Virginia Tech had played its way back to the far, far fringe of the NCAA Tournament bubble in the last week and a half. With Wednesday’s ACC Tournament second-round loss to Florida State, it’s now NIT-or-bust for the Hokies.
“We all want to play in the big one, but to coach these guys again and make a run at that thing, you’re doggone right,” Tech coach Mike Young told reporters after the 86-76 loss, in which the Hokies (18-14) led 37-36 at the half, fell behind 39 seconds into the second half on a pair of Cameron Corhen free throws, and never led again.
Young was answering a question about whether he’d be interested in an NIT bid, and you have your answer there.
The NCAA Tournament bubble talk may have been just that, just talk – the Hokies’ average computer ranking was 60.6, well off where you’d need to be to be bubblicious.
But a modest three-game winning streak – the wins: Wake Forest, Louisville, Notre Dame – at least got Virginia Tech back into the conversation.
The Wake win was nice; the Louisville and Notre Dame wins, meh.
The self-boosting bracketology experts nonetheless had Tech in hailing distance of at-large consideration, which, speaking of hailing distance, that’s where I am in relation to the court here at the Capital One Arena – the nice folks at the ACC, once again, either just forgetting to assign me a seat, or something.
(For the record, I assume, based on Occam’s Razor, incompetence, rather than conspiracy. You know, simplest explanation.)
Virginia Tech being in the conversation assumed a win on Wednesday and then an upset on Thursday, which would have meant a win over the tournament’s top seed, North Carolina.
Florida State (17-15) took care of whatever drama there was there (not much) with a big defensive effort in the second half.
Tech shot a blistering 64 percent (16-of-25) in the first 20 minutes, but missed 13 of their first 17 shots in the second half as FSU steadily took control, getting the lead to 10 on a pair of Jamir Watkins free throws at the 2:49 mark, and withstanding a brief Hokies flurry that got the margin to five with 1:01 to go.
The ‘Noles were able to close the game out by going 6-of-6 at the line in the final 42 seconds.
“I think that we contested shots better in the second half, and we contained the dribble better in the second half,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. “First half, they was blowing by us like the wind. The second half, I thought we did a much better job containing the dribble and getting our hands up and contesting shots. That’s normally a pretty good formula.”
Watkins had 34 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the floor, 2-of-4 from three, and 14-of-17 at the foul line.
Sean Pedulla led three Hokies in double figures with 24 points.
With the loss, Selection Sunday for the Hokies will mean gathering ‘round the TV to watch the NIT selection show.
“I’m never going to be too big for my pants that that won’t be the opportunity to play in the postseason,” Young said. “I don’t care what anybody says, not what all of us want to do, but it is still a great tournament, and I’d like to do that.”
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Chris Graham
