#2o3 R.P.I. Virginia Military Institute @ #23 R.P.I. Virginia Tech: 

Virginia Tech men’s basketball returns to play on Thursday night over in a chilling-out New River Valley vs. former Southern Conference (alike) archrival V.M.I.

The Hokies are home from the Thanksgiving holidays after a stellar Air Force Tourney in which there is truly much to be grateful for. Like… how much football does Coach Mike Young, know? As he sure appears to have his hardwood X’s and O’s Summa Cum Laude straight A+++’s down pat. So, with that pat-on-the-O&M-back firmly in place, hopefully, this is not a whole lot more than a lay-up or trip-drill style game. Nonetheless, what you wanna know is… who is gonna win and by how much, right? So, let’s read on to find… outs!

Virginia Military Institute Head Coach: Dan Earl: age=46, 44–111 (.284) overall and at V.M.I. Has a rep’ for: defense, Guard/backcourt 3-point play, and discipline.
$200,000.oo (not including incentives, did just get a 2022 extension)

Youngling Dan Earl was born October 12, 1974, and is an American college basketball coach, hired as the head coach of the Virginia Military Institute on April 12, 2015. He is from Medford Lakes, New Jersey, and attended Shawnee High School in Medford, graduating in 1993. He was a 6′3″, 195 lb. 1993 Parade all-American Point-G and was named 1993 USA Today New Jersey Player of the Year in high school. He was named 2nd team All-Big Ten as a junior for the 1995–96 Penn State Nittany Lions before losing two seasons to injury. Earl starred on the basketball court at Penn State where he helped the Nittany Lions to one of the most prolific winning periods in the mid-’90s. He completed his eligibility for the team in 1999 and led Penn State basketball in assists four seasons.

Earl.edu received a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from Penn State in December 1997 and earned a master’s degree in business logistics at Penn State in 2007.

Baller Earl played professionally in Germany, Poland, and Portugal. He also spent time in the Continental Basketball Association as well as the NBA Development League. He got close to making a National Basketball Association team, wherein the 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons he spent time with the New Jersey Nets during their training camps.

Afterward, in 2006, Coach Earl joined his alma mater as an assistant coach. He spent six seasons with the team until 2011, at which time he became the associate head coach at the United States Naval Academy. Then three seasons ago he made the obvious pipeline transition to the Virginia Military Lexington-based school smoothy and resumè turnkey enough.

The Earl family has deep roots in basketball as father Denny was a starting forward for Rutgers in the mid-1960s where he played under head coach Bill Foster and alongside the late Jim Valvano.

Dan’s younger brother, Brian, started for Princeton from 1996-99 and helped the Tigers to 95 wins – the most of any player in school history. Brian currently serves as an assistant coach at Princeton.

Dan and his wife, Sheila, were married in the summer of 2008
and have two daughters,
Mila and Alyssa.

Virginia Military Institute at a glance:

• 22nd most 3’s attempted per game!
• 28th most in swipes per game!
• 43rd fewest personal-fouls ‘whistled’ against.
• 73rd in dimes dropped per game.
• 240th in turnovers per game.
• (the rest is not that good or that bad, alike).

Returning Starters=3

V.M.I. Strengths:

• Greg Parham —no, not the somewhat legendary Colorodoan whose page I ended up on and did not at first quite gather how he did whats as fiberglass went. As this is the 6′4″, 176 lb. hard-willing, hard-trying, and final year Point-G Greg Parham. The Richmond, Va. one. The “One” (hoops pun-intended) who was only the Virginia High School League Coaches Association State Player of the Year in 2015-16 for the VHSL State AAAA Championship team (Monacan H.S.) and who is only 3rd all-time in Commonwealth scholastic dimes dropped! Who, nearly got limited to no lookie-Lou love for it collegiately wise to boot. Oh well, although the 1st-team Academic All-American outta high school may have been a clue. as this g.Par’ has really blossomed as a final-year One for the Lexington crew. Up a whopping 180% on O to 17 ppg on 68% long may or may not hold 2021 springtime true. Tho’ it is a helluva a 2020 start. As Greg has been a real trooper for V.M.I. Starting, benching (6th man) and now starting again. Not everyOne who plays Pt.Guard takes that hoops Qb1 depth-charting well. Pretty durable kid too as he plays dinged in lieu of dingy reasons to check-out. And will be the best One on the court some nights this year. And the 3.5 rpg and 4.5 apg don’t hurt 1ι (one-iota) either. As this One can be a pretty good north-south One with some outside 3-game when he wants to be.
• 6′1″, 186 lb., sophomoric off-G, Kamdyn Curfman is a military campus marksman. At least when dialing long-distance in roundball with no word yet from the tradecraft rifle-range. Sniping good outside gunner of a pure 3-point shooter here men. 14 ppg on 1 outta 2 makes from deep does not suck; (although it does spread the floor). Kam’ leads V.M.I. in steals (1.5) and in FTA’s (100%).  First Honors and Dean’s List does not suck either, and neither did Curfman’s outburst type scoring in the DeMatha summer-league circuit vs. some big-time inner-city type of urban recruits at 19 ppg post-high school.

