Pregame
The crowd of 10,011 for the UNLV-Texas Tech game evacuates the building so
fast you would think it was 9 o'clock on a Saturday night in Vegas and they had
better things to do. The remaining gathering of maybe a thousand is widely
scattered except for a concentration at midcourt. I'd guess 50% Stanford,
45% Virginia Tech, 5% neutral. Tark stays for the game; the UNLV dance
team doesn't. Bad deal for the males in attendance.
Guy next to me says the Hokies win the introductions eyeball test, as skinny
white center, skinny white power forward, white shooting guard with knee brace
and stocky white point guard doesn't make for an intimidating group. I
tell him our coaching staff would crush Va Tech's if they played, so there!
Fred Washington is starting for Tim Morris, a surprise given Morris' 7-of-10,
15-point outing vs. Davis. Trent Johnson is definitely going with defense.
Game Notes
19:55 Stanford in a 2-1-2 zone? Do my eyes deceive me?
I like it in theory since the Hokies have a big edge in one-on-one quickness,
and anything has to be better than the man defense we've been playing. I
assume much practice time has been spent on it during the long break.
19:41 Coleman Collins misses the first shot of the game.
Taj Finger rebounds - a good start. Finger turnover - oops.
19:32 Zabian Dowdell missed jumper. Finger rebounds, Matt Haryasz turnover - oops, again.
18:43 Jamon Gordon missed jumper. Finger rebounds.
At this rate, Finger will end with 94 rebounds if he plays all 40 minutes.
18:07 Chris Hernandez with the three. Stanford up 3-0.
500 people cheer.
17:10 Fred Washington with the offensive foul on a forced drive
to the hoop - can't help but think this is becoming his signature move.
16:20 First substitution is Lawrence Hill for Finger. Very
interesting…
16:00 Virginia Tech finally scores. Stanford's zone is the
best anyone has ever seen, a secret weapon we have been waiting to unleash at
just the right moment. Or the Hokies are just off so far. Who knows…
14:54 Stanford up 7-2 at the first media timeout, Morris in for
Washington, who sits the rest of the half.
14:36 Collins throws down a wicked dunk off a drive-and-dish
through the zone. Hope it's not a sign...
13:30 Finger back in for Hill. Okay, maybe not that
interesting; Hill ends with five minutes.
13:06 Mitch Johnson in for Dan Grunfeld.
10:36 Finger with a nice block, mano-a-mano.
09:06 A Tech three gives them their first lead, 15-14.
Instead of jump starting their offense, they instead go scoreless for 6:18, as
Stanford eventually builds a 27-15 lead.
Halftime A 30-21 lead and everyone wearing Cardinal is smiling.
I head to the press room to grab the halftime stats. I instantly notice
some errors, which never were corrected. Mitch Johnson missed a baseline
jumper, but he ends the game 0-of-0 on field goal attempts. Hernandez left
the game at the 11:30 mark but shows 20 minutes played. Themes: Hernandez
with 10 points; Stanford up 21-14 on the boards; Va Tech just 36% shooting and a
dreadful 0-of-4 from the line. Best defensive effort of the season.
Can't ask for a better first half.
19:36 Ouch, they start with another Coleman dunk. Stanford
is in man defense, original starters in.
19:08 Haryasz answers with a jumper. He can get an open
17-footer every possession if he wants it.
19:00 Ouch, again - three-point play for the Hokies.
18:54 Haryasz answers with a jumper (like I said…).
18:38 The start of a dreadful stretch; women and children,
please leave the room…
- Foul on Washington, non-shooting
- Hokies miss, offensive rebound
- Hokies miss, offensive rebound
- Hokies miss, offensive rebound
- Foul on Grunfeld, they make 1-of-2
- Turnover Stanford
- More misses and turnovers including a blown fastbreak that ends with
another Hokie dunk. 34-29 Stanford. At the 18:00 mark Finger got
nailed in the nose with an elbow in front of everyone except the officials.
