… 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.

NCAA Basketball: Tonight the Hokies face UVA for their last meeting before the ACC tournament — interestingly if the tournament started today VT would play UVA in the first round as a #6 seed versus #11. VT will be without sophomore Jeff Allen after a one-game suspension was levied by Virginia Tech athletic officials in response to Allen’s middle finger gesture to Maryland fans in the Valentine’s day loss. This also adds Allen to the Vick Brothers as a fan of the one-finger salute. I expect that the Hokies can still sweep the Cavaliers following up on their victory in Blacksburg back in January. In that game Allen contributed only 3 points and 6 rebounds in 23 minutes of playing time. EDIT: Allen, we needed you. However, representing my biggest fear tonight: Virginia Tech was up by 15 points with just under six minutes to go in that first meeting between the teams and then the Cavaliers went on a tear cutting the lead back to just one point with a few seconds to go. Because of that incident (and the several other times we have seen such occurrences this season) I will not be comfortable with any lead unless its after the game is over. Incidentally, I will be in the stands trying to get under UVA’s skin - insulting the wine pairing decisions of the student section and racist Country Club membership practices of the alumni. EDIT: Those fans are horrible, old, and have stupid wives.

NFL Football: Michael Vick’s lawyers said they expected him to be out of the prison at any moment … and that was over a week-and-a-half ago. I am guessing Vick has already been quietly transferred out of general population as he awaits travel to a Newport News halfway house for the remainder of his sentance. As his release grows closer, Vick’s name has been tossed around by plenty of fans — but few team owners are willing to admit they will consider his services (keeping in mind there’s no guarantee NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will even reinstate Vick).  On the other hand, the new upstart UFL league has open arms, and has been on the record as seeing Vick as a great opportunity for both the new league and number 7. Though the UFL may be a epic flop after its six-game schedule starts in October, nothing Vick can do (except elloctructe dogs in his touchdown celebration) could be any worse damage than what was done in the opening XFL game sideline interview with HeHateMe. And why not cut the guy a break? The federal sentencing guidelines for Vick’s crime had recommend 12 to 18 months. Well, as we know, he got 23 months instead, and he lost all his money, and finally what was left of his public image was completely destroyed. I personally think he has learned his lesson and suffered enough, but if the cat abuser scandal of this weekend has taught us anything, public outcry favors animal life much more than human life (unless you are an ape).

MLB Baseball: Is screwed. First off Alex Rodriguez is a lying sack of shit. According to A-Shit he shot up with a needle of P.E.D.s at least 36 tims over three seasons. That sounds like plausable and fair admission, but then he went on to say the drugs were provided to him by his cousin Snuffalopogus and claims to not have known what was in said needles while injecting himself and that all of it was a big naive mistake brought on because he missed out on college… or some shit like that. Okay, fine, maybe Lip Gloss is telling the truth and a 25 million dollar a year player with a private jet he relied basically on his little sister’s boyfriend who has a fake ID for things he injected in to his body three dozen times. However on a 60 Minutes special a couple years back he told Katie Couric “I’ve never been tempted to use performance-enhancing drugs” and claimed he never tried steroids. Now THAT royally pisses me off because it wasn’t like it was a grand jury forcing him to testify under penalty of law nor was it something that the media demanded he do… no… A-Dick* did that show on his own voluntary decision and lied horribly the entire time,all-the-while admiring Katie’s purse. But then again, did all these drugs even help his numbers and turn him in to the Launchpad McQuack he is now? His average homeruns-per-at-bat in 2007 was just as good as what he did during his “juiced years” and that was when he was 5 years younger… however he did lead the AL in homers those three years. As a Sox fan I don’t like the guy, but I think we are talking about a handful of homeruns and not eye-popping Brady Anderson or Sammy Sosa jumps in the power numbers. In other news, the Nationals smuggle Dominicans in to the country using corrupt Baltimore shipping docks.

Well, that was nerve racking. I have quickly learned that watching a Hokies basketball game is far more difficult to one’s stress levels than a Hokies football game… there are just too many opportunities to get upset and freak out in a basketball contest.

Truth be told, I thought we were defiantly losing the game against NC State this afternoon when the teams headed in for halftime.  And by the time we were six minutes into the second half, down 17 points, all hopes of a NCAA tournament berth were gone and I concocted this on Photoshop. However, a half hour later, when the shot clock was off and “Enter Sandman” was shaking Cassell Coliseum I had done a complete 180.

