More from Hokies, JJ on win over Iowa
If you’ve already read my game story in the previous post, here is more about what the Hokies had to say about the win over Iowa:
James Johnson: “That’s a very good ballclub we just beat. …. Our guys stepped up to the challenge tonight. We talked about the physicality of the game, the size, and I thought my post guys did an unbelievable job. ….. The guards, they played like they’ve been playing all season.”
Johnson on Rankin: “He did a good job for us defensively. That’s something we’re looking at him to do for us.”
Johnson on Green not scoring in first nine-plus minutes: “We had some other guys that were stepping up. .. That’s a luxury that we have. That’s a luxury that Erick Green has, that I talked about that he didn’t have to be the guy all the time for 40 minutes that had to carry the Hokies on his back…. Robert Brown came out, Barksdale came out and played well early on and allowed him to get into the flow of the game. But I don’t think there was anything wrong.”
Johnson on the rebounding: “We’ve been emphasizing that all year long. That’s something that we needed to improve on. .. That’s something we’ve gotten better at. It was something that needed to be addressed. We addressed it. And hopefully we can keep it going. It was a focal point. They were a very good offensive rebounding team … We held them to eight (off. boards). So that was a focal point, that was a big key to the game.”
Johnson on his defense: “They pushed the ball up on us a little bit and we weren’t back in position and they got some dunks. They caught us out of position. We kind of had the floor spread a little bit. We talked about wanting to shrink the floor. … Midway through the 2nd half we kind of took away those drives and kind of shrunk the floor on them a little bit, we weren’t so man-oriented.”
Johnson on his offense: “We worked on it a long time, and playing that way is something you really have to practice on. Guys have got to be physically in condition. That was one of the things I saw out there tonight. We didn’t fade, nobody showed any signs of fatigue … and we continued to push the ball up the floor. … We’ve got guys that can get up the floor and we’re playing to that style and the guys have bought into it. …. I wanted to implement the running style, getting up and down the floor, and however long it took for us to get to where we’re going to be pretty good at, I was ready to be patient. … You’ve got guys like Erick Green that played a certain way for 3 years and Jarell Eddie played a certain way for a couple years. It’s not something that you can just dive right into. Some people think you just run up and down the floor. It’s not like that. There’s a method to our madness. There’s certain spots that guys have got to get to on the floor. We’ve got to sprint. We talk about winning the first 3 steps. So it’s not easy. The guys have picked it up real well, but it’s not easy. It’s a lot of work.”
Johnson on beating a team from a BCS league: “I don’t know how much more confident they are in beating a BCS school. I’m trying to preach confidence every day. … I want the guys to be confident against whoever we play, I want them to be confident in practice.”
Robert Brown: “We’re a good team and when we come ready to play we can compete with anybody.”
Brown on answering the 14-0 run: “Coach Johnson just told us to calm down. He told us at halftime they were going to make the run, every team does. He told us in the timeout that they made their run, it’s time for us to make ours. And we did. … We started defending and we got the lead back.”
Brown on the offense: “It’s just Cassell, we shoot in here all the time. We got the friendly home bounces.”
Van Zegeren on playing physical Iowa: “We prepared very well for it. Me and the other bigs, we knew what was coming and I think we did a good job against it. Just box them out on every rebound, make sure we control the boards.”
Van Zegeren on his scoring: “I came in and fumbled the ball a little. After that I knew my teammates were still going to find me. … [It was about] being strong with the ball, using pump fakes and just going up with confidence.”
Eddie on their 14-0 run: “We just stopped guarding. … We got stagnant when they went to that zone, guys standing around, not moving, not cutting.”
Eddie on beating Iowa: “We can play, we can really play. No matter who the competition is, we can execute the game plan. … We’re ready for Oklahoma State.”
Eddie on physical Iowa: “They was huge down low. … Just having to box them out, being physical ourselves.”
Green on Brown’s big game: “He’s a big key. He had a little slump … we knew he was going to get going. He’s a great player. He’s finally getting back in the gym, working on his game consistently and not just one day. He’s finally understanding that. We sit down and talk, we watch film together and he’s understanding the pick and roll, finding people, he does a great job on that, and he stepped up big tonight.”
