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• Date: Thursday, January 28, 2010
• Time: 7pm
• TV: CSN

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The first meeting of the season between Virginia and Virginia Tech will take place on Thursday night, and it's a big game for both teams. The Hoos haven't played well in their last two outings and are looking to get back on track at home. The Hokies will need to pick up two or three road wins in the ACC at some point if they hope to make the NCAA tournament, and this is a prime opportunity.

Virginia is an improved team under first year head coach Tony Bennett. The Hoos are 12-5 overall and 3-1 in the ACC. Things started out tough for UVA, who split their first eight games to begin the year 4-4. They had losses to South Florida (66-49), Stanford (57-52), Penn State (69-66) and Auburn (68-67). Three of those losses could have gone either way.

After that Auburn loss, UVA ran off eight consecutive victories, including wins over Top 25 teams UAB and Georgia Tech. They also began the season 3-0 in the ACC, and for a time were the only team in the ACC with an unblemished conference record.

The last two games have not gone as well. Virginia barely beat a bad UNC-Wilmington team 69-67 at home, with Sylven Landesberg hitting a jumper in the final seconds to give his team the win. They followed that up by losing 69-57 at Wake, a game that the Demon Deacons controlled from start to finish and that was not as close as the final score indicated.

Which Virginia team will we see on Thursday night? The one that beat UAB and Georgia Tech, or the one that hasn't played well in their last two games? Here's a look at the players who will do battle with the Hokies.

UVA's best player, and one of the best players in the ACC, is wing Sylven Landesberg. He is their leading scorer by a wide margin, second leading rebounder, and he's also second on the team in assists. He has a very good midrange game, and he finishes well around the basket.

Landesberg isn't the type to take a lot of three-pointers, but you can't leave him open from the outside. He is 9-of-23 (39.1%) from the outside this season. It will be interesting to see if Dorenzo Hudson or Terrell Bell draws this defensive assignment. Hudson is regarded as Tech's best overall defender, but Bell is taller with long arms, and he has a knack for blocking or disrupting shots. A very good rebounder, Bell also has the potential to keep Landesberg off the offensive glass.

The Hokies need to limit Landesberg's penetration, because he's an 83% free throw shooter. He gets to the line a lot (100 times on the year), and that's a big part of UVA's offense. No other player on the team has gotten to the line more than 45 times this year.

Joining Landesberg in the backcourt will be sophomore Sammy Zeglinski. Zeglinski is a solid, active player who can really shoot the ball from the outside. He has connected on 46.9% of his three-point shots this season. Because of his lack of size, Zeglinski doesn't finish very well inside the arc in conference play, shooting just 34.6% overall in four conference games. It's important to not give him clean looks from the outside, because that's where he feels the most comfortable.

Jontel Evans has entered the starting lineup for the last three games, and though he's not a scorer, he is playing well for the Hoos. He appears to be a good fit for Tony Bennett because he doesn't turn the ball over. Evans did not commit a turnover in his three starts. In fact, he hasn't had a turnover since the January 9 win at NC State, and he hasn't committed more than one turnover in a game since before Christmas.

Mustapha Farrakhan (6-4, 175, Jr.) has picked up his game recently, and he's been a part-time starter for the Hoos. He is averaging 7.3 points per game, but in ACC play that average goes up to over 10 points per game. Farrakhan is a deadly outside shooter, connecting on 40% from behind the arc this year. He is capable of getting hot in a hurry, as we saw last year in Cassell Coliseum (17 points in 12 minutes).

Last season, Farrakhan hit four three-pointers over a five minute span to turn the game in Blacksburg from a blowout in Tech's favor to a very close game. The Hokies must be wary of him at all times.

Another excellent outside shooter is Jeff Jones (6-4, 190, Jr.), a former Virginia Tech recruiting target. Jones is also averaging 7.3 points per game while shooting 45.3% from three-point range. Well over half of his field goals this year have come from the outside.

