The win in Charlottesville last night against a ranked, but short-handed, UVA team doesn't change my previous assessment of where the Hokies are this season -- but it sure was a nice "bluebird".
One of the folks I follow on Twitter predicted an over/under score of 100 for this game; the combined score for both teams was 92 points; not a bad prediction. He should be a bookie. But this leads us to a reality check on the game: 47 points isn't going to win you a lot of games, even if you have a good defense. The Hokies also benefited (greatly) from the absence of 7-ft-tall UVA senior center Assane Sene. His presence would have changed the outcome, no doubt.
But given the serious injuries for key Hokies over the last few seasons (Hudson, Chaney, Thompson, etc.), it's all part of the game. In the recent loss to Boston College, the Hokies were missing their leading scorer, Erick Green; but any "tournament team" worth its salt beats BC no matter who is missing from the line-up.
This gets back to expectations. After starting the season 0-4 in the ACC, including losses to woeful teams like Wake Forest and Boston College, I no longer view the Hokies as a tournament team, and probably not even an NIT invitee. As a result, any success in this "rebuilding year" is a plus, and something to be enjoyed. In the losses, I am just looking for some positives.
In last night's game, a lot of folks contributed to the win, and obviously not just on offense. I thought that Zo Hudson started looking like the player we expected him to be this season, and I saw some strides by Marquis Rankin towards becoming a valuable relief valve for Erick Green, who plays an incredible amount of minutes every game -- over 33 minutes by my count.
Upcoming games: BYU and UMD (I'm going to that one, courtesy of my oldest son!)
GO HOKIES!
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