Virginia Tech started the season as the reigning ACC tournament champions.
How the Hokies are playing, they might need a similar run to get into the NCAA Tournament.
Virginia Tech’s loss to Syracuse (11-6, 4-2) was their fifth straight but this one stung more than the others.
One could argue that the Hokies (11-6, 1-5) hadn’t played as poor as they did in Syracuse.
The 82-72 loss doesn’t reflect how poorly Virginia Tech played.
The loss was more than missing Hunter Cattoor. It was a team that didn’t look connected from the start and they paid dearly for it at the beginning of the second half.
The Hokies were a little lucky to only be down six at halftime.
The Orange made sure the luck ended when they pushed the lead up to 20 in the first 6:52 of the second half.
Blaming Syracuse’s zone would be misleading.
The Hokies defense was left in Blacksburg. After having success getting the ball the Justyn Mutts early, they inexplicably went forgot he existed.
Mutts (21 points, 4 rebounds, 9 assists) and Grant Basile (26 points, 10 rebounds) had good numbers even though Basile’s numbers didn’t seem to impact the game.
Rodney Rice made his debut and, though, he didn’t have great numbers, you saw why Rice will be a major contributor down the road.
Even when Cattoor returns, the Hokies have a lot of things to fix to ensure that the season doesn’t get away.
It won’t get any easier for Virginia Tech. Next up on the schedule is a trip to Charlottesville to play UVA.
