Collegiate Times

At a crucial juncture of the season, the Virginia Tech women’s basketball team (12-9, 2-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) has hit a cold streak, one that likely knocks it out of contention for an NCAA Tournament bid and possibly any sort of postseason play altogether.

Since their victory over Miami on Jan. 24, the Hokies have faced quite a bit of adversity.

Last Tuesday, starting point guard Nikki Davis injured her knee in practice, sidelining her for both games against Maryland and No. 25 Georgia Tech. Davis leads the team in assists and is the team’s fourth leading scorer.

Against Miami, the Hokies were led by Davis’ 29 points, and as a team shot 47.8 percent from the floor. Without Davis in the lineup on Thursday against Maryland, the Hokies were limited to 44 points and had difficulty scoring in their half-court sets.

“(Nikki) helps get us in sync on offense and I think we struggled to get in sync as evidenced by us shooting 29 percent from the field,” Tech head coach Beth Dunkenberger said following the loss.

“We had (Utahya Drye) play a little bit more on the wing, but we were really just trying to find a combination that worked. We subbed a lot and I just didn’t see any sparks from it.”

Drye agreed, citing the lack of movement on offense.

“I feel like we just stood in our offense,” Drye said. “We got out of sync and didn’t really free up anybody else.”

Tech has yet to find a rhythm since losing Davis.

In their previous five games with Davis, the Hokies shot 41.2 percent and dished out 14.6 assists per game. Against Maryland and Georgia Tech, the Hokies’ shooting percentage plummeted to 29.9 percent, as the team averaged three fewer assists per game.

Former ACC Player of the Week Lindsay Biggs has arguably been hardest hit by the loss of Davis. Forced into playing point guard by committee, Biggs’ scoring took a significant blow.

In the Hokies’ last two games, Biggs made just one of 16 shots from the field and scored a total of two points. The sharpshooter, who set a Tech single-season record last year with 71 three-point field goals, missed on all 12 of her three-point attempts in two games without Davis.

The impact of Davis’ injury has been catastrophic to the Hokies’ play on the court, as well as their chances for postseason play.

Following its  win against Miami, Tech had an opportunity to improve its ACC record to 4-3 and get two quality wins for its NCAA Tournament résumé.

Two games later, a much less impressive 4-5 ACC record stares it in the face.

If there is any chance for an NCAA Tournament bid, the Hokies would almost undoubtedly have to win the ACC Tournament and receive an automatic-bid. That would require winning four games in four days, and possibly beating any one of the five top-25 ranked teams in the ACC.

Through their game against Maryland, the Hokies’ Rating Percentage Index was 86th in the nation. RPI is a type of ranking in both men’s and women’s NCAA basketball used in determining seeding for the NCAA Tournament.

The lowest at-large RPI to make the 2009 women’s NCAA Tournament was Georgia, ranked 56th at the end of the 2009-10 season. The Lady Bulldogs squeaked into the NCAA Tournament as an 11-seed after winning two games in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

The lowest at-large RPI to make the men’s NCAA Tournament in the last 15 years was New Mexico, ranked 74th in 1999.

If the season ended today, the Hokies would be seeded 10th in the ACC Tournament and would face Maryland in the first round of play.

Tech heads into the final leg of the regular season desperately needing wins. With eight games remaining, seven against ACC opponents, the Hokies will have to pick up the pace to have any shot at competing in the ACC Tournament.

The Hokies will need to get back to revitalizing their tournament chances when they host Wake Forest this Friday at 6:30 p.m. in Cassell Coliseum.

A version of this article appeared in the Feb 4 issue of the Collegiate Times.