North Carolina @ Virginia Tech preview
Greensboro Coliseum
Last Meeting ( Mar 10, 2020 ) North Carolina 78, Virginia Tech 56
North Carolina has been busy polishing its postseason resume, while No. 22 Virginia Tech has been waiting idle.
Now the teams finally will meet this season. It comes when they clash in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament quarterfinals Thursday night in Greensboro, N.C.
Third-seeded Virginia Tech (15-5) is coming off a coronavirus-related pause. So this restart comes at a critical time.
"Time will tell," coach Mike Young said of how his team might respond.
Sixth-seeded North Carolina (17-9) has rolled in two games across a five-night period, including Wednesday night's 101-59 thumping of Notre Dame. That was the second-largest final margin in the history of the ACC tournament.
The latest pause involving Virginia Tech wasn't devastating in terms of the team's development, Young said.
"We didn't have a positive test," Young said. "In working with our local health department, they thought it would be in everybody's best interest ... that we pause. It was all a contact tracing issue that many of us have dealt with."
Young, who was named the ACC Coach of the Year earlier this week, said the Hokies remain focused on basketball tasks.
"I do feel better going into our league tournament, having had the opportunity to continue to practice," Young said. "It's March and kids want to play."
The Tar Heels have won three of their last four games. Those include a conquest of nationally ranked Florida State and blowouts of Duke and Notre Dame.
The status of North Carolina forward Garrison Brooks is in question. He sat out Wednesday night's game, marking only the second game he has missed across 132 North Carolina games played while he has been on the roster.
"We challenged our post guys to be focused and be ready to play," Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said. "I love the way all our big guys played."
Armando Bacot, Walker Kessler and Day'Ron Sharpe all had double-doubles with points and rebounds in the Notre Dame game. Kessler set the North Carolina freshman record for blocked shots in an ACC tournament game with eight.
As a bonus, the second-round game was so lopsided that North Carolina's core players were able to sit out for most of the last five minutes.
Now to be in the postseason and matching up with a conference team for the first time in the season is unusual.
"That's different now. Never done that," Young said. "That's a new one for me, I can assure you of that."
A potential North Carolina-Virginia Tech meeting was wiped off the mid-February schedule.
"We had done quite a bit of work for North Carolina in that preparation," Young said.
Virginia Tech had two games canceled last week, so its regular season concluded in strange fashion. The Hokies played just four games in February. They joined Louisville and Boston College with league-low 13 ACC games played in the regular season.
The Hokies haven't played since defeating Wake Forest on Feb. 27. Virginia Tech is 2-2 in its last four games, with the other victory in overtime at Miami.
Virginia Tech's Jalen Cone isn't expected to play in the tournament because of an ankle injury, Young said.
As the No. 3 seed, the Hokies match their highest seed since they were also the third seed for the 2007 tournament.
Virginia Tech's Keve Aluma is seventh in ACC scoring with 15.9 points per game.
The North Carolina-Virginia Tech winner takes on Florida State in Friday night's second semifinal. The Seminoles automatically advanced after Duke's withdrawal from the tournament Thursday due to a positive test for COVID-19 within the program.
--Field Level Media