Spread: uva by 14 (ouch).
Sure the Hokies have lost six straight ACC games for the first time ever, but let’s not give up on Tuesday night just yet. It is a rivalry game so you can throw out the records! Or as they say south of the border, expulsar a los tocadiscos! After not winning in ch’ville between 1968 and 2008 (although the two teams didn’t play on campus for 24 of those years… thank you, uva), a streak of nine straight losses, Tech has won 3 of 5 in wahoo land since, including a 47-45 victory there last year. Let’s just hope Erick Green is fully recovered from the bout with dehydration he suffered on Saturday, though I am sure his minutes will be down since this is Tech’s third game in six days (Green leads the ACC averaging 38.2 minutes per conference game, two minutes more than #2).
This is the second meeting of the season between these two rivals, and it is very much a ‘then and now’ situation.
- Then: VT and uva were both 2-2 in league play, with the Hokes on a 2-game win streak
- Now: VT has lost 6 straight and are tied for last in the ACC with bc while uva won 5 of 6 and are alone in 3rd place in the ACC
In this case, stats don’t lie. If you look at the numbers below, it is pretty easy to see why uva is 3rd in the ACC and VT is last. While uva is 10th in the ACC in PPG, that is because of their molasses-like pace. They are 340th in the nation out of 347 teams in terms of tempo. But they are very efficient as an offense — they are #2 in the ACC in FG%, #1 in 3-Point% and #5 in terms of offensive efficiency. They also are #2 in turnover margin at +2.5 per game. Tech, meanwhile, is 11th in the ACC in FG% and 3-Point% and 10th in Turnover Margin at -1.4.
Defense is another matter — uva is #11 in the nation in defensive efficiency (3rd in the ACC – miami and georgia tech are in the top 10) and #1 in PPG allowed. Tech is last in the ACC in PPG allowed and 232nd nationally in defensive efficiency. Numbers like that all add up to 2-8 versus 7-3.
Here are all the articles from the first meeting. uva won that behind a career high 18 points from freshman twig Evan Nolte, including 5/9 from behind the arc. This game included a 24-2 run by uva which included 6/7 on 3-pointers from the hoos (it was raining 3s and curse words as I watched) and 5 VT turnovers. That run turned a 17-10 Hokie lead with 9:30 to go in the first half into a 34-19 deficit with 2 minutes left in the first half and was pretty much all she wrote — Tech trailed by double digits the final 19:12 of the game. Erick Green had a career high 35 points for Tech (of their 58 points) and 9 rebounds.
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16 
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