Fresh off of the heels of le` upset of the year, can our Hokies move to 3-1 in the ACC?

By: bourbonstreet |

3-1 simply put, would not suck. In fact 3-1 would be nearly amazing, and it might even suggest an early fav’ for ACC Coach of the Year honors for one Seth Greenberg. But that’s putting the cart before the horse. So lets skip the rest of the hyperbole, and take a look at who will win?

When I look at the Yellow Jackets, I see several good things, no C- to D- caliber things, but one bad thing. So lets look at the good things first…..

  • GT’s offensive points, shooting from the floor, and from downtown, all hover between 63rd and 82nd best. So expect to need at least 75 down in the ATL to notch a Hokie win.
  • GT plays 11 guys for 10 or more minutes (the best one is Tony Morrow, that’s him slashing in the white on the right). Yet another game to watch for latent Hokie fatigue.
  • GT is 57th in Steals, and 67th in assists, despite being 213rd in turnovers, which I view as a function of their up-tempo style of play, moreso than a reflection of lack of quality backcourt play.

The good news is that we are catching a Gah.Tech team that just might still be playing UNC, or is at least playing with a “we were this close” UNC hangover after Wednesday nite. The real good news is that the Rambling Wreck will put us on the FT, and a lot. Even on the road you’ve gotta love that; as GT is 318th in fouls committed per game, checking in at a whopping 23 per game. GT is .500 at home, but we are only .333 on the road. We have a bit of a Board edge (that’s GT’s best boardman J.Smith on the left), and the nod in Defenesive FG% allowed in our respective last 5 games by almost 6%. GT also is wanting a dose of frontline depth, as 2 key forward reserves appear to be done for the year. GT has dropped 3 in a row now (one of those was to hated in-state rival UGA), and has generally been beaten by quality teams all year. Normally I’d expect GT to beat us, at least at home. But we’ve got a chance here, if Allen stays out of early foul-trouble which will help us slow the tempo of the game and practice some pace management. This one’s not far removed from a coin toss, but I’ll go with the hot team to beat the home team. Virginia Tech 77 Gah.Tech 74