Another 33 for Grant Basile
Grant Basile, who transferred in from Wright State, struggled a bit at first in his move up to the ACC, averaging a modest 11.0 points per game in his first five conference games.
The 6’9” stretch five – that’s a thing now, the stretch five – has gone for 33 in each of Tech’s past two games, including the 93-87 win at Notre Dame on Saturday.
In that one, Basile was 13-of-19 from the field, including 5-of-6 on shots at the rim and 5-of-6 on two-point jumpers.
His 33 in the home loss to Boston College earlier in the week came on 11-of-22 shooting.
Over his last nine games, Basile is averaging 21.9 points and 6.5 board per.
He’s going to get a fair number of All-ACC votes, and if he’s not at least second-team, it’s a miscarriage of basketball justice.
Still gotta worry about the D
Boston College shot 49.2 percent from the floor and was 12-of-24 from three in the 82-76 win in Cassell Coliseum on Wednesday.
Even with the Hokies coming out on top on Saturday, there’s got to be some concern about the Irish shooting 54.8 percent from the floor and connecting on 13-of-30 from three.
Nate Laszweski, in particular, had himself a day, matching Basile’s 33 with 33 of his own, on 12-of-17 shooting, and 6-of-9 from three.
Tech has a rough three-game stretch beginning next weekend with games against Pitt (18-7, 11-3 ACC), Miami (20-5, 11-4 ACC) and Duke (17-8, 8-6 ACC), all of which rank in the top 60 in adjusted offensive efficiency, per KenPom.
Going to need to step up to have a chance in any of those three.
It’s looking more and more like the Hokies are locked into a Tuesday date in Greensboro
The top four teams in the ACC get double-byes in the ACC Tournament, meaning they don’t have to play their first game until Thursday.
The bottom six teams have the dreaded assignment of having to open in Tuesday’s first round.
Currently, Virginia Tech, at 5-9 in conference play, is three full games back of the three teams tied for seventh with 8-6 league marks – those teams being North Carolina, Duke and Syracuse.
Yes, it is indeed entirely possible that we could get a Duke-UNC 8-9 game at noon on a Wednesday in Greensboro.
We can dare to dream.
For Tech, being three games back with six to play is not the best of places to be.
Head-to-head, the Hokies would have the edge over North Carolina, on the basis of their win in their only regular-season meeting.
Tech and Syracuse split two, so we’d have to dive deeper into the tiebreakers, if necessary, between those two.
The Hokies have a 1-0 edge over Duke by virtue of their win in Blacksburg last month, but there’s a return date in Durham on Feb. 25.
That one at least gives Virginia Tech a chance to beat a team currently ahead of them in the standings.
Actually, so does the regular-season finale with Florida State (8-18, 6-9 ACC) on March 4, but as it stands now, FSU is also locked into a Tuesday ACC Tournament opener.
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Chris Graham
