Brooks discusses upcoming NCAA Tournament
After a very anxious week since their loss in the ACC Tournament Semi-finals to Notre Dame, the Virginia Tech Hokies were waiting to see where they would be playing in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Last night, Blacksburg had a beam of light as the maroon and orange were rewarded a four-seed.
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With Liz Kitley’s status still being the hot topic of Virginia Tech’s tournament run, coach Brooks’ response to her update was minimal. While he aims to push her to play as soon as possible, the main emphasis is on Kitley’s health since she has a bright basketball future beyond college.
“I think this week is going to be more of a ramp it up to really get to see where she is. Obviously we know Liz has a lot of basketball to play, so her health and safety is the most important thing… I mean there’s a chance for everything, we just haven’t tested her yet. If Liz didn’t have a future in basketball we very well may have tried it last week, but we wanna make sure that everything is good with her.”
Despite being a 13 seed, the Marshall Thundering Herd are one of the sneakiest teams in the country, finishing with a 26-6 overall record and 17-1 in conference play. In their 95-92 overtime victory against James Madison to win the Sun Belt, the Herd had `99 shot attempts, 46 of those being via the three ball. On top of those shooting stats, Marshall also totaled 33 offensive rebounds and 20 steals and caused the Dukes to turn the ball over 39 times. With those stats in mind, Brooks spoke about facing a team of their caliber.
“Obviously anything like that concerns you… It just doesn’t make sense, if you force 39 turnovers and you get 33 offensive rebounds but it’s an overtime game it’s like the math to me doesn’t make any sense, so I’ll have to go back and watch it… I’ve caught them on screen a couple times, but I’m going to have to dive in and see what they look like.”
Digging deeper into this Marshall roster, their tallest player stands at 6’1. With the Hokies having a clear height advantage against the Thundering Herd, coach Brooks spoke on what that meant to the matchup.
“Obviously we’re going to have a height advantage even if Liz doesn’t play, and if she does it gives us even more, but we also have to go against their quickness, you know. They’re probably quicker than we are and we’re gonna have to be really prepared for that. It’s gonna have to be all hands on deck with their pressure, but we’re really just gonna have to have everybody step up regardless of who's out there.”
The No.4 Virginia Tech Hokies will take on the No.13 Marshall Thundering Herd on March 22nd at 3:30 pm at Cassell Coliseum.
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