Hokies Men's Hoops Once Again Left Out of AP Top 25

Virginia Tech sits at 9-1, but still unranked entering Tuesday night’s match-up against Charleston Southern.

Virginia Tech struggled out of the gates against The Citadel on Saturday afternoon in Blacksburg, but put together an impressive second half offensively by outscoring the Bulldogs 73-27 after the break to win the game 113-71.

It was the Hokies’ ninth win of the season, as the team is now two wins away from completing an 11-1 non-conference record to start the campaign.

It would undoubtedly be the team’s best start under Buzz Williams, who has consistently seen improvement out of his Hokies squad each year since he took over prior to the 2014-15 season.

Despite the great start to the season thus far, Virginia Tech has yet to crack the Top 25 in the Associated Press poll. The team has hovered right outside of the Top 25 for a majority of the season, but has not collected enough meaningful wins to date to creep into the rankings.

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This week is the closest that the Hokies have been to cracking the AP rankings this season, as the team came in with the second-most votes received outside of the Top 25, with their 40 votes trailing only Florida’s 48 votes of teams outside of the AP Poll. With this, the Hokies are slotted as the 27th-best team in the country currently, ahead of their next match-up with Charleston Southern on Tuesday night.

Unfortunately for the Hokies, even if they win their next two games over Charleston Southern and UMBC, an impending match-up against Duke looms to kick-off the non-conference schedule. Unless the Hokies pull off a major upset in that game, it is unlikely that Buzz Williams’ squad will remain in the rankings for long.

For the Hokies though, the focus should be on taking the conference schedule game-by-game, becuase if they play up to standard in the next two months, the team’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2007 could loom come Selection Sunday.