The Hokies On Duke’s Zion Williamson In The Sweet Sixteen

As Muhammad Ali said, it’s not bragging if you can do it, and Virginia Tech has already beaten Duke. But if it were us, we’d pay attention to how Bill Russell tamed Wilt Chamberlain: it was a year-round charm offensive, taking him out to dinner, meeting his family in Philly and so forth. By the time the game came around, Chamberlain had no idea Russell had been working him assiduously.

We have yet to see anyone really provoke Zion Williamson and we’re not saying the Hokies did, not exactly anyway. But saying stuff like Ahmad Hill says here - “Our game plan stays the same. Yeah, he’s a tremendous player. But it is what it is. We’re going to not let the ball get in the paint ... make him shoot long, contested 3s and force turnovers. We’re going to limit our turnovers and get great shots” - well, maybe Syracuse did that, to an extent, and Tacko Fall forced everyone away from basket just by being 7-6 - but otherwise? It’s been hard to do. We would do everything possible to avoid provoking someone with that much talent.

Or maybe we’re wrong. Maybe you get him mad and he fouls out. But that hasn’t happened so far.

We can’t find the link now but on Thursday someone asked Williamson about Duke’s three point shooting vs. Virginia Tech’s and he turned to RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish and said “you hearing this?”

So we’re pretty sure they’ve been put on notice.