Day 800 – The Final Weekend Report

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

The Hokie women are in The Final Four!

I thought I’d tell you because you have to listen very closely to the reporting to pick it up.

It seems to come as an after thought by most of the commentators. As in, “Oh yeah, there was another game and Virginia Tech won.” Then they go back to talking about the woman who had 26 three point baskets in the tournament (before last night’s game) and they don’t mention that Georgia Amoore the point guard for the Hokies had 30. 

VT defeated OSU last night. But why talk about that when we can endlessly talk about what Lamar or Aaron might do? Or South Carolina or Caitland? Virginia Tech certainly gets the Rodney Dangerfield “I Don’t Get No Respect” award. There was a lot of talk about OSU’s press. It certainly worked against Louisville. But Tech broke it in various ways. First Georgia Amoore could just out dribble: around or between the defenders. Otherwise, Tech set up players at either side of half court and one would alway have to be open. 

Passing the ball to Elizabeth Kitley near the basket the defensive strategy by Ohio State was to collapse three players on her and mug her. Why not? The refs wouldn’t call a foul, just a jump ball. Tech then went to the three point shot and kept sinking them.

The final defensive strategy was to elbow Moore in the chin and knock her to the floor. She had to be helped to the locker room by two trainers. Moments later she ran back to the bench. She’s from Australia where she used to play rugby. 

We’ve been surprised by the dirty play of many of the other teams. Be it raised elbows and twisting bodies, or jabs to the throat, or SDU’s “wrap your arms around our center,” and the ”shove the person out of bounds and to the floor”. Why those things aren’t called leads to more of the same.

But now VT plays LSU in Dallas. LSU won the game against Miami in one of the lowest scoring games of any tournament. And it wasn’t a defensive struggle as much as it was a clunk fest. Neither team cold make a basket. Here’s hoping LSU keeps up their … uh … shooting. In fact the first quarter score in the VT/OSU game just about equalled the score of that whole game.

If the Hokies beat LSU they will take on either SC or Iowa for the championship. It would be soooo sweet to hand South Carolina their first defeat in two years.