Thursday: Hokies fall as Green stays potent; New OC at UVa
FUN WHILE IT LASTED: Virginia Tech builds a double-digit lead in the first half but cannot hold it, as No. 14 Miami rallies for a 73-64 victory at Cassell Coliseum. Berman has the details here. The Hokies (11-9, 2-5) have dropped seven of nine and will travel to UNC on Saturday for a noon game on WDBJ.
ONE-MAN SHOW: Tech point guard Erick Green, the nation’s scoring leader, tallied 30 points last night. More importantly, he did it on on 11 of 20 shooting. What we are witnessing from him is pretty amazing. Green is the focus of every opposing defense, yet he’s scoring 25.5 points per game on 49.8 percent field goal shooting. He’s hitting 38.5 percent of his 3-pointers. Would be nice if he had some help.
THAT WAS FAST: One day after announcing the departure of offensive coordinator Bill Lazor to the Eagles, UVa announces the hiring of Steve Fairchild to fill that role. Doug has the story here. Fairchild was the head coach at Colorado State until 2011, when he was fired and became a Chargers assistant. He’ll make $450,000. Say this for this for the Cavs: They are sparing no expense to surround Mike London with experienced aides.
WHAT ARE THEY GETTING? I know our sports editor Steve Hemphill, a native of the Rocky Mountain State, watched plenty of Colorado State games when Fairchild compiled a 16-33 record there. Maybe he’ll chime in today with some thoughts, because I can’t offer much. Jeff White of virginiasports.com asked Fairchild to describe his offensive philosophy. Fairchild said: “I think we’d like to establish a very physical offensive group that can wear you down running the football and then get some big plays in the passing game.”
THRILLAH ON THE NEW RIVAH: VMI standout Stan Okoye scores VMI’s final 16 points as the Keydets rally to beat Radford 70-69. Ray has the details here.
OPEN MINDED: More brilliance from football players at the Super Bowl. San Francisco cornerback Chris Culliver shares these thoughts on the potential of gay players in the league: “I don’t do the gay guys, man. I don’t do that. No, we don’t got no gay people on the team, they gotta get up out of here if they do. Can’t be with that sweet stuff. Nah…can’t be…in the locker room man. Nah.”
BATS ON THE WAY: The warm weather of the past two days has got me thinking some baseball. Here is the U.S. roster for the World Baseball Classic, which starts March 2. R.A. Dickey is the ace of a rotation that lacks a lot of star power, but the offense (Mauer, Braun, Jones, Stanton, Wright, Teixeira) ought to be pretty good. Looking forward to that event. I might be the only one.
HOAX OPERA: One part of the paper I never miss is the TV listings on page 2 of the sports section. Today the categories include Golf, Men’s Basketball, NBA, NHL, Soccer, Women’s Basketball, and…wait for it…”Manti Te’o Hoax.” That’s a category! Anyway, if you’re interested, part one of Dr. Phil’s interview with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo is 4 p.m. on WSLS.
ALSO RECEIVING VOTES: No. 5 Duk tops Wake Forest 75-80…Michael Snaer hits another late 3-pointer to lift FSU over Maryland 73-71…That Michigan-Indiana game on Saturday is going to be awesome.
IDENTIFY THE MOVIE
“Ray. If someone asks if you are a god, you say, ‘Yes!’”
January 31, 2013 - 8:28 AM
I’m definitely looking forward to the WBC. Really enjoyed watching it last go around, even some games not involving the US like when the Netherlands upset of the Dominican Republic.
What can you say? Eric Green is amazing. It’s a shame that his talent is largely going to waste. We’re witnessing one of the greatest seasons any ACC player has ever had.
Ghostbusters!
Movie is Ghostbusters.
Some performance by Stan Zokoye, scoring 13 points in the last 73 seconds. I’ll bet VT could use another scorer like that…
You are right–don’t see too many who are excited about the WBC. But, I have to remember that pitchers will be reporting in a couple of weeks.
Sorry, Stan Okoye, not Zokoye. Although the latter does sound like a superhero.
