On the second Taco Tuesday of the year, the Virginia Tech Hokies took on the Duke Blue Devils. Mike Young loves popcorn. That’s it, that’s the sentence. Speaking of poppin, the Hokies came out shooting and firing, making three of their first 4 shots, taking an early 7-2 lead. Coach K and his Duke Blue Devils came out a little cold, only making two of their first 5 shots. The Hokies were aggressive before the first TV timeout of the game, creating 3 turnovers, and making Duke commit 3 fouls within the first four and a half minutes. Jalen Cone comes off the bench and makes his first three of the game, putting the Hokies up 9 early. Jalen Cone on his next possession moved without the ball as well as anybody in the country and sank another three. Matthew Hurt so good for the Blue Devils sank his own three. The sophomore is averaging 19 a game, up 9 from last season and leading the ACC in points. The Hokies defense stepped up and the offense made more shots than medical personnel giving out the Covid-19 vaccine, taking the Hokies to a 15 point lead at 27-12. The Blue Devils made their first shot in four minutes to get back within 15 with 9 minutes to go in the first half. The Hokies made 5 straight shots, missed their 6th, but followed up with an offensive rebound, kicked it out and smashed a three home to get up 18. Duke came down and sunk another three to get back within 15. Duke switched to a press zone with 5 minutes to go in the first half which helped Duke fight their way a little bit back into the game. Turning the Hokies over after a basket on the inside, Duke may have figured out a way to score down-low. One thing that really stuck out was Keve Aluma’s defense on Matthew Hurt. He was able to play strong defense against one of the best players in the ACC, let alone the country. Tyrece Radford finished the first half with 14 points; he averages 9.8 a game. The Hokies lead by 12 over Duke, 46-34.

Duke started the second half strong, having the Hokies commit their first foul within the first 19 seconds. That’s quicker than me with my wife. Duke sank both free throws to cut the lead to ten to start the half. Hokies came down and turned the ball over that lead to a fast break cutting the Hokie lead to 8. Duke came out aggressive, but maybe too aggressive, leading to two quick fouls within the first minute of the second half. Tyrece Radford continued being aggressive, ending the 6-0 run that Duke had started at the beginning of the half. Duke slithered their way back by attacking the rim and battling harder than the Hokies did in the second half. The Hokies spark plug, Jalen Cone is an absolute joy to watch. He was fouled on his first three point attempt in the second half and made all three free throws. Duke just would not go away and has been by far the better team since half time, cutting the lead all the way down to four points. Matthew Hurt became a problem for the Hokies in the second half, scoring 7 straight Duke points, cutting the lead to 1. The Hokies stormed back with some good defense and some key shots made to regain a 6 point lead. The Hokies starting taking more control of the game once Keve Aluma rinsed off the crisco from his hands and started bodying up Matthew ‘Hurt so good.’ with 5 straight points for the Hokies to increase their lead to 9, 68-59. The Blue Devils went on a 5-0 run to get within 4 with 2:17 to go in the game. Keve Aluma played some big boy basketball and go into the lane to draw the 10th foul of the game on the Blue Devils. Aluma converted both free throws to extend the Hokie lead to 6. Duke came down the floor and had an open three opportunity and the corner and missed. With 1:34 left in the game, Tyrece Radford sold a foul of him getting shoved and got to the line to shoot two. Radford made 1 of 2 to extend to 7 points. Aluma put on the sticky stuff from Little Giants with a two handed block, that lead to a transition slam to extend the lead to 9 points with just a little over 1 minute in the game. The Hokies continued to finish strong, beating Coach K’s Blue Devils, 74-67, covering the spread by a lot.

