VIRGINIA BLOG: Another team's last shot

By: Chris Lang | The News & Advance
Published: February 27, 2009

Greetings from the John Paul Jones Arena press room.

Eight days ago, Virginia hosted Virginia Tech in a game that the Hokies seemingly had to have to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive. Tech came in without forward Jeff Allen, Virginia controlled the game from nearly start to finish, and the Cavs won to put the Hokies' tourney hopes in serious jeopardy.

Tech of course has rebounded since then, playing Florida State tough at home before pulling off Wednesday's stunning win at Clemson.

Miami, Virginia's opponent tonight, has no such luxury. ESPN.com still considers the Hurricanes an NCAA bubble team, despite the fact that Miami is 5-8 in the ACC. As strong as the league is this season, no 7-9 ACC team is going to get a sniff at the tournament, so Miami must win out, starting tonight in Charlottesville. The Hurricanes finish with games at last-place Georgia Tech and at home against ninth-place North Carolina State. If Miami gets to 8-8, 19-10, the Hurricanes have an intriguing resume.

There aren't a lot of bad losses -- Connecticut, Ohio State, Clemson, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, N.C. State, Maryland, Duke, North Carolina (again) and Florida State. A win against Boston College at home Saturday revived the Canes' hopes. Miami has some good wins -- BC, the 27-point rout of Wake Forest, at Kentucky, at home against Maryland.

I guess all I'm saying is that Miami ought to be extremely motivated tonight against a Virginia team that's no longer an automatic win for the rest of the ACC.

Jack McClinton is going to get his tonight. He had a string of three straight 30-point games broken at Florida State when he scored 13. McClinton rebounded to score 22 against Boston College. Miami would love to get Dwayne Collins going. He's scored 20-plus twice this season but hasn't hit double figures since scoring 18 at N.C. State Jan. 27.

Virginia is going with its same "energy" lineup tonight of Calvin Baker, Assane Sene, Solomon Tat, Jeff Jones and Sylven Landesberg.

That's all for now.