Virginia Tech wasn’t a serious contender for an NCAA Tournament bid going into Tuesday’s ACC Tournament first round, despite what you were told.
The bad metrics didn’t get better with the 95-89 OT loss to Wake Forest.
The #12 seed Hokies (19-13) lost seven of their final 10 games after a 16-6 start, and now sit at 55 in the NET, 57 in RPI and 92 in ELO, an overall average computer ranking of 57.4, and a 2-10 record in Quad 1 games.
They had a golden opportunity to beat #13 seed Wake (17-15) in regulation, but Ben Hammond missed a runner in the lane with two seconds left, and Jailen Bedford missed a tip-in at the buzzer.
The OT was tight into the final minute, when a Sebastian Akins and-one pushed the Deacs’ lead to 89-85 with 57 ticks left.
The strategy that confused me was Tech coach Mike Young deciding to foul down two with a 5.8-second difference between the game clock and shot clock.
Akins made the two free throws; Hammond answered with a layup with 19 seconds left, ahead of two more free throws, from Wake’s Myles Colvin, that pushed the lead to four.
Hammond was stripped on a drive into the lane, then fouled out trying to retrieve the ball from Deacs’ center Cooper Schwieger, who drained the two charity tosses with eight seconds left to finish out the scoring.
Hammond had 23 points to lead all scorers; Wake had seven guys in double-digits, led by Colvin’s 18.
The win gets Wake Forest into Wednesday’s second round, to face #5 seed Clemson (22-9).
Wake won the teams’ only regular-season matchup, 85-77, on Feb. 18.
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Chris Graham