The Hokies took on the Louisville Cardinals in Kentucky, the land of fried chicken. Fun fact, KFCs honey bbq sauce it phenomenal. Speaking of phenomenal, Keve Aluma has been just that to start off the season and is in the ACC player of the year conversation for the 19 ranked Hokies according to sources (sources are me). The Hokies turned Louisville over on the first possession, with Bede feeding Aluma for the first points of the contest. Bede sank a three with hands in his face and then Justin ‘No Mutts’ November sank two three pointers to get the Hokies starting on an 11-0 run to start the game within the first two and a half minutes. Louisville ended the 11-0 run by getting their first offensive rebound of the game and having Withers. Louisville went on their own nice 7-0 run of their own after some sloppy offensive play by the Hokies, including a Bede turnover. The run did not stop until the game became 11-9. The Hokies then got to the free throw line to get back up 13-9. The lineup shifted, and Mike Young brought out his shooters, adding Jalen Cone and Hunter Cattoor for some much needed offense. Cone sank a mid-range jump shot to extend the Hokies lead to 6. This game feels like a bunch of runs are going to happen with both teams executing and playing sloppier than KFC’s mashed potatoes with extra gravy. After the Hokies went up 11-0, Louisville went on a nice 21-6 run to take a 21-17 lead. The Hokies seemed to not want to get physical down in the paint. Out of their first 17 points, 0 came inside the paint. Louisville continued to play physical and retrieve offensive rebounds, kicking the ball out with 5:35 left in the half to sink a three to go up 26-18. From the 17:25 mark through the 5:35 mark, the Hokies have gone on a colder streak than me during quarantine. The Hokies and Cardinals exchanged field goals to end the half with Louisville leading 36-31 after a three on the Hokies last possession by Jalen Cone, who had 11 in the first half.

The second half started in a similar fashion with a team going on a run; but this time it was Louisville. Scoring the half first 7 points until Mutts got an and one to close the gap to 10, 33-43. The Hokies and Cardinals went back and forth, with Louisville getting up as much as 14, with the Hokies sticking around and pestering more than a baby brother. The Hokies were able to get Louisville in some foul trouble with 9 minute to go. Jalen Cone is so good in transition. Down 9 points, off a missed shot from Louisville, Jalen took it down to get within 6, 59-53. With 7 minutes to go, the Hokies committed their 7th foul, leading the way for both teams to play in the bonus for the rest of the game. Louisville retook their 8 point lead with that foul on Bede. I took a break from writing this article while my jaw dropped watching Jalen Cone. He was their only offense in the second half worth watching. It was unreal seeing what he was able to do and having a career high 23 points with 3 minutes to go. Louisville and Virginia Tech exchanged baskets to keep the Cardinal lead at 5, 71-66. The Hokies turned the ball over unfortunately with a bad pass from Jalen Cone to Keve Aluma, which was followed by a foul by Aluma. Louisville missed 1/2 free throws, Cardinals by 6 with 1:23 to go. The Hokies ran down the floor with Cattoor leading the charge and getting an opportunity for an and one to get within 4 with a save move to the paint. With 20 seconds let in the game, the Hokies have a possession left to tie the game, down three. Aluma gets to the free throw line and sinks his first free throw to get within two. Aluma makes his second free throw with 6.6 seconds left to be down one. The Hokies commit a foul with Louisville shooting two, up one. Louisville misses their second free throw to only be up two. Hunter takes the ball and shooooooots from three and misses off the rim. Hokies fall after a hard fought battle with Louisville, 73-71.

With UVA bailing, the rankings changes for the Hokies were not large, mostly increasing as schools above lost. This week also brought the debut of NCAA NET Rankings. Wow, did social media blow up with those. There were some wacky things that we will cover later, but the Hokies debut at #34. This ranking is rather close to other models out there, so nothing to worry about for Hokie fans at the moment.

Human polls, except CBS, like the Hokies a lot. The human poll average is up to #18. Human polls are really starting to cluster overall, VT included. I think Andy Katz put it best when he said “the Hokies are proving their win over Villanova wasn’t a fluke.” I think that is the overall thought process in ranking the Hokies. As long as they don’t drop a bad loss, expect the Hokies to stay or climb in human polls. 

