UNC Basketball: Tar Heels ousted from ACC Tournament by Virginia Tech

The UNC basketball program’s ACC Tournament run is over, as they were defeated in blowout fashion by Virginia Tech in the semifinals.

In the semifinals of the ACC Tournament on Friday night, the bad version of the 2021-2022 UNC basketball team was on display.

Unfortunately, the team that won six straight games did not show up in this one, as the Hokies had their way throughout the entire game en route to their first-ever ACC Tournament finals appearance.

The Hokies, who are considered a “bubble team” certainly had to help their NCAA Tournament chances with this win, but will have the opportunity to claim an automatic bid if they can defeat Duke on Saturday night.

Brooklyn was not friendly to the Tar Heels offense, as Hubert Davis’ squad struggled to get in a rhythm shooting the ball. Luckily, North Carolina was able to get away with their struggles against Virginia (who amazingly shot the ball increasingly worse), but the battle against the Hokies was a completely different story.

Virginia Tech shot 43.9 percent from the floor, including 45.6 percent from deep, as the energized Hokies looked as if they were running circles around the Tar Heels defense.

Looking rather tired as a unit (the issue of playing such a small rotation with back-to-back contests), North Carolina shot just 36.7 percent from the floor. They only made three of their 26 three-point field goal attempts, as this team essentially has lived or died from beyond the arc.

Other than Armando Bacot (19 points and 14 rebounds on 9 of 10 shooting), the rest of the Tar Heels mightily struggled.

After three consecutive 20-point contests, Brady Manek scored just 10 points and missed all five of his shots from three. The Tar Heels backcourt also had plenty of issues putting the ball in the basket, as R.J. Davis (2-10) and Caleb Love (3-17) made just five of their combined 27 shot attempts.

It was an ugly performance, to say the least, but now the attention will turn to the upcoming NCAA Tournament. With a win in this one, the Tar Heels could have helped their stock, possibly moving them out of the 8/9 line projections to avoid a No. 1 seed in a potential second-round matchup. However, they were not able to bring home a win, as this type of loss is a concerning one heading into the big dance.

We’ll wait and see just how the seedings pan out on Selection Sunday, but until the UNC basketball team takes the floor again, you just have to hope that the team that was so good down the stretch will show up come tournament time.

Follow us @KeepingItHeel on Twitter and like our fan page on Facebook for continued coverage of UNC basketball news, views, and game updates.