MBB: VT 64, Duke 60 Post-Game Thread

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Originally Posted by RoyalBlue08

Va Tech is celebrating like they just won some kind of championship. Quite funny.

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For them, this is a championship. They just punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament, only the second time they've been there with Greenberg as coach if I heard correctly. I'd imagine a similar display of emotion if we beat them in football to get a bid to some crappy bowl game.

Winnable game, but pretty poor execution by Duke down the stretch. We quit scoring on offense and committed two incredibly costly turnovers after taking care of the ball very well for the entire game. We shut down Delaney, but their supporting cast played their tails off. We were flat outworked on the offensive glass, and settled way to much for 3's early in the shot clock. Despite all that, we still had a great chance to win, but our rock missed his FT's when it counted. I have a hard time fathoming how we couldn't even get a shot off with 20 seconds to go and 4 shooters on the court.

Va. Tech played well, and deserved to win. It's just disappointing that we let this one get away. It's the first time all year I felt like we were the better team that day and still lost.

At least #4 and #5 lost as well, so we'll likely stay on the #1 line another week.

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Originally Posted by Gthoma2a

As I think about it, I think we need more than just winning the ACC. Kansas is above us right now, Pitt is likely above us, Ohio State is past us, and BYU may have just moved past us. We may need Texas to beat Kansas. The ACC is weak and having two losses this year will really hurt us.

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gotta win out (regular season and tourney) to have a shot at this point

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Originally Posted by Lord Ash

The postgame celebrations were totally and completely over the top for a regular season game between two non-rivals.

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Gotta disagree. That's four season's worth of frustration redeemed for VaTach and their fans tonight. Barring a collapse, that win ensures their seniors are going dancing for the first and only time. Good on them.

It seemed like Kyle and Nolan forgot that there were three other teammates on the court. Each forced some shots with plenty of time on the shot clock in the last 4 minutes.

We lost because of seriously bad shot selection down the stretch!

Oh, well.

Guess I'd rather lose to VT on the road than lose to Carolina next Saturday. If we beat Carolina again, I'll call the regular season a success.

Remember, we lost 5 games last year.

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Originally Posted by Lord Ash

Very, very strange game to watch, and not just because of the camera angles. We looked solid for most of the game, and then it sort of sputtered away. Delaney hitting that shot with a minute or two to go, you knew it was trouble...

Very, very strange game. Not the least bit enjoyable to watch. The postgame celebrations were totally and completely over the top for a regular season game between two non-rivals.

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True, they were over the top, but I think when they become less so is when we have to start worrying. It seems like everyone in the ACC thinks we are rivals with them even if we don't consider them the same. Maybe this year we won't have to listen to Seth Greenberg whine on the selection show for an hour like he usually does.

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Originally Posted by Gthoma2a

As I think about it, I think we need more than just winning the ACC. Kansas is above us right now, Pitt is likely above us, Ohio State is past us, and BYU may have just moved past us. We may need Texas to beat Kansas. The ACC is weak and having two losses this year will really hurt us.

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Thank you, this is exactly what i meant by help. All 4 of these teams win out, I think we're left at a 2.

Have to say, this is the most disappointing loss of the season thus far, since I think we outplayed the Hokies for the first 35 minutes of this game. I was very upset with Kyle's shot selection - since I felt he forced way too many threes or long-range twos early in the shot clock. I can't blame him for missing shots, but I wish we wouldn't take so many quick, contested ones. Never thought I'd say it, but we really needed to get Mason the ball more - he and Nolan were our two best offensive players tonight, and he just did not get the ball. I also would have liked to see Dre get more touches.

I understand that sometimes players have off nights - and so I cannot fault Seth, Ryan or Kyle for missing shots. However, I would have liked to see better game-management and shot selection from our entire team in the waning minutes. We just looked plain disorganized and confused in our last few possessions.

However, there were a few positives to take from this game:
1. Miles' defense is much improved
2. Mason is turning into a BIG asset. He was out-of-his-mind clutch tonight, and almost single-handedly saved us from defeat with his big steal and big rebound.
3. Nolan and Kyle played excellent defense. Nolan totally shut down Delaney.
4. Tyler Thornton is not extremely physically gifted, but he is one hell of a basketball player.
5. Andre's shot is coming around (though he did force one towards the end that positively enraged me).

