First, Ill apologize for being delinquent on the Wake debrief. Also didnt know people actually looked for it, so apologies. Had a long weekend traveling and then a work summit that ended last night.

The Wake game was bad...really bad. Not from a "Wake is bad so losing to them is bad" standpoint but rather a "VT gace a very poor effort in attention to detail, patience and all around effort"...it wasnt just a few of them, it was all of them.

Aluma was the worst culprit, even though he had 20+. Last year, the scout to stop VT was to double Aluma, he was the only one capable of beating you on his own, so keeping the ball out of his hands was worth giving up rotations defensively. As a result, Cattoor and Alleyne had some great games, as well as Radford who could cut through the defense as it rotated. Bede, N'Guessan and others werent much of an offensive threat, so neutralizing Aluma greatly increased your chances of beating VT. Wake Forest did it as well last year, but they didnt win due to the roster being bereft of talent. UNC did it. Syracuse did it. Aluma was the start and end to stopping VT.

This year is much different. N'Guessan got better. Storm Murphy replaced Bede. Cattoor and Alleyne's minutes increased along with Maddox to offset Radford. VT now had 8 legitimate offensive threats defenses have to account for. You cant double Aluma anymore. Leaving open guys like Cattoor, Alleyne, Murphy, Pedulla, and Maddox are a great way to decrease your chances of winning.

Even with Murphy's shooting woes (he was still shooting 33% from 3 prior to last night), he is an upgrade due to how defenses have to account for him. It stretches a defense and that allows all the actions MY likes to run to work more smoothly.

So teams have countered that by being physical with Aluma to push him off the block and then leave him in single coverage, making passing lanes much less of a sure thing. Aluma is talented enough where he can win those battles and score 15-20 points without much effort. But he *should* be winning those battles and scoring 25-30. Theres not a post player VT has seen (Memphis included) who should be able to play Aluma with one defender 6 feet from the basket. He literally could have scored 40+ had he been locked in against Wake. I imagine they would have doubled him at some point, but even that would be exactly what VT wanted.

All that to say Aluma is the key to how VT will play going forward. He is the focus and gravitational pull of every defense VT will face.

Cornell tried to double him last night. They lost by 30 because of it. I do have to give the Cornell coach credit however, because it looked like he was trying to coach to build his system rather than coach to win a specific game. Their game plan was not a good one for VT specifically, but it will be a great one to use in the Ivy League, so it is much better for the long term health of his program to focus on Cornell rather than focus on VT. And honestly, they accomplished some goals that are very hard to do when outmatched. They sped VT up to 71 possessions. Speeding a team up is hard to do in general when you play at a slow pace, but doing so when youre the inferior team takes some coaching and a belief in your philosophy. Kudos to them for sticking to it and theyll be better for it in the long run.

As for Cornell last night from a Vt perspective it was a much better effort on all fronts. They were more locked in. Aluma was excellent. If Im going to rip him to shreds when he plays poorly, then he deserves a lot of credit for what happened in the face of that last night. He passed well out of the double team, he beat his man continually in single situations, he was active and communicative defensively and rebounded some out of his area. Very solid.

Storm Murphy was great, he knew where the ball needed to go, especially in traffic, and an ability to change sides of the floor while collapsing a defense is invaluable. He knocked down some shots from all 3 levels and defended well.

Pedulla needs more playing time. Not a knock to Murphy at all, but you have to figure out a way to get him on the floor. He could be dangerous if a team plays 2 small guards. He and Murphy on the floor would be very welcome in those situations. Pedulla is going to be a very good player for VT.

I know there is a lot of clamoring for Darius Maddox to get on the floor and his basketball skill level is very very high. But there are still too many instances where he doesnt know where to be on a play call/action or he is there a step late or delivers the ball late. It disrupts the entire offense and renders the skill level of his teammates useless. He is young, so theres a long way to go there and he can correct it through film. It is just a shame he couldnt get on the floor more last year to clean some of this up so he could hit the ground running this season. He will only be needed more as the season goes on.