Hokie Hoops Central: Miami (4-9) at Virginia Tech (5-8) 2pm ACCN

Saturday 🆚 the 'Canes⁉️ National Trivia Day👶 Invest529 Diaper Derby🥓 @SmithfieldBrand Bricks for Bacon in 2H🤝 @ValeroEnergy pic.twitter.com/S8tDOtrH64— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 3, 2025

Miami (4-9)
at
Virginia Tech (5-8)
Cassell Coliseum
2pm ACCN

TV | ACCN
Jordan Bernfield, PxP
David Padgett, Analyst

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

VIDEO STREAM
@HokiesMBB ESPN.com and ESPN app

LIVE STATS
stats.hokiesports.com

Who would have thought?
That when Lynn Kidd jumped to the Hurricanes and the Hokies cupboard was left bare, that the Canes would come to Blacksburg without its head coach and with a worse record than the Hokies?

Saturday we get to see if they have fixed the concession debacle, whether VT Club Hockey has a bigger attendance than Hokies basketball and can the Hokies take advantage of a bad Miami team to get an ACC win.

Miami this year has beaten Farleigh Dickinson, Binghamton, Coppin State and Presbyterian. Their losses started with Drake and continued into a seven game losing streak including Oklahoma State, VCU, Charleston Southern, Arkansas, Clemson, and Tennessee. They beat Presbyterian to end it but then lost to Mount St Mary's and Boston College. This is a very experienced, bad Miami team.

Their starting five are all Seniors but the bench are all Freshman outside of sixth man, Senior Staton-McCray. They are led by guard tandem Nijel Pack and Matthew Cleveland along with Kidd inside. All three are in double-digits scoring wise.

It's tough to point at a single thing dragging the Canes down. They have four losses by double-digits but four of the others are by two baskets or less. Poor perimeter shooting and very slow ball movement definitely is part of it. Kidd has been soft inside like we came to expect so Miami defaults to perimeter shooting when they can't get in the paint. Defense or lack thereof really seems to be the biggest issue. The Canes look like they are playing AAU basketball. All offense, no defense.

Areas that don't seem to be an issue are turnovers, rebounding and free throw shooting. They hit 79% from the line, only turn the ball over around 10 times per game and have an overall rebounding advantage of about 3 per game.

This will be the second game without Larranaga. Not sure the remaining staff will make any significant changes to style of play.

All of that being the case, the Hokies still have to prove to me they can win this one. Just not sure that they can score enough to keep up. Any drought in scoring could doom the Hokies.

Hokies Starting Five
Toibu Lawal
1 JR F 6-8 200
11.3 Pts, 5.8 Reb, 0.4 Ast

Mylyjael Poteat
34 SR F 6-9 260
9.8 Pts, 4.2 Reb, 1.2 Ast

Jaden Schutt
2 SO G 6-5 185
8.8 Pts, 3.2 Reb, 1.8 Ast

Tyler Johnson
10 FR G 6-5 215
5.5 Pts, 4.8 Reb, 1.0 Ast

Ben Hammond
11 FR G 5-11 170
5.0 Pts, 1.3 Reb, 1.8 Ast

Key Bench Players
Brandon Rechsteiner
7 SO G 6-1 185
7.3 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 3.7 Ast

Ben Burnham
13 SR F 6-7 200
7.1 Pts, 3.6 Reb, 1.1 Ast

Jaydon Young
3 SO G 6-4 205
7.0 Pts, 1.8 Reb, 1.4 Ast

Patrick Wessler
5 SO C 7-0 245
4.9 Pts, 3.1 Reb, 0.2 Ast

Rodney Brown
4 SO G 6-6 180
4.6 Pts, 1.9 Reb, 1.8 Ast

Miami Starting Five
Matthew Cleveland
0 SR G 6-7 200
12.1 Pts, 4.8 Reb, 0.7 Ast

Lynn Kidd
1 SR C 6-10 235
11.6 Pts, 7.4 Reb, 1.8 Ast

Nijel Pack
24 SR G 6-0 180
13.9 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 4.3 Ast

Jalen Blackmon
5 SR G 6-3 180
9.4 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 1.6 Ast

Brandon Johnson
2 SR F 6-8 210
8.7 Pts, 7.1 Reb, 1.6 Ast

Key Bench Players
A.J. Staton-McCray
11 SR G 6-5 190
7.0 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 0.9 Ast

Jalil Bethea
3 FR G 6-5 190
6.4 Pts, 1.5 Reb, 0.7 Ast

Divine Ugochukwu
99 FR G 6-3 190
5.4 Pts, 1.6 Reb, 1.1 Ast

Austin Swartz
23 FR G 6-4 200
4.5 Pts, 0.6 Reb, 0.5 Ast