  

• Sr. Myles Lewis, is a 6′6″, final-year Wing who tips the Toledo’s at 186 lbs. Myles is third in scoring at 10 ppg and second in broad-work at 5.5 rpg. Both pleasant surprises thus far. Though he has not made a single Trey in well over 1.88 seasons of play. Not since New Year’s Eve, Eve 2018, actually. So, range is not his thing though defending is, and that that should never go cold. As MyLew is tied for the steals lead at 1.5 spg. A floor-burn, strawberry-flavored type of kid works here.

V.M.I. Weaknesses:

• The Keydets one star (G, Travis Evee) went Rice-a-Roni and portaled himself to the Owls out in Texas. Big So.Co. Rookie of the Year subtraction for poor V.M.I. here. As did his useful looking 12.9 ppg.
• Garrnett Gilkerson’s 9.9 ppg gonzo ain’t helping backcourt depth either.
• And that’s even worse when there really ain’t a lotta front-court here in the 1st, 2nd… or last-place.
• Honestly, this just ain’t a very sizey team in pure physical pick-up terms. The Keydets height is not as small-conference as you might expect; however, they are lighter in the pants than they are short in the legs.

Keydets Bench: (depth=8 or 9, everybody plays here with only 1 baller north of 25 mpg played!)

6′4″, 195 lb. Soph. year Louis Tang is said to be the 3rd-best option here— at least per Lindy’s pre-season magazine anywho. He is also said to be the best Taiwanese (Kaohsiung), baller on the court whenever he takes the same. Accordingly, his resumè does enjoy the highlight marker of: International Experience As Lou’ did run ball as a member of both the U16 and U17 Taiwanese National Teams, helping the U16 team to a second-place finish in FIBA Asia in 2015. Which is mo’ than you and I did combined. So, there is that, and there is also his tag of being the only Keydet who can attack the glass and rebound successfully from the edge. 8 ppg and a team-leading 6 rpg would seem to speak to this, and 33% behind the arc is not the worst in Euclidean terms.

Bunker Hill, W.Va.’s favorite son, one # 34 Jake Stephens is one your legit BIG here. All 6′10″, 266 lbs. worth of him. Jake is a Jr. year Center who contributes: 3.5 ppg, 5.0 rpg, and a team pacing 1.5 swats. Jake will prolly be carded into his 40’s and is a National Honor Society member on top of all of that. Jake is supposed to have good range (36% on three’s and 78% on FTA’s historically); although he is off to a chilly late Autumn start from the floor this season at a masonic or bricky looking 23% overall.

Illation, conclusion(s) and OPT digits:

Number of Keydets who could key @Tech=1 or 2.

the takeaway:
The takeaway here is… Virginia Military Institute -George Smith Patton Jr.’s first stomping-ground no less- was picked 10th in a race of 10 by all my preview magazines.

I’d have to call that a consensus picks— wouldn’t you?

As gone are the fun-n-gun days of Gay Elmore and the more recent up-tempo incarnation that was at least more parts television entertaining if not outright outcome engaging itself.

---

Now, well the truly admirable Keydets warrant another: “Thanks for serving” salute

And after that, they are a pretty fair to middling distance removed from moving much north of Sothern Conference doormat status. At least until they mature and matriculate another set of upperclassmen who can at least middleocrity So.Co. compete.

 ***

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

The annualized year-to-date vitals say that… VeeTee is up +4% in shooting percentage margin (more so on O); VeeTee is up a good-looking +11% in 3-point percentage margin (mostly on O), and VeeTee is up +3 boards in rebounding margin year-to-date.

The most recent 5-game metrics say that… in shooting percentage margin, in 3-point percentage margin and in rebounding margin… we should ask game #6 before we marginalize anything further.

VeeTee is up a nifty 9% at the charity stripe for the year.
V.M.I. is actually up +3 in R&R in the last Tourney type of fortnight.

VeeTee is a 1.ooo host; whereas V.M.I. is 0.ooo as a guest.

V.M.I. opponent’s shot a staggering 255 more FTA’s than V.M.I. did last campaign.
As there are perimeter teams… and then there is, V.M.I.

The Call...

No. 292 Net Ranking V.M.I. @ no.52 Net Ranking Virginia Tech:

Best I can see…

…Virginia Tech really should win this one folks.

And this just in… snow is rumored to be… white. Or at least pasty to ecru.
(with no word yet from Lumpy & Bumpy the missing final-2 ‘G’-unit dwarfs).

Not exactly going out over the thin Duck Pond ice with a hacksaw on that one, am Eye?

–oOo–

Nevertheless, this is a signature mess around with your rotations, your combinations, and tinker and putter around with this/that before All Coaching Conference play opens for (real/keeps) business in late December terms.

Though right now?

The incorrect 1 through 5 move(s) (hopefully) won’t expense you {sic: too} much, here.

As I doubt likable V.M.I. can (much) stop even our B-game punch.
Even if we are due to post-Tourney ‘bounce’ in
horse-racing terms.

As Seattle Glue need not apply in this one…

VeeTee hoops gets to 4-o and remain forever 2020, Young.

💯🏀💯

 

(93% confidence interval)
Virginia Tech=8o, Virginia Military Institute=55

please support the VT F.C.A.!

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

 bourbonstreet**