, Ian Kinard gives you some substitute height 6′8″ and muscle 230 lbs. and 4.2 ppg and 2.3 rpg although his 30% shooting on 23% long is pretty short on keen here. Freshmenic backcourter Allen Hatchett Jr. (6′4″, 200 lb.) gets you 2.6 ppg and plays for his defense. As his offense is nearly, well; offensive (25% overall and 17% deep) indeed. Back-up combo-G Jahmari Etienne (6′3″ and 190 lbs.) at least bring you some experience as a third-year East Georgia C.C. transfer baller. Yet his 31% from the floor and 27% from beyond the arc are bringing you (orange) paint-chips as I type.

Domesticating these Bulldogs is really all about what, here?

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Illationconclusion(s) and OPT digits:

Number of Bulldogs who could start @Tech=1.

the takeaway:
The takeaway here is… plain-n-simple folks… this is a bad basketball team.

Possibly the worst team or zeta-dog -where the view never changes- that we will see all year. And this from a 3-time former Bulldog owner his own self.

As even if this is my kinda mascot, this team could not even beat Donald Penobscot of M*A*S*H Olympics fame/infamy. And that’s sayin’ sompthin’… {sic: “woof”}.

 ***

Lindy’s said that this U-S-C-St. hoops team was one of the smallest teams in the country last year, they praised their top-2 ballers (Applewhite and Raynor Powell). They also said that that was a good start and then they literally turned right around and said: “that might be where it ends” for the corkscrew tailed Bulldogs this year. As the Bulldogs did open the year beating some team called the: Brevard College Tornados (99-51) and after that they have been dwagged out ever since. As these Bulldogs rang up a whopping 129 L-streak composite point deficit immediately after that.

Although they did almost upset Purdue (Fort-Wayne, 4 points) and Jacksonville (2 points), so maybe there are a few bully signs of life, here?

the call

I do know that South Carolina State has been (routinely) cranked by 14 points or more in 88% of their L’s and quite frankly… that felt about the same as the Tyson Fury Deontay W.b.c. Heavyweight Championship draw felt. i.e. it felt generous (to my boy Wilder) and yes I am a big-big Deontay fan.


As this is not a good basketball team -picked M.E.A.C. bottom half or worse by all my preview mag’s- and that from the worst basketball conference in the land.

So.Car.St. is o-8 on the road having dropped 13 straight away whereas V.Tech is four for four or 100% @home this campaign. As Road Warrior’s Hawk and Animal this Bulldogs just; ain’t. And on top of that, in their collective last five contests, V.Tech holds a nearly preposterous 26% aggregate FG-percentage-margin advantage from the floor and then an even more redunklous 27% combined 3-point-percentage-margin edge from long-distance. Finally,  The Hokies are 2-o all-time against South Carolina State and 31-o against schools currently in the M.E.A.C.

You do the… maths.

As +1 on rest Buzzketball rolls here… the only real mental accumulation is to determine by exactly how much they roll and how soon Coach Williams yanks the starters? As I am curious to see if Buzz has authentically got this 9th in shooting overall (51.5%) and 3rd in 3-point shooting (44.8% deep) team to buy into defending?

Because… no matter the crosshair marksmanship of this set of 2019 snipers -and as P.s.u. just showed us- this 12th best in points allowed Tech team (59.3 ppg) has got to defend (76th/40.2%), as its shot won’t always drop and it fundamentally can not out rebound much of anyone in-and-of-itself. So it must generate extra possessions off of halt-unit turnovers forced. And not lookahead to next week real final (vs. Washington)…

Still yet, this looks like a big winter storm outside with a sunny clear-sky match-up indoors. As this one is not even an announced pop-quiz right before final exams.

That satire aside, do be careful in the snow gents… may the traveling Saint’s bless So.Carolina State’s and your frosty trip home.

(97% confidence interval)
Virginia Tech
=86, South Carolina State=52

LETS GO!

Hokies!

 bourbonstreet**

2 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Anybody remember when McD would give all student ticket holders a soda at 70, fries at 80, burger at 90 and full meal when the Hurryin’ Hokies hit 100? This has the look of a full meal game.

    1. And McDonald’s would be PACKED after the game. I think that promo lasted for my first 2 years there, and the players knew about the promo and did try to RUTS to get the students the free big mac at least.

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