Miami Hurricanes Basketball ACC Tournament Game Preview: Virginia Tech Hokies

Location: Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina

Time: 9:00 PM

TV: ESPN2

Line: Miami -12

The Miami Hurricanes come into the ACC tournament as the first team out on Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology. The Hurricanes would likely need two or three wins this week in the tournament to convince the committee that they deserve a spot on the field of 68. The first challenge for the Canes comes via the Virginia Tech Hokies.

Recap of Second Game

This past Saturday, the Hurricanes and the Hokies finished off their regular seasons and it ended with the Miami Hurricanes knocking down a season-high 15 three’s in a dominating 82-61 win in Cassell Coliseum. Manu Lecomte, who could start his third straight game if Angel Rodriguez (questionable) is unable to play, knocked down 5 triples and led all scorers with 20. James Palmer, who has gotten the start in both games against Virginia Tech, went 5-for-5 from beyond the arc and finished with 17 points. Ivan Cruz Uceda finished with a career-high with 18 points. You get it though, the Canes beat the Hokies, and they beat them up really good.

Virginia Tech Scouting Report

The Hokies will be playing their second game in as many nights after they upset Wake Forest on Tuesday. This bodes well for the Hurricanes as they just sat and enjoyed the bye week for the first day.

Virginia Tech is a guard heavy team, and that has been the main reason why Miami has dismantled them the two times they’ve faced off. Miami is also a team that relies on their guards, but Miami’s guards are just better than Virginia Tech’s guards.

Due to their often four-guard lineup, the Hokies are a VERY bad rebounding team. As a team, Virginia Tech only brings down 29.8 rebounds per game, putting them 336th in the country. Miami dominated the Hokies on the boards during their first meeting, outrebounding Virginia Tech, 40-19. Virginia Tech did a better job on the glass during the second contest, but they were still edged out 31-27.

The Hokies, however, are a very good outside shooting team.

Virginia Tech ranks amongst the countries best in three-point field goal percentage at 39.3%, which ranks them at 18th in the country, and first in the ACC, just ahead of Duke’s 39.2% clip. The Hokies showed their shooting ability against Wake Forest, connecting on 8 of their 19 three-point attempts.

The Hokies have had some success shooting the three against Miami, as they’ve knocked down 13 of their 36 shot attempts in the two games against the Canes. If Miami can hold them to the same percentage, they’ll have a really good shot at winning this game.

Prediction

Miami 75 – Virginia Tech 64

The Hurricanes just have too much guard firepower for the Hokies to overcome. Virginia Tech will have to make an incredible amount of threes to stand toe-to-toe with the Hurricanes. And I just don’t see that happening.

I don’t expect for Miami to pull off the same shooting display they did on Saturday, and I do think that this game will be closer than the first two games, but Miami will find a way to pull away late and advance to the ACC quarterfinals against Notre Dame.

Ja’Quan Newton and Manu Lecomte will have to break down the defense and open up their shooters on the outside. Tonye Jekiri is the best big man on either roster, so he should establish some dominance from the early going.

Jalen Hudson is coming off a 32-point performance in Virginia Tech’s upset win against Wake Forest, so Miami will have to key in on him as he’ll try to establish himself yet again to propel the Hokies to their second straight upset win in the tournament.

A Miami loss sends them straight to the NIT, but a win sets up a huge rematch against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Love you, ACC tournament.