Go ahead and click on the different articles in the image and learn more …

Do you feel that? Its that dormant addiction brewing in your soul, that anxious excitement that makes you feel queasy and parched, that feeling like you are sitting down in a soon-to-be-launched 150 MPH roller coaster called “Christmas Eve on Cocaine” — It is Hokie Football season.

And because of late, our team seems to want to get back on the wagon in grand either-were-fucked-or-we-fucking-rule fashion we decided to start things off with #3 Boise State at FedEx field…  “#3 Boise State at FedEx field”… That phrase  has almost no known equivalent of lunacy save for “fucking 9 albino whores with a flaming penis blade atop my dragon saddle.”

This is the biggest game in Boise State’s history - because it is the one game that all of the analysts have decided to accept as The Path to the promised land known as the BCS Championship game. Everyone knows how important this game is for shaping the rest of the season rankings (and potentially the post season format in years to come) and big conference schools are all biting their nails whispering “come on Hokies, come on” because they know that Boise can run the table and find themselves squared up against a program with 10x the financial support and 10x the asshole alumni behind them if they live up to their preseason #3 ranking in one week.

Sure, Boise State is a good team and they have a lot of players back. They tend to do well at the end of the season when they one to throw one last fist in the face of the small-conference naysayers. I am sure its easy inspiration for the coaching staff, the old David vs. Goliath, show ‘em what you got, they called your mother a whore routine. But this game is different, now they have the target, and the Hokies are the ones on the attack.

Metaphorically speaking, Boise State has played a game of Asshole with his College Football buddies during the ENTIRE keg party. Boise State was always handing over 2’s and forgetting to call out “last card” - relegated to Vice President at best, but usually just the beer bitch - and they now have their golden chance. They finally have all the 2’s and high royals and they can’t wait to show everyone what they are made of. Well you know what, that’s usually when you get stuck with too many card in your hand and everyone else plays around you.

Here’s to what comes in one week and to the worst sports metaphor ever blogged - Let’s … Go … Hokies!

People had speculated that his “inverted W” pitching style would break down his arm, the only question was when. He puts so much pressure on his arm as he cocks from a karate-kid like stance, leading with his elbow, before firing it in at 100+ MPH its actually surprising that it didn’t happen sooner. But looking on the bright side, at least this is “fixable” to some degree. Plenty of players come back from the surgery and do great, the namesake of the surgery showed you can be even better and last longer. Had it been his shoulder the dark clouds would be circling a lot longer over Nats ballpark.

Rob Dibble, who took two days off after he was placed in hot water for criticizing the team’s handling of Strasburg and not allowing him to play hurt (note, he didn’t say he should play “injured” but still felt they were babying him), will probably have to eat his foot for the time being.

But now we have 2011, a year in which we likely won’t have much more success but a necessary step nonetheless to getting to a playoff contending team. Dunn may be gone. Bryce Harper surely won’t make the scene, he can’t even buy porno or cigarettes yet. Jordan Zimmerman is back and may find himself as the defacto ace of the club for the time being, should we hang on to Livan and try to maintain the rotation as it was. But young players like Ian Desmond will improve, prospects will fill out the bullpen, and coaching (which we need to remember Riggleman has only had one season and a month to serve as the manager) can continue to grow together…Pat Listach better start sending runners as well, come on Nyger Morgan could be all the way back to first base before some of those balls make it to the infield when he puts up the stop sign.

But there is still an air of optimism in the Nats faithful however, no one expected 2011 to be “the year” and with Harper floating around there will be a second big debut in the future with the return of Strasburg…. perfect for the “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” marking plan featuring Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper, and Strasburg (respectfully).

Bottom line: Come back soon and come back healthy Stephen, we miss what glimpses of a potential future winning team you gave us.

This was likely the end of any wildcard hopes for the Nats, who back when Tyler Clippard was 8-0, looked like a dark horse to make the post season. What will be interesting is to see how the team rebounds from what surely was the 3 most painful loses of the year. The reaction to such a series includes not only the players but also the management. Will Adam Dunn get a contract extension? Will the team ship any players off? Will Strasburg continue to get 95 pitches every 5 days? Will Livan Hernandez start day laboring at 23 hours at a time?

With Stephen Strasburg still garnishing national attention every time he has a bowel movement there can still be a silver lining to remaining 2010 season for the Nats. And I am not talking about him joining the NL all-star team, but rather hope comes in the form of the NL Rookie of The Year award. The Nationals look like they will send only the requisite one player to this year’s all-star game and may not crack above .500 before October, but even with that reality - anyone can be rookie of the year with a stellar performance despite the team’s shortcomings. However as of late the weak Nats bats on Strasburgs starts (many coming with no runs at all) and terrible fielding of the Nationals infield has really hurt Strasburg (most recently a bases loaded error in Atlanta) and become his biggest threat.

