The Virginia Tech men’s basketball team will look for a much-needed win Thursday night as it takes on the North Carolina Tar Heels at Cassell Coliseum.
The Hokies (16-4, 3-3 ACC) enter tonight’s game in search of an identity.
After a tough loss against the University of Miami on Sunday, the Hokies sit in a position much less comfortable than the one they were in almost a week ago.
Last Thursday, the Hokies played a tough game against their in-state rival, the University of Virginia Cavaliers, and with a thrilling performance in the waning minutes, defeated the Cavs 76-71 while bolstering their NCAA Tournament resume in the process.
Three days later against Miami, the Hokies looked nothing like they did days before.
In the first half, Tech was outscored 47-30 by what was thought to be one of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s more inept teams.
While the Hokies made a run in the second half, almost knotting the score several times in the final period, their efforts weren’t enough.
“We cut it to five points numerous times and just didn’t really find a way to close the thing and make the plays you need to make to have a chance to win a game on the road,” said Hokies’ head coach Seth Greenberg.
“Our toughness, our communication was just not what it needs to be if we’re going to be relevant in the next 10 games.”
Greenberg’s team, now 3-3 in conference play, will need to make all the noise it can in the next 10 games if it wants to reach its goal of the NCAA Tournament.
With in-conference losses against three currently unranked teams — Florida State, North Carolina and Miami — there is little room for the Hokies to slip.
But there really isn’t much room for any ACC team to slip.
The Tar Heels (13-8, 2-4 ACC) enter Thursday’s game just as, if not more, desperate than the Hokies are.
In their past five games, the Heels are 1-4, with just one win against NC State to go with four losses to Clemson, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and most recently, UVa.
A loss for the Heels on Thursday would put head coach Roy Williams’ team, a team that hasn’t missed the NCAA Tournament since 2003 and currently holds the title of defending national champions, in official panic mode.
“Its not just one thing,” Williams said. “We’ve got some work to do. There’s no question about it. ... I always have hope. There’s no question about that. That’s the only way I know to go about doing it — to work as hard as we possibly can.”
While the Heels have struggled as of late, there is no question about the level of talent on their team.
Led by both Deon Thompson, who is currently averaging 14.7 points per game to go with 6.5 rebounds, and Ed Davis, who averages 14 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, the Heels will look for their second win against Tech this year with an offensive attack much different than that of the Hokies.
Thompson and Davis stand at 6-foot-9-inches and 6-foot-10-inches, respectively.
With nearly 30 points and just over 16 rebounds of production per game coming from the two, the Hokies will need to keep Thompson and Davis contained.
“I think (Davis) is just magnificent,” Greenberg said. “He’s long, he’s agile, he scores around the basket, he can set you out to 15 feet. He’s just a really gifted player.
“You’ve got to try to make it hard for him to catch it deep and you’ve got to make sure that we do a good job of chesting him up and eliminating his second-chance points.”
On the offensive side of the ball, the Hokies will need a big game as always from junior point guard Malcolm Delaney. In the two team’s first matchup, Delaney carried the Hokies into halftime with a 38-34 lead, scoring 20 of his 26 points in the first half.
In the second half, however, the Hokies were outscored 44-26, while Delaney converted on just one of five field goal attempts.
“In the second half,” Williams said, “we started playing better defense and not fouling (Delaney) and putting him on the free-throw line so many times. We tried doing a better job of keeping him in front of us and getting a hand up on his shot.”
“You can’t stop Malcolm,” Williams continued. “He’s just too good. Hopefully, you can slow him down a little bit. ... It helped us that the other guys didn’t have a great night.”
While Delaney maintains his position as the ACC’s leading scorer, he hasn’t been as effective lately compared to his early season performance.
In his past three games, Delaney has made just 35.3 percent of his field goals and has made a shockingly unimpressive two of 18 from three-point range.
Greenberg says that’s mainly because of the way Tech’s opponents have been defending Delaney.
“I don’t think it’s a shooting struggle,” Greenberg said. “I think it’s that people are defending him. He’s getting an extra defender and they’re helping on every single screen.
“You know, he doesn’t get a lot of shots with room and rhythm. I mean, when you’re a guy that has that ability to make plays on a team that at times is offensively challenged, you know, that’s going to happen.”
Greenberg made it clear that he wasn’t worried about Delaney down the stretch.
“He’s a world-class shooter. I’m not worried about that,” he said.
Greenberg, Delaney and the Hokies will tip-off at 9 p.m. in Cassell Coliseum. The game will be televised on Raycom Sports.