My emotions echoed something that Seth Greenberg apparently said (this according to the horrific and polarizing television game announcers and further butchered by my poor memory): “Its frustrating and hard to understand how we can go from being such a good team to such a bad team, but that’s not game-to-game, that’s what happens within a single game.” Fortunately, Virginia Tech forgot how to be a “bad team” at some point in the second half and performed well in to the overtime. The Tech win snapped a 6-game losing streak against the Wolfpack and keeps Virginia Tech in the hunt, but the Hokies have to perform well and come away with wins against the lackluster opponents in our next four ACC games (GT, UVA, Maryland, FSU). I’m keeping my fingers crossed the “good team” shows up for those.

Back on January 8th, as the Hokies prepared to start their ACC schedule (we are ignoring Duke), I said I would revisit the team’s progress after our first five conference games and here’s how things went:

Win  - Jan. 10, 2009 Virginia
Win - Jan. 17, 2009 Boston College (then ranked #17, currently unranked)
Win - Jan. 21, 2009 at Wake Forest (then and currently ranked #4)
Win - Jan. 25, 2009 at Miami-FL
Loss - Jan. 29, 2009 Clemson (then ranked #12, currently ranked #11)

Well I hate to be unhappy with a 4-1 result especially since we upset the last undefeated and number one ranked Wake Forest team on their home court but I really feel deflated from tonight’s collapse against Clemson. Up as many as 15 in the second half the Hokies couldn’t adjust from a fast paced full-press gameplay in to a slower more aggressive protection by Clemson. From the high euphoria of Malcom Delaney’s 50-foot buzzer beater to a freezing cold middle of the second half in which the Hokies just couldn’t score it was the definition of high and low for one game. To have a certain top 25 ranking and inside track to the NCAA tournament cut in to by the Tigers by a slowly twisted knife in the Hokies’ gut was as much pain as any Hokie fan can take.

But there is a lot to be proud of, after all if you told me back at the start of the ACC schedule we could be 5-2 at the end of January - I would be exstatic. If you told me we would beat a number 1 team in that span, I would punch you in the face and then punch myself in the face. The win over Wake Forrest ranks as one of the biggest victories in Virginia Tech history and helps to ease the pain of the couple of almost-top-team-upsets the Hokies saw disappaear in the final second of the game. And other than Delaney’s rediculous performance in the first half of the Clemson game there are plenty of plays to look back upon and smile, including Allen’s great pick… I mean two great picks… against UVA, our great runs against Wake, Thorns really stepping up off the bench, and a great overtime victory on the road at Miami.

In all being 4-2 in the ACC is nothing to take lightly and if we can continue playing strong basketball against our next five ACC opponents, all of which are ranked below Virginia Tech, the Hokies can look to the last two home games against Duke and UNC to be a final push for a NCAA tournament berth before the ACC tournament at the end of the season. I am definately pleased that the basketball team is keeping me this interested in the football offseason and actually starting to make a basketball school out of Virginia Tech.

Tomorrow Virginia Tech will walk in to Joel Coliseum and attempt to hand the only undefeated team in the nation its first loss. Although it will be one of the toughest games in recent memory for the Hokies, I believe they have a real shot at making headlines when the final second ticks off the clock around 9:30pm tomorrow.

After tomorrow’s game, Wake Forest will have the upcoming weekend off, that’s before they host Number 2 ranked Duke on the 28th. Fans have started camping out for Duke, media crews are already polishing their media guides, and Dick Vitale’s hard-on has reached terminal velocity for (what would be) a 1 versus 2 match-up. Its a great opportunity for VT to come in and catch the Decons off guard (by the way never google image search “Jeff Allen” with safe-search turned off). It seems like every year Tech pulls off a great road game (sometimes ending in half court heartbreak) and the team is posied to take momentum in to North Carolina… Virginia Tech has won three straight and seven of their past eight games since mid-December. Since the Duke loss, the team signed a contract promising to give 100% the rest of the season - a tactic Seth Greenberg pulls out every year.We will see if the team upholds its end of the bargain.

Its not to say that Wake is overrated either. In five of the past six seasons, the very last team in the country to lose a game has gone on to at a minimum the Sweet 16 and three of those years the last unbeaten has advanced to the NCAA title game. Young starters Jeff Teague and Al-Farouq Aminu have been masterful but much like Hokies squad, they makeup the bulk of a three man show for scoring and rebounding. VT should look to hold back the long shot and esspecially pressure freshman Aminu, who though talented also gets in to foul trouble quickly when frustrated.As long as we play a well-paced game and don’t get ahead of ourselves (taking horrible attempts at dunks and quick look shots at threes) and the fans don’t attack us in the stands we can show the ACC that you should never overlook any team when you play in the best basketball conference in the country.