With large media draw and an excited crowd each time Strasburg pitches, fans can continue cheering for something relevant with regards to the Nats. I am sure the Nats will enjoy playing spoiler to teams like the Mets toward the end of the year as well. In previous years the Nats have gone 382,893-2 in September against the Mets. Team manager said he would do anything to prevent this at a press conference, holding up a crudely drawn picture of Carlos Beltran with tank treads for legs.

So even if cheering for the Nats has become just about the same as cheering for Teddy in the Presidents race, remember that the Strasburg Show is still in its first season and September 29 is knit beanie night.

1. First of all we would have turned the FedEx home opener in to a shit slinging barn burner. With no team to compete against for 60 minutes there wouldn’t have been a need for any keys at all, just start chanting “stick it in” from your own 20 and start setting records.

2. With an 11-1 record the Hokies would have played in the National Championship game. Losing to only NC State on what would go down as one of Brandon Pace’s only bad games, the Hokies may have squeaked by to play Oklahoma in the National Championship and we all know OU only loses the big games so by that logic the Hokies would be crowned national champions.

3. An outpouring of pride in the Commonwealth of Virginia resulting from the Hokies first National Championship would motivate the young voters of the state, turning the state for the democrats in the 2004 presidential election thus causing a run off in which John Kerry would be elected the 44th President of the United States.

4. With Dick Cheney out of the White House, Halliburton would have far less power and would not secure Off-Shore Drilling subcontracts in the Gulf of Mexico. You guessed it, crisis avoided, the gulf is safe and the world is at peace and everyone is a Hokies fan.

So now that we know what happens when you erase USC from the 2004 season we can all look back wishing that the world knew then what it knows now. The 2004 Hokie National Championship team and creation of 100% clean renewable energy were so close to being a reality, mankind just wasn’t ready for Utopia.

Over a year after news broke of the big C coming to Bburg the interior work now begins on the site that once held Joe’s Barber shop. Delays brought on by a harsh winter and unexpected building modifications and flooring problems appear to be over as workers are ready to assemble the familiar steel and wood eating spaces where eventually up to 42 hokies will be able to enjoy their burritos. There is also going to be a back patio with additional seating.

As for now the target open date is August, before students pour back on to campus with fully charged Hokie Passports, tons of food swiped from their parents pantry, and bitchin’ new flavors of ice tea vodka.

And Chipotle better get things wrapped up in time for the football season. That cock of a burrito joint, Qdoba Mexican Grill said its heading in to Blacksburg soon as well. I need Chipotle to get in there and crank out the bliss, the campus has suffered long enough with the likes of Extreme Pita, A&W, Philly City and Moe’s.

The main websites that you use to achieve this include the following:
1. Priceline.com (duh)
2. Hotwire.com
3. Betterbidding.com

Other helpful sites/tools:
1. Kayak.com
2. TripAdvisor.com (to get an idea of how the hotels rank and determine the best area of a city you should stay)
3. Priceline iPhone App (I’ll explain how that one helps further down)

I think the best way to show how this all works is to plan a fake trip. Let’s say we want to go see the Twins play in their new stadium, Target Field, in Minneapolis, MN.

You should start off by heading over to TripAdvisor to learn more about the city, figure out where it is the best to stay (downtown/east side/garden district/etc), what there is to do there (“Things to do” TripAdvisor rankings are great) and see if it’s a city in which a rental car, cab, walking/public transit will be best when considering where to stay. From all of that information you can get an idea of the city’s region in which you want to stay. Priceline breaks down each city in to geographical regions so that you know your hotel won’t be located at the Airport if you are trying to stay in the downtown area and vice versa.

So then head on over to Priceline and begin a search…

In our example, staying one Saturday night in Minneapolis, MN should do it –that place has a mall and a baseball team and a river, whoopee fucking doo.
The next screen that Priceline will show you lays out the areas in which you can select to stay. ALWAYS start of picky, select only the #1 area you want to stay in and nothing else.

Let’s say we select “Downtown Minneapolis” as our desired area. Priceline will then bring up the star rankings for that area. Keep in mind some areas don’t have all the star levels available because hotels of certain caliber simply don’t exist in that region (which is actually helpful as you’ll see later on).

Always select 4-Star Deluxe (or highest star level available). After all you not only want to stay somewhere on the cheap but also get a sick ass deal for it. Anyone can stay at the La Quinta Inn next to an abandoned Best Products parking lot with a year round gypsy carnival – that is not the goal here.

