The Megan Duffy era made its on-court debut last week, as Virginia Tech routed the Limestone Saints 92-41 in an exhibition game at Cassell Coliseum. While it is hard to know how much to take from an exhibition game against a Division ll opponent, the game still gave fans a first look at the scheme and approach Megan Duffy might implement, and see the skillsets of the newcomers on a roster that will rely on a lot of younger players to play significant minutes. Here are my major takeaways:
Hokies will be Less Reliant on the Three Ball
Last year for better or worse, the Hokies were extremely reliant on their three-point shooting.
Virginia Tech was 12th in the country in three pointers made, led by sharpshooters Georgia Amoore, Cayla King, and Matilda Ekh. Among the trio, Ekh is the only remaining player, and while she can still light it up (4 threes in the exhibition game), the team overall appears to be less dependent on the long ball.
During the exhibition, three-pointers accounted for just 30% of the Hokies overall shots, a considerably smaller ratio than last year's 42% rate. While Kenny Brooks’ Hokies had games they blew teams out specifically due to their sharpshooting, a team completely reliant on threes can also be a recipe for disaster on a cold shooting night, especially if that comes during the one and done march madness tournament. This was evident last year as Virginia Tech shot about 37% from downtown in wins, compared to below 32% in losses.
This isn’t to say volume three-point shooting isn’t a viable strategy to winning games, because it absolutely is if you have the shooters. However, it is to say that a good team has multiple ways of winning games, and can find other ways to score when shots aren’t falling. This was a trait last year’s Hokies certainly didn’t have after Elizabeth Kitley’s season ending injury.
Hopefully, this group’s more balanced attack can provide some consistency on the offensive end.
