Boxscore - Caution: Disgusting

There is nothing more enjoyable than writing a recap of a Hokie loss to richmond while the football team goes down 17-0 to kansas. I think I had a better time having 4 teeth pulled back in 1984.

If we had won this game, I was NOT planning on naming a player of the game. The Hokies played horrible. 24 Turnovers. 24 Turnovers. 24 Turnovers. I’ll give the spiders some credit, but we made a lot of stupid mistakes in transition. And it just wasn’t one player. Add to it that the spiders were totally inept on offense for almost half the game. For 18 of the 40 minutes, the spiders did not score one field goal. The first span came during the first 7 minutes of the game. The second span occurred from the 10:52 mark of the first half until the 7:59 mark. The final field goal drought occurred during the first 8 minutes of the second half.

Niemo wrote in his preview, “I’m really not sure how richmond will win this game, unless the Hokies lay another egg on the road in the first half as they did at penn state, odu, and wake.” How about 24 turnovers?

The great Jim Mora (no, not MV1’s last coach) summed up how I feel about tonight’s performance:

I was really disappointed in A.D. Vassallo tonight. Again, I will give the richmond D its due, but I expected a better performance by A.D. considering he was denied admission after committing to richmond. A.D. went 3 of 12 from the field, did not make a 3 pointer, only had 1 assist, and committed 3 turnovers.

I’ve been really pumping up Dorenzo Hudson over the last few games, and he got off to a good start tonight. However, he finally made some freshman mistakes with 4 turnovers. Even so, Hudson led the Hokies with 14 points on 5 of 8 shooting; 3 of 5 from 3 point land. His minutes keep increasing, as he led all subs in minutes played tonight with 26.

I could go on about the poor play, but I think we are all better off looking ahead to charleston southern. These experiences will only make this young team stronger for more meaningful games this season, and more importantly, the years to come when we return to the Big Dance.

By the way, this marks the second straight year that the basketball team lost on the day that the football team played in a bowl game. Tech lost 58-55 to marshall on 12/30/06 last season, which was the same day the Hokies lost to georgia in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. Lets hope the football team manages to pull together in the second half to avoid the repeat!

Cope-acabana’s Notes:

I initially wrote this before Wick posted his recap, so if there are redundancies, I’m sure you’ll get over it.

First, the good news … true freshman Dorenzo Hudson came off the bench to lead the Hokies with 14 points. This kid is phenomenal and his playing time continues to increase, which is definitely good news for Virginia Tech. Now the bad news … sorry, but I have to bullet-point these because there are too many:

• The Hokies lost on the road, again (0-4 for the season)
• The game winning shot for the spiders should have been waived off for offensive goaltending, but the refs missed it
• The Hokies scored a season-low 49 points
• The Hokies attempted a season-low 44 shots
• The Hokies only made 17 of those attempts, another season low
• The Hokies committed a season high 24 turnovers
• AD Vassallo continued to force his shots, going 3/12

This game was practically unwatchable, and yet I did. The Hokies took a 21-11 lead with 6:42 to play only to see the spiders rip off a 14-0 run to close the half with a 21-25 lead. The second half mirrored the first half as the Hokies came back to take a lead only to give it right back.

Cheick Diakite played only 4 minutes and Lewis Witcher continues to get playing time, but just isn’t producing. Witcher scored just 2 points, committed two turnovers, but he did manage two blocks.