January 15, 2007
The Best Week Ever
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.
This next game against Clemson will be very, very tough. It'll be interesting to see if UNC bounces back and runs Clemson out of the building, but a win would suffice nicely.
| SuperJew wrote: |
| Forget the near historic collapse at the end, but they really did run over us. I would like to chalk it up to a bunch of sophmores and freshmen playing in a REALLY hostile environment (Did you hear how loud it was?) for the first time against juniors and seniors. But, yeah, there was no excuse for being down 20 that late in the game. Congrats to the Hokies. |
What impressed and amazed me the most (and I touched on this a little) was how much VT's bench outplayed Carolina's. The Heels got up early and easily and when Roy put his first wave of subs in, I think they came in a little cocky. Greenberg put his subs in at the same time and the Hokies' bench just started lighting it up. By the time both teams' starters were back in, the momentum had completely shifted. Once Tech's guards got confident, they pretty much controlled the game the whole way out. Carolina's point guards were particularly outplayed.
And actually, not to quibble too much, but you are right to say 8 days, since actually their wins against Duke and North Carolina did take place in separate weeks.
Just as in the Gonzaga game, the 'Heels were unable to hit from outside and from the free throw line.
Before Tech gets too much praise, just look at these facts:
Gonzaga: 'Heels were 6-26 on three-pointers and made 18-30 from the line.
Tech: 'Heels were 8-26 on three-pointers and made 16-29 from the line.
Brandan Wright gets special mention for going 7-14 from the line against Gonzaga and for going 1-8 against Tech. Had he shot a normal yeoman's free throw percentage of 70%, they very likely win both games.
Carolina's free throw shooting has been very poor this year. There is not a single guy on the team that you can feel sure about on the line, they way you could with Phil Ford or Walter Davis or Stackhouse or Marvin Williams. Even Hansbrough has been worse than he was last year. Teams generally improve their free throw shooting as the year goes on. Carolina had better.
| william wrote: |
| This was the Gonzaga game all over again. |
That's exactly what I thought when I watched the game. The Heels got up early and then got a bit cocky and lazy, like it was going to be easy. Once they realized that they were wrong, it was too late - the opponent had gained confidence and was in a rhythm.
UNC needs to learn how to play with a lead against good teams.
| william wrote: |
| 1973 (16 teams) - Alabama, American, Fairfield, Louisville, Manhattan, Marshall, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Oral Roberts, Rutgers, Southern California, Virginia Tech. First round-Notre Dame beat Southern California, 69-65. Louisville beat American U., 97-84. North Carolina beat Oral Roberts, 82-65. Massachusetts beat Missouri, 78-71. Fairfield beat Marshall, 80-76. Virginia Tech beat New Mexico, 65-63. Minnesota beat Rutgers, 68-59. Alabama beat Manhattan, 87-86. Quarterfinals-North Carolina beat Massachusetts, 73-63. Notre Dame beat Louisville, 79-71. Virginia Tech beat Fairfield, 77-76. Alabama beat Minnesota, 69-65. Semifinals-Virginia Tech beat Alabama, 74-73. Notre Dame beat North Carolina, 78-71. Championship-Virginia Tech beat Notre Dame, 92-91 (ot). Third place-North Carolina beat Alabama, 88-69. |
Wow.
They won by 2, 1, 1 and 1 (OT). Talk about your slim margins!
Several commentators have raised the issue that this has been Virginia Tech's best week or is it 8 days, or whatever, after having beaten both Duke and two different UNC's. Aside from the ridiculous penchant that journalists seem to have about describing things that are really no more than excellent or very good as "incredible" or "the best game ever," this might not have been VPI's best basketball week ever.
In 1973, Virginia Tech beat New Mexico 65-63, Fairfield 77-76, Alabama 74-73 and then Notre Dame, 92-91 in overtime to win the National Invitational Tournament in New York on a thrilling last second overtime jumper on national television. Virginia Tech's NIT champions finished with a record of 22-5.
Before 1975, conferences were only given one berth in the tournament, and therefore the NIT could often have several top ten teams in it and several more ranked teams. In fact, during the Walton-Wicks-Alcindor UCLA dynasty years several teams such as Marquette, Army under Bobby Knight and yes, Virginia Tech's 1973 team chose to go to the NIT instead of the NCAA tournament.
Virginia Tech would also win the NIT in 1995, but by then the cachet of the tournament was essentially gone after the increase in the NCAA field, first in 1975 allowing 2 teams per conference and then going to 32 and then to 48 and 64 and 65 teams.
For some reason, ACC schools were not allowed to play in the NIT until the 1970's. When they did at the end of the tournament's glory days, there were some excellent teams from all over the country going to the NIT.
Particularly with respect to the ACC, which then along with the Southern Conference, was alone in having the conference tourney pick its sole NCAA tourney participant, there were some excellent teams in the NIT.
Carolina won the NIT in 1971 after losing a heartbreaker to its former coach, Frank Mcguire and South Carolina 52-51 after a botched jump ball under its own basket (remember those?) and a last second lay-in by South Carolina's Tom Owens. Carolina had finished 11-3 in the regular season in the ACC, but picked itself up from despair and went on to beat Duke 73-67 in the finals of the NIT, finishing 26-6 overall, with Duke finishing 9-5 in the ACC and 20-10 overall. So far, this has been the only Duke-UNC match-up in the post season.
In 1972, Maryland had Len Elmore and Tom McMillan but lost to Carolina with George Karl and Bob McAdoo in the ACC finals and then easily won the NIT, finishing the season with a record of 27-5. They were very likely a top five team, given that Carolina finished 3rd overall, after being beaten by future ACC member, Florida State in the NCAA Semi's.
Thus, in both 1972 and 1973, a credible argument could be made that the NIT champs were as good as anyone in the country, except for UCLA. Obviously, that is rarely the case with the NIT anymore, although it must be noted for the record that last year's NIT champion, South Carolina, beat NCAA champ Florida two times out of three, with Florida barely eeking out a victory in the SEC finals, 49-47. South Carolina ended up 15th in the Pomeroy Rankings. It might have been a very interesting match-up if the NIT champs had then played the NCAA champs.
By 1974, the NIT had sufficiently began to lose its appeal, that Maryland chose not to compete after its heartbreaking loss to NC State in the ACC finals that year. This precedent, combined with the demise of the UCLA dynasty and NCAA tournament expansion basically eroded the tournament to where it is now. Accordingly, Virginia Tech can take pride in arguably having won the last NIT that really mattered and in what might have been their best basketball week(s) ever.
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