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Hokie Hoops and Postseason Play: How Tech Stacks Up
by Kevin Cuddihy, 4/16/03
In 1986, Dell Curry and Bobby Beecher led the Virginia Tech Hokies to the NCAA tournament, losing in the first round to current Big East foe Villanova. It was their tenth postseason bid in 14 years, five of them in the NCAA tourney. In the 17 seasons since then, the Hokies have been to postseason play a meager two times: once in 1995, where they went all the way in the NIT; and then to the NCAAs the following year when they beat Wisconsin-Green Bay in the first round before losing to eventual champion Kentucky.
It's safe to say that if you follow NCAA basketball you know one thing: That's pretty bad. But just how bad is it? How do the Hokies rank in the Big East? How do they compare against the standard-bearers and the lower-division teams? Let's take a look.
The following is a chart of all 14 Big East teams and how they've done in the same time span. It shows their
year-by-year record, in yellow if they went to the NIT in a particular season, and in blue if they went to the NCAA. At
the end, there's an overall record for that time span, totals of how many of each postseason tournament each team went
to, and total postseason appearances. Please note that Miami joined the Big East for the 1991-92 season; Notre Dame,
Rutgers and West Virginia for the 1995-96 season; and Virginia Tech for the 2000-01 season.
| Big East Men's Basketball in Postseason Play | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow = NIT Appearance | Blue = NCAA Appearance | ||||||||||
| Team | 86-87 | 87-88 | 88-89 | 89-90 | 90-91 | 91-92 | 92-93 | 93-94 | 94-95 | 95-96 | 96-97 |
| Boston College | 11-18 | 18-15 | 12-17 | 8-20 | 11-19 | 17-14 | 18-13 | 23-11 | 9-19 | 19-11 | 22-9 |
| Georgetown | 29-5 | 20-10 | 29-5 | 24-7 | 19-13 | 22-10 | 20-13 | 19-12 | 21-10 | 29-8 | 20-10 |
| Miami | 15-16 | 17-14 | 19-12 | 13-15 | 9-19 | 8-24 | 10-17 | 7-20 | 15-13 | 15-13 | 16-13 |
| Notre Dame | 24-8 | 20-9 | 21-9 | 16-13 | 12-20 | 18-15 | 9-18 | 12-17 | 15-12 | 9-18 | 16-14 |
| Pittsburgh | 25-8 | 24-7 | 17-13 | 12-17 | 21-12 | 18-16 | 17-11 | 13-14 | 10-18 | 10-17 | 18-15 |
| Providence | 25-9 | 11-17 | 18-11 | 17-12 | 19-13 | 14-17 | 20-13 | 20-10 | 17-13 | 18-12 | 24-12 |
| Rutgers | 8-20 | 7-22 | 18-13 | 18-17 | 19-10 | 16-15 | 13-15 | 11-16 | 13-14 | 9-18 | 11-16 |
| Seton Hall | 15-14 | 22-13 | 31-7 | 12-16 | 25-9 | 23-9 | 28-7 | 17-13 | 16-14 | 12-16 | 10-18 |
| St. John's | 21-9 | 17-12 | 20-13 | 24-10 | 23-9 | 19-11 | 19-11 | 12-17 | 14-14 | 11-16 | 13-14 |
| Syracuse | 31-7 | 26-9 | 30-8 | 26-7 | 26-6 | 22-10 | 20-9 | 23-7 | 20-10 | 29-9 | 19-13 |
| UConn | 9-19 | 20-14 | 18-13 | 31-6 | 20-11 | 20-10 | 15-13 | 29-5 | 28-5 | 32-3 | 18-15 |
| Villanova | 15-16 | 24-13 | 18-16 | 18-15 | 17-15 | 14-15 | 8-19 | 20-12 | 25-8 | 26-7 | 24-10 |
| Virginia Tech | 10-18 | 19-10 | 11-17 | 13-18 | 13-16 | 10-18 | 10-18 | 18-10 | 25-10 | 23-6 | 15-16 |
| West Virginia | 23-8 | 18-14 | 26-5 | 16-12 | 17-14 | 20-12 | 17-12 | 17-12 | 13-13 | 12-15 | 21-10 |
|
Team | 97-98 | 98-99 | 99-00 | 00-01 | 01-02 | 02-03 | Total | Pct | NCAA | NIT | Total |
| Boston College | 15-16 | 6-21 | 11-19 | 27-5 | 20-12 | 19-12 | 266-251 | 0.514 | 5 | 4 | 9 |
| Georgetown | 16-15 | 15-16 | 19-15 | 25-8 | 19-11 | 19-15 | 365-183 | 0.666 | 11 | 5 | 16 |
| Miami | 18-10 | 23-7 | 23-11 | 16-13 | 24-8 | 11-17 | 259-242 | 0.516 | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Notre Dame | 13-14 | 14-16 | 22-15 | 20-10 | 22-11 | 24-10 | 287-229 | 0.556 | 7 | 3 | 10 |
| Pittsburgh | 11-16 | 14-16 | 13-15 | 19-14 | 29-6 | 28-5 | 299-220 | 0.576 | 7 | 3 | 10 |
| Providence | 13-16 | 16-14 | 11-19 | 21-10 | 15-16 | 18-14 | 297-228 | 0.565 | 6 | 6 | 12 |
| Rutgers | 14-15 | 19-13 | 15-16 | 11-16 | 18-13 | 12-16 | 232-251 | 0.467 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| Seton Hall | 15-15 | 15-15 | 22-10 | 16-15 | 12-18 | 17-13 | 308-222 | 0.581 | 7 | 6 | 13 |
| St. John's | 22-10 | 28-9 | 25-8 | 14-15 | 20-12 | 21-13 | 323-203 | 0.614 | 10 | 3 | 13 |
| Syracuse | 26-9 | 21-12 | 26-6 | 25-9 | 23-13 | 30-5 | 422-149 | 0.739 | 14 | 2 | 16 |
