Men's Basketball: VT vs The Citadel Preview

Saturday at 1pm the VT Men's Basketball team will be back in action as they take on The Citadel Bulldogs in Cassell Coliseum. The Hokies and Bulldogs have not played in nearly half a century, yet the all-time record is in VTs favor, 16-2.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Hokies host The Citadel on Saturday afternoon: Faculty Appreciation Day and Military Appreciation Day in Cassell .. <a href="http://t.co/3ZFRIgr9DW">http://t.co/3ZFRIgr9DW</a></p>&mdash; VT Men&#39;s Basketball (@VT_MBBall) <a href="https://twitter.com/VT_MBBall/status/546017984322732032">December 19, 2014</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The last time the Hokies played they took down the Alabama A&M Bulldogs 65-55. However, Buzz Williams chose to leave 3 of his primary starters  (JVZ, WIlson and Mueller) on the bench for nearly 25 minutes to start the game and instead went with walk-on Christian Beyer, who led all scorers with 13pts, former walk-on Will Johnston and rJr Shane Henry. The interesting lineup change seemed to be Coach Buzz's way of sending a message to many of the experienced scholarship players, hopefully it worked.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Coach Williams says today’s line ups and subbing was about “finding what works” for the young <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Hokie?src=hash">#Hokie</a> team.</p>&mdash; VT Men&#39;s Basketball (@VT_MBBall) <a href="https://twitter.com/VT_MBBall/status/544256870316519424">December 14, 2014</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Citadel Bulldogs visit Cassell Coliseum with a record of 4-5, yet their lone D-1 win has come against Navy. So far this season the Bulldogs are averaging 64.6 points per game while shooting nearly 47% from the field. The top two scorers for The Citadel are Ashton Moore a junior guard from Suffolk, Va who is averaging 16 points per contest and PJ Horgan a 6-9 Center who is averaging nearly 14 points per contest.

Overall, the Hokies are a much better team all-around than The Citadel and have the speed and athleticism to cause a lot of problems. However, the Bulldogs are experienced and highly disciplined (military academy), which might cause some problems for an under-sized and young Hokies squad. I look for Buzz to come out and press the Bulldogs the full length of the court in hopes of forcing some turnovers to get freshmen guards Bibbs and Hill going early. Also look for VT to establish a low-post game with JVZ much like they did at Penn State. In the end I think the Hokies take the 70-55 victory.

Television/Internet: ESPN3 - Andrew Allegretta & Mack McCarthy

Radio: Virginia Tech IMG Sports Network - Bill Roth & Mike Burnop

Also available on:

Satellite: Sirius 92, XM 194

Digital: Hokies Xtra & TuneIn

Go Hokies!