3 massive concerns for the Virginia Tech men's basketball team following Virginia loss

For the second time early in the ACC schedule, the Virginia Tech men’s basketball team has lost consecutive games. This time, they suffered a 65-57 loss at in-state rival Virginia after losing at home to Miami last Saturday night. Both games were certainly winnable, but they came up short in both times.

The loss to Virginia dropped Virginia Tech to 2-4 in the ACC and 10-7 overall, but some concerning trends continued against the Cavaliers that need to be fixed and fixed fast by Mike Young and his team.

3 giant concerns from the Virginia loss for Virginia Tech MBB

Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers

Virginia played their usual tough defense that they do under Tony Bennett, but the Hokies didn’t do themselves any favors by turning the ball over 17 times, including seven by Sean Pedulla. The Cavaliers only got six points off of those turnovers, but what makes it even more frustrating is that some of the turnovers were unforced. I’m not saying that Tech would have scored on a lot of those possessions, but for a team struggling to score, taking multiple possessions away because of turnovers. There were times they made it easy for Virginia on the defensive end.

Lack of production on the inside

Earlier in the season, Lynn Kidd was a big presence inside for Young and the Hokies, but that narrative has slowly changed over the last couple of weeks. Aside from a good second half against Clemson, Kidd has struggled to finish there have been a lot of times where he isn’t even looking at the basket. He scored two points and took just three shots against Virginia and that can’t happen. Virginia’s Jordan Minor had 16 points and dominated on the inside. Virginia Tech needs Kidd to play like that.

Need more offense from players not named Pedulla or Cattoor

Against Clemson, Tyler Nickel added 24 points to go with Pedulla’s 33, but against Miami and Hunter Cattoor, Pedulla’s 32 points were not enough. Against Virginia, the backcourt duo combined for 30 for Virginia Tech’s 57 points, and Robbie Beran added 10, and Nickel eight, but after that nobody had more than three points. The Hokies were 11-for-30 from behind the arc and seemed to settle for 3-point shots. They shot just four free throws in the entire game to Virginia’s 16. Tech needs more points around the basket and from their bigs if they are going to win some upcoming games against a tough conference schedule. They were outscored 36-20 in the paint Wednesday night.

There are certainly other concerns going forward for Virginia Tech, including rebounding on both ends and getting stops, but these are concerns that played a big part in the loss to the Cavaliers. It doesn’t get any easier this weekend at North Carolina State.