The headline this morning on ESPN reads “Ugly is good.” After 7 years with Seth Greenberg at the helm, by now we should come to expect an ugly basketball game every now and then. But when a game like the Hokies’ 56-51 win over Oklahoma State comes along, it’s still painful to watch at times. Tech had a season-low 13 turnovers, but the Hokies’ zone offense was stagnant at times, at one point scoring only 2 field goals in a 20 minute span. In the end, the Hokies did manage to find a way to win. Freshman Tyrone Garland provided a spark at the point, and the 1-3-1 trapping defense held the Cowboys to only 4 points over the final 5 minutes of the game. The victory lifted the Hokies to 4-1 on the season, and puts them in the 76 Classic championship game tonight at 9 pm against UNLV.
The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels (5-0) will not be intimidated by the Hokies in tonight’s matchup, having already defeated then-#25 Wisconsin a week ago in addition to holding a 15-10 all-time record against ACC teams. The Rebels are a team that likes to force the tempo by running in transition. In addition to their offense, UNLV has also been holding opponents to only 57.6 points per game on 33% shooting. The Rebels also average 9 more assists per game than their opponents.
| Starting Lineups | ||||||||||
| Virginia Tech | UNLV | |||||||||
| Pos. | Player | Ht. | Cl. | PPG | RPG | Player | Ht. | Cl. | PPG | RPG |
| G | M. Delaney | 6-3 | Sr. | 19.6 | 3.4 | O. Bellfield | 6-2 | Jr. | 13.0 | 3.2 |
| G | D. Hudson | 6-5 | Sr. | 13.4 | 3.8 | A. Marshall | 6-3 | So. | 8.8 | 3.4 |
| F | T. Bell | 6-7 | Sr. | 5.6 | 5.6 | D. Jasper | 6-6 | Sr. | 8.4 | 7.0 |
| F | J. Allen | 6-7 | Sr. | 11.4 | 8.6 | C. Stanback | 6-8 | Jr. | 17.2 | 3.4 |
| F | V. Davila | 6-8 | Jr. | 6.6 | 5.6 | Q. Thomas | 6-8 | So. | 7.0 | 2.8 |
A big key to this game will be the Hokies’ ability to get back in transition. UNLV would love for this game to be a track meet, and if Tech allows the Rebels to get easy baskets on the run, the Hokies will likely be in trouble. The two best things the Hokies can do to limit UNLV’s transition opportunities are to take care of the basketball and take quality shots. The Hokies need to feed the ball to Jeff Allen and Victor Davila early and often. That not only reduces the chance for run-outs off of long rebounds, it forces UNLV star forward Chance Stanback to defend. I probably sound like a broken record, but keeping Jeff Allen on the floor will likely be the difference between winning and losing. The Hokies were +20 in scoring when Allen was on the floor against Oklahoma State (-15 when he was on the bench).
Prediction: Hokies 68 UNLV 64
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