| UConn | 32-5 | 34-2 | 25-10 | 20-12 | 27-7 | 23-10 | 401-160 | 0.714 | 11 | 5 | 16 |
| Villanova | 12-17 | 21-11 | 20-13 | 18-13 | 19-13 | 15-16 | 314-229 | 0.578 | 7 | 8 | 15 |
| Virginia Tech | 10-17 | 13-15 | 16-15 | 8-19 | 10-18 | 11-18 | 235-259 | 0.475 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| West Virginia | 24-9 | 10-19 | 14-14 | 17-12 | 8-20 | 14-15 | 287-216 | 0.570 | 4 | 6 | 10 |
Pretty ugly stuff there. Only Rutgers has a worse overall record, and no team in the Big East even comes close to matching VT's total of two postseason tournaments. If you look at a bigger picture, within the Big Six conferences (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, PAC 10 and SEC) the Hokies are tied for dead last out of 68 teams, with Northwestern and Texas A&M. They're one behind Oregon State and two behind Baylor and Washington State. (You can see a full chart of how often each of the 68 teams went to postseason play over the past 17 years by clicking here.)
Getting back to just the Big East, even with their worse overall record than VT, Rutgers still has seven postseason tourneys to their credit versus Tech's two. Heck, if you take out Syracuse and their amazing 14 NCAA bids in 17 years, every other Big East team had more NIT bids than Tech had any kind of postseason bid.
Speaking of Syracuse, they were one of four Big East teams � Georgetown, Syracuse, UConn and Villanova � that only MISSED the postseason two times or fewer. Sure they're traditional powers, but that's still both an amazing stat for those teams and a sad stat for Tech.
Miami ties Rutgers for next fewest postseason bids with seven, but they had a much higher winning percentage. Boston College had nine bids, and no other Big East team is even in single digits over that span.
Want some more fun stats? Take out Virginia Tech, and the average Big East team has been to the postseason almost 12 times: 7.3 NCAA bids and 4.5 NIT bids. If you limit that to non-original members of the Big East, it's still 4.25 NCAAs and 4.25 NITs in 17 years � that's a postseason bid of some sort every other year. Yes, you read right. The four other members of the Big East who joined after the conference originated went to the postseason on average every other year over the past 17. And even if you limit that to those four teams since they joined the Big East, you'll see three appearances in eight years for both Rutgers and WVU (just a little less than half), five appearances in those eight years by Notre Dame, and seven appearances in 12 years for Miami. Average: 4.5 appearances in a little less than nine seasons. Again, about every other year.
The news isn't all bad, though. Over those 17 years, the lowest point for the Big East in terms of postseason play is seven teams, seen twice, in 1995 and 1997. That means that on a bad year, half of the teams still play on in March. The Hokies don't need to win the tourney, or win 20 games even. Heck, four times in the past four years, a Big East team has gone to the NIT with 16 or fewer wins! If Tech just becomes middle-of-the-pack in the conference, their membership in the Big East will start to pay off, at the very least with NIT bids. On average over the past 17 years, the 14 teams that make up today's Big East sent nine teams to postseason play every year. That kind of reputation will no doubt assist Virginia Tech in the future. And as discussed in the introductory paragraph, VT is no stranger to postseason play, having gone to ten postseasons in the 14 years before this study period.
Membership in the Big East, as well as the revenue sharing that kicks in during the 2005-06 academic year, should serve Virginia Tech well. It will make it easier to get into the NIT with a .500 record or close to it, and easier to get into the NCAAs with just 20 wins. But for now, the Hokies are lagging far behind in the Big East � the Big East's overall winning percentage has varied from .551 and .644 over the past 17 years, so just becoming "average" would be a huge jump.
Tech needs to focus more on simply catching up, because two postseason bids in 17 years is unacceptable. It's up to Seth
Greenberg now to see that it doesn't continue.
