January 24, 2021
#15 Virginia Tech (13-4, 3-2 ACC) at Florida State (11-5, 3-1 ACC)
TEAM: FSU|VT
OVR: 89|91
OFF: 88|91
DEF: 89|89
SHT: 89|94
REB: 93|88
COA: 86|93
Virginia Tech opened ACC play with losses to North Carolina and Clemson, both teams seemingly head and shoulders above the rest of the league. They have wins over UVA, Duke and Wake, three of the bottom teams right now.
The Hokies have a superstar PG rated the best playmaker in the league. They return 3 starters on a team that made the NCAA Tournament last year, and two seasons ago they had a top 5 recruiting class. They should be fairly loaded right now.
Scouting
PG JB Matsui SR 89 OVR Elite speed: 93 spd/91 qck. Great defender (91/A-). Outstanding PG skills (94 hands/88 passing (A/B+)). 93 close/65 med/83 3. 90 off the dribble. Also 86 defensive awareness (A-) and offensive awareness of 80 makes him a coach on the floor. 16.1 ppg/4.8 apg. Matsui is a superstar, a likely lottery selection in the draft.
SG Jarred Warzynski JR 83 OVR 93 speed but just 83 quickness. 80 defense/79 steals. 84 close/74 med/75 3. 81 off the dribble/80 in traffic. Great hustle(93/A) and very consistent. 82 defensive awareness... Just 8 ppg, overshadowed big time by Matsui and Harmon.
SF Denham Caskill SR 79 OVR 6'5 SF 87 speed/84 quickness. 78 defense/80 steals. 87 close/75 med/77 3/85 in traffic. Not a bad player, speedy though a little light on the defense. Completely overshadowed by the stars on the team. 4.6 ppg/4.4 rpg.
PF Etienne Harmon SR 86 OVR 6'7 PF 87 orb/85 drb. 94 post off/85 pst def. 86 blocks (A-). 80 steals... as good as a guard. 90 close/80 med/91 in traffic. 17.7 ppg/5.6 rpg.
C Tommie Graves FR 79 OVR 6'10 natural center. 87 orb/77 drb. 84 post off/86 post def. 88 close/84 in traffic. Hell of a freshman... Just 5 ppg/4.4 rpg.
backup PG Melvin Bright is from that top 5 recruiting class a couple years ago. He's an 81 rated soph that is a lights out shooter (86 3) and great ball handler/passer.
Va Tech has 12 players rated 78 or better. 9 of them are 80+, they have two elite post players backing up Harmon and Graves, and some speedy guards. Matsui and Harmon are very very talented players as well, this is a solid team.
With the coach on the floor they have a 78-44 unity edge. Virginia Tech runs a 2-3 zone as their primary defense so hopefully we're shooting well.
Half
| Time
| FSU
| VT
| Notes
|
1
| 12:35
| 6
| 12
| We slow this one down but Va Tech is scoring anyway, we had a 6-5 lead and they've run off 7 in the last 2 minutes. We just have two field goals, a look inside for Sneed and a 3 by Moye, plus a free throw. We're pretty cold here. Timeout to get the backups in.
|
1
| 10:16
| 12
| 14
| Day starts out shooting the 3 well, he's 2-3 for our next 6 points. Timeout Va Tech.
|
1
| 7:30
| 15
| 21
| Starters are back in, Va Tech back in control after that last timeout.
|
1
| 2:05
| 24
| 27
| Turnovers are killing us, we've got 5, va tech 0. Otherwise we'd likely be ahead. Forte just hit a 3 and Va Tech has a timeout.
|
| HALF
| 26
| 32
| It could be a lot worse. 6 turnovers to 0. They have 11 from SF Caskill and 7 from Warzynski. Matsui has just been a distributor to this point, he isn't looking to shoot. PF Harmon is 2-5 for just 4 points inside. They're just under 50% overall, and 4-10 from 3.
Thanks to the turnovers, and a couple fouls, we've taken 12 less shots than Va Tech. We have 6 FT's, they have 0. We're 9-19 from the floor, 4-8 from 3. Moye leads us with 9 points, just 1 3 and a few drives to the hoop. Day has 6, no other starter has more than 3. Sneed is 1-4 inside, McCants just 0-1. Don't turn it over and make a few more 3's and we have a shot.
|
2
| 19:00
| 30
| 35
| Well they run 34 seconds off the shot clock before Matsui drains a contested 3, he's on the board. But we get even plus one as Moye is fouled while making a 3. A rare 4 point play.
|
2
| 16:30
| 35
| 35
| It takes a few more minutes but we're playing some stellar defense, combined with some cold shooting from the hokies. Forte gets a big man on him and blows by him for a layup, and we get out in transition and Ozier gets a 3 point play to tie the game up.
