BROOKLYN — Suddenly, it was all over, and the orange-jerseyed visitors that entered the week with nothing to lose were hugging and screaming out of every corner at the Barclays Center — from the bench, to the scorers table, to the 3-point arc — and converging joyously with smiles and laughs to the middle of the basketball court. Once the Hokies had no more mountains to climb this week, they laid in confetti and spread it amongst each other before others hugged and bounced some more.
Against all odds, from the stumble out of the gates and falling flat on its face, to nearly losing to Clemson in the second round on Wednesday, Virginia Tech had defied the odds as the No. 7 seed with an 82-67 victory over No. 1-seeded Duke in the ACC Tournament Final on Saturday night. It delivered the Hokies their first-ever ACC title and their first conference championship in 43 years since winning the Metro Conference over Florida State in 1979.
Having existed for the better part of the past month-and-a-half as a decided underdog — their chances of winning the ACC Tournament on Jan. 29 when they were 2-7 in the conference were written off — the Hokies had to fight for everything they had to this point. They were once at the cellar of the conference only to battle back as the seventh-best team entering Tuesday. And now, in terms of the conference tournament, that fight is over.
“We're going to play in the NCAA Tournament next week, we did it last year,” Tech head coach Mike Young said after VT’s victory. “We didn't play poorly. We didn't play well enough to beat Florida in overtime. We're going to put a lot of time and effort into our next opponent, and there will come a time we'll look back on it. This is very significant for our program, for our coaching staff.”
A new fight wages on — we’ll see where it falls on Sunday at 6 p.m. — as Virginia Tech awaits its next step in the NCAA Tournament after claiming the ACC’s automatic bid. After spending most of the latter portion and the entire ACC Tournament on the bubble and in the conversation as a “Last 4 In” team, the Hokies will skip Dayton, Ohio and the Field of 68 and jump straight into the Round of 64.
But for now, they’ll celebrate their tournament victory. They did it on the back of ACC Tournament MVP Hunter Cattoor’s career-high 31 points on 7-of-9 shooting from deep. Keve Aluma’s 19 points and domination down low all week long. And Justyn Mutts’s poster on potential-NBA lottery draft pick Paolo Banchero late in the second half.
“I just felt like I was in my front yard, shooting on the front grill,” Cattoor said. “I dreamed of moments like this, and it happened, so I'm grateful.”
The final buzzer, which sounded at 10:48 p.m. Eastern Time as Hunter Cattoor dribbled out the last 1.1 seconds before chucking the basketball into the air, touched off a mad dash to center court where VT celebrated with each other. A hushed crowd, filled mainly with well-traveled Blue Devil fans, watched the Hokies celebrate as a downtrodden Duke team walked off the court.
And so, maybe what was the strangest conference basketball season in program history ended on Saturday. One that began with a loss to Wake Forest at home after starting 6-2 in non-conference play; losing their next three in conference play to only bottom out on a Miami buzzer-beater with a 2-7 record on Jan. 26; to ripping off a 9-2 run to finish the conference schedule with a 11-9 record. Tech became the first team in NCAA history to turn a 2-7 start into a winning conference record.
“We were talking about it in those moments, it was a dark place,” guard Storm Murphy said about the team’s start to the year. “We didn't want to be there. We didn't expect to be there. But the resilience of this team and the belief never wavered. I think we had more belief in those moments even than we did in the summer in the preseason with all the expectations.”
A week that began with hope before watching it diminish before and during the overtime period on Wednesday, to watching it return when Maddox’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer found the bottom of the basket to beat No. 10-seeded Clemson.
The Hokies held off No. 2-seeded Notre Dame’s late-game surge to win in regulation. On the next night, they dominated No. 3-seeded North Carolina, propelling them to another commanding win over No. 1-seeded Duke on Saturday night.
They knocked off the top three seeds. If there were any questions surrounding the team’s tournament status entering the week, they’ve been answered.
Instead of leaving it up to the selection committee, they won the whole damn thing.
Saturday was a night that Young — and Blacksburg for that matter — won’t forget for a long time.
That is, until the Hokies win their next one.