Virginia Tech Preview - Bring on the Hokies

The Hokies best player, Jarell Eddie,
is no stranger to the Orange

Ok so let's just get past the heart attacks that we all suffered last game.  Now that I have a clear head what we can take away from that game is that we now know we can win a dogfight, and win when our stars aren't performing.  The game was grinded out and the Orange walked away with the W.  Now to move forward to SU's next ACC opponent, the Virginia Tech Hokies.

The Arc

One of the main concerns of playing a 2-3 zone is 3 point shooting.  If a team gets hot from behind the arc, it is usually a rough day for the Orange.  Look at the Villanova game...SU was down 18 in the 1st half because 'Nova was drilling it from three land.  Same thing happened in the Miami game.  This could be a problem against Virginia Tech.  The Hokies rank 6th in the nation in 3-pt field goal percentage at 42.5%.  This means that Jimmy B's squad better be ready to extend the zone out or their 3rd straight 15-0 start may be a goner.  The Hokies are led by senior forward Jarrell Eddie.  Eddie leads the team with over 17ppg and leads the team with 47% from down town.  Eddie has already hit 42 3s in VT's first 13 games.  VT will, however, most likely be without 2 of their top sharp shooters, Adam Smith, out with a strained calf, and Marshall Wood, probably out because of the flu.  This will definitely hurt the Hokies chances of ending SU's current streak.  

StUggling Offense

Let's admit it.  The offense in the last game for the Orange was awful.  Not just bad.  But awful.  That is going to need to change if the Orange wants the get its second ACC win.  The Hokies hit a lot of threes, as I previously stated.  And the Orange give up a lot of threes, as we've seen.  So while the zone will probably be able to force outside shots from Va Tech's shooters, they are most likely going to make some.  So that means that Cooney needs to get out of his funk from 3 land, CJ Fair needs to start playing like the ACC POY, and the big men down low need to start being big men down low on the offensive side of the ball.  I mean come on 49 points against 8-5 (at the time) Miami? They can do better than that.  And they'll need to in order to come out of Blacksburg unscathed. 

Prediction

While it seems like I've been all doom and gloom this whole preview I still think the Orange is the better team.  I think CJ and Trev get back on track, I think T-Dot keeps being T-Dot, and the big men start to play better down low and the Orange comes out with a win.  My prediction -- SU 75 Va Tech 63. 

-- Ron