Anyone else get the notion that U Va’s assistant coaches were hired with the idea that one of them can move up if (when) they fire Mike London?
I haven’t watched too much Hokie b’ball this year. From the way it sounds, Green needs help. Could it be that he sees himself as the only offensive option just as Logan Thomas did in football?
Real quick hire by UVa. Did they have a good idea a while back that Lazor was leaving?
Ghostbusters it is. Nicely done.
540–Yeah, London said in the release that they knew he was heading to the NFL eventually. Had to have contingencies lined up.
I have been a Hokie BBall fan for decades, seen some good ones come and go, often without much of a supporting cast, but never anything quite like this. Green isn’t forcing his shots, he isn’t ignoring his teammates, they just cannot seem to get the ball in the hoop consistently enough to help him out. Our players try hard, they hustle, they shoot…and they miss. Dunks, layups, short jumpers, they just cannot get the shots to fall. While Seth was often an annoying guy to watch, and certainly no fave of the officials, I never thought of him as a bad coach, or even wrong for the team. That said, I’m also supportive of JJ and wish him and the team all the best. Hopefully, he will be able to recruit some scorers in the future because this season seems to be getting out of hand. I will still watch, no matter how painful the experience, to support Green and his spectacular season, and also because I love the Hokies, win or lose, but it isn’t much fun this year.
So, the Hurryin’ Hokies 2.0 that once resembled a roadster tearing up the pavement now resemble a beat up Buick running on one clyinder and three flat tires. Remarkable transition.
No doubt the VT basketball team has to go Green. 11 for 20? It`s not like he`s throwing up a bunch of shots to remain the nations scoring leader. He tries to get everyone involved. He`ll probably get screwed out of player of the year by Tobacco roaders Plumlee or Leslie. He`s the MVP of Hokies. I`m sure. Ghostbusters? I could have sworn that was the opening line from “The Ray Lewis Story”
Great season by Green. It’s amazing that teams know that for the most part Green is all they have to worry about, and he still does it. The team is really not very good, but is getting better. I no longer live in the area, so I can’t get to many games. But, I noticed that Cassell looked about 60% full last night, and against Virginia had many empty seats. As an undergrad and graduate student, non-student tickets were hard to come by. And, the place was loud. Not any more.
Ralph, Love the Ray Lewis comment. Never been a fan of his, (as a Hokie, I just don’t like anything to do with Miami) even before the incident in Atlanta. Just like O.J., he proved that if you have enough money for high priced lawyers, you can stay out of jail. Now he’s praised by almost everyone. I won’t say he does not have talent, but you’ll never convince me he is the great guy they are making him out to be.
This is off subject and goes back a while, but I’ll always remember what Chris Rock said about the Simpson case. “The O.J. case wasn’t about race, it was about money. He had the money for those big lawyers. If he had been a bus driver, he would now be known as “Orenthal, the bus driving murderer”.”
If Greens sister is half as good as he is, we missed out big time !!!!!
Basketball at the moment is missing in action in Blacksburg. Green is fantastic but his supporting cast is anemic. Have to remember, these are SG’s recruits and Green was probably the lessor ballyhooed of them all. I think Tech was his only Div I offer. On the women’s side, we’re just putting a group on the court to comply with Title IX. Weak coach and weak team and it appears that no one in the Athletic Dept cares.If our rtecruiting philosophy doesn’t change, many more years of the same.
News nobody really cares about: Dan Marino confesses to having an affair and fathering a child.
I know, shocking.
Tom L. Agree with you but remember SG also recruited Delaney, Allen, A.D.,Washington and Hudson among others who got us into the top 4 of he ACC 4 or 5 times during his tenure.Also, I heard them say last night that Larranaga said he started recruiting Green in the 10 grade so maybe he made it known he was going to Tech so nobody else bothered. Also, with Harrell and possibly DFS this team would not be anemic. I will never believe that this wasn`t a screw up by Weaver as was pointed out by some well known basketball writers at the time. Game day at VT and beating Duke in the same day? Don`t hold your breath.
