Virginia Tech Basketball Week 12: Jan. 21 - Jan. 27, Virginia, @Clemson

[hokiegrad]

JVZ fouled out in 9 minutes? Raines in 16? AND Barksdale in 25? Wow...

 

[Chrish1023]

We didn't play great, but we were pretty unfortunate. It seemed like every loose ball was falling to them. And we seemed terrible on the defensive boards today. Hence all the fouls and three pointers.

 

[wildturkey]

I didn't see much of the game (watched Cs/Heat instead). Looked like Raines and Joey were pretty sloppy with their play and picked up cheap fouls. That hurt our rebounding with them out of the game. Offense was ok, defense I'm just going to stop commenting on.

 

[757Hokie83]

The way this season has gone (our opponents who typically arent 3pt shooting teams, but have some guy who is a under 30% three point shooter comes and decides to have the shooting game of his life against us)...why are we not guarding the 3 point shot?? arggg

Rebounding sucked, and like was pointed out, lost almost all the 50-50 balls....but on a positive note, offensively, Green finally had some help, good to see Eddie start making some shots, hopefully Brown can get out of this slump he has been in

 

[wildturkey]

The way this season has gone (our opponents who typically arent 3pt shooting teams, but have some guy who is a under 30% three point shooter comes and decides to have the shooting game of his life against us)...why are we not guarding the 3 point shot?? arggg

Rebounding sucked, and like was pointed out, lost almost all the 50-50 balls....but on a positive note, offensively, Green finally had some help, good to see Eddie start making some shots, hopefully Brown can get out of this slump he has been in

It's not a slump. Brown just can't shoot, period. Last year he shot 36% from the field, 31 % from 3. This year he's an even worse 33% from the field and 21% from 3. His shooting numbers from the start of the year just seem to be more flukish than anything else. His shooting numbers since are more in line with his poor percentages from last year

 

[hokiegrad]

It's not a slump. Brown just can't shoot, period. Last year he shot 36% from the field, 31 % from 3. This year he's an even worse 33% from the field and 21% from 3. His shooting numbers from the start of the year just seem to be more flukish than anything else. His shooting numbers since are more in line with his poor percentages from last year

That data you present actually contradicts your conclusion...
1) He's shooting worse than last year. Not "in line with his poor percentages from last year"... significantly worse, especially if you exclude the first few games of this year. Therefore he obviously can shoot better. He did, after all, both last year (an extended period of time) and to start this year (shorter term, could be a bit of a fluke, but probably not entirely... see point #2).
2) What's more, just about every guard's shooting percentages go up in their sophomore year. It is a very hard transition for a freshman guard from HS to the ACC.

He clearly can shoot better, but he's not right now. Isn't this the definition of a slump? Let's hope he can break out of it. The flu hit him at a tough time in that respect. His confidence is probably shot by now, and that can take some time to get back, especially for a younger player. Let's give him some time.

 

[robV703]

When a guy shoots FTs as poorly as Brown, you really start to wonder. I can honestly say I am a better FT shooter than Robert Brown. That's unacceptable.

 

[hokiegrad]

definitely something to work on there. A guard needs to be making more than 65% from the line. But again, he's still young, and his confidence is shot right now. It's not unheard of for young guards to shoot poorly from the line, then turn that around significantly over time. Look where EG's FT% started compared to where it is now.

Brown did not start the last game, correct? I wonder if this was JJ trying to send a message. A lot of FT% has to do with the time and energy you're putting into practicing them, and maybe that's an issue with Brown right now. We really don't know.

I think Brown has a lot of room for improvement, but I think he has the ability to improve dramatically if he buckles down and works his tail off. Nobody thought EG would be where he is now after his first season and a half.