Computer polls are another story. The Hokies computer average slips to #39. Our EVTB model has them at #31. Our model accounts for margin of victory, and that is where the Hokies are falling short of being higher. Other efficiency models are really hammering the Hokies for their defensive efficiency. RPI as always is a wild right, as the Hokies fall all the way to #46.

OK, NET Rankings. As a reminder, this is the main tool for making the field of 68. VT’s rank of #34 places them as a bubble at-large team. Now, the NET rankings should be called into question at this time. Notably, Colgate is #16 after starting 1-1. That should immediately raise an eyebrow. The problem is many conferences are missing or lacking non-conference play. You are getting teams with weird SOS because of a lack of diversity in opponents. If the NCAA doesn’t account for this in the future, we may see weird results all year. Personally, I think they should have waited a few more weeks to release this. Lastly, Duke is #115 lol, which is obviously too high.

So how are we compared to NET? Not bad I say. We correlate 78% right now, which I am happy with for it being early in the season and all the schedule issues. Our model might be accounting for some of the oddities pretty well, because as much as I give shit to the NCAA for Colgate, the EVTB model has them at 5! Out model has the top 25 teams all within 7 spots of NET, except for Colgate, Minnesota and Florida. I am really interested to see how this evolves through the year. I could make predicting the field an exercise in chaos.

Virginia Tech Rankings (1/4/2021)
Poll	Rank	Notes
EVTB Ranking Model	31	Hokies improve slightly, but non-conference hurt SOS and MOV is low
NCAA NET	34	Debut rankings are… well… questionable. 2 quad 1 wins. Penn St is quad 2 loss
AP Top 25	19	Up 5 spots, increasing votes from 181 to 411. Exactly tied with Clemson
Coaches Poll	20	Up 6 spots to #20, increasing votes from 42 to 151.
Goodman Top 25	17	Goodman is really high on the Hokies. How can you not be with 2 top wins?
Rothstein 45	17	“Keve Aluma is the most underrated transfer in the country.”
Katz Power 36	19	Omitted last week. “The Hokies are proving their win over Villanova wasn’t a fluke.”
ESPN BPI	38	Slight dip from last week, but the Resume Rank climbs up to #13
CBS	–	No love, Clemson, NC St, Duke, Louisville all ranked. CBS is a joke.
Bracketology	9 seed	Strong 9 seed with games in INDY!
Kenpom	42	Hokies have steadily slipped in Kenpom for weeks. Hopefully not an omen.
Massey Composite	37	Rankings range from a high of 13 (Pugh) to a low of 76 (Stat Fox)
College Basketball Reference	42	Defensive ratings are killing he Hokies in computer rankings
RPI	46	Huge RPI slide for the Hokies
Reddit	20	The Internet’s Student Section poll is starting to mimic the AP. Hokies get 411 votes.
Average	29	Go Hokies!

*Notes about each poll we track*

EVTB Ranking Model:This is our proprietary ranking model. While it is useful to compare teams, its goal is really to project the NCAA field. It tends to be very bouncy in November and December and gets better as more games are played. It often differs from other ranking models.

NCAA NET: This is the model the NCAA uses for seeding. 

AP Top 25: The traditional poll made up of journalist votes. This poll is the most cited ranking.

Coaches Poll: The traditional poll made up of coach votes. To put it nicely, coaches are not great at ranking teams and tend to copy other polls and cluster based on recency. It’s worth noting that Mike Young does not vote in this poll.

Goodman: A single-person poll that uses no preseason or anchoring effect. It changes from day to day based on what you have done, not the name on your jersey. 

Rothstein: A single-person poll that blends preseason and actual game results.

Katz Power 36: A single-person poll that blends preseason and actual game results.

CBS: A single-person poll that blends preseason and actual game results.

Bracketology: A single-person NCAA tournament prediction. This is not a ranking. It is projecting the NCAA field based on priors and actual game results. It updates on an irregular schedule, so often can be out of date.

Kenpom: The gold standard in statistical computer models and Hokie alum. Kenpom relies on offensive and defensive efficiency to rank teams.

