When the season began and the addition of three new schools to the ACC, SMU, Stanford, and California, changes were coming to the ACC Tournament format for men’s and women’s basketball. With the addition of three teams bringing the total to 18, the bottom three schools in the standings would not qualify for the ACC Tournament. This season, Miami, Boston College and North Carolina State are not going to be joining the other 15 schools in Charlotte this week.
That means there will be a new tournament champion with NC State, last season’s winner, staying home and on Sunday, they parted ways with head coach Kevin Keatts. Virginia Tech will play California in the first round on Tuesday, and it’s somewhat surprising that the Hokies were not one of the three teams missing the tourney after the tough start to the season they had in the non-conference schedule. When Tech takes the floor against Cal, they will be looking to snap a losing streak at the ACC Tournament, but just how long of a losing streak?
When was the last time Virginia Tech won an ACC Tournament game in men’s basketball?
We all remember the Hokies' run in 2022 to the ACC Tournament title as the No. 7 seed when they took down Clemson, Notre Dame, North Carolina and Duke on their way to the automatic NCAA Tournament berth. Since then, has Mike Young’s team won a game in March in the conference tourney?
The answer to that would be, yes. It wasn’t last year as Florida State won the matchup in the second round in the 8-9 game by 10 points, but in 2023, as the No. 11 seed, the Hokies beat Notre Dame, 67-64, before falling the next day to NC State in Greensboro. This season, Young will be looking to have success and pick up at least one win after being one-and-done last year, but to do it, they’ll have to beat a Cal team looking to pick up their first-ever ACC Tournament victory.