Winning the 2022 ACC Tournament Championship was great BUT...
after winning four games in a row and beating two Top 5 teams (UNC, Duke), we lay an egg against Texas in the NCAA Tournament 1st round.
We were playing with confidence and playing "like a well-oiled machine" (Coach K's quote). I can't remember if we'd ever played four consecutive games so well. We were in the zone.
So, how do we lose to a 6th seed by double digits after playing so well in the ACC Tourney?
44 Replies
3y
We had guys in foul trouble but still had lead until that. It also signaled “not our day”
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
3y
...we couldn't have still won the game, obviously. But the stretch from Darius' shot to beat Clemson up until that moment was like we were protected from upon high. Basketball gods basically said, "Okay, you're entirely on your own now."
(In response to this post by hokiepro)
3y
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
3y
shot better than average from 3.
** Edited by 133743Hokie at 8/5/2022, 6:13:20 PM
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
3y
collapse in the 2nd half vs Kansas they would have been national champs. They would have been on a 12 game winning streak going into the national championship game ... except for one thing ... The Hokies rolled them in the ACC tourney in Brooklyn. It was a 20-point lead just minutes into the second half and the lead never dipped into single digits. The Heels had won 5 straight going into the game and nearly won 6 straight afterwards. Any team can have a head scratching loss.
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
3y
** Edited by IB4TECH at 8/5/2022, 7:31:51 PM
(In response to this post by 86TechHokie)
2
2hhoop3
3y
Bacot? He had the ankle injury if that is what you're referring to.
(In response to this post by IB4TECH)
The nature of the one and done NCAA tourney is you have to go back again &
again till you finally get the formula for winning. We are on a pretty good streak now and I expect Mike to get it figured out, get his roster set up just right so he can travel to far corners of country and win playing unknown teams. It takes time.
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
You ever heard of a letdown?
1) VT was underseeded. That caused us to play a team that we should've seen in the Round of 32
2) TX decided they'd make a ton of 3s they normally don't make
3) UCONN is one of, if not the only team, I can think of that had a magical run in their conference tournament, and kept it going for the ultimate prize. It's very, very hard to win 10 high pressure games in a row. VT happened to hit the team that got uncharacteristically hot, while also playing below average themselves.
The 5-6 day gap doesn't help either. Makes it harder to keep that momentum going.
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
3y
first time in VT MBB history, and it was done in amazing fashion - beathing Klemson at buzzer, demolished a solid ND team, demolished UNC (who then made it to Final Four) and demolished Duke (Coach K's last ACC Championship game EVER).
So, nobody cares we didn't go far in NCAA tourney.
CMY and Hokie players will be heroes forever for what they accomplished last year - PERIOD!
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
3y
And why is it negativity when I ask my fellow hokies why we lost a big game?
(In response to this post by Scream_On_D)
3y
on this VT basketball board since the game was played...and then suddenly now you post a negative comment/question about that TX game. Right. Nice try. Like I wrote above, Hokies are the 2022 ACC MBB Champions!!! That is all that matters. Hokies will cherish the ACC MBB Championship forever!
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
3y
You're the only one that responded to my thread adversely. Maybe YOU are the one with the issue, not me.
(In response to this post by Scream_On_D)
Texas was Clemson with better players
Like Clemson was a bad matchup for us. It happens.
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
E
EDGEMAN
3y
Texas played a great game, and we didn’t. It happens.
(In response to this post by VaTechHokiesACC)
It was an unfortunate ending to the season
and yes Texas did shoot the ball well, especially in the first half which teams can do at times when they have that “we got these guys” mentality. By halftime you could see that mindset had set in and was the biggest component in the game. By early in the second half there was an awful lot of confidence oozing from Texas, great body language on their part and I think they had proven at that point that they were the tougher team, the physically stronger team and were playing harder. When you fall behind in a game where those 3 components have been established, it usually is going to result in an outcome you do not desire. I thought Texas imposed their will on the game from the outset starting defensively and the tone was set, beginning with their relaxed, confident offense than resulted from setting the tone.
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
S
Squatro
3y
1. Style of play and matchups: Whose style of play confers an advantage in a particular game? How do the individual players match up against each other?
