Fighting Gobbler
Fansided

VT Basketball: Justin Bibbs Will Not Play Against Pittsburgh

By Tim Thomas

facebooktwitterreddit

Nov 19, 2014; Blacksburg, VA, USA; Virginia Tech Hokies guard Justin Bibbs (10) looks to pass in the second half against the Liberty Flames at Cassell Coliseum. Virginia Tech defeated Liberty 73-63. Mandatory Credit: Michael Shroyer-USA TODAY Sports

The Virginia Tech Hokies nearly pulled off the biggest upset of 2015 against the #2 Virginia Cavaliers, but came up just short by a final score of 50-47. The Hokies gave a valiant effort, and nearly pulled off the upset despite not having leading scorer Justin Bibbs for the third straight game due to a concussion.

There wasn’t much hope a few days ago that Bibbs would be able to play against Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, the Hokies announced some bad news on Bibbs for the Pittsburgh game.

It is disappointing that the Hokies will once again be without Bibbs who averaged 20.7 points per game in his first three ACC games. Overall, Bibbs is averaging 13.6 points and 3.4 rebounds in 31.7 minutes per game and being without him is once again significant.

Concussions are very serious and can take plenty of time to recover from though it is starting to look like the concussion Bibbs suffered was very serious. The biggest focus should be making sure that Bibbs fully recovers from this concussion so we do not see this issue pop up again in the future.

The Hokies have not had the best offensive performances the last few games, and could use Will Johnston to heat up some from beyond the arc after some of his recent struggles. Johnston can be a quality three-point shooter, but seems to be struggling for confidence especially after he passed up an open three that could have tied the game in the final 20 seconds against Virginia.

Ahmed Hill has been one of the two primary scorers since Justin Bibbs has gone down, and showed against Virginia that he can play efficient offensive basketball. If Hill can continue to be as efficient as he was against Virginia, Hill should do quite well while Bibbs is out.

It will be interesting to see how soon Bibbs is able to return as it seems uncertain if he will play Saturday against Wake Forest. Bibbs seems likely to be healthy enough to play at Syracuse, but concussions can cause players to miss more time than you would expect.

The key thing for the Hokies is that Justin Bibbs returns completely healthy due to the bright future he has.

More from Fighting Gobbler