Virginia Tech had a chance to take it out of the selection committee's hands Friday in Greensboro. By beating Miami, a team that finished D.A.L. in the ACC, the Hokies could have cemented their place in the NCAA Tournament. However, the Hokies gag reflex reared its ugly head and Tech fell to Miami, 70-65 in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament.
Tech made 22 of its first 48 shots from the field (46 percent) but made only two of its last 15 shots coming down the stretch. The Hokies were out-rebounded 46-29 and saw their first-team All-ACC guard Malcolm Delaney shoot 3-for-15 from the floor.
The Hokies have a bad SOS and a below-average RPI. They could ill-afford to give the selection committee the opportunity to leave them out of the tournament for a third consecutive season. They may have just done that.
"I would hope that the team that tied for 3rd in the ACC would be in pretty good shape," Seth Greenberg said during the post-game press conference. "Certain things are in my control and out of my control. That ones out of my control."
The good news for the Hokies is there aren't a lot of other bubble teams playing their way into the tournament. Tech was in good standing coming into Friday's game and other teams will need to do work to bump the Hokies out of the tournament.
But it wouldn't have come to that if Tech had simply beaten a team they should have beaten in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.
