With Virginia’s 91-76 victory over Maryland on Sunday night, the 2008 ACC
Tournament field has been set. Virginia Tech has earned a first round bye
courtesy of their fourth place finish in the league, and they’ll play a
quarterfinal game on Friday at 2pm against either #5 Miami or #12 NC State.
The Hokies would have had the #4 seed with or without a Maryland loss on
Sunday, but the Terps’ loss puts them at 8-8 in the league, so Tech has won
the #4 seed outright. It is the third time in four years that they’ve earned
a first round bye in the ACC Tournament. (For more information on top four
seeds earned since expansion, see Will Stewart’s recently blog entry Hokies Lock up a First-Round Bye in the ACC Tournament.)
The top four teams in the league earn a first round bye. The Hokies will
join #1 UNC, #2 Duke and #3 Clemson in taking the day off on Thursday.
Virginia Tech is 0-2 against Miami and NC State this season. They lost to
NC State 73-63 back on February 5, and that was the Wolfpack’s last victory
of the season, with the Wolfpack losing eight straight since then. Tech’s streak of futility against NC State goes back even
further than that. We’ll cover that more this week as we preview the
tournament.
Miami beat the Hokies 74-71 in Blacksburg on February 9. The
‘Canes had a
chance to get a first round bye, but fell to Florida State 75-72 on Saturday.
Miami started out 2-6 in ACC play, but they’ve won six of their past eight
games and are one of the hottest teams in the ACC.
If Virginia Tech gets past their quarterfinal matchup, they’ll face
either #1 UNC, #8 Wake Forest or #9 Florida State. The Hokies lost to UNC
92-53, split the season series with Wake Forest, and defeated the Seminoles
89-80.
TSL will have more coverage of the 2008 ACC Tournament later in the week.
The official web site of the ACC, TheACC.com, has posted the brackets and
other information on its Men’s
Basketball Tournament web page.
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