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The Hokies completed the warm-up portion of their schedule and so far, James Johnson’s club remains perfect. Tech held off a pesky Appalachian State team that played well above their record on the day. The Mountaineers started off the day hot from the floor, shooting a blistering 62-percent in the first 10 minutes of the game. But, their hot start subsided and the Hokies were able to escape to a double digit lead in the 2nd half.
Overall, the Hokies played well today. Erick Green finished with a career high in points with 27, four assists, and four rebounds. Jarrell Eddie had another great shooting day making 7-9 from the floor and scoring 23 points. The junior also added four of Virginia Tech’s five made 3-pointers on the day. Marshall Wood received a boost in minutes today and responded well. The young freshman scored 13 points and added eight rebounds.
This game was called tightly on both sides and for the first time this season, the Hokies had to deal with some foul trouble. Green had to exit the game late in the first half after picking up his 2nd personal foul. Raines picked up a couple quick fouls in the 2nd half and was forced to take a seat on the bench. Appalachian State had four players with four fouls and one with five. That led to the Hokies shooting 39 free throws on the day, making 30 (77-percent).
The Mountaineers entered this game just 1-3 on the season so this isn’t an overly great team. But Appy State played well so the score wasn’t overly surprising. Plus, the atmosphere inside Cassell was less than intense with most of the students en route back to Blacksburg today.
So far this season, the Hokies have done just enough to win. With Iowa up next in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, it’s going to take a better effort to win that game. The Hawkeyes are 5-1 on the season but did lose to Wichita State by 12 on Wednesday. Their best win came over a decent Western Kentucky team that’s 3-2 this season.
This game will be a good test for both teams. Hopefully, the fan support is good and the Hokies can get to 6-0 on the season.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
My main concern right now is the bigs down low. If Raines and Barksdale don’t pick up their physicality/overall play, it’ll be a tough couple more months. JVZ is going to get eaten alive, that’s a given, he’s just too soft and hesitant at this point in his college career, and looks to have little confidence in himself. But I’m hoping that they can elevate their play as we start to play some better competition.
The ability to stroke it from three will benefit us greatly and keep us in some ball games if we can keep it up, especially Eddie, holy cow he’s hot right now. I’m still remaining optimistic though! I’ve really enjoyed watching JJ’s squad compete this season, go Hokies!
Again, the weakest schedule in the last 20 years by my count. You cant get much weaker than 5-18…every team in the ACC would be 5-0 against this group. As most major D1 teams are playing in high profile tourneys to test tehmselves we will see if this schedule hurts or helps us down the road when we play someone other than the little sisters of the poor!