Sidney Lowe wasn't wearing his infamous red jacket, and maybe that was the extra weight that tipped the scales in favor of Seth Greenberg. Virginia Tech rallied late in the second half to force overtime and eventually escaped with a 91-87 win over NC State. The Hokies got off to a fast start going up 8-2 in the first few minutes of the game, only to crap the bed for almost the entire first half. VT had no answer for Ben McCauley and Tracy Smith, who along with Brandon Costner and Courtney Fells, torched the Hokies for 49 first half points. The Wolfpack hit 58.6% of their shots from the field, and the game was beginning to feel like every other loss to NC State over the last couple of years where the Wolfpack seemed to hit every shot regardless of the defensive pressure put on them. For whatever reason, NC State's players really believe that they're better than us and it shows in the statistic columns. Luckily for Tech, those same beliefs are what forced the 'pack into some dumb turnovers. They had 22 in the game as opposed to just 14 for the Hokies. That ended up being the biggest reason for the Hokies' success, as it certainly wasn't due to their rebounding effort. State had 29 rebounds in the game as opposed to just 23 for Tech, and that was largely due to Ben McCauley who pulled down 15 boards all by himself. The guy is just this huge turd who somehow gets it done against VT every single time.
The officiating was horrendous, and I think both coaches were extremely upset about it. In the first half, Greenberg completely lit into one of the refs after an inexplicable foul against Malcolm Delaney after Brandon Costner had thrown him to the ground. That foul was preceded by an awful call against Victor Davila who managed to block an NC State player's shot by keeping his arms straight up, but still got whistled. Greenberg was visibly cussing out the refs from the sideline and received a technical foul for his trouble. I thought it was a necessary technical foul, and I do not fault Greenberg at all, although his choice of language could have been more family-friendly.
AD Vassallo was the game's MVP for the Hokies, even though Raycom decided to give that honor to Jeff Allen well before the second half ended. Allen had a nice game with 21 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals, although he also contributed 4 turnovers. Vassallo put up 24 points, 7 boards, 2 blocks, and a steal. The difference I think is that Vassallo only had one turnover and was 4-4 from the free throw line to seal the win for the Hokies at the end of the game. Allen's free throws came earlier in the game, and he was only 4-8 from the charity stripe. I am really just nitpicking between two incredible performances though. Malcolm Delaney also had a pretty good game with 18 points, 4 assists, and a steal, although he also committed 5 turnovers and was a unimpressive 3-12 from the floor. However, you have to commend him on getting to the free throw line at important spots in the game, and converting all 11 chances. The Hokies finally received some good play from a player outside of "The Big 3", and that player was JT Thompson. Thompson was extremely active in this game, faking the 3-pointer on several occassions, only to drive to the basket and finish in the paint. JT was 5-10 from the field, good for 12 points, and he also pulled down 3 rebounds and corrupted the wolkpack offensive with 3 steals. His fastbreak throwdown where he simply passed the ball through the net was epic.
This game wasn't exactly a "must-win" for the Hokies, but if they had ended up losing, you really would have had to rethink the possibility of going to the NCAA tournament. NC State has an extremely mediocre RPI of 112 (which is even lower than North Dakota State... yuck). This win doesn't get us anything, but it prevents us from losing out in a big way. We are now sitting at 5-3 through the halfway point of the ACC schedule. We have 8 more games, with the last 5 being very difficult. If the Hokies can reel off 3 more wins before then, that would put us in great shape for that tough stretch, but in all likelihood, we will lose one of these games and win one of the tough 5. I think that in order for us to make the big dance, we're going to need to take a game that we aren't supposed to win... either @Clemson, home to Duke, or home to UNC. Good luck Hokies... that is a venti order (since tall isn't considered tall anymore).
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