Bracketology Losers: Temple, Utah State and Virginia Tech falls this week

Virginia Tech Hokies

Unlike the previous teams mentioned in this article, Virginia Tech isn’t in danger of missing out on the NCAA Tournament. They have great wins over Purdue, Washington, and Syracuse, with just the defeat at Penn State being the only real blemish on the resume. Even the two losses the Hokies suffered this week to Clemson and Louisville aren’t in any way bad.

The real loss for Virginia Tech was what happened the week prior, where the team’s second-leading scorer and top passer Justin Robinson went down indefinitely with a foot injury. Their offense has suffered tremendously, averaging just 54 ppg in the three games since (1-2). His replacement, sophomore Wabissa Bede, has gone a combined 0-9 from the field for zero total points in two games this week. The dropoff in production is extremely problematic going forward, as the lack of offense makes the Hokies vulnerable while Robinson remains out.

Virginia Tech’s schedule will also be interesting to look at in the next month, as they face either the very best in the ACC like Duke and Virginia or the very worst in Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh. With Robinson out, those games all of a sudden become true upset alerts.

Even if the star point guard doesn’t return, the Hokies have done enough to warrant an at-large bid. Unless the scoring woes never end and they lose to the bottom-tier ACC teams coming up. This week is huge for Virginia Tech to retain the status quo, or else end up with an unfavorable seed in the Big Dance.