Through casual following through the ESPN app’s favorite team tracking, was I somewhat aware of how the season of the reigning ACC Champions was going. I noticed that they had a very strong start to the season, at one point being 11-1, with some notable wins coming against Penn State and UNC. I was perplexed to why they weren’t getting into the top-25, while teams with way worse records and not that much stronger schedules like UVA and Duke were.
But then I noticed that the L’s started happening, and next thing I know the Hokies lost seven in a row, with two coming against Clemson which annoys me to see that they’re leaning so hard into hoops like Tech did after their football program has been less than stellar. Suddenly, the record bolstered by a hot start is looking pretty mediocre, and Tech is looking more like an NIT school than the defending ACC Champions.
So my brother being of North Carolina upbringing, bleeds Carolina blue, which automatically means that he like many, hates Duke. Any time Duke loses, he’ll post to me, or one of our group chats of a website, succinctly URL’d diddukewin.com, to which the site literally only reports a YES or NO with an ensuing link to ESPN’s recaps.
I hadn’t been paying attention, but on the latest of Dook’s fuckups, I was pleasantly surprised to have seen come against, Virginia Tech. Seven-game losing streak, over.
As the subject of this post says, I love that Duke has turned into Virginia Tech’s slumpbuster for the better part of the last decade. It doesn’t matter how ranked or mostly unranked Virginia Tech has been, how highly ranked Dook has been or how many Zions or Graysons or Reddishes or whatever highly-touted prospects they’ve trotted out, when Dook has gone to Blacksburg, more often than not, they’ve lost. Since 2013, Duke has gone 3-5 in Blacksburg, and 5-5 in head-to-head matchups over their last ten. .500 doesn’t sound that impressive, but consider the fact that we’re talking about Duke and Virginia Tech, and not like Duke and UNC.
Regardless of the stats and numbers, I’m just arrogantly pleased to see that Dook has once again gone to Blacksburg, and left with another L. I don’t care if there’s no more Coach K, and Jon Scheyerface is struggling to manage the team, I will always take pleasure in Virginia Tech > Dook. It never gets old, and it will probably never not warrant a post in my brog whenever it happens. Hopefully the frequency in which it does continues to maintain pace, or get even better.
Figures that of their abysmal 2-7 conference record, the wins have come against UNC and Dook. Maybe they’ll draw that lucky #7 seed in the ACC tournament again and go gangbusters and repeat as champions, but baby luck is over, and this is more likely than not a pipedream. But at least we’ve got another win against Dook to highlight the season.
I’m actually surprised that Tech stormed the court afterward. Considering how often we beat Dook at home, it’s kind of becoming a given, and no more special than beating William & Mary or the Dayton Flyers. I’m not mad about it, just a little disappointed. We’ve been there many times now, act like it.
