The 2nd round of the NIT has been unkind to the Hokies in the past but on Wednesday night the basketball gods let to Hokies storm back from an early deficit and beat a very talented UCONN team inside Cassell Coliseum. In this blog entry I’m not going to do a short game recap, Kyle Tucker did a great job of that in his blog last night but I am going to say a few things about this game.
The Huskies were a talented team although they sported an 18-15 record over all, with only seven of those 18 wins coming during Big East play. However, two of their seniors in point guard Jerome Dyson and small forward Stanley Robinson are on just about every NBA mock draft I looked at before writing this blog. Also, the average star rating for the kids UCONN has is probably a full star more than what the Hokies have.
UCONN is a talented team but their problem has been a lack of leadership as well as consistency and that was once again their downfall in this game. As UCONN dominated the game early on, nobody stepped up and wanted to bury the Hokies. Just as the Huskies advanced the lead to 10, Dyson picked up his 2nd foul and was forced to sit for the end of the first half. Of course, this allowed the Hokies to go on a little run that expanded into the 2nd half.
JT hit a three pointer at the buzzer to send the Hokies into halftime 35-30. The Hokies opened up the 2nd half on a nine to two run that turned a game that was on the edge of becoming a blowout into the early going into a game that was one of the best basketball games on the night.
UCONN’s lack of leadership was clearly apparent on the last possession of the game after Hudson hit his jump shot to give the Hokies the lead. The Huskies imbounded the ball but neither Dyson, Kemba Walker, nor Stanley stepped up and said I want to shoot it. In fact, the last possession seemed rather chaotic on the offensive end. UCONN missed both of their shots, eventually fouled Bell with .7 seconds left and that officially ended the game.
Even though UCONN was down this year, it’s always nice to beat a team with that much history. Tech will now face the two seed Rhode Island Rams on Wednesday night inside Cassell Coliseum. The Rams were 40th in the RPI before the tournament and will be a tough test for the Hokies but since the game is in Cassell Coliseum, the Hokies may be hard to beat.
Stats
Notes
I would like to thank the student section and everybody who showed up to the game last night. Cassell looked amazing on TV and according to some of the students I talked to, the atmosphere in the 2nd half was electric as well. The Hokies will need you guys once again on Wednesday night because this Rhode Island team is one of the better teams in the NIT this year.
I also would like to thank Coach Greenberg for giving the ball to the hot hand in Hudson at the end of the game rather then trying to draw up a play for Delaney who was stone cold all night. Delaney finished with just six points on 2-14 shooting where as Hudson had 27 points on 11-19 shooting. That play worked beautifully and having two players who can hit game winning shots will really help this team next year.
With this win, the Hokies are now the 2nd winningest team in NIT history.
Next up
The Hokies will play their last game inside Cassell Coliseum this year win or lose against the Rhode Island Rams on Wednesday night. The game will be televised by ESPN.
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