Well, that was a fun first full day of games! The games just keep getting better and better today
Again, the higher seed is listed first
Noon
UNC vs. Pittsburgh
Pitt is coming off a back and forth game against Syracuse. Lots of energy was spent during that game, and with being said and with UNC being as rested as they are, I look for the Tar Heels to pull away later in the game and move on to Semifinal #1
2 PM (ish)
Notre Dame vs. Duke
Duke is very low on players, and honestly, a loss here would probably help them the most. They are already into the tournament, and they need to rest their players as much as possible. However, with the possibility of a UNC-Duke semifinal looming on the horizon, I think they come out inspired and steal the win from the Irish.
7 PM
lolUVA vs. Georgia Tech
These night games are going to be great. The Wahoos and Jackets start it off in a rematch of a game where Georgia Tech pulled off the upset earlier this year. Adam Smith (sigh) is playing at a high level right now, but I think that UVA is too talented and too deep to lose this game with how much rest they have. Look for a close game, but lolUVA pulling away at the end
9 PM (ish)
Miami vs. Virginia Tech
Buzz's bunch is playing at a level that I haven't seen in the several years that I've been invested in the Hokie basketball program. That being said, I think they need to play almost a perfect game to pull off another upset. Newton will be coming off the bench for the Hurricanes, a luxury they didn't have last Saturday afternoon. With all the momentum in the world, these Hokies could pull it off. Cassell North, if filled like is possible, could be a huge X factor for this game.
Comments
Me last night, and me in 7 hours. I love March
Wow. That takes skill. And a cleaning crew.
Go Hokies.
I think we get the UNC-Duke Semifinal. I have to cheer for Duke against Notre Dame, and I just don't think Pitt will get it done against UNC.
As for the other, I have to cheer for the underdog Semifinal. I want an All-Tech semi-final. Smith has a great day and GT becomes the only day 1 team to make it to day 4. I think the good guys (VT) are on a hot streak, and KNOW they can beat Miami. VT beats the odds again and wins a close one.
you never have to cheer for duke basketball, ever
Got a weird feeling about the UVA game. Think GT has just as much momentum and swagger as VT and I can see them pulling the upset. As for our game, last night was a long game. Hopefully we're rested and can steal one from Miami but I'm trying to temper my expectations.
GT is carried by Adam Smith and Georges-Hunt on offense. If UVA can stop those 2, (i think they will) they should win. I'll be cheering for GT to win though, hopefully so will the Verizon Center since there should be some Hokies there at 7.
Totally concur. Moving that guy to point guard in the second half GT a huge lift. I forget his name but the kid reminds me of Eric Gordon. I see the Hoos falling into one of their near famous offensive slumps off the break from play, and a hot, inspired Georgia Tech team eeks by in the final minutes.
Pulling for Georgia Tech today for obvious reasons.
Shoutout to the drunk Georgia Tech fan in my section yesterday yelling "Go Nerds!" during our game.
Solidarity.
Have to cheer for Notre Dame. It's a hard choice, but Grayson Allen just makes you hate duke this year.
You don't root against Duke all the time?
It's always a toss up when those two teams play, otherwise yes.
I agree. I'm typically ambivalent to who wins the Duke-North Carolina games, but found myself routing for the Tar Heels. Grayson Allen should have been suspended earlier by the ACC or Duke. When you trip people intentionally more than once, then it is a pattern that needs to be rectified.
Ted Cruz Jr?
I gotta ask TKP...most punchable face in the ACC? Grayson Allen or London Perrantes?
If we are going strictly on face and hair is included, Perrantes in a landslide.
Perrantes.
When he does his little head bob I envision myself making him my own personal weeble wobble punching bag.
Perrantes definitely has my vote. That being said, I would not have been upset at all if Allen got the broken nose instead of Plumlee.
Another good analysis, complete with gifs!! Which I know this site loves
Clicky clicky
damn their prediction for the win is almost a blowout. Isn't a well known fact Hokie fan travel to everything well. Even shitty Shreveport.
My favorite part:
He's actually pretty spot on because if you were at the game last night, a kid with a VT jersey did almost exactly the same thing, on the arena's video screen during a commercial break. I had a good laugh at it.
This characterizing a UVA loss had me laughing, especially because it's super Vol fan, Bill Dance.
