Things I liked: 1) Ball movement - a lot has been made of the assists number (19) from Monday, and while that is a phenomenal number what's better is that regardless of whether shots were made (second half) or shots were missed (first half) the ball moved a lot more effortlessly in both halves in comparison to last season. The turnovers mostly came from being too ambitious, which isnt necessarily a bad thing early in the season. 2) Kept shooting - despite outcry from the fan base on the boards, VT didnt stop shooting the looks they were given. It would have been very easy for Hansberry to stop shooting after his first half performance, but not only did he keep shooting, he shot well enough to pull his average up to 33%. That will be huge as teams prepare for VT. If you cant give up that shot to Hansberry, then youre really in a bind (I'll try and diagram that part later) as a defense 3) Spacing and execution - these 2 could easily be two different categories, but what I want to convey is that VT got MUCH more open looks than what they got last season. Last season there were more non-threats on the floor which allows for quicker recovery from secondary defenders. When Avdalas has the ball with Lawal rolling, Hansberry popping and Schutt on the weak side it is very difficult to defend regardless of who that 5th player is on the floor. Last year, VT has some optimal lineups but they either didnt hold spacing or couldnt find those open gaps quick enough. VT did both on Monday. The only thing missing in the first half was making the shot. But from a spacing and execution standpoint, this club looks a lot closer to MYs better teams than last year's iteration. 4) Scoring depth - Each player that took the floor Monday showed flashes of being able to score on their own. Pasha seems to be behind the other newbies when it comes to knowing where to be, but you could see flashes of why he can be valuable once the light comes on for him. Christian Gurdak wasnt expected to be in the rotation this season, but at a certain point of the game he was the most relied on Hokie...that will do wonders for injury depth that will inevitably take place as the season goes along. This scoring depth also helps the spacing and execution from above. There isn't anyone on the floor that jumps out that you can leave alone. Charleston Southern chose Hansberry as the one to leave alone. It worked out for them for about 20 min, then Hansberry started hitting what they were giving him. Some games Im sure teams will choose Johnson or Bedford as the ones to leave open, and theyll need to hit enough of the open looks to make teams think twice about it...but you HAVE to leave someone open with this group. Avdalas and Lawal getting downhill to the rim is too dangerous not to bring additional help...it has to come from somewhere. Judging on the makeup of Providence's lineup, I would bet theyll try Hansberry and hope for first half results. But he should get a lot of open looks. Things I didnt like: 1) Gameplan execution defensively - especially away from the ball. This is to be expected to a certain extent on day 1, but either the scout was really bad on the actions Charleston So ran over and over or the players were having a difficult time adhering to the scout. They chased when they should've gone under. They went under when they should've chased. They didnt communicate switches all the time, they didnt switch when they should've. Lots to work on there. (I dont really care about all the 3s CSU hit...good for them. They were shots youd rather give up for the most part. But CSU didnt make VT pay on some actions that could be a problem later on) 2) Pace - still way too high for this team and this roster to be successful. This team is fastER than previous teams, but still not fast enough to negate what they really do best (their skill across the board in HC offense). Limiting possessions limits your opponents possessions. Fewer opportunities for your opponents means the team who is most efficient will win. High skill makes high efficiency more likely. Dont play a low efficiency game with a high efficiency roster. 3) Secondary action execution - the Hokies got anything they wanted off of primary actions in the second half. But CSU did a good job of scouting VTs main options and taking them away in the first half. If this team were further along they would simply move through the actions until their superior size/skill found a weakness in the defense. That wasnt the case Monday. If the primary action wasnt there, they looked to the sidelines for what to do next. That's also.to be expected at this stage in the season, but they have a tough one coming up. Providence will make them pay for not being efficient for a full half. They need to learn not to panic and know what comes next. It will come with time and experience, but it needs to come soon.