Coronavirus postponements have forced some unusual schedule adjustments this season.
Case in point: Atlantic Coast Conference foes Virginia Tech (12-10, 4-7 ACC) and Pitt (8-14, 3-8) will play two games, 48 hours apart on Saturday and Monday.
The teams were set to meet on New Year’s Day in Blacksburg, Va., but with Tech laid up by a wave of COVID-19, the game was postponed. As it turned out, the best option for a makeup was two days after their scheduled meeting at Pitt, which is Saturday.
Wednesday night, after his team’s 81-66 win over Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech coach Mike Young wasn’t sure what to make of the NBA-style home-and-home series.
“It’s unique. I don’t know,” Young said. “I’ve done it before in my career, because of the weather. It was a long time ago.”
The Pitt series finds Tech on an upswing with its offense humming. In the win over Georgia Tech and an 85-72 victory at Florida State, Virginia Tech made a combined 60 of 105 shots (57.1 percent), including 26 of 45 (57.8 percent) 3-pointers.
The offense has come from various sources.
Against FSU, Hunter Cattoor (27 points) and Sean Pedulla (20 points) scored career highs, making a combined 15 of 18 shots from beyond the arc.
In the Georgia Tech game, Keve Aluma and Storm Murphy went for 24 and 18 points, respectively. And in both games, Justyn Mutts scored in double digits.
Pitt has lost four of its last five and by some ugly margins, falling to Clemson by 27, Boston College by 13 and Wake Forest by 16. In the loss at Wake on Wednesday night, one of the few positives was the play of Femi Odukale, who had 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting.
“We got to play with more energy,” Odukale said. “We just got to play with a little more fight, not just at the end.”
The Panthers are now 3-7 since Christmas and the one-sided losses are starting to resemble last year when Pitt closed 2-10. Yet one of last season’s wins came at home over NCAA Tournament-bound Virginia Tech, 83-72 — breaking a five-game losing streak to the Hokies.
–Field Level Media