2. Officiating: tight or loose officiating can definitely yield an advantage to one of the teams, based upon style of play.
3. Random human factors: Who is confident, and gains confidence or loses confidence as a game unfolds? Who is simply having a good night or a bad night?
Seems like most of these factors were not in our favor that particular night against Texas.
(In response to this post by Rev.Zeke Vodka)
3y
hitting a 60 footer at the first half buzzer told me all I needed to know about how the game was going to go. They shot the lights out (by their standards) and they defended the three very well against us. I think we had about 50% of our average number of 3PA and most of them were contested.
(In response to this post by Rev.Zeke Vodka)
N
N2VT2
3y
(In response to this post by Rev.Zeke Vodka)
E
EDGEMAN
3y
It seems that ACC teams struggle when playing against more aggressive teams, especially when the refs "allow them to play" (aka: Big 12 basketball).
(In response to this post by N2VT2)
3y
a finesse league
(In response to this post by EDGEMAN)
3y
And 4 of the 5 teams in the NCAAT from the ACC (VT being the outlier) made noise in their bracket.
So I'm not sure much has to change in what the ACC allows. VT was more physical than some teams last year (see ND) and less than others (see Dayton). Being more physical does not always translate into W's either, all depends on the competition.
(In response to this post by EDGEMAN)
3y
Game was allowed to be played physical, they shot better than the scout, some bad luck on some Aluma 50/50 calls
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
3y
(In response to this post by vtbball80)
3y
(In response to this post by TboneParkerVT)
I
icelus
3y
opponent has a lot of time to prepare for your offense. It’s not coincidence that we also struggled the most in 1st round of ACC tournament against Clemson. Texas was a very good defensive team with a lot of veterans.
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
3y
everything is impermanent.
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
M
Mercury
3y
Since 1950, VT fans had to be excluded in ACC discussion, our public schools during acc tourney week, had teachers pull in the TV to watch game during the school, (VT was never brought up). Neighbors throughout the commonwealth hock line and sinker to get a ticket to the ACC tourney. (it was by reservation, coat and tie, very exclusive). Every TV and radio had exclusive the ACC, and the sound of the pilot (Jefferson Pilot).. and until 2003, VT was ignored and excluded. (Even Bill Brill the SPORTS editor for the Roanoke Times, (the so called home town paper), would write diatribes how second class VT was.
Guess, what 1) VT is in your damn conferenced and 2) VT won the dam tournament, and crashed their cocktail party. Snuff said.
Young folks who were born from 1990 on, really never got to understand the bitter exclusion of VT athletics.
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
Yup. And I'm still not sure everyone understands this.
We were the ones that were always asked go sit in the corner and not say anything while the cool kids ran the party. But after winning the ACC Title, we showed we belonged. I personally think the team was mentally and physically exhausted from putting 4 highly improbable games in a row together and it showed against Texas.
But we're still the ACC Champs and the ACC Tournament trophy is sitting in Blacksburg...
(In response to this post by Mercury)
H
hok1eboy
3y
(In response to this post by Mercury)
3y
'controversial'.
He said "Show me a sportswriter that everyone likes and I'll show you a bad sportswriter".
(In response to this post by hok1eboy)
He had a poster in his office when I worked for him that said
"If Everybody Likes You, You're Probably Not Doing Your Job"
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
3y
And I've been following VT basketball since 1972 when they won the NIT by winning four games by five points.
That's 50 years.
(In response to this post by Mercury)
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N2VT2
3y
I've been following since the 60s. In 1967 we came within a bad call on a block/charge of going to the Final 4. No one at Tech has ever given these guys the credit they deserve. Before you think the game is better now, the four premier big men in the tourney were Alcindor, Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes and David Latin. There was no one in this year's tourney that could match any of them.
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
E
EDGEMAN
3y
Just saying...lol
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
3y
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
3y
(In response to this post by santafe)
C
coolj
3y
It back up for the ncaa’s. That and Texas shot the lights out.
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)
3y
That's what makes a deep run in the Tournament so fun. Hope we make it again.
But I would also say most of us wished we at least got that first win, so you aren't out of left field lamenting the result. Sigh
(In response to this post by YBYSAIAHokie)