My personal favorite... : "You gotchur cooler"
Splash! Right in the drink! Dance must have been a clumsy guy. He was always falling down. So much I remember him advertising blooper tapes.
Still does. Four volumes of them. Some of my favorites are the tree falling on him and when the cameraman falls off the boat.
http://www.billdanceoutdoors.com/features__3.php
Wow, really?
via GIPHY
Ouch! Forgetting the trailer ball is installed can be painful!
You get it... cause they're playing GT
Been there. That shit hurts!
I can't handle that kid at all. It almost looks like it's doctored, but I can't watch it long enough to really tell.
I like
hisher prediction, andhisher record and predicting said predictions.She's 6-1 picking the ACC tournament games so far...she missed the Syracuse-Pitt game but she's gotten everything else right.
VT to play way above their heads. Bill Murray would be proud:
Leg for one of the greatest movies of all time.
- Rudy the Rabbit
A UNC/Duke + VT/UVA semifinal night would be unreal. Is it legal to have that much hate in one building? I think that would be epic.
GT/Miami and Pitt/ND would be......something I wouldn't find time to watch.
I don't want to get too excited because I know how the letdown feels (after all, I am a Cubs fan). But sometimes when watching a team you just feel like something special is happening, this kinda feels that way.
I remember in 2004, I was in high school and a Maryland fan at the time before going to Tech, MD was on the bubble heading into the ACC tourney and John Gilchrist single handedly put the team on his back and ran through the tourney to earn the autobid.
We may not have the star player that they did but I'm starting to get that magical feeling as well and it'll only build with a W tonight!
As a fellow Cubs fan
Johnson got away with a blatant chickenwing under the basket right there.
Is it too much to ask again for the 7pm game to go into overtime?
Two days in a row? You're pressing your luck.
Not to jinx this thread but if we win tonight I'm thinking about going to the semi's tomorrow night. Is it really that case that even for the semi's with only two games you have to buy a session ticket?
Anyway to just get in to the Tech game? Can you buy a session ticket from a fan leaving the 7pm game or no? The cheapest I can see is $92 on stubhub.
no, once the person enters the stadium, that ticket will not let you back in. it's good basketball if you have the time/extra cash though
Your post obligates me to respond:
Until we lose I BELIEVE We will WIN!
LETS GO HOKIES! Nothing But Positive Waves!
Woof! Woof!
Did anyone have any good/bad experiences scalping tickets last night? I'm thinking of trying to do that this evening (maybe even right after tip-off)
Can someone explain to me the selection process for the NCAA? Lunardi was just on ESPN saying Pitt is still a lock for the last ACC bid. How is a team that has lost 4 of its last 6 (now a blowout loss to UNC) and only has one top 25 win so comfortably in, whereas Tech is on a 6-game ACC win streak, has a win over Pitt, and has two top 10 wins? I know our "RPI" or whatever that is isn't spectacular, but our resume isn't at least bubble worthy? It seems like the experts focus more on your losses than what you have actually accomplished.
Someone once told me "It ain't who you know, it's who you blow." Maybe that's it?
No but seriously Pitt is weird to me. But at this point as long as FSU, who's still considered a bubble team, doesn't get in over us I'm fine. Our OOC play was weak.
You're ready to be on the committee
At this point, if you're in the mix, you have good wins. So then the committee looks at just how bad can the bad get. And, a loss to Alabama St is almost as bad as it can get. Yes, we're hot now, but we did enough damage to our season early on that it was always going to be a monumental task to climb out of it, and without a ACC Tournament Title, we're going to come up just short.
I'm just baffled as to what Pitt has actually done to apparently be a lock. I think even GT has a better resume than them honestly. If the Hokies can beat Miami again tonight, I just don't see how that resume isn't more impressive than Pitt, even with the Week 1 Alabama St. loss. But from what the talking heads are saying, and how ridiculous this whole selection process seems, I think we need to win it all to get a bid.
Thing is, there have been soooooo many upsets in the lower leagues where teams who are legitimately good enough to get in on their own merit are falling flat that you're probably going to see even fewer teams than normal selected from the power conferences. Really, the only team on the bubble from the ACC who likely falls into the dance is Pitt. There's just not enough spaces for everyone else.
I for one, will be perfectly happy when we fall just short of an ACC tournament title, but get to hang one of those nifty "NIT champion" banners in the Cassell.
