Busting Brackets
Fansided

Bracketology Losers: Indiana, Virginia Tech among this week’s wounded

By Andrew Dieckhoff

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA - DECEMBER 13: Aljami Durham #1 of the Indiana Hoosiers shoots the ball against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Assembly Hall on December 13, 2019 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA - DECEMBER 13: Aljami Durham #1 of the Indiana Hoosiers shoots the ball against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Assembly Hall on December 13, 2019 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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ACC
LAHAINA, HI – NOVEMBER 26: Landers Nolley II #2 of the Virginia Tech Hokies (Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images) /

Virginia Tech Hokies

For the past few weeks, the ACC has looked like a league that might only get four teams into the Big Dance, as everybody south of Duke, Louisville, and Florida State has stumbled through the first few weeks of league play. Virginia Tech and NC State seemed like they were on track to get at-large bids, but their recent issues have brought that into question.

And so perhaps after Virginia scored a potentially-season-saving victory over the Seminoles, somebody else had to take a step back in the race.

The Hokies stepped up—or down?—to that task last week. Not once, but twice.

Coming off of an embarrassing loss to Boston College on Jan. 25, Mike Young needed his team to go out and make a statement in support of their inclusion in the NCAA Tournament. The first opportunity came on Tuesday when the team headed south to Coral Gables to take on Miami. The teams were deadlocked at 17 apiece midway through the first half, but a 24-2 run by the Hurricanes broke open a lead that Virginia Tech could never fully recover from.

The result was a second consecutive road loss for the Hokies. And those were supposed to be the easy ones. A weekend date with Florida State still hung in the distance, even as the Blacksburg faithful tried to make sense of how their team’s fortunes had changed so quickly.

Suffice it to say, Virginia Tech didn’t come away with a marquee win over the Seminoles.

Before the loss to BC, one of the best things about Virginia Tech’s resume is the lack of bad wins. In fact, just two-plus weeks ago, they didn’t have any losses outside of Quadrant 1. Since then, the Hokies have lost four of five, with two falling in the Q2 range, while the Boston College loss counts as a Q3 defeat.

Suddenly, this resume now contains a sub-.500 record in Q1/Q2 games and a paltry 1-1 mark in Q3. The Hokies are clinging for life to a neutral site win over Michigan State back before Thanksgiving. But unless they can add a few more pelts to their wall, Mike Young’s first season in Blacksburg looks doomed to end without a Big Dance invitation.

And for the moment, their losses are Virginia’s gains.

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