|
2
| 15:55
| 39
| 35
| Wow! McCants with a blocked shot, earning us a 6th man boost. Ozier with a great move in transition, he hits what appears to be an extremely difficult shot while being fouled by Warzynski. He misses the FT, but McCants grabs the board. Another mismatch with a big on Forte, Forte drives and is fouled, making both FT's. 13-0 run after their opening 3 pointer! Timeout Hokies.
|
2
| 14:30
| 39
| 40
| Well we knew that wouldn't last. They hit a 3 out of the timeout, and then get a layup from PF Harmon to take the lead. I get a timeout.
|
2
| 13:00
| 39
| 40
| Va Tech gets another timeout, not sure why. McCants has the 6'7 Harmon on him, and it seems incredibly enticing to just get him the ball repeatedly, but Harmon's post skills(and stealing ability) seem to outweight the height differnence. McCants can barely take a step before the ball is stripped heh.
|
2
| 11:05
| 45
| 42
| Steals on two straight possessions put us back in the lead. On the first Forte gets a layup in transition, we pull it out on the second and get Ozier a good look. The 2nd steal generates a 6th man boost and the starters are still hanging around.
|
2
| 8:20
| 47
| 46
| Backups are coming in. They'll probably play til the 5 minute mark or so and hopefully not give the game away.
|
2
| 6:35
| 51
| 46
| Two strong defensive trips, and Alloway puts a great 1 on 1 move on their backup PG for a layup. Then we get a fast break where Day throws down a nice 1 handed jam. 5 point lead! Timeout Va Tech
|
2
| 5:10
| 52
| 48
| Starters are back in to finish off the game.
|
2
| 3:15
| 57
| 52
| They hit a jumper, I get a hook shot by Sneed. They hit another jumper, and this time Sneed/Forte work an inside out and Forte drains an open 3.
|
2
| 3:05
| 57
| 55
| Heh, Caskill with an immediate 3 for them. He's got 21, and I get Barrett in for Ozier after calling a timeout. I need the defense I think.
|
2
| 1:53
| 57
| 60
| Oh bad bad stretch. Forte throws a bad pass trying to feed the post, they get a layup. Then we turn it over in the backcourt against their press... Caskill with another 3 and he has 24. I get another timeout.
|
2
| 1:07
| 59
| 60
| Sneed misses a hook shot, they run some clock but Matsui misses a jumper on their end. We get Forte out on the break who hits Sneed streaking down the lane... down 1 with just over a minute left.
|
2
| 1:00
| 59
| 60
| They throw it away in the backcourt against our press! McCants picks up a loose ball and we set up our offense.
|
2
| 0:41
| 59
| 60
| I get a timeout. 13 seconds left on the shot clock. I had Sneed in the post but decided not to shoot and he seemed to be camping out in the lane for a LONG time. So I called a timeout b/c I would be real pissed if a bullshit 3 second call cost me the game here.
|
2
| 0:30
| 62
| 60
| Barrett feeds Moye for an open 3, its GOOD! Their ball, two point game.
|
2
| 0:06.6
| 64
| 60
| They throw it away!!! They go back and forth with Matsui and Warzynski for a bit, then Warzynski tries to kick it out to the wing for Caskill, but Barrett picks off the pass. Genius coaching move to bring Barrett in for Ozier for defense, eh?  Actually Barrett deflects the pass, Sneed picks it up and gets fouled. First FT good. Second...GOOD.
|
They miss a 3 as time expires.
Florida State 64
#15 Virginia Tech 60
I really thought we weren't going to pull this one off once they went ahead by 3 with 2 minutes to go. It felt like we were falling apart all of a sudden with some bad turnovers and that Va Tech's talent was going to take over. But we didn't panic and got a couple bounces to go our way, Moye hits a massive clutch 3 with 30 seconds left and we pull off the win over a top 20 team!
Virginia Tech gets 11 steals and forces 13 turnovers, while only turning it over 5 times themselves. I rarely mention turnovers because there are simply too few in this game... but turnovers from bad passes very very often end up layups the other way. 13 turnovers, allowing 11 steals is huge and the fact we still won is pretty amazing to me.
We win the rebounding battle 25-18, that helps quite a bit. Their SF, Caskill, I believe I referred to him as not bad... completely overshadowed by their better players when I scouted them out, scores 24, the only Hokie in double figures. Matsui has 7 assists but is way off shooting, 2-9, 1-5 from 3.
Forte: 14 points/4 assists (2-2 from 3)
Moye: 16 points (3-4 from 3)
Ozier: 9 points
Sneed: 11 points/5 boards
McCants: 0 points/4 boards/2 blocks (0-4 shooting)
Day: 8 points
I don't know what's changed from when we were losing to inferior Tennessee team to now, but we are playing really really well to start out the ACC season.