Virginia Tech is now 10-2 overall and 4-1 in the ACC in men’s basketball.  I think it’s time to go ahead and risk the Chris Coleman jinx and talk about the NCAA Tournament.

I think you can take some of what you know about the NCAA Tournament selection process and throw it out the window.  It’s only January 14, so we only have a fraction of the information that we’ll have in March, but one thing I’m confident in saying is that overall number of wins won’t matter quite as much this year as in the past.

Why?  It’s simple: Teams won’t play as many games this year, which will lower their win totals.  Last year the Hokies played 11 non-conference games, while this year they played only seven.  Duke only played four non-conference games this season.  UVA played only six.  We’re talking about potentially 3-4 fewer wins for many teams this year, or perhaps even more. 

Let’s look at it another way.  Let’s say Duke goes 11-9 in the ACC this year.  That would only give them 13 wins overall as a result of their basically non-existent non-conference schedule.  13 wins wouldn’t get you into the NCAA Tournament in a normal year.  Not even close.  But 11-9 in the ACC certainly gets you in, right?

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