Sitting at 5-6 and playing their final non-conference game of the 2024-25 season, the Virginia Tech men's basketball team was hoping to enter ACC play in full with a win over Saint Joseph's in the 2024 Holiday Hoopfest at The Palestra in Philadelphia. The Hawks were missing one of their top players, Xzayvier Brown who averages 16 points a game, but it didn't matter.
After both teams went on lengthy scoring runs in the first half, Saint Joseph's took a two-point lead into halftime before they outscored the Hokies, 50-32, in the second half for an 82-62 victory. The loss drops the Hokies two games under .500 going into the Christmas Break with an ACC matchup at Duke next up on New Year's Eve. Here are five observations from the 20-point loss for Mike Young's team.
Virginia Tech struggled to identify Saint Joseph's defenses in the 1st half
Offense has been hard to come by this season for Virginia Tech and has been one of their biggest issues. When a team struggles to get good looks, you would think that they would be able to identify the opposing team's defenses, but that was not the case, especially in the first half.
Saint Joseph's mixed up defenses and went from man to zone and it confused the Hokies. There were a number of possessions where they failed to figure out the defense too late and were caught standing around and not moving the ball against the zone. The final possession of the half where Rodney Brown, Jr. dribbled the final seven seconds out in front of the Saint Joseph's bench and threw up a 3-point attempt that had no shot of hitting the rim.
Too many Virginia Tech scoring droughts...... again
It seems like the Hokies go through multiple scoring droughts a game and it has happened against everybody they have played. It continued against the Hawks and even though they were able to dig out of a double-digit first-half deficit with a 15-2 run of their own, they went through another drought early in the second half and were not able to recover.
Good looks not falling for Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech's offense early in the game was clear, get the ball in the paint. They did, but they missed some shots around the rim while struggling from the outside. The Hokies finished 7-for-22 from behind the arc with Ben Burnham being 3-for-3 and nobody else made more than one. The Hokies finished 22-for-59 from the field. On the flip side, the Hawks hit 15 of their 32 3-pointers which was the difference. At times there were good looks for Young's team, they just couldn't hit a shot.
Six of seven losses have been by double digits
Saturday marked the seventh loss of the season and it was the sixth double-digit loss. To break it down more, they lost at home by double digits to Jacksonville in November, and their lone single-digit loss? It was Pittsburgh two weeks ago in the ACC opener. Sadly, there are likely more double-digit losses to come once ACC play kicks into full gear on Dec. 31.
First losing record in non-conference games in over 30 years
Everyone who has been paying attention to the Hokies knew that this was going to be a difficult year, but not many might have had them finishing the season with a losing record at 5-6 in non-conference games. The loss to Jacksonville ended up being the deciding game and a game that Virginia Tech had no business losing. It's the first time since the 1991-92 season that they finished the non-conference schedule with a losing record.