Virginia Tech is doing it's annual incredibly frustration tradition. Basketball season. Today we played Syracuse, a team we kinda matched up talent wise with, but what you can't see on paper is that their collective basketball IQ is way higher than ours. They made the right passes every time. They stepped into passing lanes. They were in great positions for rebounds. We, meanwhile, looked lost. We were out of position, drove to the basket with no idea what they were going to do, left our feet way too often. And our team gave up. When Syracuse started to pull away Adam Smith visibly threw in the towel. He didn't even contest a few jumpers on his man. Not even in help, but the man he was defending.
I also don't understand how we were so unprepared for the zone. I get that they play a very tough zone, but wow. We looked like my intramural team from last year, just passing the ball around outside until someone hoisted a three. A few times we would attack from the middle and it would work, and then we wouldn't do it again for 10 possessions. Meanwhile, Syracuse would find plays that would work, and would run the same thing over and over and over. When they were shooting at our end the white kid would come off a Fair screen and then a double screen, and if he didn't get a look, Fair came off the double screen and went to work on Eddie, who other than one block, was out played entirely. They ran this nine times in a row and scored pretty much every time.
This team needs some passion. No one seems to care. No one came out with a fire under their ass today going into a game against the #2 team in the nation. We weren't afraid, but we seemed timid. Someone needs to make a spark and ignite these guys. Until then it's same old same old.
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