Hokie Hoops Central: Virginia Tech (5-6) at St Joes (7-4) 12pm CBSSN

Holiday hoops in the Cathedral of College Basketball 🎄🏀🆚 Saint Joseph's🕛 12PM ET📺 CBSSN🔗 https://t.co/Ypqs6c8sMc pic.twitter.com/Ulw1HLQCsU— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) December 21, 2024

Holiday Hoopfest
Virginia Tech (5-6)
at
St Joes (7-4)
12pm CBSSN
The Palestra
Philadelphia PA

TV | CBSSN
Rich Waltz, PxP
Michael O'Donnell, Analyst

RADIO | VT Sports Network
Zach Mackey, PxP
Mike Burnop, Analyst

VIDEO STREAM
@HokiesMBB CBSSports.com and app

LIVE STATS
stats.hokiesports.com
Espn.com

Holiday Hangover
These are the kind of games that always feel like trap games. Whichever team comes in motivated to be there wins.
Hokies are coming off a 80-72 win over Navy. They got another outstanding performance from the bench. Ben Burnham led all scorers with 17. The bench scored 46 of their 80 points.

BHam been hoopin' these last two games 😮‍💨🔥 14.0 ppg🔥 10-12 FG🔥 4-4 3FG🔥 3.5 apg🔥 3.5 spg pic.twitter.com/sP7U8jsZHO— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) December 17, 2024

It's probably time to have the conversation of Hammond over Rechsteiner at the point and may be time to talk about Rodney Brown over Johnson and Schutt.
The offense just flows so much better and Hammond is definitely the better defender. Hammond and Brown had four of the Hokies seven steals and eight of their ten fast break points. This is only the second time this season the Hokies had an advantage in fast break scoring.

Going into the Palestra to face a 7-4 St Joes team. The Red Hawks record is a little misleading. They also beat Navy by seven, beat a bad Villanova team, and a decent Texas Tech squad. Their other four wins are over American, Coppin State, Penn, and LaSalle. Their losses are to Texas, Charleston Southern, College of Charleston and got smoked by Princeton.

This team is led by a two guard/one forward trio. Fleming, Brown and Reynolds are scoring 47.4 of the Hawks 75.9 ppg. 62% of scoring from three guys.

Fleming and Haskins were high school teammates as were Brown and Finkley. All but two kids are from NJ or PA on this roster.

As a team, the Hawks excel at Free Throw shooting and blocks. Outside of those categories they are mostly mediocre.

The Hawks are going to play very fast and shoot a ton of threes. In terms of scheme, when they aren't scoring in transition they will run a lot of 5-out Motion or 4-around-1 with their post primarily acting as a ball screener. We want to make them shoot as many contested two-point shots with us between them and the basket as possible.

Coach Lange will play man-to-man defense and be very willing to switch 1-4 and even 1-5 especially when #23 Finkley is in at the 5. Opponents are shooting over 46% of their shots from deep against the Hawks which is one of the highest numbers in the country.

Vegas has St Joes as a 3.5 point favorite but I like the Hokies chances, especially if they play like they want to be there.

Hokies Starting Five
Toibu Lawal
1 JR F 6-8 200
10.8 Pts, 6.1 Reb, 0.5 Ast

Mylyjael Poteat
34 SR F 6-9 260
10.6 Pts, 4.6 Reb, 1.4 Ast

Jaden Schutt
2 SO G 6-5 185
9.6 Pts, 3.2 Reb, 2.0 Ast

Brandon Rechsteiner
7 SO G 6-1 185
7.7 Pts, 1.4 Reb, 3.5 Ast

Jaydon Young
3 SO G 6-4 205
7.5 Pts, 1.7 Reb, 1.5 Ast

Key Bench Players
Ben Burnham
13 SR F 6-7 200
6.5 Pts, 4.1 Reb, 1.2 Ast

Tyler Johnson
10 FR G 6-5 215
6.5 Pts, 5.1 Reb, 1.1 Ast

Ben Hammond
11 FR G 5-11 170
4.7 Pts, 1.0 Reb, 1.6 Ast

Patrick Wessler
5 SO C 7-0 245
4.2 Pts, 3.3 Reb, 0.1 Ast

Rodney Brown
4 SO G 6-6 180
4.3 Pts, 2.0 Reb, 1.0 Ast

Squad's been letting it fly 💦🏹 24-54 3FG in last 2 games🫡 https://t.co/KWGhxzoOqa pic.twitter.com/yj4TYJXRIc— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) December 17, 2024

Red Hawks Starting Five
Rasheer Fleming
13 JR F 6-9 220
16.4 Pts, 8.8 Reb, 1.2 Ast

Erik Reynolds
2 SR G 6-2 170
15.3 Pts, 3.4 Reb, 3.5 Ast

Xzayvier Brown
11 SO G 6-2 165
15.7 Pts, 4.8 Reb, 5.1 Ast

Derek Simpson
0 SO G 6-3 170
9.5 Pts, 4.0 Reb, 3.9 Ast

Justice Ajogbor
22 SR F 6-10 255
4.5 Pts, 2.9 Reb, 0.9 Ast

Key Bench Players
Dasear Haskins
7 SO F 6-8 185
6.5 Pts, 2.9 Reb, 0.5 Ast

Anthony Finkley
5 SO F 6-6 240
4.9 Pts, 2.7 Reb, 0.8 Ast