University of North Carolina Athletics
Virginia Tech Game Guide
February 3, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 3, 2010
By Lauren Brownlow
The Basics
North Carolina (13-8, 2-4) will travel to Virginia Tech (16-4, 3-3) in the first of two straight road games. A loss by either team would put them in the bottom tier of the ACC and make it difficult to get back up again. Carolina responded to its first road win of the year with a 75-60 loss to Virginia at home Sunday night, the worst home loss of the Roy Williams era. The Hokies are coming off an 82-75 loss at Miami on Sunday afternoon. Virginia Tech is undefeated at home this year. Carolina leads the series between the two teams, 60-12 and has won five straight after the Hokies swept the season series in 2007. Carolina is 18-5 in Blacksburg and 3-1 in Cassell Coliseum.
Game Time: Carolina at Virginia Tech, 9:00 PM.
Last Time: Carolina beat Virginia Tech 78-64 in its ACC opener on January 10, 2010. After trailing 38-34 at halftime, Carolina outscored the Hokies 44-26 in the second half and shot 65.2% from the floor (53.8% for the game). The Hokies shot 35.8 percent. A 16-4 run late in the second half gave Carolina a 17-point lead with 1:19 to go. Four of Carolina's five starters scored in double figures with Ed Davis' 20 points leading the way. Davis also had a game-high 11 rebounds. Will Graves and Deon Thompson each had 13 points and Larry Drew II had 14 points, all in the second half, to go with eight assists and two turnovers. Malcolm Delaney led the Hokies with 26 points and Dorenzo Hudson added 14.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage will begin at 8:00 PM.
Storylines
Getting contributions: One problem in Carolina's losses is players seeing a lot of minutes and not contributing in tangible ways. It's great if guys are in good defensive position, getting deflections or taking charges, things that don't show up on the stat sheet. But someone on the court has to score. Carolina's bench has had its moments but every time the Tar Heels substitute, the goal is for something good to happen or at least no drop-off, and that includes starters coming in after a rest. That has not been happening consistently. And Carolina is at its best when both the bench players and the starters are both contributing, like at NC State. In two ACC wins, for example, the tandem of Justin Watts and John Henson (mostly Henson) have combined for 17 minutes, four points, three rebounds, an assist, a steal and three blocks. But in four losses, they played 33 minutes and have five points, two rebounds, one assist, two steals, no blocks, four fouls and nine turnovers.
Veterans are not immune. The Wear twins made just two fewer field goals than Deon Thompson and Ed Davis combined in Carolina's four league losses. In two ACC wins, Thompson and Davis hit 23 more field goals than the twins. So it's been hard for Williams to substitute freely when different players are emerging and retreating not only from game to game, but also from half to half. A five-for-five substitution of freshmen did little to turn the tide against Virginia. Williams said that after the upperclassmen starters were outscored 8-0, the freshmen subs were outscored 7-0 and then the upperclassmen finished off Virginia's 18-0 run by allowing three straight. But the most alarming statistics have been in guard play. Will Graves has tried to carry the scoring load in ACC games, but he has had to do that by attempting 19 more shots in league play than his next-closest teammates (Deon Thompson and Drew II each have attempted 50 shots, Graves: 69).
Carolina's starting backcourt at the point and two-guard has not fared well against their conference counterparts, being outscored by 22.2 points per game in ACC play. In losses, it is worse on average (-27.0) than wins (-14.0). More alarming is that even including Graves, those three have been outscored by the opposing guard and two-guard alone by 10.5 in four losses. That means that three guards seeing 100 more minutes than two guards on the other team can't muster enough production offensively or stop dribble penetration and contain opposing guards. On both ends, it begins and ends with the backcourt. Virginia packed the lane and did not let Carolina's bigs get the ball, which they barely did. The point guard needs to make effective passes to the post to get his big men in position to score and establish inside-out basketball.
Carolina doesn't need Drew II or Ginyard to be dominant scorers. But when they combine for 49 points in 221 minutes in four losses while their opponents net 155 points in 242 minutes, that's a problem. Carolina does need those two to not only make a few more shots (they made 31.6% in the losses) but stop dribble penetration and allowing easy looks (opposing guards shot 52.4% in those games). Dexter Strickland and Leslie McDonald aren't as advanced defensively as and at times play out of control and make bad decisions, as freshmen do. But they are scoring 0.415 points per minute in ACC losses and 0.426 in ACC wins, compared to 0.225 in losses for Ginyard and Drew II and 0.321 in wins. It's a larger sampling for the starters, but when those two combine for just one fewer point than the backups in 104 fewer minutes in ACC losses, it is an issue. Carolina has to find scoring somewhere and if the veterans can facilitate it while clamping down on the defensive end, that will be exactly what Carolina needs.
