Going into Saturday's regular-season ACC final at Virginia, the writing was on the wall for the Virginia Tech men's basketball team. Win and improve their NCAA Tournament chances. Lose, and despite what happens in the ACC Tournament next week, it's off to the NIT.
After burying themselves in a 14-point hole to begin the game, 17-3, the Hokies were unable to dig themselves out of it. They closed to within two points in the second half, but the Cavaliers pulled away and earned a split of the Commonwealth Clash with a seven-point win. Virginia has locked up the No. 2 seed in next week's ACC Tournament in Charlotte, while the Hokies are going to have to play on the first day on Tuesday. Here are three observations after Tech dropped to 19-12 on the season.
Virginia Tech was not ready for Virginia's early-game onslaught
As you may remember, the Hokies opened ACC play with a triple overtime win over the Cavaliers on New Year's Eve. That loss didn't sit well with Virginia, and anyone who knows a lick about sports knew that Ryan Odom was going to have his team ready to play. Virginia was, Virginia Tech wasn't.
Give credit where credit is due: the Cavaliers were hitting everything they threw up early in the game, while the Hokies were stagnant on offense and dug themselves a deep hole. They were not able to get out of it, and it was costly. They battled hard until the end, but a slow start was costly.
Ben Hammond gave Virginia Tech a chance
The emergence of Ben Hammond this year has been something else. If it wasn't for him on Saturday, the Hokies would have been run out of John Paul Jones Arena early in the game. He played 35 minutes and scored a game-high 21 points with four rebounds and five assists. Unfortunately, he didn't get any help from anybody other than Amani Hansberry and Jailen Bedford, who had 12 points each.
Jaden Schutt missed all seven of his 3-pointers, and Virginia Tech got just 10 points from its bench. That's not going to be nearly enough to get it done on the road in a must-win game.
Virginia Tech is NIT bound
Virginia Tech will head to Charlotte for the ACC Tournament beginning on Tuesday after finishing 8-10 in ACC play. This loss popped the Hokies' NCAA Tournament bubble, and as we found out a couple of years ago, Mike Young would love to play at least one more game with his team after next week. They'll likely get at least one home game in the NIT as a high seed. Win, and they might get another one.