Notre Dame's Jerian Grant celebrates a 67-58 victory over No. 1 Syracuse Saturday
It was a big weekend on the hardwood for the favored college hoops teams of this blog (save for Brian's annoying fixation with Duke).
Notre Dame became the first team to upend No. 1 Syracuse and the Hokies edged in-state rival No. 17 Virginia.
I can't speak for Brian, but I haven't posted about Hokie hoops because it's exceedingly frustrating (which I'm conditioned to) watching a talented group play so inconsistently. While I haven't watched ND much this season, they appear on paper at least to have similar afflictions.
The Irish have now upset two top ten teams (Syracuse and Louisville) and also defeated then No. 22 Pittsburgh.
There have been bumps along the way however like losses to Georgia and Rutgers.
Dorenzo Hudson made several big shots off the bench helping Tech to a 47-45 win over No. 17 Virginia Sunday
The Hokies have been even more mercurial, starting 0-4 in ACC play before Sunday's win over the Cavaliers.
Tech lost its first three ACC games by a total of seven points, which is why at 1-4 they still reside in the conference basement.
Even more frustrating, Tech has led almost every game at the half this season including against Syracuse at Madison Square Garden and No. 8 North Carolina Thursday in Blacksburg.
The Hokies lost both those contests, but have had chances to win all their games.
Notre Dame (12-8, 4-3 Big East) and Virginia Tech (12-7, 1-4 ACC) both have a lot of work to do to get into position to make the NCAA Tournament.
The Irish now have a signature victory and a number of nice wins to along with it. The Hokies' schedule isn't eye-popping, but their strength of schedule is currently 41 according to realtimerpi.com.
The grind of conference play will tell the tale for these two programs, and if this weekend was any indication it could be an unexpectedly pleasant story.
No comments:
Post a Comment