Scattershooting: Cavaliers take on the Techs, free-throw records and more

Scattershooting around the ACC, while noting the importance of Virginia’s game on Thursday night at Georgia Tech …

The Cavaliers, 14-2, 1-1, will have had a week between games when they travel to Atlanta to meet the Yellow Jackets. A week to prepare for the two Tech’s (Georgia Tech on Thursday, Virginia Tech at UVa on Sunday), should be an advantage for the Cavaliers, who also may have yet another factor helping them against the Jackets.

Thursday’s game won’t be played in the Thriller Dome, Tech’s on-campus facility, which has been demolished and being replaced by a new, modern arena. UVa will be facing the Jackets in Phillips Arena, a larger facility that hosts the NBA’s Hawks games, and won’t be as intimidating if Tech gets on a run.

Virginia coach Tony Bennett said he used the break for both preparation and to rest his team a bit, taking last Friday and Sunday off. Assistant coaches also spent more time studying Georgia Tech with that extra prep time, and we suspect one of the assistants was assigned scouting and breaking down the Hokies with the extra time as well.

Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said that extra prep time helped his team in its stunning 33-point upset of North Carolina last weekend.

Georgia Tech coach Brian Gregory, whose team beat N.C. State on the road and gave both Duke and Maryland good games, said this week that his team is starting to get “more fight in them.”

Gregory realizes playing Virginia is no stroll in the park.

“I said in the beginning of the year I thought Virginia was a team that maybe was a little undervalued going into the season,” the Tech coach said. “My experience with Tony and that style of play with his father and so forth, goes back to obviously our days in the Big Ten.”

While Bennett was an assistant on his father, Dick’s, Wisconsin staff, Gregory was an assistant at Michigan State.

“You have to play every possession and every pass,” the Georgia Tech coach said. “You cannot relax at all, and if you do, they take advantage of it with multiple players. Obviously [Mike] Scott has done an unbelievable job. You can just see the improvements that he’s made as a player and now you have to make him take tough shots all the time because if you don’t, if you give him anything easy, it’s definitely in, and he’s become good enough now like so many guys in this league, that even when you play great defense, he can still score on you.”

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said after his Blue Devils’ close escape at Cameron Indoor against UVa last Thursday that he didn’t think Scott could beat (Duke) by himself, but for a while it looked like Scott just might.

The UVa senior, who has scored 23 points in back-to-back games, leads the ACC in field goal percentage (.588), so he is making those tough shots that Gregory mentioned.

Scott really can’t do it alone, as Krzyzewski hinted. If Virginia is to beat the Jackets, then the Hokies, which would set the Cavaliers up nicely, then UVa must have at least two of its perimeter shooters to step up, and even a third wouldn’t hurt. In addition, senior big man Assane Sene is going to have to step up his game to take some pressure off Scott inside.

Virginia has won five of the last six over the Jackets, a recent domination the Cavaliers can’t afford to end.

Wood chases record

When N.C. State’s Scott Wood sank both his free throws in a win over Wake Forest over the weekend, it drew the Wolfpack junior to within three shots of the ACC’s all-time record for consecutive foul shots made.

Wood has hit 51 straight going into Thursday night’s game against Boston College.

J.J. Redick, who starred for Duke, holds the record with 54 straight. Prior to Redick, the record was held by a Cavalier.

Do you know who? (Answer appears at the end of this article)

Stat of the Week

Who’s the most improved scorer in the ACC so far this season?

Maryland sophomore guard Terrell Stoglin, who is presently averaging 20.9 points per game as opposed to 11.4 as a freshman last season.

That’s a net gain of 9.5 points per contest for Stoglin and the Terps.

Quote of the Week

You can always count on a good quote from Roy Williams after a loss. After getting clobbered 90-57 at Florida State over the weekend, well, see for yourself.

When asked during this week’s ACC Coaches teleconference about what signs Williams will be looking for in practice that might give a good indication of how the Tar Heels are responding to the loss, Williams’ answer was simple: “See if we live,” the coach said.

