The Hokies spent an extra night on South Beach thanks to adverse weather in Virginia and it showed during their lackluster performance against the Hurricanes. The team barely had enough time to celebrate beating the Hoos on their home court before it laid an egg in its next game.
After the jump we'll hear a lot more about the Hokies' frustrating performance. But since we don't want this entire post to be a downer we'll take a trip around the ACC. There were some really good blog posts from your ACC scribes this week, so enjoy what they have to say about ACC football, basketball and even hockey.
Miami 82, Virginia Tech 75
Mainstream Media
Thoughts from Miami 82, Virginia Tech 75 (Darryl Slater)
"So I had to suffer through the Raycom Sports telecast – untimely "instant" replays, excessive crowd shots and an intrusive graphic near the end of the game advertising the PGA event coming up next. That said, I enjoyed the color commentary from Dave Odom, the former Wake Forest and South Carolina coach, whose son Ryan is a Tech assistant. Well-reasoned analysis from a guy who knows the game better than most."
Virginia Tech falls to struggling Miami (Mark Viera)
"With an 82-75 loss at Miami, Virginia Tech came back to the reality that it still has a long, tough fight in the Atlantic Coast Conference if it wants to play meaningful basketball in March."
Hokies still in favorable position in ACC (Collegiate Times)
"The upcoming week is perhaps the most pivotal of any this season for Tech. The Hokies host North Carolina and Clemson, both of which have struggled of late and defeated Tech at Cassell last season Seth Greenberg will be the first to tell you that an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament, especially one earned in the ACC, hinges on whether or not a team can win its conference home games."
Bloggers
Miami 82, Hokies 75 (Tech Hoops)
"The Hokies showed a lot of character this afternoon crawling back from a 19 point deficit in the second half to challenge the canes in the final minutes, but only to come up short 82-75. Behind the play of some tenacious pressure defense, Tech had 7 steals and forced 11 turnovers in the second half to trim the double-digit miami lead to single digits."
Hot Shooting Canes Beat Hokies 82-75 (Tech Sideline)
"A poor defensive first half doomed the Hokies. Miami took a 47-30 lead into halftime and had all the momentum following a 25-foot three-pointer by power forward Adrian Thomas to end the opening 20 minutes. The Canes, who had struggled shooting the ball in ACC play, were lights out against Tech in the first half."
Hokies Fall to Hot-Handed Hurricanes (Fight for Old DC)
"You can't blame the Hokies for coming out flat in the first half against Miami Sunday. Tech was coming off an emotionally-charged overtime win Thursday, had to travel to Miami a day early on Friday due to snow, and faced a well-rested team that hadn't played since Tuesday."
Virginia Tech Loses to Miami (VT Fan)
"From the opening tip, the Hokies looked rather stale and lethargic. There was poor defense, no movement on offense, and a transition game that was non-existent for most of the game. But despite all of that, Miami managed to win this game more so than the Hokies losing it."
Around the ACC
Internet Inference – VT and Boise Will Play on Labor Day (College Game Balls)
"According to hokiesports.com it looks like Virginia Tech has indeed rescheduled it’s September 4th game against Central Michigan to October 9th. The only plausible reason for such a move is to free up Labor Day to travel to FedEx to play Boise State. I expect an announcement confirming this soon."
Virginia Tech’s NCAA Resume (ACC Sports Journal)
"As it turns out, the Hokies of 2010 may present a wildly contradictory resume and a strange dilemma for the NCAA selection committee. That’s a good thing for Seth Greenberg, who will have empirical backing when he gives the obligatory "Don’t let the foot off the gas" speech."
Oh, the humanity! A projected 96-team field (D1SCOURSE)
It's discourse, only about D1, get it? I know, it took me like three months before I figured it out, too. Anyway... Patrick Stevens, formerly of a paper in Washington that hates sports and fun, now has his own personal blog where he could totally swear and post pictures of cleavage if he wanted to but for some reason chooses not to. Oh, well, it's still a good read: "With word spreading today that a 96-team NCAA tournament is "a done deal," there's only a solitary, simply question to ask the guardians of college basketball. How many of you white males, age 18 to 49 (and maybe a little older, too), are responsible for this dumb suggestion?"
The 58th Annual Beanpot Tournament: Preview (BC Interruption)
Brian takes a break from taking a Cosmo quiz with Mrs. Brian: "It's easy to tab Boston College the favorite in this year's Beanpot, given that BC is the only team with a winning record in the Beanpot Tournament field, but that belittles the fact that Jack Parker's Terriers live to play in this tournament."
Signing Day is Almost Here! (From The Rumble Seat)
"It was a busy recruiting weekend on campus. It was the last weekend for official visits before NSD and it was also Junior Day for the 2011 recruiting class. We had some big time Junior's on campus and handed out a number of official offers. But we'll save the 2011 class for another day because we're about to close out a good recruiting class this week."
Addressing The Defense Problem...Again (Backing The Pack)
"All four factors have been sliding in the wrong direction since that first glance a couple of weeks ago; eFG% D has ballooned north of 50%, TO% is back down around where it was in '09, and opponents are grabbing almost 37% of their missed shots. Unlike Lowe's previous teams, this one does not keep opponents off the free throw line."
Florida State Basketball Roundtable (Tomahawk Nation)
"The offense needs to run through Alabi. He needs to touch the ball at least 2 out of every three times down the floor - even if he passes right back out. But the turnovers come from all over the place. We need to stop the moving picks. We need to stop stepping on the baseline. We need to avoid having Ryan Reid dribble the ball. I'd seriously have the guys run cone-drills. Singleton for all his basketball skills and athletic prowess is not a particularly good dribbler."
The Lame Complacency of Now (Carolina March)
"I've ranted before about my intense hatred of the idiotically-named bracketology – in fact, I should probably republish that on this blog – but that was because people ignore games in front of them to focus on a closed-door meeting in March that has all the excitement of a regional planning meeting. Bracketology's other big flaw is to treat each game as a binary good or bad for a team, and each team as a binary in or out."