Virginia Tech’s performance against USC Upstate can be broken up into two parts: the first 7 minutes, and the last 33 minutes. To say the Hokies came out slow would be an understatement. Tech had five turnovers and went 0/7 from long range in the early going, often settling for difficult jump shots early in the shot clock and leaving shooters and cutters on the defensive end.
However, freshman Tyler Johnson checked in and provided a spark the Hokies needed to get out of their rut.
“He’s a dog,” Hokies point guard Brandon Rechsteiner said of Johnson. “There’s going to be games where he might be in the starting lineup, with how physical he is and how aggressive he is.”
Johnson finished with 16 points, but more importantly played hard-nosed defense leading to the Hokies comeback.
The Spartans actually shot slightly better from the floor and long range, but the Hokies were able to overcome that, by winning the turnover and rebounding battles, as well as getting to the free throw line. The Hokies finished with just seven turnovers, and amazingly only gave it away twice in the last 33 minutes on their way to a 93-74 victory over USC Upstate.
On the other hand, they forced 17 turnovers, pressuring the USC Upstate ball handlers by hedging pick and rolls and playing passing lanes.
“We got our hands on a couple of balls, and those deflections are a big deal,” Hokies head coach Mike Young stated. “If I can get a fingernail on the ball, I’ve got a teammate that will come up with it, and you’ve got a three on two break on the other end of it.”
While the Hokies weren’t able to capitalize in transition off of a lot of those steals, they were able to keep the Spartans out of a rhythm on the offensive end.
On the offensive end, Virginia Tech was able to overcome a cold shooting start by implementing a much more balanced offensive approach.
Six players got into double figures, and returners Mylyjael Poteat and Brandon Rechsteiner set their career highs with 19 points a piece. Poteat did a lot of his damage at the free throw line, and this was a theme for the Hokies tonight, who knocked down 23 of their 30 tries from the stripe. 30 free throw attempts is very rare for Virginia Tech, who has been primarily a three point shooting team, and this displays their more balanced offensive approach, working the ball inside. The Hokies also finished with 38 points in the paint.
Mike Young said before the season that this would be an elite rebounding team, and two games into the season, his prediction is looking promising. Tech outrebounded the Spartans 32-25, but most impressively grabbed 12 offensive rebounds. These offensive boards led to 17 second chance points, while USC Upstate was limited to just seven points off of their own misses.
While Tobi Lawal was quiet on the offensive end today, he once again paced the team with eight boards. Trailing behind him were bigs Mylyjael Poteat and Ben Burnham with five rebounds each, and hustle rebounding guard Tyler Johnson with four.
Despite the comfortable win, Mike Young’s squad will have plenty to work on before their game against Winthrop and the upcoming showdown against Penn State in Baltimore in just under a week. The Hokies have stretches of playing good defense, but they haven’t been able to put a full game of lockdown defense together.
Another point of emphasis needs to be finding ways to get Ben Burnham involved. The Charleston transfer, who figured to be one of this team's leading weapons, had just one point in 16 minutes of action, and looked just as shy to let it fly from long range as he did in the season opener. The Hokies are going to need Burnham during ACC play, so they need to find ways to get him comfortable in the offense.
Overall, the Hokies had another imperfect, yet comfortable win. They dug themselves in a hole early on, but dominated the last 33 minutes, outsourcing the Spartans 91-58 over that timeframe. The Hokies return to Cassell Coliseum at 7 p.m. on Monday, November 11th against Winthrop, where they will look to put 40 minutes together for the first time this season.
