Season-long flaws play a huge role in Florida State bouncing Virginia Tech from the ACC Tournament

All season long, the Virginia Tech men's basketball had its ups and downs. In fact, you could say it was one heck of a rollercoaster ride for head coach Mike Young and his team. It really was. Most Hokies fans would agree.

Shooting the ball is a hit or miss and that was the case for the Hokies. They had games where they couldn't miss and they had games where they missed. Against Florida State in an 86-76 loss in the second round of the ACC Tournament, they were a miss. They went 6-for-24 from behind the arc with Tyler Nickel making three and Hunter Cattoor, Sean Pedulla, and Jaydon Young making one each. Cattoor missed five of his shots and Pedulla missed five of his 3-point six shots.

One issue that plagued Young and his team this season, and there were many, was handling the basketball. Against FSU, that was an issue as the Hokies turned it over 13 times, nine in the second half. They took a 58-57 lead with 7:02 left, but turnovers allowed the Seminoles to go on an 11-0 run and seize control of the game. The Hokies played nine players in the game and all of them except one, Jaydon Young, had a turnover. How many times can we look back this season and say turnovers cost them this game or turnovers cost them that game? Too many for an ACC team.

Going into the game, Mike Young knew how valuable it was going to be to rebound the ball. In Virginia Tech's 83-75 victory over the Seminoles at Cassell Coliseum on Feb. 13, the Hokies outrebounded FSU by 12. Wednesday, they were outrebounded by nine and lost.

"Numbers don't lie, these numbers are black and white,'' said Young holding up the boxscore. "We had to take care of the ball and 13 (turnovers) are too many. We needed to rebound and we out-rebounded them at our place and they outrebounded us today by nine. It's an easy game.''

Let's not ignore the defensive effort in the second half. They allowed 50 points, again, and couldn't get stops when needed. That was an issue in a loss at Miami earlier this year and getting stops against Notre Dame in a loss in South Bend, Indiana was an issue. Last season defense was an issue and that was the case Wednesday and all season long for Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech had hopes of making a run in the ACC Tournament and possibly playing their way into the NCAA Tournament, however, that won't happen as an early exit squashed their hopes. They are not an NCAA Tournament team with their flaws and likely headed to the NIT, but it shouldn't be surprising that Florida State sent them packing early in the conference tournament and it shouldn't be surprising that it was their issues they had all season long played a big part in their elimination.