0 - 0 Virginia Tech's bench, or lack thereof, has been a sticking point for those who forecast gloom and doom for the Hokies as they enter the teeth of ACC play. So the fact the Hokies' bench out-scored poor Mount St. Mary's, 45-34, should let you know just how bad the Mountaineers were Sunday.
The Hokies got a combined nine points from walk-ons Andrew Griffin and Paul Debnam and five players finished in double figures. The Hokies didn't have a problem penetrating from the wings or getting the ball down to the low blocks and had 44 points in the paint.
Those high percentage shots help Tech shoot 69.2 percent for the game -- 40 percent from behind the arc and an astonishing 81.1 percent on two-point shots.
Mount St. Mary's, on the other hand, shot 17 percent for the game and committed 25 turnovers that led to 39 Virginia Tech points. The Mountaineers, now 3-11, are just not a very good basketball team.
Meanwhile, the Hokies have now won five games in a row and are 8-4 this season. They'll now play four consecutive conference games (Florida State, at North Carolina, Wake Forest and at Maryland) before their final non-conference game against Longwood.
These next four games will tell us just how good this team really is and provide some much-needed answers post-Hudson and Raines. Can they make jump shots when teams shut down access to the low block? Can Jeff Allen and Victor Davila stay out of foul trouble against bigger and more athletic post players? Can Erick Green, who has developed into a quality point guard the last few games, step his game up against the best in the ACC?
While the beat-down of Mount St. Mary's is sure to provide a confidence boost for Tech, it isn't something we should get too excited about. We'll get a better idea about these Hokies when they play Florida State at 3 p.m. EST Saturday. The Noles are 11-3 (they play at Auburn tomorrow) and are coming off a big win over a really good Baylor team in Hawaii. It'll be a challenge for the Hokies to end their three-game losing streak to them.
