For most of the season, Seth Allen has seemed to be in a shooting rut with Allen shooting under 30% from beyond the arc entering Saturday's game against the Florida State and still shooting under 40% overall. Allen has had a few great performances in terms of being efficient offensively, but had been struggling in the last four games with an average of 8 points per game.
However, Allen rose to the occasion against Florida State, and led the Hokies to a great home victory.
Allen had 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field including 4-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc along with 5-of-7 shooting from the free-throw line plus 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 steal. Allen stepped up in the second half with 17 of his 23 points in the final 20 minutes with a combination of layups on fast-breaks and drives along with a couple of three-pointers.
Down the stretch against Florida State, Allen's energy and intensity made a big difference to fire up the crowd and his teammates after his second half collision with Florida State's Boris Bojanovsky took him out for a few minutes while getting his left eye bandaged. Allen's toughness and grit brought the crowd to life while the Hokies rallied to force some turnovers and fast break baskets along with getting some big shots from Allen and Justin Robinson.
Allen had one of his best three-point shooting performances of his season, which is hopefully a sign of better things to come for Allen over the final few games of the season. Allen also got it done going to the rim and getting the easy layups, which has been getting better over the last few weeks especially with Zach LeDay and Kerry Blackshear creating more space for Allen to attack the rim.
Allen proved to be the veteran leader for the Hokies that have people more excited about the immediate future with the way he took over the game down the stretch when the Hokies needed him the most. Buzz Williams and his coaching staff will now look to get more consistency out of Allen knowing that this team can definitely make the NIT with the former Maryland point guard playing at this level.
Seth Allen put together one of the most gutsiest performances that Virginia Tech basketball fans have seen in what is a defining game of Allen's career. While this season most likely won't be the return of Virginia Tech to the ACC Tournament, Allen's performance will still go down as a great moment in the rebuilding of Virginia Tech basketball.
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