Virginia Tech vs Clemson Recap

Virginia Tech 70, Clemson 59

In most years, it wouldn't be all that essential for an ACC bubble team to follow up a win over North Carolina with another conquest just two days later. But this isn't a normal ACC season, and so on a snowy Saturday in Blacksburg, Va., the Virginia Tech Hokies needed to register a victory on their home court.

They didn't disappoint.

Virginia Tech defeated North Carolina on Thursday night, but because the Tar Heels have tumbled out of NCAA Tournament contention, that win simply didn't possess the value it ordinarily would have acquired. Last year, a win over UNC would have given Virginia Tech a ticket to the Big Dance, but this year, a trumping of the Tar Heels merely represented the avoidance of a bad loss. Coach Seth Greenberg's group needed to back up that result with another ACC win against Clemson at Cassell Coliseum. Moreover, with the Virginia Commonwealth buried in the snowstorm that's making outdoor sledding miserable in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, the Hokies needed to make their fans - allowed into the building free of charge - feel that the trip to a basketball game was justified.

Safe to say, Virginia Tech partisans left "The Cassell" (yes, it's pronounced "Castle", for those who might be wondering) with satisfied smiles.

The key to this victory for Tech stood 15 feet from the basket. Reading that sentence, you could say the answer was Hokie guard Malcolm Delaney, and you wouldn't really be wrong. However, the true key stood taller than Delaney himself, and that's simply the free throw shot.

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Delaney - who shot under 37 percent from the field and did not hit a single 3-pointer against Clemson - hit 20 of 23 foul shots in this game. While one could argue that Delaney's free throw prowess towered above every other aspect of this contest, one has to view the free throw disparity itself as the biggest reason for Tech's triumph over Coach Oliver Purnell's troubled Tigers.

Beyond Delaney's exploits at the charity stripe, it has to be noted that the rest of the Hokies made 23 additional visits to the foul line. All told, Tech attempted 46 free throws and hit 38 of them; the home team needed that production, because the Hokies hit only 31 percent of their field goal attempts (15 of 49). Without free throws, Tech wouldn't have won this game. Clemson enjoyed plus-seven advantages in blocked shots (11 to 4) and offensive rebounds (17 to 10) while also dishing out 15 assists to just five for the Hokies. Yet, because Malcolm Delaney and friends were able to make such a regular procession to the foul line, they walked away with an 11-point win... and that's despite their woeful field goal shooting.

Two extra details serve to place this game in a proper context. First, Tech shot 40 of its 46 foul shots in in the first 36 and a half minutes, meaning that the Hokies attempted only six free throws in the final 3:30 of regulation. This was not an instance in which a prolonged endgame phase fattened up Tech's free throw stats. Clemson committed fouls when this game was still competitive, and when "normal" basketball situations applied. That shows how impressive Delaney was in getting to the line, but it also revealed the extent of the Tigers' mental frailty. It's weird to say that a team played unintelligent defense on a day when it conceded just 31 percent shooting from its opponent, but that statement does indeed apply to the Tigers, who kept surrendering shooting foul after shooting foul.

The second stat which really stands out on the free throw issue - and it's connected to the first one - is that Clemson committed only six more fouls than Tech (30-24). The Hokies might have attempted 25 more foul shots than the Tigers (46 to 21), but since the foul margin was only six, it's clear that the officiating wasn't terrifically lopsided... not, at least, in terms of aggregate fouls on both sides. Tech's fouls were more situationally appropriate, while Clemson kept handing its opponent a ticket to the standstill shot 15 feet from the rim, the shot that no big man or rangy power forward can block.

Intelligence is usually thought of as something that needs to emerge on offense. On this afternoon, it was a lack of intelligent defense which sank Clemson and allowed Virginia Tech to score a second ACC win in the span of three days.

By: Matt Zemek
ACC Fans Staff Writer