For some reason, the city of Tallahassee has been very unkind to the Hokies in Tech’s two moneymaking sports. The last time either the Tech football team or the Men’s basketball team won in Tallahassee, was back before I was born in February of 1990. Since that win, Tech is just 2-11 against the Noles on the hardwood.
Saturday night would prove once again that the Hokies are just cursed inside Florida States Tucker Center. Malcolm Delaney struggled from the floor, forcing up shots since none of his teammates could find a way to get open. Dorenzo Hudson had a solid night but both he and Delaney turned the ball over five times.
Jeff Allen struggled mightily, turning the ball over four times in just 17 minutes. Combine that with a few bogus mental errors and Allen may have played his worst game ever in a Hokies jersey.
However, despite all of that, the Hokies found a way to keep themselves within shouting distance and managed to turn a 10 point deficit with just over 90 seconds left, into a one point deficit with just under four seconds left. After two made free throws, there was some confusion on the court on the in bounds and Allen ended up chucking it halfway down the court into the arms of a Seminole officially ending the game.
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That final play really summed up the night for Seth Greenberg’s bunch. Tech struggled from the field and struggled to shoot over Florida State’s clear size advantage. The good news is that the Hokies is that they don’t have to face Florida State again this year, unless they meet in the ACC Tournament in March.
The Hokies won’t have much time to sulk about this one as they return to action on Monday night against NC Central in Tech’s last out of conference game. Tech’s next ACC game is this Saturday at home against the ACC’s last place team, the Boston College Eagles.
Stats
Bullet Points
- I’m not one to blame the officials for a loss. When you go on the road in the ACC you’re not going to get all of the calls you want and I thought for the most part the refs did a good job officiating the game last night. However, there are two calls I would be upset about if I were Seth Greenberg. They are the two under the basket, charging fouls against Malcolm Delaney. The new “halo rule” if you want to call it that, states that a defensive player cannot draw a charge under the basket. Both of these fouls came in the lane right on the outskirts of that 18-by-32 inch space. It was a judgment call, but one I thought should have went the Hokies way. Especially since this was a point of emphasis for the NCAA this offseason.
- In a lot of ways, the Hokies lost this game, more than FSU won it. The Seminoles jumped out to a big first half lead but Tech found a way to claw back in it and always keep this one in doubt until the final two seconds. However, if Tech wants to blame this loss on something, they should blame it on their 11-21 free throw shooting. Take away Delaney’s 8-12 night and Tech was just 3-9 from the charity stripe. Victor Davila’s 0-2 night makes him just 1-6 in his last two games and just 23-45 on the season. Needless to say, If Tech hit four or five more free throws in this game, the outcome could have been a lot different.
- The talk, before the season, was could the Hokies find a third scorer to help out Jeff Allen and Malcolm Delaney. Well in this game, the Hokies failed to find a third scorer outside of Hudson and Delaney. The next highest scorer was Terrell Bell with just five points. Now, this was a defensive game that could have easily ended up in the 40’s for both teams. But, if Tech wants to make a run in the ACC, they are going to need somebody to step up and score 10 points consistently each night.
- With this loss the Hokies have fallen to 1-2 in the ACC, but the good news is that their next four games are all winnable. They play NC Central on Monday, Boston College at home on Saturday, then the following week they travel to both UVA and Miami. Tech has always played well in both of those arenas and I don’t see Tech losing to either NC Central of Boston College at home. The Hokies could really use a four game winning streak and could really use two ACC road wins this season.
Next up
Tech will play NC Central on Monday night at 8 pm inside Cassell Coliseum. There is no TV for this game.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
The bottom line is that we simply didn’t shoot the ball well enough, either from the floor (34%) or from the FT line (54%). Had we hit just a couple more of the open looks that we got and shot over 70% from the line like a good team is supposed to do instead of barely shooting 50%, we’d be celebrating a win today.
But as you say, losing on the road to one of the better teams in the ACC is no great disgrace. But assuming that we beat NC Central tomorrow night, the one thing we absolutely, positively can’t do is slip up at home against BC on Saturday. BC is a bottom-tier ACC team this year and we simply must to hold serve at home. But assuming that we can get two wins this week, we’ll be 15-2 with a couple of potentially winnable ACC road games against Miami and UVA coming up.