Virginia Tech vs Georgia Tech Recap

Virginia Tech 88, Georgia Tech 82

The trails of tears that have become known as Virginia Tech basketball seasons have now been wiped away. The Hokies - despite an injury to one of their core performers and a lot of late-game nerves - managed to get off the NCAA bubble and into the NCAA Tournament.

A six-point triumph in Atlanta at Alexander Memorial Coliseum - achieved without forward Dorenzo Hudson - will assure Coach Seth Greenberg's team of a spot on the field of 65. By winning their tenth ACC game of the season and earning a first-round bye in the ACC Tournament, the boys from Blacksburg, Va., removed any and all doubt from the minds of the Selection Committee.

It didn't come easily, though - the Hokies insist on being the drama queens of the ACC.

Just go back in time, and you'll appreciate how painful it's been to live the life of a Hokie fan:

In March of 2008, Virginia Tech's hardwood heroes missed out on the NCAA Tournament by one basket, as a Tyler Hansbrough jump shot at the horn lifted North Carolina to a 68-66 win over the Hokies in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament. A win in that game would have, by all accounts, punched the Gobblers a ticket to the Big Dance, but the dagger from Hansbrough - a college basketball legend - denied Tech its trip to paradise.

And then came last season.

In the 2008-09 campaign, Virginia Tech would become even more intimately associated with close-shave soul crushers. The Hokies lost five games by one possession, as a steady stream of stomach punches pulverized a team's sense of confidence. Again and again, the Hokies would pick themselves off the mat, only to be floored by more instances of last-minute mayhem.

Xavier beat last year's Hokie squad with a halfcourt shot at the final horn.

Wisconsin toppled Tech with a tip-in at the buzzer.

Georgia nipped Greenberg's guys by one point on a basket with 28.3 seconds to go.

Boston College devastated the Hokies on a putback basket with four tenths of a second on the clock.

Florida State stopped Virginia Tech by two on a hoop with six seconds left.

If Virginia Tech didn't have bad luck, it would have had any luck at all. Needless to say, this new Hokie team had to learn how to pull close games out of the fire, one way or another. Losing close-shave pulse-pounders simply isn't an optional matter for the 2009-10 Virginia Tech team.

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Yet, for this very set of reasons, the visitors from Virginia had to be sweating bullets as the clocked ticked down in this regular season finale. Once ahead by a 79-64 margin with 6:06 left in regulation, the Hokies - on pace to score over 90 points - suddenly stopped scoring. A series of nervous possessions plus two free throw misses from 85-percent foul shooter Malcolm Delaney allowed Georgia Tech to close within three points of the Hokies, at 83-80, with just 36 seconds left. Hokies everywhere were worried that another late-season heartbreaker would keep their team out of the Big Dance, especially since Virginia Tech lacked a single quality non-conference win. Tech has often been denied by the Selection Committee because it has played soft non-conference schedules in November and December, so when Georgia Tech made its late push, the prospect of a 9-7 ACC record - without victories over league standard-bearers Maryland and Duke - offered cause for NCAA Tournament uncertainty. Georgia Tech needed to be dropped in order for Seth Greenberg and Co. to feel fully comfortable on Selection Sunday.

This team needed to find a way to hang on after losing nailbiters on so many occasions over the past two years.

Fortunately, the Hokies did the deed... but not without a little extra intrigue.

After Virginia Tech's Jeff Allen could only split a pair of foul shots to make the score 84-80, coach Paul Hewitt's Yellow Jackets had a chance to narrow the gap to only one, but a 3-pointer by D'Andre Bell missed with 26 seconds to go, and the Hokies managed to close the sale on the defensive glass and at the foul line. The Hokies' long and wrenching journey back to the promised land had finally been completed.

Georgia Tech, on the other hand, must do some damage in the ACC Tournament. At 7-9 in the ACC, this massively underachieving squad has to win at least two games, and very likely three, to feel reasonably happy when the Selection Show rolls around.

Life is endlessly interesting in the ACC. Georgia Tech's heartbreak is Virginia Tech's very sweet victory.

By: Matt Zemek
ACC Fans Staff Writer