Virginia Tech takes to the road for the 3rd time in 4 games when they travel to College Park, Maryland on Tuesday night to face the Maryland Terrapins in a critical ACC matchup. Dating back to the game at Georgia Tech on January 22, and looking forward to this Saturday’s matchup at Virginia, the Hokies are in the middle of a seven-game stretch in which Tech plays five road games. Thus far, Tech is 2-1 on the road during this stretch, beating the Yellow Jackets in Atlanta and defeating the Miami Hurricanes on the road last week. The lone road loss was to the Duke Blue Devils.

It sounds old to keep saying that every ACC game is critical, but in the end, that is how it plays out. This season the ACC consists of UNC, Wake Forest and Duke on top, with everyone else fighting for seeding in the ACC Tournament. Currently the Hokies hold the 4th spot in the ACC, but it is very much up in the air as to where they will finish. The top five teams get a bye in the ACC Tournament, and Tech needs to hold serve against teams that are on their own level.

Seth Greenberg took his Hokies down to Miami last week and did exactly that but faces a newer and bigger challenge at Maryland. The Terrapins are one of the name teams of the ACC, and are just a few short years removed from a national championship run. Maryland has struggled on the road in the ACC, but holds a 10-1 record at home in the Comcast Center, with the lone loss an 85-69 drubbing by NC State.

The Terrapins are led by very good, if inconsistent, junior forward Nik Caner-Medley. Caner-Medley is averaging 16.6 points per game to go along with 5.7 rebounds per game. However, Caner-Medley is also riding a slump that has seen him hit only 6 of 24 shots in his last two games. He has scored only 17 points in that span.

The high profile name for Maryland is junior point guard John Gilchrist. Gilchrist is a big, physical guard--much in the mold of VT’s Marquie Cooke--at 6-3 201 pounds. Gilchrest is Maryland’s best 3-point shooter at 38.5% and he excels in driving and getting to the glass. He averages 14.1 points per game and 5.4 assists per game.

Statistically, it does appear that Maryland has the advantage in most aspects of this game. However, some of those statistics are a little clouded as we will see. First of all, take a look at the rebounding numbers. While Maryland ranks first in the conference in pure number of rebounds, they also rank dead last in the ACC in rebounding defense, meaning they give up more rebounds than any team in the conference, even the Hokies. Overall, they are middle of the pack in rebounding margin, but in ACC play alone they are being outrebounded by a full 3 boards per game. The Terps padded their rebounding stats on their out of conference schedule but haven’t been able to mix it up with other ACC teams.

Virginia Tech is at the best they have been all season in the rebounding department. Coleman Collins is averaging 5.8 rebounds per game, but 7.6 per game in ACC play. That would be good for 6th in the conference, and had Collins not been limited by a foot injury early in the season he would be regarded as a very good ACC rebounder.

Maryland has a couple of other statistics that dropped like an anchor when conference play began as well, and both are without a doubt two of the most critical statistics in basketball. Maryland has gone ice cold with their overall shooting percentage as well as their 3-point percentage. Their overall shooting percentage has dipped to 41.4% in conference play, and their 3-point percentage, already last in the ACC, is a downright awful 26.4%. Also in ACC play, Maryland is letting opponents shoot the 3-pointer at a 35.4% clip, which means opponents are clearly outclassing the Terps from long range. Maryland has hit 39 three-pointers since ACC play began, while opponents have hit 67. If the Hokies can get hot from the outside, they’ve got a really good chance to pull the upset.