I talked to him after the game; you could still see where he got hit. He
is forced out for a long stretch.
- Another Stanford miss, another Hokies miss and offensive rebound, followed
by a three. 34-32 Stanford. Hernandez hits the floor hard during
one sequence; the floor is okay.
15:15 Va Tech ties the game, 34-34. Stanford goes back to
zone... My notes say “Peter Prowitt runs like cartoon character” – he sort
of bounds along, with lots of wasted vertical motion. Running lessons are
in order.
14:43 Nice dish by Hernandez to Haryasz for the dunk.
Stanford ends a four-plus minute stretch of futility.
13:52 Haryasz gets doubled on the baseline, and no one cuts or
moves. He makes a bad pass to Morris in the opposite corner that is picked
off. That double is what we want; it should get a wide open three by
someone. Instead, it got Va Tech the ball.
11:17 Grunfeld with a bad forced drive in traffic, lots of
motion resulting in nothing. His “jumper” is off, sort of a two-handed
high arcing toss that is a far cry from textbook form.
11:15 Hernandez back in after a two-minute rest. Stanford
went scoreless while he was out. Haryasz goes out.
10:20 Hernandez hits two free throws, his first points of the
half.
10:01 Prowitt fouls Collins, who is approximately 500% quicker
than him. Collins makes the first free throw and misses the second, but
Deron Washington goes right over Prowitt for a tip-dunk. Awful sequence.
41-40, Tech.
9:32 Haryasz back in. A lineup of him, Hernandez, Grunfeld,
Finger, and Morris will stay on the court for the next eight minutes, with no
subs.
5:40 Harysaz goes for an ill-advised and unnecessary help block.
Collins left alone slams home the rebound. 47-46 Hokies, and it's a nail
biter. Wish they had a beer guy here; I'm parched.
4:37 Sweet pass from Finger to Grunfeld; Stanford up, 50-47.
Unfortunately that was the last positive play of the game, as Stanford would go
scoreless until just 19 seconds remain in the game.
3:35 Hernandez fouled. Media timeout. He misses the
front end of the one-and-one, the second time in the game he missed the front
end off of a timeout. Give him a ball during the timeout or make him stand
or something. The break to catch his breath should help, not hurt.
0:58 Down three, Grunfeld steps on the sideline - turnover.
Ouch. Stanford sits back in zone and lets Va Tech run 30 seconds off the
clock. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Extend the game down three; don't
shorten it. Especially against a team that has been shooting airball free
throws (they finish 8-of-17 from the line).
0:27 Ballgame. After running the clock down against the
passive zone, Markus Sailes hits his only three-point attempt of the game.
56-50, Va Tech.
Final Thoughts
Holding the Hokies to 59 points and 39% shooting is a huge positive.
They are clearly the best team we have faced, and we responded with our best
defensive effort.
Taj Finger ended with four rebounds, 90 short of my projection.
What is up with Fred Washington? Starts both halves but plays just the
first five minutes of each: two fouls, one turnover and everything else is 0.
Game after game, Jason Haas and Mitch Johnson combine for 20 minutes and
close to zero points. That simply has to change.
There were a number of timeouts, but I wonder if guys were a bit gassed – no
subs for eight minutes down the stretch, as mentioned earlier. Of course
no one exactly earned playing time, so I understand it.
Two points for Stanford off of turnovers, zero fastbreak points. Not
quite what we expected from the “more up-tempo” Stanford of the off-season.
I eavesdropped on Steve Lavin chatting with Finger after the game. He
was encouraging, with some “lunch pail” hard-working type stuff. Also
something about not knowing how to announce “he got Finger in the nose,” or some
such attempt at a joke that didn't get a laugh from Finger.
Bobby Knight had dinner with Pete Rose among others Saturday night.
Disappointing but encouraging is what I was left with. Defense is,
after all, half the battle. I expect a strong showing against Denver,
perhaps holding them to less than 50 points. I'll go out on a limb and
predict 71-49, Cardinal.
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