We need a lot of work on game management. That remains the biggest thing I miss about Kyrie - kid has a gift for managing basketball games. All in all though, we're still a good team, and we still are among the best in the country. However, I do not think we will get a #1 seed anymore.

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Originally Posted by cbnaylor

If someone was to say that this would be the last L then I will take it...does this game remind you of last year? Anybody anybody.

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we were never out of control down the stretch last year, even in the loss to maryland.... simply missing shots is different from taking terrible shots...

Time to not overreact too much. It was an average performance against a team with their backs to the wall. Remember, VaTech hit at least 4 anomalous 3's from Jeff Allen and Erick Green--you should expect at most 1 of those to go in. That in itself is a 9 point swing.

A few observations:
1) Kelly has not shot well lately; need him to hit open shots for him to be a contributor on the floor.
2) VaTech dominated the offensive boards. They are not a strong O-rebounding team, this was concerning.
3) Singler did a great job drawing fouls and getting to the line. His shot will come back, I'd rather have him struggle now vs. in the tournaments.

Hopefully the rebounding is a one game issue. If so, the team is in great shape.

Duke as a team didn't seem too ready to play tonight, strangely. We came out flat, emotionally, and just couldn't find the defense when we really needed it. I don't see it often, but we didn't bring our effort. I know we rebound very well after a loss and hopefully we can right the ship before we face the holes next weekend, but Duke is going to need to bring effort for two halves and on both ends of the court.

dth.

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Originally Posted by KShip21

Thank you, this is exactly what i meant by help. All 4 of these teams win out, I think we're left at a 2.

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If they actually make BYU a 1 seed, I think a 16 may have a decent shot at beating a 1.

Tough way to lose a game. I thought we did a great job of matching Virginia Tech's physicality in the first half, but then we became way too comfortable shooting threes when we had a chance to put them away in the second half.

Also, it was disappointing to see uncharacteristic offensive/ballhandling miscues by our star seniors as the pressure ratcheted up near the end.

The plus side: We'll have a great chance to redeem ourselves - and prove that we have more mental and physical toughness under pressure than we exhibited tonight - next Saturday in Chapel Hill. (NOT looking past Clemson; just saying that the level of pressure will be highest on the road.)

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Originally Posted by Andre Buckner Fan

If they actually make BYU a 1 seed, I think a 16 may have a decent shot at beating a 1.

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BYU would still be a 20-pt favorite

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Originally Posted by cbnaylor

If someone was to say that this would be the last L then I will take it...does this game remind you of last year? Anybody anybody.

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The timing is similar, but the games themselves were not very much like each other. In last year's Maryland game, they were throwing up ridiculous shots that really had no business going in. It was one of those games where you had to say to yourself, "geez, if those types of shots are going to go in, then there's really not too much you can do."

This game was absolutely ours for the taking.

I agree w/ most everything so far but would add that I think it was a mistake to put Curry back in at the end of the game. He had been sitting for a good while, was out of the flow, and had proven he was not having a good night.

Also, we need to start driving the ball inside (ie. Kyle vs. Temple) early and hitting higher percentage shots/drawing fouls rather than fall behind and have to come back - that's getting old.

Ryan Kelly had a key defensive rebound right in his hands and let a Va. Tech guy come take it. More than missed shots that was aggrevating to see. You gotta want it a little more than that.

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Originally Posted by rotogod00

BYU would still be a 20-pt favorite

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I'm not saying it's at all likely. But I'm saying they'd be one of the weakest one seeds in recent memory, and therefore it's more likely. If they're a one seed, I'd love to be a two seed in their bracket, let's say...

I think its way too early to panic about the #1 seed. There's a lot of basketball to be played between now and the seedings - I expect others to lose as well.

I don't think a 2 seed is the end of the world if it plays out that way. You just need to get hot at the right time. We lost a game near the end of the last year and that worked out well.