Virginia Tech misses NCAA tournament for third straight year
Darryl Slater
Mar 14, 2010
Virginia Tech made history tonight when it missed the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive year.
The Hokies are the first ACC team to finish 10-6 in the regular season and miss the tournament. The ACC expanded its schedule from 14 to 16 games in 1992. Even in the 14-game configuration, no 10-win ACC team had been left out since the NCAA field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
Two years ago, the Hokies made some other history when they were left out. They went 9-7 in the regular season and won a game in the ACC tournament, thus becoming the first ACC team since 1985 to win at least 10 games in the regular season and league tournament combined, then still miss the NCAAs. Just two other ACC teams went 9-7 in the regular season and missed the tournament: Virginia in 2000 and Florida State in 2006.
The Hokies seem to be the first or second team left out of the tournament, along with Illinois. Tech’s resume included a 3-4 record against teams in the top 50 of the Ratings Percentage Index. Illinois was 5-9.
Just now on CBS, the selection committee’s chairman, Dan Guerrero, was asked what kept out Illinois, Tech and Mississippi State, which went 2-5 against the top 50 and was also on the bubble. He mentioned, without talking specifically about Tech, non-conference strength of schedule and playing an unbalanced conference schedule.
Both were issues for the Hokies. Their non-conference strength of schedule was 339th of 347 teams. Their ACC schedule also included two games against the bottom five teams: Boston College, North Carolina State, North Carolina, Virginia and Miami. They played the other six teams once each.
The four bubble teams that got in ahead of Tech were Florida (10 seed), Minnesota (11 seed), Utah State and Texas-El Paso (both 12 seeds). In a previous post, I noted that all four of those teams were listed as the last four in by collegerpi.com’s Jerry Palm. Here is another look at those teams’ resumes, along with Tech’s ...
VIRGINIA TECH
RPI: 59
vs. top 50: 3-4 (No. 33 Georgia Tech, No. 34 Clemson, No. 38 Wake Forest—Georgia Tech on road, latter two at home)
vs. outside 100: 6-1
UTEP
RPI: 39
vs. top 50: 2-1 (both over No. 45 Alabama-Birmingham—one home, one road)
vs. outside 100: 7-2
UTAH STATE
RPI: 31
vs. top 50: 2-1 (No. 23 Brigham Young, No. 43 Wichita State—both home)
vs. outside 100: 6-2
MINNESOTA
RPI: 60
vs. top 50: 5-6 (No. 12 Butler, No. 16 Purdue, No. 21 Wisconsin, No. 26 Ohio State, No. 28 Michigan State—Wisconsin and Ohio State at home, other three neutral court)
vs. outside 100: 8-3
FLORIDA
RPI: 5-6
vs. top 50: 3-8 (No. 14 Tennessee, No. 28 Michigan State, No. 42 Florida State—Michigan State on neutral court, others at home)
vs. outside 100: 7-1
Mar. 16, 2010 at 10:26 AM
If finishing 3rd place in the ACC is not good enough for VT to get into the NCAA Basketball Tournament, perhaps they should consider getting into an expanded Big Ten. That would help their football program as well.
Mar. 14, 2010 at 11:54 PM
Notice how VT’s formula for succeeding in football during the 90s ultimately hurt them in basketball? You can’t play no-name teams out of conference and expect to get recognized.
Mar. 14, 2010 at 11:18 PM
Tech beat Wake Forest, georga Tech, Clemson and all of those teams made the tourney. It has nothing to do with the schedule the comitte does not like Seth Greenberg and dont give any other reasons
Mar. 14, 2010 at 11:02 PM
Tech can’t play Longwood, Campbell, UMBC and Brown and expect to get in. Greenburg has to get some better teams on the non-conference schedule.
Mar. 14, 2010 at 09:19 PM
Tech may have made inglorious history, but they have only themselves to blame for the NCAA snub. Losing twice to the last place team in a down ACC sealed their fate, their lasting image a loss to a bottom feeder as other teams (Georgia Tech UNLV etc) played their way in.
Mar. 14, 2010 at 08:40 PM
The Hokies were once again treated unfairly. Why would Minnesota be selected after losing by almost 30 points to Ohio State in their tournament? And why would Wake Forest be selected instead of VT when Wake played so poorly at the end of the year, were beaten by Tech, and finished below Tech in the ACC standings. The selection criteria are nonsense.
Mar. 14, 2010 at 07:31 PM
Is next season’s schedule already finialized/released yet? If not, it’ll be real interesting to see how Tech adjusts their schedule to conform more to the selection committe’s liking.