VT’s Chris Clarke finishes nasty one alley-ooo vs. Duke (video)

The Virginia Tech Hokies had their way with the fifth-ranked Duke Blue Devils today in Blacksburg.

Conference play is here and it’s off to a sizzling start, to say the least. Heading into the college basketball season, many pegged Coach K’s Blue Devils team as the clear favorite to cut down the nets in March. While it may very well still happen, Duke doesn’t look like the dominant team we all expected to see back in October.

Duke opened up conference play on the road against Virginia Tech today and it didn’t go as planned if you’re a member of Duke nation. From the tip, Duke found themselves playing from behind. When it comes to putting the ball in the bucket, not too many teams are more lethal than, but the other side of the ball is a completely different story.

The Hokies shot 55.2 percent from the field and 61.5 percent from distance, while only turning the ball over nine times. When you’re able to shoot that well without giving teams opportunities on the fast break, you’re going to win a lot of ballgames.

Speaking of fast breaks, Virginia Tech was able to get out in transition often against fifth-ranked Duke, none was more impressive than Seth Allen’s off the glass alley-oop to Chris Clarke.

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Typically when an inferior team goes up against Duke, you expect them to play timid and scared. That was not the case today for Buzz Williams’ ballclub. As mentioned before, they jumped on Duke early and they never took their foot off the gas.

How many unranked teams will have the guts to throw an alley-oop off the glass against the almighty Blue Devils?

Not many, but that just goes to show you how confident these Hokies are. Now, they’re (12-1) and you can be sure that’ll be ranked come Monday.