Va. Tech Pounds Miami in Quarterfinals

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Va. Tech Pounds Miami in Quarterfinals

By J. Mike Blake

Mar 14, 2008

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Charlotte, N.C. — Virginia Tech beat Miami 63-49 Friday and took another step towards fulfilling its goal of returning to the NCAA Tournament.

The Hokies (19-12) moved into the ACC semifinals and will play top-seeded North Carolina on Saturday.

Down 38-40 late in the second half, the Hokies proceeded to go on a 25-9 run to close out the game. That stretch was powered by freshman Malcolm Delaney, who had four 3-pointers and 15 points for the Hokies.

“You hope to beat a team that’s going to be in the tournament and play the way you played,” Greenberg said. “If anyone was watching that game, I think you would say, ‘That team’s going to be in the NCAA Tournament.’ But what I say doesn’t mean anything.”

In the Hokies’ previous match-up this season with the Tar Heels, Carolina emptied out its bench and coasted to the 92-53 win. The Heels out-rebounded the Hokies 54-24 in that game and five Carolina players scored 10 or more, including little-used Will Graves.

The Hokies would certainly want redemption for the lopsided loss, but more importantly an upset win over the Heels would likely clinch a spot in the big dance.

“It’s going to be a challenge. Everybody knows Carolina is one of the best teams in the nation right now. When we played them the first time, we all know what happened and we definitely need to go out there and play as hard as we can,” said A.D. Vassallo, who had 15 points.

“We’re not worried about the NCAA Tournament, we’re worried about the ACC Tournament right now and this game with Carolina tomorrow at 1:30 so we just have to focus on that and let the committee decide if we’re in the tournament or not.”

Greenberg said his team had “come a long ways” since that beat-down in Chapel Hill, as his Hokies have won five of their last six. At the same time, the Heels were also a different team then as Ty Lawson missed the game due to injury.

“I look at that first game and I look at our basketball team right now and you can’t even think that this is the same basketball team. Having said that, we’ve got to play a team that their team is better also,” Greenberg said.

The loss to the Heels triggered change within the Hokies’ locker room that led to its recent winning ways. According to Greenberg, Vassallo stepped up as a leader, players began holding each other more accountable and trust began to form between teammates.

“That was an embarrassing moment. Through that situation I think it brought our team that much closer together,” Greenberg said. “I think that was almost a cleansing experience for us. I think that experience got us to where we are today, now we just have to go out there and play some ball.”

For the Hokies to win, it will need a similar effort as it had against Miami. Four Hokies got into double digit scoring and eight players had four or more rebounds. The balanced, all-around effort is a big reason why Virginia Tech was able to more than doubled Miami’s rebounding effort 51-25.

Greenberg’s team held Miami to just 31 percent shooting, and limited first team All-ACC selection Jack McClinton made just 4-of-17 shots. Doing similarly against the No. 1 Heels will be a challenge.

“There’s too many people you have to guard [on UNC]. You have to shut down every single option on they’ve got on offense and everybody knows they’ve got too many of them,” Vassallo said.

“We play with a chip on our shoulder every game so we definitely want to go out there and play the best we can.”