Virginia Tech sits at 7-1 going into their contest against penn state this Saturday. This is the Hokies’ best push out of the gate under Head Coach Seth Greenberg, who is in his seventh season leading VT. And this is Tech’s best record after eight games since the 1995-96 season when the Hokies started 12-1 and made the NCAA Tournament under Bill Foster.
In Greenberg’s previous six seasons in the ‘Burg, the Hokies had started 5-3 every single season. Granted, the Hokies have played a weak schedule to date, but even in past years when the opponents were not exactly murderer’s row, Tech would lose one or two games they shouldn’t have to a vmi, or bowling green, or directional michigan, or penn state.
Before this season started I said Tech needed to go 12-2 out of conference to have a real shot at the NCAA, especially given their soft schedule. The Hokies have put themselves in position to do that. After VT plays penn state Saturday, a game which will be a stiff challenge for Tech, the Hokies have three cupcakes at home to finish the calendar year. They play seton hall, a team that is really playing well right now, to start the year then have one more cupcake later on in the season to finish the out of conference slate. Basically, that means VT either needs to beat penn state or seton hall and they should cruise to at least a 12-2 out of conference record.
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That’s exactly the way I see it as well, Niemo. A 12-2 OOC record combined with an 8-8 mark in the ACC would give us 20 regular season wins and, I think, a very solid shot at an NCAA bid, especially if we could manage to win our 1st round ACC tournament game as well.
The Penn State game is really a great opportunity for our team. We’ll be the underdogs and if we lose, as long as we don’t get crushed it won’t be that big a setback. But a win in State College would give us a very nice road win against a quality team and a nice boost to the ‘ol RPI.