Virginia Tech vs Duke: 2018-19 College basketball game preview, TV schedule
By Cody Gerena
Will Duke win at Blacksburg to get a lead in the conference standings, or will Virginia Tech play spoiler and close the gap on the road to their first ACC regular season championship?
TV Schedule: Tuesday, February 26, 7:00 pm ET on ESPN
Arena: Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, Virginia
February’s coming to an end, meaning the stakes will keep rising up while the number of games dwindles down, and this game may just have the highest stakes for the remainder of the ACC regular season. The third best team in the nation, the Duke Blue Devils 24-3 (12-2)will travel to the home of the ranked #20 Virginia Tech Hokies 21-6 (10-5) after a turbulent week of hi-highs and low-lows for the Blue Devils.
First, let’s start with the good. Duke got their win back at Syracuse 75-65, at away after losing at home to them earlier this season. Another good thing is that RJ Barrett had some great games this week, shooting 14-20 for 30 points at the Syracuse, and getting a 33-point 13-rebound double-double against North Carolina. In addition, he also got a triple-double in a 94-78 win against NC State, where he scored 23 points, rebounded the ball 11 times, and got 10 assists.
Now onto the bad, and it’s the definition of bad, not good. To start, Duke lost their rivalry game against UNC at home. It wasn’t even close, it was an 88-72 loss. To make matters worse, star freshmen Zion Williamson had has shoe practically explode on his foot, causing him to miss not only the rest of the game due to a knee injury but also the game at Syracuse and now this game at Virginia Tech.
Finally, with the loss against North Carolina, Duke lost sole possession of first place in the ACC, and now with a 3-way tie including #2 Virginia and #5 North Carolina(the team that beat them at home) the ACC is up for grabs for any of these three teams,and the next loss can and most likely will continue Duke’s nine-year ACC regular season championship drought.
From a nine-year ACC drought to a team who’s never had the ACC regular season championship, let alone any championship since the ’90s in the Atlantic 10, Virginia Tech, a team that has almost nothing to lose but everything to gain. During Duke’s drought, they made the Sweet Sixteen five times and won the NCAA Tournament once. While Duke had success without being the best during the regular season, the same cannot be said for the Hokies, who’ve only made the tournament three times this millennium, and only once past the first round (2007).
With a win against the Blue Devils on Tuesday, the Hokies will be only one game behind the cluster of 12-win teams leading the conference, from there they don’t need to pass the cluster, they just need to tie it to get their first ACC regular-season championship since they joined the conference. To add to what more they can achieve, the latest ESPN Bracketology with Joe Lunardi has them at a 6-seed, and Fansided’s latest Bracketology has them at a 6-seed as well. Duke is a 1-seed in both of these and who knows just how much a win against an opponent at the caliber of the Blue Devils can help them out in seeding.
That’s not to say that the Hokies don’t have their own problems. Hokie senior guard Justin Robinson will be missing Tuesday’s game. Robinson has started in nearly every game he’s played with Virginia Tech in his four-year career there, even starting every game in his sophomore and junior seasons. This season, he leads the team in assists with 5.4 per game, and second in points per game with 14.4. Other key players include sophomore guard Nickeli Alexander-Walker who leads the team in points per game with 16.5 and steals with 2 per game and is second in assists with 3.7. In addition, they’ll have junior forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. who leads the team in rebounds with 7.2 per game and is second in points per game with 14.6. Even though they will be missing a key piece of their team who helped led them to two-straight tournament appearances, you can’t help to think that the odds just might be even due to Zion’s absence.
Even with Zion’s absence, the Blue Devils still have one of the top players in college basketball, freshman guard RJ Barrett, who leads the team in points per game with 23.3 and is second in rebounds and assists with 7.5 and 4.1 per game. Another Duke freshman will help him lead Duke into Blacksburg, Cam Reddish, who is third in points with 14 and third in assists with 2.2. They will also have another starting freshman to help them out, Tre Jones, who leads the team in assists with 5.3 per game.
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In the end, even though both teams will be missing a key piece of their roster, Duke will be able to beat the Hokies at away due to the sheer amount of talent their freshmen class has even without their top player. Expect to see another classic RJB performance in a close game that will help allow Duke to stay on top of the ACC.