Asked to elaborate, Williams explained.

“I don’t think it needs much elaboration. We’ve got to have great practices. I mean, we’re not going to go up and beat Virginia Tech just because we lost on Saturday. People say, ‘Oh, they’re going to bounce back.’ It makes no difference. We could go up [to Blacksburg] and play well and still not be successful. We’ve just got to do a heck of a lot better job.”

Hokie Dokey

Speaking of Virginia Tech, coach Seth Greenberg’s squad is off to a rough start in ACC play, going 0-3 in the league for the first time since 2005-06, when the Hokies dropped their first six.

It’s not like Tech’s getting blown out, losing the three games by a collective nine points (3, 4, and 2).

“It’s not gloom and doom around here,” said Greenberg, who faces 15-3 North Carolina on Thursday night, then travels to Charlottesville on Sunday to face the rival Cavaliers (14-2). “If we’re getting whacked by 30 and 40, no matter who we were playing, I could see that. But we also have a lot of positive things going on.”

Greenberg said he’s not making excuses about his team, which he said is “playing young” and without a “high energy guy.”

The guy he referred to is J.T. Thompson, who went down in preseason practice.

Blue streak

Carolina sophomore point guard Kendall Marshall is on pace to catch former Duke star Bobby Hurley’s mark of most assists by an ACC player through the first two years of play.

Hurley recorded 577 assists as a freshman and sophomore for the Blue Devils in 1990 and ’91.

Marshall has 403 going into the Tech game on Thursday. If the UNC guard continues to dish out assists at his current pace of 9.6 per game, that would give him 527 by the end of this regular season, putting him behind Hurley’s mark. However, if UNC goes deep into the ACC Tournament and the NCAAs, that could be enough games to where the Tar Heel could catch the Blue Devil.

Virginia Tech is certainly aware of Marshall’s abilities.

“The difference between Kendall and say, Ty [Lawson], is Ty brought it at warp speed. Kendall brings it at warp speed, but he does it with the ball in the air,” Hokies coach Seth Greenberg said. “It’s a lot faster to pass the ball up the floor than dribble. Kendall’s probably the best I’ve ever seen at pitching it ahead.”

Tigers and Wahoos

Miami coach Jim Larranaga said that Virginia and Clemson are near mirror images of one another after facing the Cavaliers and preparing for tonight’s matchup with the Tigers.

“I think Clemson and Virginia are very, very similar,” Larranaga said. “I would say there is one major difference, and that is Tony Bennett’s been [at UVa] for three seasons and Brad [Brownell] has been [at Clemson] for two.

“I think Brad’s teams show excellent signs of playing defense,” Larranaga continued. “They look very similar to Virginia at both ends of the court and I think they’re making progress. The Virginia-Duke game and the Clemson-Duke game were mirror images of each other.”

Most overlooked

So, early on in the ACC season, which players in the league would make the conference’s “Most Overlooked Team?”

Here’s a few of our candidates: Florida State’s Okaro White, who most recently came off the bench to record a double-double (12/10) in the upset over UNC; Boston College freshman Ryan Anderson, who has scored in double figures in three of the last four games; Georgia Tech sophomore Kammeon Holsey, who is shooting 63.9 percent on field goal attempts so far this season; Maryland’s James Padgett, who ranks in the top 10 nationally in offensive rebounding per game.

Stay tuned as we continue to update the list.

Sports Reporters

Make sure you tune into WINA-AM 1070 or WVAX-AM 1450 (ESPN) tonight to catch the “Sports Reporters” show, 60 minutes of discussion of UVa sports by yours truly and Doug Doughty of The Roanoke Times, with Jay James working as referee. The weekly show begins at 6:05 p.m.

Trivia answer

Virginia’s Jeff Lamp held the ACC’s consecutive free throws mark for more than 20 years, making 48 in a row from 1979-80.