From the where are they now pile… one of my favorite Hokie basketball players, Deron Washington (aka Deron Flopington and Greg Paulus’ new hat), last I heard was bouncing around in the European basketball circuit and had some practice time with the Pistons. Well imagine my surprise when Versus showed the NBA-Development league championships last night and none other than Deron and his headband came out of the tunnel for one of the teams, the Tulsa 66′ers. Strangely enough I actually thought to myself “I bet Deron was playing in the NBA-D” as the coverage began, but it looks like he’s playing well enough to start for a finals team. Granted its still the finals of the subpar D league, but I am pretty sure the 66′ers could give the Wizards a shellacking.

Game two of the best of 3 series is on tonight at the stroke of midnight.

Seth Greenberg and the Hokies got a lot of press on Sunday, but not for all the best reason. As the first 10-6 team to miss the big dance, many analysts including Dick Vitale, said that something unjust had happened to the ACC 4th place Hokies especially in comparison to Wake Forest - a team VT beat head-to-head and outperformed in the ACC.

A lot of disappointed fans felt jaded on Sunday and players like Malcom Delaney tweeted that he just wanted to be left alone and “not talk about it”. Still, the team is getting a lot of attention we wouldn’t otherwise have gotten as a 10-seed that had little hope of going beyond the first or second round in the tournament.

The real dagger in the Hokies bid for a tournament seed came in their extremely weak out of conference schedule. In case you forgot because the games weren’t even broadcast on the radio, here are some of the teams we played:

• North Carolina Central Eagles
• UMBC Retrievers
• Charleston Southern Buccaneers
• Campbell Fighting Camels

The sad thing is perhaps we had played a Syracuse or Georgetown in our out-of-conference and gotten beaten badly, it would have actually helped us. No one would have had a problem accepting a 10-ACC-Win team with 21-10 record.  Granted we can simply point to the one and done loss to Miami in the first round of the ACC tournament as well.

At least with the NIT the fans down in Blacksburg get more basketball, beginning with a 7pm game tonight against the Quinnipiac Bobcats - at least its not the retrievers.

The Hokies men’s basketball team has finally gotten to where they need to be: on the coveted ESPN “Locks” list for the NCAA tournament.

After a great February turned in to disaster at the end of the month the Hokies rebounded to win two crucial games at the end of the regular season and earned themselves a bye in the ACC tournament (and any potential embarrassment in a first round collapse had they played a team such as a re-born UNC as a five-seed).

In years past the Hokies have always slipped off the back of the bubble come this time of year with too many blemishes on their resume, especially in out-of-conference play. I liked this year’s path to the big dance though… play easy out-of-conference and then hold tough in the middle of the ACC pack. The Hokies managed a 10-6 ACC record (note that no team has ever been denied a ticket to the tournament with such a record in the ACC) and lost only one home game all season in the double overtime take-a-shot-to-win heartbreaker against ACC Co-champion Maryland. Not bad Seth, not bad at all.

Still even as a “lock” in the bracket of 65 the Hokies can help bolster their arguments for inclusion and fight for a better seed and easier path to deeper play in the tournament with a strong showing at the ACC tournament. Tech will face either #5 Wake Forest or #12 Miami in their first game (Miami is much better than their last place finish would have you believe and Wake Forest is trying to build on their street credit for the tournament just like the Hokies).

As an individual accolade, Malcolm Delaney was a first-team selection on all 53  ballots cast by members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association. Way to get even better and make up for that slob Jeff Allen, we love you, man.

In much the same fashion that Virginia Tech dismantled the Miami Hurricanes on the football field, Seth Greenberg and the Hokies men’s basketball team took a beating stick to the Miami basketball team on Wednesday night.

Helping to heal the pain from a collapse against UNC, the Hokies came out of the gates and lapped their second ACC opponent early on and shot 62 percent in the first half to extend their led to 50-23 at the break. Miami (ranked 23rd in the AP poll) had lost only one game before falling hard to the Hokies and may catapult the team in to a top 25 position come Monday.

Even with a 30+ point lead I still never felt truly comfortable. Miami came on strong in the second half but ultimately the lead was just too great for the Hurricanes to overcome and the Hokies saved the win, and kept my face from bashing itself in to the drywall.

Every year I like to put down my holiday wish list for the upcoming year as it relates to Virginia Tech athletics. This year the list looks pretty similar to years’ past… I guess some things are just worth the wait:

A Peach Bowl Win: Even without the assistance of Stephan Virgil I still have a decent amount of confidence heading in to our New Years Eve bowl game against Tennessee (but nothing is certain). The game is significant - mainly because the ACC needs to show some power against the dominant SEC and to keep our 10-win season streak going, but I also want a win for those die-hard Hokie fans that may be returning to Atlanta for a third time in four months after seeing the team lose on their first two attempts. Stocking stuffer: Finishing the season with a top 10 ranking.

A trip to the NCAA Tournament: Sitting 10-1 things are looking favorable for the Hokie Bball team. Strangely though this is something I ask for every year and never seem to get. Perhaps the price is low enough this year and I have been an extra special Hokie so I’ll finally get it under the tree. On the horizon are two tough games for the team: a game against a one-loss Seton Hall squad that shares a common loss with VT (Temple) on January 3rd, and the ACC opener against UNC in Chapel Hill one week later. Stocking stuffer: Delaney winning the 2010 Bob Cousy Award.

October 2, 2010: The date that the Hokies take on Boise State at FedExField can’t come soon enough. To anyone who attended the USC FedEx Game several years back you know just how incredible it is to go to a game in Washington DC’s backyard with 90K+ Hokies (sure there will be a few fans from Boise State - but don’t count on them making much of a dent on third downs). Stocking stuffer: Is it too soon to start beating the BCS Championship drum? Pa ra pa pa pum.