Calvin Baker (6-2, 190, Sr.) is a senior who has also started this year and in the past for the Hoos. He did not travel with the team to the Wake Forest game for unspecified reasons (the rumor is that he was unhappy with his playing time, but that's unconfirmed), but he is back practicing with the team and will suit up against the Hokies. Baker isn't a great shooter or a big scorer (only 3.8 points per game), but he's very good with the basketball. He has 34 assists and just 10 turnovers on the season.

Those are the players that we'll see on the perimeter against the Hokies on Thursday night. As you can see, the Hoos have one big scorer, and a number of guys who are very efficient from three-point range.

Virginia's inside game isn't as imposing, though they do feature the best overall (or at least most consistent) inside player for either team. Mike Scott is having a good year for the Hoos, averaging 12.7 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Scott is an excellent athlete who can finish with an array of impressive dunks.

Jeff Allen struggled last season against Virginia's imposing inside duo of Scott and 7-footer Assane Sene (7-0, 234, So.). Allen scored just three-points and was 0-of-7 from the field against the Cavaliers in Blacksburg, and he didn't play in the game in Charlottesville due to a suspension for flipping off Maryland fans.

Sene doesn't start, but he does lead the team with 14 blocks. His wingspan makes it difficult to score in the lane.

The other interior starter is Jerome Meyinsse, a solid junior who finishes well on the inside. Meyinsse doesn’t wow anyone with his stats, but he's a very smart player (double major in economics and math) who has earned the trust of Tony Bennett.

On paper, Virginia looks like the much better basketball team. They score more points than the Hokies, and they allow less. They shoot better than the Hokies, and their opponents shoot a worse percentage than Tech's opponents. They shoot 10% better from the free throw line than VT. The Hoos rank in the top five in seven of the 10 categories above, and no lower than eighth in the others.

Meanwhile the Hokies are in the bottom three of the ACC in three categories. They are the only team in the conference that shoots less than 40% from the field.

A few stats show that Tech's height, or lack thereof, is a real problem. Though Tech is fifth in the conference in three-point shooting, they do not finish well on the inside, thus they are only 12th in the league in overall field goal percentage. The Hokies are great at defending the three, ranking third in defensive three-point percentage, but opposing teams can shoot over the shorter Hokies with relative ease, as Tech is only 10th in overall field goal percentage defense.

In other words, Tech is much better away from the basket than close to the basket. They have to work hard to deny UVA's inside players from getting the ball, because teams have been able to finish on Tech with relative ease once they get the ball in the paint. The Hokies don't have a true post on-ball defender like they had last year in Cheick Diakite, and that's hurting them.

Unfortunately, playing a perimeter game with the Hoos probably won't work, as UVA has more shooters than the Hokies. VT has been able to post a .500 record in the ACC thanks to their impressive turnover margin, which ranks #1 in the ACC. However, Virginia is just behind at #2. Tech needs to force turnovers and score in transition, but that will be hard against the Hoos, according to the stats.

Fortunately, stats are overrated. Most scouts will tell you that these teams are very even in terms of talent. This might be the most even matchup since the two teams faced off in 2006-07, with Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds facing Zabian Dowdell and Jamon Gordon.

Ultimately, Tech needs Jeff Allen to step up and do, well ... anything.

Allen has not put up good numbers thus far in conference play, ever since the second half of the UNC game. In that second half, he had zero points, zero rebounds, zero steals, zero blocks and two fouls before eventually being benched. He came back strong against Miami, the last place team in the ACC, but he disappeared again against FSU. Against the Noles, he combined for more fouls and turnovers than points and rebounds, and played just 17 minutes. He was better against BC, but the production just hasn't been there.

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Tech's chances of beating anyone on the road go down quite a bit if Allen does not play well. The Hokies are simply too limited offensively to have him disappear for long stretches. He'll be needed on Thursday night, and he's due to have a good game.

Overall, this should be a very even matchup in Charlottesville on Thursday night. If Malcolm Delaney is healthy, and Jeff Allen can play well, the Hokies will have a chance to steal one on the road. If not, then Tech will have to wait until February 13 to get their in-state rival in Cassell Coliseum.