After a full week between games, Virginia Tech returns to action today on the road against struggling Notre Dame, looking to end a seven-game losing streak. This is a must-win game for Virginia Tech's NCAA Tournament at-large bid hopes. Not because this would be a quality win, but because a loss would take away from him one of the strengths of his VT resume: not losing in the third or fourth quarters.
With that said, here are the keys to the Hokies vs. Fighting Irish game.
1. Protect the basketball
When things go wrong for Virginia Tech, it focuses on the Hokies' turnovers, either throughout the game or in key moments that turned the game on its head.
Consider last Saturday's game against Miami. The Hokies had control of the game for the first 20 minutes, but stumbled late, mostly due to turnovers. That included two lazy turnovers that turned into four quick points for Miami and helped swing the result in the Hurricanes' favor.
Notre Dame ranks in the bottom 50 in the country in opponent turnovers per game and 282nd in steals per game, making it one of the worst teams in the country in forcing turnovers. be. In theory, this game is absolutely the right opportunity for the Hokies before they face a Florida State team that had a lot of problems when they played in Tallahassee earlier this season.
Sean Pedula has struggled tremendously this season, averaging 3.7 turnovers per game, including 4.6 per game in conference play alone. Pedula isn't the only reason for tech companies' turnover problems, but he's been at the center of it and has often tried to force things. Some of it is just Pedula's game that you have to put up with, but some of it is absolutely fixable and needs to be fixed if the Hokies want to get things back on track.
All in all, the tech company has started to fix its mistakes recently, and this is a great opportunity to step it up even more after a week off to rest, but it may also pick up some rust.
If Tech is going to do what Notre Dame was supposed to do, they need to minimize the turnovers that plagued them too much this season.
2. Capitalize on Notre Dame's failure
In fact, Notre Dame is in the midst of a massive rebuild and has a very young team this season, which is why the Fighting Irish rank 45th in the country in turnovers per game, averaging 13.5. . Compare this to the fact that the Irish are ranked 356th in the country and are averaging only 9.6 assists per game, and it's clear that this team has a lot of problems offensively.
For the Hokies, considering these numbers and the fact that the Irish rank 348th in field goal percentage and 349th in free throw attempts per game, it's hard to get overly aggressive and make big plays. You will be tempted to try. If you're not careful, you could end up going for a highlight reel play thinking you're not going to have a good day with a team like that.
That kind of thinking is unacceptable for the Hokies, especially on the road against an Irish team that will be trying to end a seven-game losing streak.
Tech teams will not only have to force a lot of turnovers, but they will also have to sharpen their game in transition and take advantage of the many chances the Irish will give them. Tech has struggled at times to take advantage of opponents' mistakes, and that was especially true in the recent loss to Duke.
This game is a great opportunity for Tech to clean up its transition offense before the competition gets tougher next week. If Tech wants to get the most out of this game, they'll look to improve their offense off turnovers.
3. Accept this as a game you have to win.
Some may argue that the first quarter games, other than when Tech travels to North Carolina next Saturday, are much more important than this game, but I believe this is the most important game left for Tech. I would like to claim that it is one of the.
The truth is, the Hokies can't afford to take a big loss given the current situation. Yes, not having bad losses is definitely not enough, but with limited chances for Q1 wins, no bad losses, combined with Q1 wins and improved metrics, could make the difference in Sunday's selection. may be produced.
Technologists should come to South Bend not expecting something easy, but seeing an opportunity to ensure that it remains one of their resume strengths. Tech can't coast in this game either, but they need to make sure they have the upper hand as the matchup suggests. A win is a win, but even a small margin of victory could cause technology companies to see some of their predictive metrics weaken.
Yes, Tech enters this game knowing that anything other than an advantage in South Bend could hurt its current slim hopes of earning at-large participation in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. I have to come.
Prediction: Virginia Tech 75, Notre Dame 61
I'm a big fan of Notre Dame's new head coach, Micah Shrewsberry, and believe he can bring Notre Dame back to the heights of the Mike Brey era. But this team is a bad basketball team that is rebuilding, and while they have some promising young talent, they have a long way to go.
Shrewsbury is too good a coach for the Hokies to go into this game expecting to cruise. But I think Mike Young will have the team ready to go, especially since the Hokies will feel like they missed an opportunity after back-to-back losses against Duke and Miami.
Tech will be in control this entire game, led by a frontcourt mismatch that favors Lynn Kidd. Meanwhile, Sean Pedulla will fix his mistakes and Tech's offense will be firing on all cylinders as Tech looks for a dominant road win.