The Last Good Condo at “Legends”: So this may be my “Daddy I want a Pony!” gift but there is only one condo left on the top floor of the soon-to-be-built-but-probably-never-will condo complex located in the shadows of Lane Stadium. It features a balcony, one bedroom, and is a much better location than “The Colosseum” project down 460. In a world where money is no object I would love to rain foamy Natty Light shotgun spray down 4 stories before a game with my friends on a balcony. However, if the gameday attitude of Platinum-Diamond-Encrusted-Cock status Hokie Alum are any indication of how your neighbors would be, expect to have the cops called perpetually and banging on the walls if you cheer loudly, or even stand up, at any point while living in the condo. Stocking stuffer: Returning to Hunter’s Ridge (Phase I) for a semester.

The Hokies men’s basketball team got revenge on PSU tonight, avenging a “Big 10/ACC Challenge” loss back in 2007 which stuck out as one of the worst loses of the season, keeping the team out of the march tournament. I would also point out that the Hokies have beat two Big 10 opponents this year, something Duke should be envious of.

The Hokies have are 8-1 as they approach the in-conference schedule and the last 2/3rds of the season. Compared to previous seasons this is one of the best starts in recent memory for the team.

There is obviously much more basketball to play and the team will have to show up well against the stacked ACC to make it to the big dance, but one difference from years past is that the Hokies don’t have a tarnished early season resume and that should help push them in over the bubble if they can hang out with the rest of the conference and win against the weaker teams. And the team has been able to accomplish that for in-conference games since Greenberg took the team in to the tough ACC forest.

ACC opener: @UNC on 1/10/2010

… in their favor.

Sure, FSU mashed our hopes of a .500 regular season ACC record on Sunday, but do those Seminole cheaters remember one of the “most amazing” victories in the history of college basketball?

Incidentally,  the ACC history books will now show that the Seminoles haven’t been able to beat Duke in football in almost three years

Losing six of our last seven games hasn’t put the Hokies out of the tournament …and I am not insinuating that the team will win the ACC tournament and get an automatic bid either. #8 Virginia Tech takes on #9 Miami in the ACC Tournament opener on Thursday. A win over Miami wouldn’t impress anyone but it would set the Hokies up against #1 UNC , winners of the past two tournaments, and give one final long ball to convince the voters that VT belongs.

ESPN and CBS still have VT on the bubble radar, mainly because most of our end-of-the-season loses came against decent RPI ranked teams that are considered locks for the tournament. With a (major) upset the Hokies can steal back in to the tournament with a resume touting UNC along with road wins against Wake and Clemson.

What are the chances? Not good, even for round one. Betting sites give the Hokies a 41.37% chance of surviving against Miami, and a 5.72% chance of following that up with a win over UNC (and if you are curious a 2.03% chance of making it to the final round with 0.57% of winning it all) – of course these odds would change with every game and team elimination as well. If the 94.28% situation does occur I refuse to make any posts regarding the NIT seeding, games, or results.

Saturday’s Duke game was a let down - there was a definite sense that the team was pulling together in the second half and once the score was tied at 58 there was even a small glimmer of hope for some Hokie magic. But then, of course, ABC couldn’t help themselves from showing the ever increasing montage reel of our last-second basketball losses and depressing close game winning percentages and sure enough before you knew it Duke was at the free throw line sealing their win. I think I feel most bad for the Hokie sitting next to me at the bar who put money on Virginia Tech to win (they were given 6 points).

So then what can we expect this Wednesday when Virginia Tech hosts conference leader UNC?

I feel as though we have had a two-face offense all season that can go from efficient and productive to cold and poorly timed for no apparent reason. Its not that our team becomes explosive at times and is just lackluster at others, it simply falls apart. The moment our timing is switched buckets begin to fall off, we take silly shots, and have embarrassing turnovers. At that point I start screaming “slow down!” (or sometimes “hurry up!”) but I think on Wednesday I am going to scream for a time out instead. Seth should look to stop the team WHENEVER this ugly timing problem creeps in. I’d rather blow a preemptive time out and have a breather when things look like they are turning sour. Like when Clemson pulled off the press in the second half of the crushing defeat on January 29th — we waited too long to stop the game and regroup over what wasn’t working when Clemson had changed its pace.

Joe Lunardi was on ESPN Radio this afternoon fielding questions about the NCAA tournament and all the bubble teams out there. Joe rightfully predicts there is no place in the NCAA tournament for a sub .500 ACC team and the Hokies can only lock up a spot in March with a win over UNC this Wednesday (unless I suppose there is a great VT showing in the ACC tournament combined with a win over FSU). So we are down to this… the typical Disney movie climax pitting the little guy up against Goliath for all the glory. The Duke game (I hope) showed the team and home crowd that we can play to win and since it is the last home game of the season (ignoring any trip to NIT crapville) it should bring plenty of emotion from ALL of Cassell.

One big benefit that I believe contributed to our win over Wake Forest once again exists for VT this week: UNC’s final game of the year, the game following VT, is against Duke. First, UNC is coming off a gloating win over bottom feeding Georgia Tech. Second, its f’ing UNC vs. Duke - with all the rivalry implications, emotion, media coverage, and a battle over the top seed in the ACC (and bragging rights) on the line, those Tarheels might just being looking too far ahead and end up with a nasty little surprise from VT… It just depends which team plays for all those 40 minutes.

Though there is still a stinging pain from our Men’s basketball team losing three straight, this video helps put a smile on my face and remember that things could always be worse… at least we beat Duke in football.