Massey Composite: A composite average of 25 computer models. We are lobbying to get EVTB included.

College Basketball Reference: A simple rating system based on point differential and strength of schedule. This really simple model tends to find 90% of the same result as the mega models above. 

RPI: The nearly forgotten dinosaur of rankings. We include it, because it is often cited, but pretty much everyone (NCAA doesn’t even use it anymore) agrees there are much better options out there.

Reddit: This is a weekly fan poll. We often cite journalists and computers, but why not the most important part of the game… FANS! This gives us a chance to hear their voice.

Fans, we are happy to report that your Virginia Tech Hokies are back in the land of college basketball rankings. After an impressive win against Clemson and a barrage of 3’s against Coppin State, Virginia Tech find themself back in the rankings mix, most notably #24 in the AP Top 25. 

First, our model has the Hokies at #34, which is fairly aligned with other ranking models. Our model uses margin of victory, which is hurting the Hokies rating, mostly due to the Penn State game. This should self correct after working through a couple more non-conference games. 

Human polls have split on the Hokies. While their average human poll ranking is #25, they are notably absent from many polls including Andy Katz and CBS. Honestly, given the depths of those polls, I honestly think it was an oversight. For Andy Katz to not include them as a top 36 team after the Clemson win is criminal and makes me wonder if he owns a TV.

Computer polls are still more weary of this team, but the ratings are slowly improving. The computer poll overage is #34. In Kenpom, VT has equal offense and defense ratings, speaking to the balance of the attack. Most interesting here is actually the rankings of Hokie opponents. The lineup of Villanova, Clemson and Penn St. are all commonly found in the top 20 of computer models. Also, USF is easily in the top 100. There is no doubt that the quality of wins this season is impressive. This speaks loudest in the ESPN BPI poll. While the Hokies are only #36, they are #15 in resume and strength of record, which is a measure of how likely a team would have their record against our schedule. AKA, Mike Young’s team is crushing it.

Virginia Tech Rankings (12/21/2020)
Poll	Rank	Notes
EVTB Ranking Model	34	Our model aligns fairly closely with other models, margin of victory dings the Hokie from rating higher
NCAA NET	–	Not published yet
AP Top 25	24	After a brief Top 25 hiatus, the Hokies are back at #24 with 181 votes
Coaches Poll	25	Hokies holding steady at #26 with 42 votes
Goodman Top 25	25	Clemson win scored the Hokies big points in this poll
Rothstein 45	23	“Mike Young. Poppin’ like Orville Redenbacher.”
Katz Power 36	–	Katz has us unranked (shame!), but Clemson remains ranked, clear oversight
ESPN BPI	36	Hokies hold strong and receive more recognition from their Strength of Record which is #15
CBS	–	No love, someone buy them and ACC Network subscription
Bracketology	11 seed	Last 4 In and in an 11 seed play in game
Kenpom	37	Exact equal offensive and defensive ratings showing the balance
Massey Composite	37	Rankings range from a high of 15 (Pugh) to a low of 67 (Joby Nitty Gritty)
College Basketball Reference	34	Big drop from the VMI game
RPI	25	Hokies have 3 quadrant 1 wins, 2 top 20 wins and 1 top 15 loss
Reddit	27	Hokies garner more respect from The Internet’s Student Section with 181 votes
Average	30	Go Hokies!

*Notes about each poll we track*

EVTB Ranking Model:This is our proprietary ranking model. While it is useful to compare teams, its goal is really to project the NCAA field. It tends to be very bouncy in November and December and gets better as more games are played. It often differs from other ranking models.

NCAA NET: This is the model the NCAA uses for seeing. It has not been released yet, but we will update once it drops.

AP Top 25: The traditional poll made up of journalist votes. This poll is the most cited ranking.

Coaches Poll: The traditional poll made up of coach votes. To put it nicely, coaches are not great at ranking teams and tend to copy other polls and cluster based on recency. It’s worth noting that Mike Young does not vote in this poll.

