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The NCAA Tournament is on the horizon and we are seeing conference tournaments wrap up over the next week. With the tournament comes First Four In, Last Four Out and Bubble Teams galore. One such team that finds themselves on the bubble making the Big Dance is Virginia Tech out of the ACC.
Bubble Watch
Update March 10, 9:30 p.m.: Virginia Tech kept its NCAA Tournament hopes alive on Thursday with an 87-80 victory over Notre Dame. The Hokies will play in the ACC Tournament semifinals on Friday night against the winner of Virginia and North Carolina.
The Hokies finished with an overall record of 19-12 while going 11-9 in conference play. From Saturday, January 29th to the end of the regular season, Virginia Tech finished 9-2 down the stretch. They've shown they can at least hang with anyone in the conference which sets them up for a potentially deep tournament run in the ACC. Unfortunately, they will be heading in without momentum as they dropped their regular-season finale against Clemson by four points.
The Hokies open up the tournament on Wednesday, March 9th when they play the winner of the Clemson and NC State first-round matchup. If they are victorious, they would go on to play No. 2 Notre Dame in the third round. A win there would help their chances and then it would depend on who they would meet in the semifinals. Bracket experts predict for Virginia Tech to get in, they would need not only the Notre Dame victory but also a win in the semifinal against Duke, North Carolina or Wake Forest. Short of that happening, the only way in for Virginia Tech would be by winning the conference tournament and getting an automatic bid.
Will Virginia Tech get in?
Answer: Possibly. The Hokies have handled its business in the ACC Tournament with two wins so far. A third win would get them into Saturday’s ACC Championship Game and that could be enough to do it.