Preview:
Fresh off a two-win weekend, we take a more hopeful team east to play the Virginia Schools. First stop is Virginia Tech on Thursday evening.
Virginia Tech is 16-9, 7-7 in conference. Massey has them at 38 (compared to our 40) so the computer thinks it is an even match-up. It gives us a 49% chance to win and predicts a 70-71 loss. Of their 9 losses, nearly all were to highly ranked teams--except the loss to Syracuse. Their best wins were over Louisville and over Georgia Tech.
Virginia Tech has 5 players all averaging between 9 and 14 points--so an extremely well balanced offense with no particular person to focus upon more than the others. They have 4 very accomplished three point shooters, all with more than 25 made and shooting percentages ranging from 35% to 52%, so defending the perimeter will be essential. And none of the four are specialists, meaning that while they take and make threes, each of them gets about 2/3 of their baskets from inside. Thus the offense looks exceptionally diverse and will be difficult to scout and defend.
Only one starter does not shoot threes, and that is their 6'2" senior forward Rose Micheaux. She is hitting 56% of her shots, all from inside, and also anchors their rebounding with 8 rpg.
Carleigh Wenzel leads their scoring at 14ppg, and about 1/3 of her baskets are treys. While she is slightly more prolific than the other guards, they all seem to share that profile. She also leads the team with about 4 assists per game.
Like Stanford, Virginia Tech has a new head coach, Megan Duffy, who was named last April, almost the same time Kate Paye was named. Duffy was head coach for four years at Marquette with a 70% winning percentage, and you might remember her as a Notre Dame player back around the turn of the millennium
This is the only game left on the schedule that the Massey computer doesn't favor us in, although our final game at Maples against Georgia Tech is a close one too, with Georgia Tech being statistically a better team than Virginia Tech but playing in our place. If we can get a win at Virginia Tech it would do wonders for our reputation, particular with a road win against a winning team--something we have not yet accomplished this year.
Fresh off a two-win weekend, we take a more hopeful team east to play the Virginia Schools. First stop is Virginia Tech on Thursday evening.
Virginia Tech is 16-9, 7-7 in conference. Massey has them at 38 (compared to our 40) so the computer thinks it is an even match-up. It gives us a 49% chance to win and predicts a 70-71 loss. Of their 9 losses, nearly all were to highly ranked teams--except the loss to Syracuse. Their best wins were over Louisville and over Georgia Tech.
Virginia Tech has 5 players all averaging between 9 and 14 points--so an extremely well balanced offense with no particular person to focus upon more than the others. They have 4 very accomplished three point shooters, all with more than 25 made and shooting percentages ranging from 35% to 52%, so defending the perimeter will be essential. And none of the four are specialists, meaning that while they take and make threes, each of them gets about 2/3 of their baskets from inside. Thus the offense looks exceptionally diverse and will be difficult to scout and defend.
Only one starter does not shoot threes, and that is their 6'2" senior forward Rose Micheaux. She is hitting 56% of her shots, all from inside, and also anchors their rebounding with 8 rpg.
Carleigh Wenzel leads their scoring at 14ppg, and about 1/3 of her baskets are treys. While she is slightly more prolific than the other guards, they all seem to share that profile. She also leads the team with about 4 assists per game.
Like Stanford, Virginia Tech has a new head coach, Megan Duffy, who was named last April, almost the same time Kate Paye was named. Duffy was head coach for four years at Marquette with a 70% winning percentage, and you might remember her as a Notre Dame player back around the turn of the millennium
This is the only game left on the schedule that the Massey computer doesn't favor us in, although our final game at Maples against Georgia Tech is a close one too, with Georgia Tech being statistically a better team than Virginia Tech but playing in our place. If we can get a win at Virginia Tech it would do wonders for our reputation, particular with a road win against a winning team--something we have not yet accomplished this year.