Tobacco Road Report

By Michael

Despite a large turnover margin in their favor, Virginia Tech struggled to down shots all evening, They finally found the winning stroke in the final ten minutes, scoring the last 12 points of the game and earning their first NCAA Tournament victory in 11 years.

Those TRR readers who don't see much of the Big Ten can be excused for wondering if what transpired between Virginia Tech and Illinois passes for "basketball." Ugly is probably too kind a word to describe what happened. There were 53 missed shots, 17 missed free throws, and 55 total rebounds between the two squads in a 61 possession grinder.

TRR and the Official Wife of TRR were watching this contest with our neighbors and a friend who's flight was cancelled due to the storms on the east coast. The lack of production in the game didn't keep the attention of the bunch for long. At one such stretch during the game, the Official Wife and our neighbor Beth had the following exchange,

Official Wife: "Look at the tatoos on that guy. Everyone seems to have tatoos now. What do you think about that Beth?"

Beth: "It's not my thing, and how come all the tattoos are on the Tech guys and not the Illinois guys?"

Official Wife: "Yeah, how come...oooohh, look at the arms on him."

Beth: "Wow, they're huge...and no tatoos either. We like that."

The conversation in the room then turned to who the Redskins had just let go and what they needed in the upcoming NFL draft...prompting me to think,

TRR (to self): "Shoot me now, please. Just end it."

Despite their offensive woes in the first 30 minutes, Virginia Tech's defense was respectable. The Hokies ended up forcing 19 Illinois turnovers, meaning the Illini lost nearly 30 percent of their possessions to turnovers. Gordon lived up to his ACC All-Defense award, recording 7 steals on his own.

The Illini remained ahead in this game since they were able to hit the offensive glass enough, grabbing 32 percent of their misses, and Virginia Tech couldn't hit anything. Or as my high school coach used to say, "they couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a banjo." I don't know exactly what he meant by that either...

The Illini gameplan on defense was fairly simple. They ran multiple defenders at Gordon and Dowdell and forced Washington and Vassallo to beat them. We at TRR have said many times this year that the key to Virginia Tech victories is the development of a consistent third scorer.

In a slow, grind-it-out game like this, I would have expected Vassallo to be the guy to step up with bombs from deep. Washington is usually more effective in the open court and none of that action was happening against Illinois.

However, Washington was the one to step up his game in the second half. Deron had 14 points on 5-10 shooting from the floor and had several critical buckets down the stretch. He was the only player on Tech to shoot 50 percent from the floor. Without his energy the Hokies would be heading back home to Blacksburg with the loss.

Facing Illinois may not have been pretty, but it will prepare the Hokies well for their next opponent, Southern Illinois, who defeated Holy Cross in the first round. The Salukis like ugly defensive contests as well and will force the Hokies to execute on both ends of the floor for the full duration of the shot clock.

Memo to VT: the next one is winnable and the Sweet-16 is in your hands. Go grab it.