How about that eight-day stretch for Virginia Tech? They went down to Durham last Saturday and knocked off the Blue Devils in Cameron – exorcising the demons from last year. They beat patsy UNCG during the week like enjoying a bit of sorbet between courses to cleanse the palette. Then they hosted the #1 ranked Tar Heels in Cassell and damn near ran them out of the building.
Pretty amazing, huh? Not too many teams get to knock of UNC and Duke in succession, particularly programs like Virginia Tech. I can’t say for certain, but it might well have been the best three-game stretch in Hokie history. If it’s not, you’d probably have to go back to the days of Bimbo Coles and Wally Lancaster or even Dell Curry to find something better.
Frankly, if that’s not enough, the big wins helped propel the Hokies into the top-25 for the first time in over a decade!
So what’s up? Are the Hokies really this good? If so, what about their losses to Western Michigan, George Washington and Marshall?
The answer is that the Hokies are quite good. Now. A month ago, they weren’t very good. This is an experienced team, one of the most senior in the ACC, and as they showed against the Heels, they are deep as well. Tech also boasts one of the best two or three backcourts in the league and a tenacious defense. So why the struggles against bad teams? I’d say their problems go back to last season when everything that could go wrong did. That team was also good, but fell apart after an endless series of on- and off-court troubles. The problem was, all of last years losses left this team without a good idea of how to win. It sounds like a cliche, but it’s really true that teams need to learn how to win. They need to expect success, not just to hang close against good teams. And it looks to me like the Hokies have finally figured that out.
If you look at Ken Pomeroy’s numbers (and I don’t think he stacked the deck for his alma mater), you’ll see that they are ranked #20 overall and boast the 16th best defense in the nation. They rank #28 in turnovers forced, #19 in blocked shots and a #9 in steals. All those steals of course lead to plenty of easy baskets. Give a team 3 extra cheap baskets a game and they’ll win 4-5 more games a year. The Hokie offense is pretty good too, at #37 overall. They are particularly adept at taking care of the ball (#7 in turnovers and #23 in steals) and they also excel at hitting the three (#33).
The bottom line – the preseason prediction for a sixth-place finish in the ACC might be a bit low, particularly if youngsters AD Vassallo and Nigel Munson continue to improve and bring production off the bench.