Green on Oklahoma State: “That’s a good challenge for us. We’re ready. .. I just can’t wait to play them.”
Fran McCaffery on VT’s perimeter players: “The two isolations with Brown in the first half on Oglesby, that was a tough two calls. The game was close and we were obviously frustrated with those. … Whenever they felt us coming, they were able to maintain their composure offensively and utilize the skill set of any one of those three guys…. One of those three was going to do it.”
McCaffery on the VT post players: “Barksdale and Raines were good. They scored enough. They get enough baskets and you’ve got to defend those guys too.”
McCaffery: “It’s disappointing, how we played defensively. But you’ve got to give credit to who beat us.”
November 28, 2012 - 1:43 AM
Congratulations to coach Johnson and the team. Nice victory over Iowa. The players seem to have accepted Johnson’s system and are performing well.
I hope VT realizes how important the Ok. St. game is. To get into the NCAA tournament you NEED those quality wins.
I remember in ’09-’10 when VT went 13-1 (or was it 14-1?) in its non-conference slate with the only loss coming to a good Temple team, but even so, the tournament committee USED VT’S NON-CONFERENCE CREDENTIALS AS A SIGNIFICANT REASON TO KEEP VT OUT OF THE NCAA TOURNAMENT. ***THE MESSAGE WAS: BY SIMPLY HAVING CUPCAKES AND HARDLY ANY GOOD TEAMS ON THE NON-CONF SCHEDULE AND LOSING TO WHATEVER SPRINKLING OF GOOD TEAMS YOU DO PLAY, YOU’VE ALREADY LOST BEFORE THE GAMES HAVE EVEN BEEN PLAYED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!****
In ’10-’11, Colorado went 5-6 against the RPI top 50 (including beating a very good K-State team THREEEEE times) and won (I believe) 21 games, yet managed to be shafted by the NCAA tournament committee simply because of its cruddy non-conference schedule. In my opinion, who CARES? You got 5 RPI top 50 wins for God’s sake. But unfortunately, that is how the committee operates.
Greenberg clearly got the message after the 2010 NCAA tourney snub and thus beefed up the non-conf sched significantly in ’10-’11 with teams like Kansas State and Purdue and UNLV (which was great for Greenberg to do), but of course we managed to lose to ALL OF THEM. (Scheduling good teams is important but not enough; HOW ABOUT BEATING THEM FOR GOD’S SAKE?)
Do not underestimate the boost that UVA got last season by beating Michigan in its non-conf slate, a win that was very important in getting UVA into the NCAA tournament.
Anyone else notice VT’s inability to win big non conference games? Even in 2006-2007, the one time VT made the NCAA tourney (and as a 5 seed to boot), ALL OF THE DAMAGE THAT VT DID WAS IN THE ACC (the capstone of which was the sweep of UNC and Duke). In 2006-2007, VT blew an opportunity for a quality OOC win against Southern Illinois (though to be fair, that Southern Illinois team which would go on to be a #4 seed in the NCAAs was pretty darn tough) AND LOST TO WESTERN MICHIGAN. WESTERN MICHIGAN!!! Also, I remember in 2008-2009 when VT lost on a desperation heave by Xavier; that was infuriating.
I DEFY YOU TO NAME A SINGLE *NON CONFERENCE* VICTORY OVER A TEAM RANKED IN THE FINAL RPI TOP 40 BY VIRGINIA TECH IN THE SETH GREENBERG ERA.
Why am I screaming about the non-conf games Tech has? BECAUSE THE ACC IS DOWN, PEOPLE; You CANNOT JUST WAIT UNTIL ACC PLAY BEGINS TO GET QUALITY WINS. In 2006-2007 (when VT last made the NCAA tournament), ****SEVEN**** teams from the ACC made the NCAA tourney. In 2011, FOUR ACC TEAMS made it to the NCAAs—FOUR!!!!!— and in 2012, only five teams made it. And Tech doesn’t get to play both Duke and UNC twice and always manages to find a way to get the ACC bottom feeders twice a year (hello, BC). The ONE TIME NC State is a hotshot team, of course NC State only shows up ONCE on VT’s schedule. It’s comically tragic. Or tragically comic.