#14 – I don’t think you know what you are talking about. Fan of him or not, SG was an ardent recruiter with decent success in getting talent. JJ started out behind the 8-ball and maybe the best recruit decommitted when SG was fired.
Our issue in hoops is trying to get from “might be” or “almost there” status to “consistently above average in Conference”.
SG had 10 seasons and didn’t get there. He still has a serious following among fans. JJ has had 20 games. He has 9 scholorship players and we just aren’t deep. It looks like he has a good class coming in.
Give him a break, ok?
Too early for baseball. The Series just ended – didn’t it? Was November so long ago?
I think Green is a first rounder.
I am tired of Te’o
I though it was funny last night to hear the commentators make comparisons between Green and Miami’s Larkin. Then one of them went on to say that Larkin is the best guard in the league. It made me laugh. Here Green is not chucking up shots ala Alan Iverson and he still leads the country in scoring…..with absolutely ZERO help. He continues to draw the oppositions best defender as well as double teams and continues to drop 25+. How can he not be the best player in the conference this year?
Z-Man Agree, enough on Te’o. Really tired of him being the victum. What gets me is that it’s news. Why?
If SG was still onboard we would still have Harrell and Finney-Smith. That’s not JJ’s fault, it’s Weaver’s. I also blame Green somewhat in that he was very vocal that he might leave if he wasn’t satisfied with the new coach and he was partial to JJ – we should have called his bluff. Yes I’m sure the players all liked JJ, but a coach is not there for you to like. I’m sure they enjoy his run and gun style of play absent any sign of defense – what’s not to like. I guarantee that this team would not be this bad if SG was still on board. Green might not be the leading scorer in the nation, but you can bet SG would have had them playing defense and being accountable for the terrible turnovers. This team lacks discipline and that is JJ’s fault. Why would we hire a guy that nobody was considering for a head coaching job to coach an ACC team? You mean to tell me that Weaver, who let Frank Beamer keep BS in place for a decade, couldn’t wait long enough to at least tell SG he was being let go before alerting the media for a press conference? Shameful. Yes SG had a bad year last year and had narrowly missed far too many NCAA tournaments (that many basketball authorities would tell you was ludicrous), but he also fielded a top 4 ACC basketball team 4 out of 5 years and was bringing in top recruits. VT couldn’t even make the Big East tournament until Seth got there and SG had them competing in the ACC, beating the big boys. I fear the JJ hire will set VT basketball back decades, probably back to the Ricky Stokes days at a minimum. Does anyone expect they’ll get better next year?
This team is going backwards in all aspects of the game; passing, shooting, defending, FT’s…you name it. I don’t think anyone could be seriously watching this team play and not say they are poorly prepared to play and that is the coaches fault.
I know I’m being hard on JJ, but my ire is mostly directed at Weaver. Why was SG fired so we could hire a nobody assistant? Because he didn’t foster a family atmosphere? What? I could care less that he didn’t give his assistants enough hugs and the return of JJ to the head coaching position is in this fans opinion a stab in the back. How’s that for family?
Phil shot a 60 in Phoenix today. His putt on the last hole seemed to go in and then swung out. Just saw the highlights but he seemed zeroed in with his irons.
Green is neither a first rounder or best player in ACC. Book it!
Roll Tide!
VTRedwolf @#20. Ditto and amen, brother. One other thing I did notice. Nowhere did I hear or read a good word about SG from anybody in Blacksburg after he was fired. The voice used to fawn over him on the Monday night show and after games but said or wrote nothing after Seth was fired. Funny to say about Seth but I guess he was the red haired step child of the Weaver “family”.
New OC at UVa a quick hire and a mystery to all! Steve Whoo??
Ralph lots of us didn’t hate on Seth. What were we to do when he was gone?
Cry baby tears? We got no pull here, we just be fans, man. Suck it up my friend, we got what we got, so let’s pull for it.
Wow!!………With Erick Green gone next year, will the Hokies basketball program get worse!……And what about the women’s program – or lack of it!……
Does AD Jim Weaver only care about football??……….Even that hasn’t gone too well lately.
What going on at VT?