If you are concerned about just which hotels are in that area and star level here is where the most useful website in the process, BetterBidding.com, comes in to play. Go to http://www.betterbidding.com/ and select the state you are staying in (in this case Minnesota) then select the Priceline forum for that state (Priceline-Minnesota). At the top there will always be a “pinned” forum topic with something named along the lines of “Pinned: Priceline Hotel List – Minnesota”. This is an ever-changing and constantly fact-checked listing of all hotels that participate with Priceline and their regions and star levels.

So for instance we go looking for Downtown Minneapolis on that list and find:

All those 4 star hotels sound good to me… and I can always shoot over to TripAdvisor.com if I am worried that some of them may not be up to snuff and then I may also consider possibly changing my region. I have yet to find a horrible 4 star hotel on these lists however.

Here is where shit gets interesting – your bid for your hotel. There are several places you can look for ideas on a good starting bid. The BetterBidding site you just used also keeps a user-driven listing of winning bids under each state’s forum and you can check that:

These forum posts give you an idea of a specific date, location in the city, star level and what bid was required to land that hotel (Note that the dollar amounts listed are pretax bid prices). This shouldn’t be your only stop however because chances are these postings will not perfectly mirror your desired criteria.

You can continue your search by going to Kayak.com and searching to see what hotels would be going for at published retail prices for the dates and star level you are attempting to bid on. It can also show you if there is a wide range between prices of hotels with your desired star level (which tends to mean better deals for you).
Next I recommend going to Hotwire.com, a blind-buy hotel website that can help show you what a reasonable bid could be. Search the exact same criteria (note that you only filter by region after searching) and see what comes up:

So now we see that pretax $67 bucks lands you a 4 star hotel in your particular region using Hotwire. Note that the Hotwire star rankings and regions and the Priceline star rankings and regions are NOT the same. The BetterBidding.com site can show you the Hotwire hotels are in much the same fashion as the Priceline hotels list, simply click the “Hotwire-Insert State Name” discussion instead of Priceline. The rankings are pretty similar though, you won’t find a terrible hotel in the high star rankings.

So $67 bucks is now your new MAX bid consideration. Immediately take 20% off that bid price, so approximately $54.

The last step before you make an initial bid is to pull out your iPhone and boot up the “Priceline Negotiator” App (it’s free). Select the city and star level you want, then select the star level of the hotel in the region you want. Slide the “Name Your Own Price” bid slide bar all the way to the left of the “Low Chance” left side. That bid comes out to $42.

You can start your bidding off at $42 now and have an okay chance of landing the hotel, I tend to bump it up a couple bucks if the 20% discount off of Hotwire is more (recall it was $12 dollars more) so I would go with a first bid of $48 bucks.

Fill in your bid and name (I recommend you create a profile and sign in to the Priceline if you want to save time by avoiding the need to fill out the credit card and address information every time).

Don’t be scared if you get a message like this “Based on past Priceline customer requests for hotels in this area, your offer price of $48 has almost no chance of being accepted.” – this hasn’t proven the case more than a few times for me.

The next page will show you the total price (including Taxes and Services Fees) — which may be some dollars added on to your bid, but you are still shattering the lowest published price so who cares.

I never mess with Insurance. Then initial the page and wait to see if your bid is accepted. If it is, that’s great and you are done. Print out the confirmation page and Google the hotel you landed and see how sick of a deal it was by comparing your price to the published rate.

If it didn’t go through, no worries, now you just adjust your bid price… but this is where it also requires some trickery. See, they want you to not only change your bid but ALSO change one of your criteria (such as star level or region).

For this you should open up a new browser window and again bring up Priceline.com and again search for your city and date. But now you are looking for help from the section where you select your specific region for your stay.

Click each location one by one and see which star levels are illuminated below as available hotels. You are looking for regions that DO NOT have the same star levels as what you are seeing. For instance “Roseville” shows that there are no 3.5 or 4 star hotels in that region.

You can now return to the “Try Again Right Now” browser window and add “Roseville” to your Downtown selection and then DO NOT change the star level from 4 stars. The beauty in this is that because there are no 4 star hotels in Roseville you are essentially searching the same pool of 4 star downtown hotels you initially searched. Add 4-5 dollars to your asking bid and try again.

If you again get a rejection on your bid, repeat the last step to find more regions that do not that have your requested star level. NEVER BID MORE THAN THE HOTWIRE OFFER – If Hotwire had a hotel in your region for a set price, no need to use Priceline, simply buy with Hotwire. This has never happened to me though, Priceline has always scored a better price (usually around 20% less than the Hotwire price).

Do these steps and you will always land a great deal on your hotel with Priceline.

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

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.

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.