Tuesday 23 February 2010

A Short Rant About Virginia Tech's Soft, Soft, Soft Schedule

I was browsing through Kenpom stats today when I noticed that the Hokies have a pitiful strength of schedule, ranking 91 for dead last in the ACC. Only Miami offers any competition, clocking in at 82. Virginia is next at 52 with the rest of the ACC teams cracking the top 40. NC State is at 39, Clemson is at 38.

I figured the disparity resulted from a weak non-conference schedule. Sure enough, VT ranks 327 in non-conference strength of schedule (out of 347 total teams). Truth be told, though, Clemson only ranks 249 this season and other ACC teams haven't exactly fielded a killer non-conference slate.

Then I looked at VT's in-conference schedule. Here's the list of teams they have played or will play twice this season:
NC State
North Carolina
Miami
Boston College
Virginia

You know what else that's a list of? Yeah, its the five worst teams according to the current standings of ACC teams, listed with the worst team first. These teams have combined for an astonishingly bad 18-42 record in conference play. VT has gone 6-2 in games against those teams so far. All hail the mighty Hokies and their sparkling 8-4 record!

Just for comparison, here's the list of teams Clemson is playing twice this season:
Duke
Maryland
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Boston College

All you would have to do is replace BC with Wake Forest and you'd have the exact inverse of VT's schedule.

Look, I understand that VT doesn't set the schedule and even if they did, there's no way anyone would have predicted the way the ACC would play out this season. But what I don't get is all the love VT is getting from everyone this year. They're still a fringe NCAA tournament-caliber team. I want another crack at them in the ACC tournament.

1 comment:

  1. good points, i hadnt thought of their conference SOS

    ReplyDelete

A blog about all Clemson Tiger University sports--football, basketball, baseball, along with the occasional South Carolina coot bashing.