Watching At Home
Turn down the sound: If you're watching at home while listening to the radio or over the computer via Carolina All-Access, there will inevitably be some delay. For the reason - and a possible solution - click here.
A full list of THSN affiliates can be found here.
Raycom coverage: The game will be available regionally on Raycom. Steve Martin and Dan Bonner will have the call.
Names To Know
Larry Drew II: Carolina is 3-7 when Larry Drew II hits 50% or more of his shots and 8-1 when he hits double figures. On the road, Drew II has hit double digits twice, both times in Carolina's only wins outside Chapel Hill (Ohio State and NC State). It's no coincidence that his other double-figure games have come in wins like Michigan State and Virginia Tech. In ACC games, Drew II has scored 11 or more in the second half three times and Carolina is 2-1 in those games. Against Virginia Tech, he scored all 14 of his points in the second half. In Carolina's last three ACC home games Drew II has had two points, five assists and eight turnovers in the first 11 minutes. Against Georgia Tech, he had four turnovers in the first 11 minutes. But in the final eight minutes, he has had 18 points in the final eight minutes on 6-of-11 shooting, 5-of-7 from beyond the arc, adding four assists and two turnovers. Nearly half of his three-point attempts in each of those games have come in that span and 18 of his 25 points as well. Both of his three-pointers against Wake Forest, though, came in the final minute with Carolina facing 16-point deficit and three of his four three's against Virginia came inside of six minutes left.
Ed Davis: The sophomore forward hit 7-of-11 shots on his way to 20 points and 11 boards against Virginia Tech last time. In his last four games (including the Georgia Tech game when he tweaked his ankle) he has averaged eight points, seven rebounds and shot 40% from the floor. In his first 16 games, Davis averaged 15.4 points, 10.3 rebounds and shot 63.6 percent. He averaged 6.3 free-throw attempts in the first 16 games and has averaged 3.3 in the last four. His blocks have also gone down from 2.9 to 1.8 and he has just one block in the last two games. In his last trip to Blacksburg as a freshman, Davis had eight points in 17 minutes and added six blocked shots. In three career games against the Hokies, Davis has averaged 12.7 points and shot 61.9%, adding 6.7 rebounds (three offensive) and 3.7 blocked shots in 23.7 minutes. Davis took a season-low three shots against Virginia, his fewest since taking six at Kentucky. Carolina needs him to be more aggressive down low and hit his free throws; he had made 10-of-12 in ACC play before shooting 2-of-6 from the foul line against Virginia in a game that Carolina needed every point it could get.
Malcolm Delaney: Virginia Tech's star point guard leads the league in scoring in all games and in conference games only (22.2 points), ranking fourth in conference-only assists (5.7), seventh in steals (1.7) and first in minutes played (38.5). He has played better on the road than at home, shooting 34.5% in Cassell Coliseum and averaging 20.5 points compared to 23 points and 42.6% on the road. But he has averaged 6.5 assists to two turnovers at home and has hit 4-of-11 three's compared to 5-of-23 on the road. When he's hitting three's he becomes that much more dangerous but in the Hokies' last four games, he has hit 2-of-20 and is 0-of-11 in the last two games. In the Miami loss, he had his fewest field-goal attempts and second-fewest free-throw attempts on his way to 16 points. He also had six assists and just one turnover in 35 minutes but did commit four fouls. Carolina allowed Delaney to score 20 in the first half but held him to just six in the second half including a field goal that was actually tipped in by Will Graves. Drew II got in foul trouble early defending him and when Carolina rotated their perimeter guys on him, they got better results. That group needs to be up to the task yet again.
Dorenzo Hudson: The 6-5 junior guard might be the most improved player in the league. In ACC-only stats, he is seventh in scoring (17 points), ninth in field-goal percentage (45.3%), seventh in three-point percentage (37.5%) and seventh in three's made (2.0 per game). He is also fifth in minutes played with 37.3, showing how much his head coach has come to trust him. Carolina held Hudson to his lowest shooting percentage in league play, 31.8 percent (7-of-22), and his lowest three-point percentage, 0-of-6. It was also the only ACC game this year when he has not attempted a free throw. In his next five league games, he hit 50% of his field goals and 12-of-26 three's (46.2%), averaging 17.6 points. Even at Carolina, he was streaky, missing his first seven shots in the first half then making five of his next six, only to miss seven of his final nine. He has the potential to be dangerous and it has been hard for Carolina to contain one talented guard, let alone two, on the same team.
Lauren Brownlow is the executive editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