Goodman: A single-person poll that uses no preseason or anchoring effect. It changes from day to day based on what you have done, not the name on your jersey. 

Rothstein: A single-person poll that blends preseason and actual game results.

Katz Power 36: A single-person poll that blends preseason and actual game results.

CBS: A single-person poll that blends preseason and actual game results.

Bracketology: A single-person NCAA tournament prediction. This is not a ranking. It is projecting the NCAA field based on priors and actual game results. It updates on an irregular schedule, so often can be out of date.

Kenpom: The gold standard in statistical computer models and Hokie alum. Kenpom relies on offensive and defensive efficiency to rank teams.

Massey Composite: A composite average of 25 computer models. We are lobbying to get EVTB included.

College Basketball Reference: A simple rating system based on point differential and strength of schedule. This really simple model tends to find 90% of the same result as the mega models above. 

RPI: The nearly forgotten dinosaur of rankings. We include it, because it is often cited, but pretty much everyone (NCAA doesn’t even use it anymore) agrees there are much better options out there.

Reddit: This is a weekly fan poll. We often cite journalists and computers, but why not the most important part of the game… FANS! This gives us a chance to hear their voice.

With Justin Fuente returning to the Hokies…oh wait, this is basketball. The Hokies came into this game after an awful loss, getting the doors blown off by the Penn State Nittany Lions. Virginia Tech came out with energy, defense and an overall good shooting night. The Hokies made more free throws, committed less fouls, and contributed with more assists. Is this the Hokie team we will see for the rest of the season? I am not sure, but I do think that this team is somewhere in-between the Villanova win and this Clemson win. Will they beat ranked teams every time they play? I doubt it, but so far so good for this season. Mike Young switched it up a little bit, allowing the no longer strep throated Hunter Cattoor more minutes, which paid off. Sinking his first 3 shots, putting up 9 points with 10+ minutes to go in the second half. Keve Aluma was a menace and had Clemson running for their mama as he took more trips to the foul line than Harry Potter did to Hogwarts (spoilers, it was a lot of trips). Every time Clemson seemed to get close in this game, the Hokies would come up with a big bucket or would draw a foul, extending a possession with another shot. One thing that really stood out this game; the rebounding of the Hokies. They were all over the boards, offensively and defensively. Bede did a really good job all night at creating contact with Clemson, drawing fouls and shooting pretty well from the field, making 2 of his 3 shots. Tyrece Radford is so strong and lead the Hokies in scoring with 15. Hell of a game and a huge win for the Hokies. What. A. Statement.

These Hokies take on Coppin State on Saturday at 12:30 (get the mimosas ready, folks).

The 2-1 Penn State Nittany Lions came to Blacksburg to play some hoops against the undefeated Virginia Tech Hokies. This game started off with a ton of action, as Penn State started quick and fast (Michael Scott quote anyone?) taking an 11-3 lead. The Hokies, in their first 8 possessions had 4 turnovers; not great.

With all the chaos of the 2021 college basketball season, and with the Hokies unexpectedly riding the ranking wave through December, we wanted to continue to update you on the ranking landscape. Once conference play is well underway, we will provide more detail on the rankings produced by our model. 

The Virginia Tech Hokies took on The Virginia Military Institute in Blacksburg. The Hokies, ranked 16^th in the nation coming into the game are undefeated. VMI, comes in with a 2-1 record, averaging 79.33 points per game. Virginia Tech came out a bit sluggish, not scoring their first points until 15:55 left on the clock. VMI started the game a little warmer, scoring the games first four points, until Bede sank a three to end the Hokie drought.

As all of our adoring fans know, Everything VT Basketball produces its own ranking model with the goal of projecting the NCAA field. Normally, we update you weekly on how the Hokies and the entire field are doing. This week we are going to switch it up, and survey the broader rankings landscape after the Hokies spectacular weekend. Rightfully so, they are receiving love across the board, including human polls and computer models.