On a snowy day in the hills of southwest Virginia, the Hokies were at hard at work trying to separate themselves from the rest of the pack in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Hokies needed to beat a top 50 team in the RPI to give their March Madness resume a boost. They did just that, defeating a talented Clemson Tigers team 70-59.
If you happen to be a shooting coach, you probably would have a hard time watching this game. In fact, the Hokies set a school record for the worst shooting half in school history. They shot just 15.4-percent in the first half, making just 4-26 shots.
How did the Hokies stay in the game you ask? Well, for the first time in a long while, Tech didn’t have to fight the zebras as Malcolm Delaney spent the majority of the afternoon shooting uncontested shots at the free throw line. Delaney had 30 points, but 20 of those came from the charity stripe.
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Clemson played hard but with impending foul trouble, they faded in the second half thanks to their star player Trevor Booker spending a total of 17 minutes on the bench. Booker came in averaging over 16 points per game but finished with just seven in 23 minutes on Saturday.
With the win, Tech has improved to 18-4 overall and 5-3 in the ACC. The Hokies are now halfway through the conference schedule and only eight games remain before the conference tournament begins in almost a month. If the Hokies can win four or five more, they would be a shoe in to make the NCAA tournament. We’re almost their Hokies, just need to keep up the intensity.
Stats
Bullet Points
- This is an amazing stat. The Hokies have held their opponents to less than 60 points 66 times now in the Seth Greenberg era, VT has won 60 of those games. Also when the Hokies score more than 70 points in a game, they are 81-24 under Seth Greenberg.
- Malcolm Delaney may go down as the best basketball player to ever play at Virginia Tech by the time he is done here. Saturday was Malcolm’s fourth 30 point game of the season and something tells me there may be more in the offering down the road.
- Cadarian Raines deserves some props for the way he played on Saturday. For a four-minute stretch in the second half, Raines was matched up with Trevor Booker on the inside and Booker failed to score a point on Raines. That stretch allowed the Hokies to stretch the lead a bit then ended when Booker picked up his fourth foul. Cadarian has a very high ceiling and he and Davila could become a force on the inside in a few years.
- I really do feel bad for Clemson as there were a few foul calls that were questionable that just happened to go the Hokies way. Tech was called for a good amount of fouls but when you have a game that’s being called this tight, you would think some of the physical play would diminish a bit in the second half. Clemson really has nobody to blame but themselves since they did commit some very stupid contact fouls in the second half. I guess this is how UNC and Duke fans feel after they play us each year. I have to admit; it feels pretty good to not have to fight the referees during this game.
- With this win, the Hokies are now fourth in the ACC as the Hokies own the tiebreaker so far over the UVA Cavaliers who are also 5-3 in conference.
- Letting the students in free made a huge difference in the game today and really should become an option earlier in the season, especially in out of conference play. The student body is obviously embracing this basketball team and since the future is only getting brighter, I’d say having a better environment earlier in the season would be a good thing.
- Another mind blowing stat, when the Hokies hold the opposing team under 40-percent from the field, they are 61-4 under Coach Greenberg.
Next up
The Hokies will head to Raleigh on Wednesday to face the NC State Wolfpack at 9:00 p.m. Tech has yet to win at NC State since joining the ACC and Tech has really struggled to beat the Wolfpack period. Tech is just 11-34 against NC State and 2-5 against them since 2004. Following the Wolfpack game, Tech will have two more home games against UVA and Wake Forest.
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