Cal and Virginia Tech have struggled down the stretch, yet one of them will claim at least a second game in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
The teams meet in the first round Tuesday afternoon in Charlotte, N.C.
No. 10 seed Virginia Tech (13-18) has lost two in a row and three of its last four, including Saturday’s 65-47 setback at then-No. 11 Clemson. Tuesday’s winner meets No. 7 seed Stanford on Wednesday night.
“Let’s go play well,” Virginia Tech coach Mike Young said. “Won at Cal earlier in the year.”
No. 15 seed Cal (13-18) has lost seven of its last eight games. The Golden Bears nabbed the last berth into the ACC tournament in their first season in the conference.
The Golden Bears were on the wrong end of the historic 112-110 four-overtime matchup with Notre Dame on Saturday. Jeremiah Wilkinson’s 36 points led Cal in that matchup, and he was one of three players on the team to log at least 50 minutes of playing time.
Wilkinson will have another chance to show what he can do in the tournament. The freshman has averaged 20.4 points since joining the starting lineup 13 games ago.
“He’s an unbelievable point guard,” Cal coach Mark Madsen said. “He’s an explosive scorer, but also does a really good job of looking for his teammates. He’s growing into one of the top point guards in the country.”
Turnover troubles have haunted the Hokies and they’re running out of time to fix them.
“That has been a sore spot for my team all year,” Young said. “We don’t handle the ball worth a damn.”
Virginia Tech won the regular-season meeting 71-68 on Jan. 11 at Cal despite guard Andrej Stojakovic’s 24 points. He hasn’t scored that many points in a game since.
Guard Jaydon Young had a team-high 14 points for the Hokies in that victory, which featured a 42-23 halftime lead.
Tobi Lawal leads Virginia Tech in scoring (12.2 points per game) and rebounding (6.8 per game). Lawal (lower-body injury) missed last week’s home finale against North Carolina, but returned to score five points in 24 minutes in the Clemson game.
–Field Level Media
