{"id":123294,"date":"2026-03-14T11:44:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T14:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/899419806"},"modified":"2026-03-14T11:44:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T14:44:24","slug":"why-and-why-not-virginia-tech-makes-it-into-the-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/14\/why-and-why-not-virginia-tech-makes-it-into-the-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Why and why not Virginia Tech makes it into the tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\n

The Virginia Tech Hokies entered the ACC Tournament with a prime opportunity to earn a bid in the NCAA Tournament. Heading into the first round of Tuesday\u2019s action, the Hokies were among the \u201cfirst four out\u201d in Joe Lunardi\u2019s \u201cBracketology<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In fact, only two teams were ahead of the Hokies among the \u201cfirst four out,\u201d and before Tech tipped off against Wake Forest on Tuesday night, Pitt helped them. The Panthers upset Stanford in the final seconds, which meant one of the two teams ahead of the Hokies in the \u201cfirst four out\u201d group was essentially eliminated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

All VT had to do was beat Wake, a team it had defeated 82-63 last month. Of course, in January, the Demon Deacons had defeated Tech 81-78 after a last-second 3-pointer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

On Tuesday night, the Hokies were forced to face the Deacs without junior forward Amani Hansberry. Hansberry was Virginia Tech\u2019s leading scorer (14.3 PPG) and second-leading rebounder (7.4 RPG), who injured his leg in last week\u2019s regular-season finale at Virginia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Like many of VT\u2019s games this season, it came down to the wire, and the Hokies had a chance to win in the final seconds of regulation, but Ben Hammond\u2019s floater fell short. However, Jailen Bedford was there for the rebound, but his putback failed to go in, and we were headed to overtime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Unfortunately, Wake couldn\u2019t miss in OT and the Hokies failed to keep up, falling 95-89 to finish the year with a 19-13 record.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

That bubble seemingly burst.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Well, let\u2019s first look at Lunardi\u2019s latest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Here are the last four in:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Here are the first four out:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Here are the next four out:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

So, what chances do the Hokies have of getting in? Well, those chances aren\u2019t good. They essentially have seven teams in front of them. Auburn, at 17-16, went 1-1 in the SEC Tournament and remains the first team out. The Hokies, at 19-13, have a better record. However, advanced metrics favor the Tigers because they have wins over St. John\u2019s, Arkansas and Florida this season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

SMU and Stanford were two of the teams that Virginia Tech lost to in buzzer beaters this season. The Hokies dominated Stanford, but fell apart in the final minutes, allowing a last-second 3-pointer to sink them. Tech had an excellent opportunity for a win at SMU, but Boopie Miller\u2019s last-second half-court shot went in to shock the Hokies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Had Tech closed out at least two of those last-second games, this would be a different conversation. The ACC Tournament probably wouldn\u2019t have even mattered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… first four out,\u00e2\u0080\u009d and before Tech<\/span> tipped off against Wake Forest … , the Demon Deacons had defeated Tech<\/span> 81-78 after a last-second … Hansberry. Hansberry was Virginia Tech<\/span>\u00e2\u0080\u0099s leading scorer (14. … -pointer to sink them. Tech<\/span> had an excellent opportunity for a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}