Texas Basketball: What to expect from Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech plays at an extremely slow pace

You would anticipate that, given how good of a three-point shooting team Virginia Tech is, Texas would be gearing up to face a team that plays at a much higher pace than the Hokies actually do. But that is not the case with this Hokies team, which tends to slow the ball down compared to most of the other best three-point shooting teams in the country.

Virginia Tech ranks among the bottom dozen teams in Division I in terms of pace (63.5) so far this season. The offensive philosophy of head coach Mike Young where the Hokies tend to emphasize off-ball movement and off-ball screens to get players open on the outside and cutting through open lanes means that this team tends to bleed the shot clock more often than most.

Slow pace doesn’t necessarily mean poor offensive efficiency or a low-scoring team, though. Virginia Tech still ranks in the top 30 in Division I in terms of offensive rating. So, ranking near the bottom in Division I in pace just means that Virginia Tech tends to minimize possessions.

That will place a greater emphasis on two aspects of this game for the Longhorns. The first is the fact that generating turnovers will now be huge for the Longhorns given the fact that Virginia Tech is one of the most efficient offensive teams in the country in terms of scoring per possession.

And the second important aspect of this part of the game for the Longhorns will be to minimize the mental mistakes and untimely turnovers when they have the ball on offense. Since there might be a reduced number of possessions for Texas in this game, turning the ball over at untimely points of the game the way they did in each outing in this three-game losing streak just can’t happen if this team wants to move onto the Round of 32.