Landers Nolley II wasn’t able to play for Virginia Tech last year because the NCAA questioned his ACT score from High School. Long story short, he was ineligible and had to sit and watch his teammates play all year.
Today, Landers finally got his chance. And oh boy was the wait worth it.
Everything was falling for Nolley today. He finished with 30 points on 12/23 shooting from the field, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals.
It took a few minutes for him to get the ball, but when he got it, he immediately showed off the skill-set.
Landers doesn’t showcase elite athleticism or quickness, but he’s just a professional bucket getter. For his first bucket, Nolley fades away on his shot. This is a common theme throughout the night as he seems to really love attacking the opposition in the post with his new frame (since putting on some muscle in the year he had to sit out).
This next shot that Landers Nolley hit in the game was a perfect example of how he scores. He doesn’t get too high off the ground, but also doesn’t need much room to get the shot off. Even if he’s unbalanced, the shot seems to always be on target.
Nolley then started to get it going from deep too, where he finished 4/8 for Virginia Tech. Clemson truly had no answer for him.
Landers finished with 18 points in the 1st half including this tough buzzer beating shot.
As mentioned before, Landers was feasting in the post on smaller guards and continued to go back to it for an easy bucket. Keep in mind, this is a Virginia Tech team that looks completely different as Kerry Blackshear Jr. is at Florida, Justin Robinson is gone, Nickeil Alexander-Walker is gone, Ahmed Hill is gone, and so is Ty Outlaw.
Landers Nolley II stepped up in a big way as a way of saying ‘Don’t you forget about me’.
The scoring continued to pour on in the 2nd half as Virginia Tech continued to keep close to Clemson.
Clemson has the deeper and more experienced team, but no one was stopping Nolley tonight.
The rest of the Virginia Tech squad was able to hold onto the lead late with some clutch buckets and free throws after Landers did the grunt work early on. The redshirt freshman had to wait a long time to play his first game in college, but it was one to remember.
Virginia Tech ended up taking Clemson down by a score of 67-60. They were supposed to have a down year, but Nolley doesn’t seem like he is going to allow that.