Score Prediction:  Virginia Tech 80 - Wake Forrest 78 (far fetched — but change you can believe in)

The ACC schedule is underway for the Hokies and it is time to start scrutinizing every game and how it could impact the Hokies’ chances of making it to the NCAA tournament. VT already fell to Duke in an unsurprising rout (which was looking like a ballgame a few minutes in to the second half but quickly deteriorated when the Hokies tried to speed things up). ACC Game number 2 is Saturday when VT takes on UVA. Its a chance to start the tally of all-important ACC wins. The ACC usually sends a good number of teams to the tournament, however last year the conference only managed four teams compared to Big East’s eight, and this year there is a good crop of talent in the conference to return to old trends and get a majority of ACC schools playing in March. Currently ESPN’s bracketology forecasts seven ACC teams in the dance, the Hokies of course are outside looking in.

With the exception of Duke and UNC who are basically constants, ACC teams find a way to at least GET to the tournament every three years or so. A look at the last time each team made the tournament shows that all but two teams have been within the past three years, with Wake Forrest just a year behind that… Florida State hasn’t been in a decade but look like they could return this year. I personally hope they don’t make it and lose to a bad case of measles after trading goods with Coppin State.

So what will that mean for the Hokies, who were considered one of the last bubble teams left out last year? It means with their underwhelming out-of-conference performance they will need to pick up a good number of wins, against good ACC opponents, if they want to return in 2008 after a year hiatus. Our next 5 ACC games should be a good barometer for gauging how hard this battle will be:

Next 5 ACC Games:
Jan. 10, 2009 Virginia
Jan. 17, 2009 Boston College (currently ranked #17)
Jan. 21, 2009 at Wake Forest (currently 13-0 and ranked #4)
Jan. 25, 2009 at Miami-FL
Jan. 29, 2009 Clemson (currently ranked #12)

We will revisit at the end of January and see how tech is doing and whether or not its time to start thinking about baseball season…

Sure its a recession and holiday shoppers have really cut back on their spending but its not too much to ask for a few things under our Hokies Christmas Tree.

• The Stocking - your stocking is filled with little tidbits that just make getting to what’s under the tree the main event so whats more fitting than asking for a handful of inner-conference Basketball wins. Given our difficult start to the season we need at least 10 ACC wins to have any shot at the NCAA tournament. These wins can come at home or away, I won’t care, but I would really love to see some Blue Devil tears at Cassel on February 28th.

• The Homemade Gift - so the macaroni didn’t spell your name out completely and for some reason you were drawn with big red wolverine claws but its the thought that counts, right? This year my homemade-cost-a-penny gift is that I want to hear more accountability from our coaching staff if things continue to suffer offensively. If things are going badly I don’t want you to coddle me it in soft statistics like how we could have 10 wins this season and only USC and Texas have as many consecutive double digit win seasons - flat out tell us that we deserve better and if things don’t change on the grass then its going to change in the office. I think in 2009 I would like to avoid eating more dogshit. Oh, and a commit to play from Tajh Boyd wouldn’t cost much either and would be pretty swell.

• The You-Are-So-Behind Gift - Yeah it would be cool to get a Gameboy game if you weren’t already playing on the Gameboy Color asshole, next time ask Babage’s opinion. These impossible to avoid razor-scooter-two-years-after-the-craze gifts usually come from an out-of-touch relative that really do mean well but you would really rather they had planted such a surprise back when it would have been the talk of the cul-de-sac. This year I want a reliable sole starting quaterback behind center- combined with a good mixture of offensive play calling - consider it the Bryan Randall of 2008 (there is a reason he is the only jersey I wear).

• The BIG Gift - you know every year you looked forward to one BIG gift under the tree be it a mountain bike, a Super Nintendo, or Mark Teixeira. Well this year, in a sign of understanding of the financial woes we all live in, I just want something that is relatively small and easy but would mean the world to me - that’s right all I want is one simple BCS Bowl game win. We are 7-14 overall in bowl games (good for a 55th best in NCAA rankings) and we are a fat 0-3 in BCS bowl games. Right now, we have Cincinnati teed-up high for a great old school Big East versus new school Big East match-up and I have had to endure witnessing 3 BCS loses from the stands… all I want for Christmas is for that trend to end.

• The Pony - This is the gift you ask for because your too shitforbrains to realize Stealth Bombers aren’t available at Costco. I would love to have a Head-Coach-In-Waiting position for Bud Foster and a job at Radford for Stinespring. Honestly I don’t see this happening in 2009 but you never know, there always was at least one asshole at your school who rode to school on January 2nd in a dune buggy.

I don’t know what I will find under-the-tree/beside-the-menorah-oils this year, but if any of these presents show up it will be the best Christmas morning ever… well since Playstation in ‘94. Oh and Stinespring - don’t you dare leave a pair of wool socks and homemade fruitcake for us on the 1st or we’re so toilet papering your house on our first snowday.