DURHAM – Three months ago, Virginia Tech’s players celebrated wildly on the court in the Maui Invitational as the Hokies upset then-No. 3-ranked Michigan State. Virginia Tech was 6-0 under new coach Mike Young with what it hoped was a signature win.
That was then, this is now.
Michigan State has failed to lived up to a Top 10 ranking, but the Hokies didn’t face an over-ranked squad Saturday night at No. 6 Duke. In fact, the Blue Devils — as strange as it might sound considering Duke’s Death Star history of gaining the benefit of the doubt – looked like a team that should be ranked higher.
The Blue Devils looked every bit the part of No. 6 nationally as Duke (23-4, 13-3 ACC) rolled to an 88-64 victory, beating undersized Virginia Tech (15-12, 6-10 ACC).
Duke led by as much as 26 points in the first half en route to a 51-25 halftime margin. Nine Blue Devils played and seven scored by intermission on a night coach Mike Krzyzewski emptied his bench. In all, 12 played and nine scored.
But the scariest part for anyone thinking Duke wasn’t a national title contender this year was heard after the game. Young said his Hokies came out ready to play. Usually, when a team is routed, their coach is critical of their effort.
“My team was ready to go,” Young said. “(Duke) played an awfully fine basketball game, and that’s about all that needs to be said.”
Freshman Cassius Stanley had 16 points at halftime and 21 for the night. Freshman Vernon Carey posted 11 points and seven rebounds by intermission and finished with 16 and 9, one board short of his 13th double-double.
Also in double figures was freshman Matthew Hurt off the bench with 16 and sophomore point guard Tre Jones with 14 and four assists.
Duke opened the game hitting its first four three-point attempts – two from Jones followed by a pair from Stanley– before there was a miss from beyond the arc.
If Duke is hitting outside against an undersized opponent, it’s only a matter of the final score. The outside shots open up the lane for Carey to post up or for other players to drive to the basket.
“A very, very good college basketball player,” said Young of Carey, adding the left-handed Carey is better at counter moves to his right than he was earlier in the year.
The 6-foot-10, 270-pound Carey, who didn’t work on post skills in high school, only played 15 minutes at Virginia Tech on Dec. 6 when Duke trailed 41-38 at halftime. Krzyzewski went to a smaller lineup to pull out a comeback 77-63 victory in Blacksburg.
Carey’s improved post play explains how much more dangerous Duke is now than earlier in the year.
“He never played the post before coming here and so early on he wasn’t double-teamed,” Krzyzewski said. “The first few games he put up good numbers. He was learning to play against one guy and now people are double- and triple-teaming him.”
Virginia Tech had no answers, although just three nights earlier Duke was coming off a dismal shooting performance, losing 86-66 to N.C. State at PNC Arena.
“It was very important to respond the way we did tonight,” Jones said, “to come out hungry, to get back to playing like ourselves.”
In addition to scoring, Duke’s defense also shut down redshirt freshman Landers Nolley II, who along with Carey came into the game as two of the ACC’s highest scoring players. Carey was averaging 18.0 for third in the conference and Nolley 17.3 for fourth.
Nolley (6-7, 225) had looked like a breakout player against Michigan State with 22 points, but against Duke’s defense he was scoreless at halftime on five shots. He finished 1-of-8 for three points.
Tyrece Radford led the Hokies with 16 points. The only others in doubles figures were Isaiah Wilkins 11 and Hunter Cattoor 10 off the bench.
With the loss, Virginia Tech has now lost five straight to a ranked opponent or one that had received votes in the Top 25 at the time the teams met. The next day after beating Michigan State, Dayton routed the Hokies 89-62. Dayton is ranked No. 5 now, but the Flyers were only receiving votes at that point. Overall, Virginia Tech is 9-12 since beating Michigan State.
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Tom Shanahan is freelance writer based in Cary and author of Raye of Light, a book featuring Fayetteville’s Jimmy Raye as a pioneering black quarterback for College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty on Michigan State’s Underground Railroad football teams of the 1960s.
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