This time last week, Virginia Tech was right on the bubble needing to beat NC State while everyone doubted the Hokies' chances against UVA. One week later, Virginia Tech has moved into a relatively safe spot inside the NCAA Tournament field after beating NC State and shocking now #1 Virginia in primetime on ESPN.
Because of Virginia Tech's shocking upset win over UVA, many college basketball analysts are falling in love with VT and their NCAA Tournament hopes.
The Hokies' strong week has them making a significant jump in most major bracket projections with Jerry Palm of CBS Sports and Shelby Mast/Scott Gleason of USA Today both having the Hokies as an 8 seed. Others had VT around the 9 or 10 seed line while ESPN's Joe Lunardi surprisingly had VT as an 11 seed, something that I disagree with even when looking at his explanation focusing on VT's weak non-conference schedule.
https://twitter.com/ESPNLunardi/status/963247584981803008
VT's weak non-conference schedule is a major problem for the Hokies' seeding but after the win over UVA, it's hard to make an argument that VT is close to the bubble even with the poor non-conference schedule.
For this week's bubble watch, we've included some of the other metrics that the NCAA Tournament committee will get to see when they look at the Hokies' resume. These metrics will help give us a little clearer picture on how the Hokies' NCAA Tournament hopes really look after the big win over Virginia.
The addition of these metrics are a part of the NCAA's transition as they develop a new system to replace the RPI system that helps some, but has some significant flaws that aren't easy to fix. With that said, here's the Hokies' current resume.
- Quadrant 1 Record: 4-5
- Quadrant 2 Record: 4-1
- Quadrant 3 Record: 1-1
- Quadrant 4 Record: 9-0
- RPI: 59
- SOS: 89
- Non-Conference SOS: 324
- KenPom: 38
- BPI: 27
- Strength of Record: 32
- Sagarin: 36
- KPI: 39
Photo Credit: Harley Taylor
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