The committee is set up to reward complete seasons (you know, except for all those mid-major champions who have crap seasons but make a run in their tournaments), and at the beginning of the year, we didn't deserve to get in. I think we do now, but them's the breaks.
The ACC tournament champions don't play in the NIT
If the committee weights an opening day loss to Alabama St. just has heavily as a 7 game ACC winning streak they're idiots.
Well, I think we all know they're idiots. And don't forget, like someone pointed out on another thread, we ARE Va Tech, so there ya go.
I think the lesson learned is that we need to schedule to the RPI. There is no reason to schedule a RPI 260 team. Even a win drops our RPI and a loss is disastrous. VCU has a RPI of 40 and I guarantee they would answer our phone call. Why not setup a yearly game with them? Win or lose it helps our RPI.
true but i think that we weren't scheduling as a team looking to make the tournament because until a month ago that was a pipe dream.
ive always thought it'd be interesting to try to do a round-robin style thing with other teams va, since most of them already play each other. if we scheduled richmond and vcu, maybe WM/ODU and george mason possibly. I feel like that would cover the bigger teams and still be good for RPI, as well as being games good for the fans
There was something like that a couple of years ago, all the games were played in Richmond, and Tech got hammered by VCU.
I think performance at end of season is an important factor. Texas Tech was one and done in their conference tourney losing to a 12-20 TCU squad. They have lost 3 of last 6. Wins came against bottom of league KSU,OSU and TCU. They finish at 17-12. If we continue to win and get 20 or 21 wins to take win streak to up to 8. I think we start to compare very favorably to a team like Texas Tech. I think they are in trouble of missing the cut. Things just have to fall the right way.
I think it's because Pitt's sparkling 2-7 record vs the RPI top 50 is much better than our 3-10 record.
Does anyone know how beating LOLuva instead of GT on the way to our ACC championship would affect our NCAA seeding?
GT win might move us 2-3 spots in terms of RPI, UVA win moves us as many as a dozen spots.
I don't know how sec teams fans cheer for other sec teams. I wish both teams could lose in so many of these games
SEC fans (football fans at least) are like the wealthy elite. They only want their wealthy elite friends to have yachts, private schools and au pairs. They don't want the commoners to have anything resembling wealth or status.
Now, they hate their wealthy friends, don't get me wrong. Lots of jealousy and badblood for generations there. But they loathe the plebeians more and they have every intent of keeping that gate manned to keep them out of the club.
I love the analogy of SEC fans and the wealthy elite. While pretty accurate, you're comparing this
to this
Oh yeah, it's completely incongruous.
They are wealthy elite in their cheering habits, impoverished in literally every other sense.
There's only one explanation:
will be much tougher to beat miami away from home, but hey, as the article says, let's make the arena cassell north! go hokies!
I have said that I am hopeful, but not confident. That still holds for me, maybe to try to temper disappointment if it comes. I said the same about our last two games, so I'm trying to stay with the pattern and hoping for the same results.
May I present my latest work: Terror Dome North! Media: MS Paint.
Needs more Jefferson Memorial... just because
Airbrushed that out Bro!
We have played excellent leather ball in hoop game recently. My expectations are set accordingly.
This Dook game is entertaining. Tied at 70 with a minute left. Dook ball
Bad last shot by ND to win.
Wow, I just checked a few minutes ago and Duke had a pretty significant lead with I think 7 or 8 minutes left...must have been a heck of a comeback.
I prefer to think of it as less of a comeback and more of a Dook chokejob
Was just telling a coworker, it's not over until Grayson Allen does something stupid. Finally, he bear hugs a Notre Dame player to make sure he fouls him with 42 seconds left.
Aaaaaaand Duke can SUCK IT
wow. Duke was up by like 15 last time I checked. then I pull up the final score and I'm like "Notre Dayum"
Turns out going six and a half minutes without scoring is a great way to blow a lead.
Reading these comments, I was shocked, last time I checked the Duke/ND score, Duke was blowing their doors off.
Such a wonderful way to end the work day. Watching Allen miss important shot after shot while Duke blew that lead was simply amazing.
Vanderbilt's bubble just burst they lost to Tenn. A 14-18 team in first round SEC. Vandy will finish 19-13.
Go nerds!
Did anyone tell Perrantes that this was a basketball game and not an ice skating rink?
give me an F
give me a U
give me a V
give me an A
what does that spell? i know it's FUVA not FLOP but close enough