The Hokies played five different teams that made the NCAA tournament. Four of them, Duke, UNC, BC and NC State, came from the ACC. In the ACC-Big 10 challenge, the Hokies faced Ohio State, who earned a #2 seed in the Big Dance. Tech had an opportunity to beat each of these teams.

In their game with Ohio State, Tech was blown out in the first half, and then rallied and cut the lead to three points late in the game. The Hokies eventually lost by 13, but they put quite a scare into the Buckeyes in the process. The next weekend Tech traveled to Durham to take on #1 Duke, and Sean Dockery dispatched the Hokies by hitting a 40-footer to end the game.

For the rest of the season, the Hokies lost to UNC by three, Duke by 13, BC by one, NC State by six and BC by two. Virginia Tech nearly had some major upsets against some outstanding teams this year. Tech missed last second shots against BC in both meetings, and Duke hit a last second miracle against the Hokies. Close, but so far away.

The Hokies also played a number of teams that are NIT bound. The Hokies traveled to Las Vegas to take on Stanford in a neutral site game in December, and came away with a 59-52 victory over the Cardinal. Stanford got off to a tough start, but rallied to earn an NIT bid. They beat UVA 65-49 on Tuesday night in the NIT. The only other out-of-conference NIT team Tech faced was ODU, who beat the Hokies 58-55 back on December 30.

Once ACC play began, Virginia Tech faced a postseason caliber team nearly every time they set foot on the court. Georgia Tech was the only other ACC team besides the Hokies who did not make the Big Dance or NIT, so that means 15 of Tech's 16 ACC games were against a postseason team.

Tech did not manage to beat any of the ACC teams that made the NCAA tournament, but they did knock off Florida State, Wake Forest and Clemson, and those teams made the NIT. The Hokies' February 25th victory over the Seminoles helped keep FSU out of the NCAA tournament.

Take a look at the following table to see how many quality teams the Hokies had to play in ACC play.

That's some tough competition, and the Hokies nearly pulled out most of those games, but couldn't quite get it done. If a couple of those heartbreaking losses had gone the other way, Virginia Tech would still be playing basketball right now.

But you can't mention how tough the ACC was without mentioning how ridiculously easy Tech's out-of-conference schedule was. The Hokies played just three teams out-of-conference with an RPI above 100. Eight of Tech's OOC opponents had an RPI of 227 or worse. Radford was one of the better non-conference opponents with a 14-13 overall record and an RPI of 194. For the most part the Hokies did better than previous seasons against their non-conference opponents, with the exception of the loss to Bowling Green. That loss would have given Tech a .500 record rather than a losing record.

Expect Tech's non-conference strength of schedule to improve next season. Seth Greenberg mentioned on the Hokie Hotline this past Monday night that Tech is going to eliminate almost all of the teams ranked below 200 in the RPI from next season's schedule. The Hokies will play George Washington, participate in the ACC-Big 10 Challenge, and play perhaps one more national high-profile game. They will replace teams such as Morgan State and North Carolina A&T with middle-of-the-pack teams. Tech should be able to defeat all those teams, and they will not take as much of an SOS hit as they would by playing bottom feeders.