In Mike Young’s first season at Virginia Tech, he inherited some of Buzz Williams’ non-conference games.  His second season had its non-conference slate mostly wiped out due to COVID.  Only in his third season in Blacksburg are we finally getting a taste of Young’s scheduling philosophy as head coach of an NCAA program that has NCAA Tournament aspirations.

And boy, are those philosophies different from Tech’s previous head coaches, or what?  Young has signed the Hokies up for a very challenging non-conference slate that will do a good job of getting the team prepared to run the gauntlet of 20 ACC games, and it will provide Tech with plenty of opportunities to pick up key Quadrant 1 and Quadrant 2 victories for their NCAA Tournament resume.

The NET rankings and the Quadrant system are what matters in NCAA Tournament selection these days.  Gone are the days of the RPI, which could be completely gamed (and was) by coaches and programs.  I never liked the RPI, but what I perhaps hated the most was that Tech never did a good job of gaming it.  That probably cost Seth Greenberg at least two NCAA Tournament bids, and probably prevented a couple of Buzz Williams teams from getting better seeding.

To refresh your memory, here is how the Quadrants break down.  The numbers below are NET rankings.  For example, if you play someone ranked 1-30 in the NET at home, it’s a Quadrant 1 game.  If you play someone ranked between 51-100 on a neutral site, it’s a Quadrant 2 game.  Etc.

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