Virginia (19-7, 11-5) at Virginia Tech (15-12, 6-10)

7 p.m., ESPN2

UVa makes its annual trip down I-81 to Blacksburg tonight to take on the Hokies for the second time this season.

In the first meeting between the two back on January 4th, the Wahoos drilled Tech at home, winning 65-39 and moving to 3-0 in ACC play. UVa held the Hokies to 17 points in the first half and led by 13 at the break before running away with the 26-point victory after halftime.

At the time, Tech was a different team, or at least seemed like more of a pleasant surprise or sleeper in the ACC. After a decent start to the season that included early wins over Clemson and Michigan State, the Hokies came to Charlottesville with a 10-3 record and the game seemed to be a bit of a toss-up at tip off.

The two teams have gone in different directions since that game, but oddly, not right away.

After beating Tech, UVa dropped its next three games and found itself 3-3 in ACC play. Conversely, the Hokies bounced back with three more win, and sat 4-2 in league play. But since then, the Hoos have trended up and Tech down. Heading into Wednesday’s clash, Virginia has won seven of its last eight games, with the lone loss coming at Louisville. Tech, on the other hand, has lost seven of eight (and eight of 10) with the only wins in that stretch coming against struggling UNC in triple-overtime and in another home game against Pittsburgh.

Virginia Tech ranks 97th in KenPom heading into tonight’s game, a few spots behind Carolina and a few spots ahead of Pittsburgh for context.

Tech’s statistical profile shows a team with plenty of strengths and weaknesses but not one that is elite on one end of the court or the other.

On offense, the Hokies rank 126th in efficiency, and like Virginia play at a relatively slow pace. As for their strengths on offense, they do a great job avoiding turnovers, particularly live-ball giveaways. The Hokies rank fourth nationally in turnover rate and first in steals allowed per possession. Tech is a decent outside shooting team as well, making 35.4 percent of its attempts, 67th-best nationally.

Tech’s weakest areas on offense are around the rim, which isn’t surprising given the roster’s lack of size. The Hokies don’t do much business on the offensive glass and they don’t get to the line all that often either. They also get their shots blocked by opponents at a pretty high rate, which could be good news for the Wahoos, who are seventh nationally in block rate.

On defense, Tech ranks 94th heading into the rematch. Oddly enough, its defensive profile is a bit of a mirror of the offense. While the Hokies don’t turn the ball over much, they also don’t force many turnovers. And while they aren’t getting many offensive rebounds or second-chance opportunities, they also aren’t allowing many to opponents, as teams make 32.1 percent of their 3-point tries and score nearly 36 percent of their points on made shots from deep.

Virginia Tech has a guard-heavy team that will look to spread the floor and take a bevy of jumpers. Their best player is clearly Landers Nolley, which was plain to see in the first meeting between the two teams in Charlottesville. He scored 18 of Tech’s 38 points in the loss and while the Hokies shot just 4-for-25 from distance, Nolley was 3-for-8 from long range that night.

Nolley is averaging a team-high 16.7 points per game this season and is second on the team in rebounds at 6.1 boards per game. Simply put, as Nolley goes, so do the Hokies.

Around him, Tech has a mix of veterans and young players, nearly all of whom are guards or wings. Freshman Tyrece Radford is having a nice season, averaging 10.4 points per game and leading the team on the glass with 6.3 rebounds per outing. He scored eight points against UVa in January, and was the only player other than Nolley to score more than two buckets.

Fellow guards Nahiem Alleyne and Jalen Cone are also gaining experience early in their Tech careers, and have been role players as freshmen but capable scorers from time to time. Cone had a 20-point game last week in the triple-overtime marathon loss to Miami. Point guard Wabissa Bede is one of Tech’s more experienced players, having played a significant role on last year’s Sweet 16 team. He had a tough go of it against Kihei Clark in the first meeting and will be looking to do better than his zero point, two assist, two turnover effort in that January game.