It’s early, but I think that Ok. State will be comfortably in the RPI top 50 when all is said and done because they play in a good conference & you don’t bash the Wolfpack by 20 if you aren’t pretty good.
THEREFORE TECH, DO YOURSELVES A MAJOR FAVOR AND BEAT OKLAHOMA STATE!!!!
VT BASKETBALL SHOULD COME OUT WITH THE SAME URGENCY AGAINST OKLAHOMA STATE AS VT FOOTBALL DID AGAINST FSU THIS YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
VT BASKETBALL SHOULD COME OUT WITH THE SAME URGENCY AGAINST OKLAHOMA STATE AS VT FOOTBALL DID AGAINST FSU THIS YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
VT BASKETBALL SHOULD COME OUT WITH THE SAME URGENCY AGAINST OKLAHOMA STATE AS VT FOOTBALL DID AGAINST FSU THIS YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I also notice how every November top basketball programs like Duke, UNC, Michigan State, Kentucky, etc. arrange to tango with one another in high school caliber gymnasiums in Hawaii, Carribean resort hotel ballrooms, on top of aircraft carriers, inside Tibetan monasteries, on top of my beer gut, etc. etc. They do this because obviously it’s crucial to rack up high quality victories (and unlike college football, the cost of losing isn’t what you would call high) and they want to mutually inflate their RPIs and SOSs. It’s like some kind of not-so-secret handshake pact between college basketball’s elite.
***********That’s also why Michigan State can make the 2011 NCAA tournament with a 19-14 overall record (wow, IMPRESSIVE!!!!) and a 9-9 conference record (SUPERB!!!). Because it self-flagellated itself with its schedule.*********
So my question is, why can’t VT JOIN IN ON THE FUN with elite matchups and preseason tournaments taking place on top of my beer gut? I guess it’s like a high school clique where only the COOL KIDS (UNC, Duke, MSU, Kentucky, Louisville, etc.) ARE ALLOWED, EH??????????
It is not some secret club. Now, VT is not good enough to be asked to be in a made-for-TV game on an aircraft carrier like when Syracuse played San Diego State or UNC played Mich. State. VT is not a perennial Top 25 team so it won’t get that invite.
But it can play in a good November tournament if it wants to. Those tourneys always try to book one ACC team. Last year it was in the preseason NIT and made it to Madison Square Garden and lost to Syracuse. Two seasons ago it played in the Anaheim tourney and lost to UNLV. It 2008=09 it played in the Puerto Rico tourney and lost to Xavier. In 2007-08 they played in the Great Alaska Shootout and lost to Butler and Gonzaga. In 2006-07 I was in Orlando to cover them in the Old Spice Classic where they lost to So. Ill.
And nothing is preventing VT from scheduling a home-and-home series against a good team, like the recent one vs. K-State. And the series with Oklahoma State has resulted in the No. 15 team in the nation coming to to town. And they are heading to BYU to finish a series that saw them play NCAA tourney participant BYU last year.
It took a long time for Greenberg to realize you always need to schedule tough nonleague teams if you want to make the NCAAs. Hopefully Johnson’s future schedules will reflect that.
There has been a shift in college basketball in the last decade or so and I think it snuck up on Greenberg and others. There is clearly more parity with the likes of George Mason, Butler (twice), and VCU all making the final four. It used to be that you could hang your hat on the ACC schedule but it hasn’t been that way for several years.
Exactly. You can’t count on ACC schedule carrying you into NCAAs because of the unbalanced scheduling Once VT, Miami and BC joined the league, no one was playing everyone twice a year anymore. So it didn’t matter if you had a winning ACC record — it was a question of who those ACC wins came against. Greenberg used to maintain a winning ACC record should be good enough to get in, but the NCAA committee is interested in how many of your ACC wins came against the league’s good teams.
Now, with Syracuse and Pitt joining next season, and apparently Louisville coming in the season after, there will be more gpod teams in the league. But you will still need to beat some of them as part of your ACC record to impress the committee.