Following a loss at North Carolina State on Saturday afternoon, the Virginia Tech men's basketball team hits the road for a tough road game at Clemson on Wednesday night. To say that the Hokies' NCAA Tournament hopes are in survival mode would be an understatement.
This is a big game for the Tigers, who are 10-1, a half game behind Duke for the top spot in the ACC after the Blue Devils beat Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. Clemson will visit the Blue Devils on Saturday afternoon in what is a monster game. Don't expect the Tigers to overlook Virginia Tech despite playing a home game after traveling back from a California trip last week.
Clemson has heavy betting odds against Virginia Tech
It should come as no surprise that Virginia Tech enters the game as an 8.5 underdog according to FanDuel, with an over/under of 137.5. That is a low line if we're being honest, for two teams heading quickly in the opposite direction.
As of Wednesday morning, Clemson is ranked 26th by KenPom, while the Hokies are 59th. ESPN analytics give the Tigers an 86.7% chance of winning the game. That seems about right, but if there was ever a time for Mike Young's team to pull off a road shocker, it would be Wednesday night.
This isn't going to be easy for a Hokies team that will again be without sophomore forward Tyler Johnson and losers of three of their last four. Virginia Tech needs to get off to a better start than they did at Louisville and NC State, where they buried themselves early in the games, and they were not able to overcome those starts.
Virginia Tech will return home against Florida State on Saturday afternoon, but a loss to Clemson will have the Hokies in a situation where they don't want to be, falling further off the bubble.