THE SETUP

The Opposing View: Q&A with a uva alum

All-Time Records:

Did you know Virginia Tech had never beaten uva in charlottesville in football and basketball in the same academic year until this year? Now you know. VT still has never beaten uva in ch’ville in football and basketball in the same calendar year, and it won’t happen in 2008.

• Series: uva 78-49
• At VT: VT 24-16
• Since Joining the ACC: uva 5-3
• Greenberg vs uva: 3-6
• Last Time VT Beat uva Twice in the Same Season: 1968-69
• Last Time VT Beat uva in ch’ville and Blacksburg in the Same Season: 1963-64
• Last Meeting: Recap: VT 70-69 (OT) Game Film

In the first meeting a couple weeks ago, the Hokies won in charlottesville for the first time since 1968 and snapped a nine-game losing streak at uva (the two teams played at neutral sites from 1976-2000). Tech became the first ACC team to win in the don’s john since it opened in 2006. Now the Hokies focus on sweeping the two-game regular-season series, something VT hasn’t done since 1969.

A win would push the Hokies to 5-3 at the halfway point of the ACC season, already achieving the number of wins I figured they would get for the whole ACC slate. Simply amazing.

As for the hoos, they are more desperate than a heavy teenager looking for a prom date. They have lost six of seven and they’re dead last in the ACC. They came out flat against maryland, falling behind 13-2 in the first 2 1/2 minutes. The hoos’ rotation on D was awful, giving the terps many open looks outside. If the Hokies slide along the perimeter on high screens, they can get open looks. Also, drive and kick will kill the hoos.

Just as fsu did against Tech, uva battled their way back in the maryland game, but they couldn’t get over the hump to make it competitive. Expect uva to come out playing for their postseason lives against the Hokies. Tech needs to weather the storm.

These two teams are almost the inverse of where they were picked in the preseason ACC poll — VT was picked 10th (they are 4th), and uva was picked 5th (they are 12th).

THE NUMBERS

Key Stat: The Hokies clinched a winning record at home for the season with the win over fsu, moving to 8-1 in the Cassell. VT has now had a winning record at home for 46 of the 47 seasons in the Cassell. The lone losing season was 2000-01 under the coaching direction of former wahoo player ricky stokes.

THE GAME

Yes, sean singletary is coming to town. The three-time uva captain is still the star of hooville. He’s averaged 15.9 ppg in 8 meetings against Tech. He is third in the conference in scoring, and #1 in assists. But his turnovers are way up this season: sean has tallied at least five turnovers in 11 of uva’s 18 games. A lot of that can be attributed to j.r. reynolds’ departure.

In the first meeting between the Hokies and the hoos this season, sean lit up the Hokies for 34 points on 12 of 21 shooting, including 5 of 7 on threes. VT had no answer for him on defense. Whether it was Deron, Malcolm, or Hank, he went right by, or shot over them. The problem for the hoos was the other four guys on the court: guys not named singletary were 12 of 42 (29%) shooting. That’s,… uh,… not good.

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Here’s an interesting letter from Coach Greenberg, rallying the students for a big showing on Saturday. Seth rocks.

The Collegiate Inn of Blacksburg is the premier condo-hotel in Blacksburg. Don’t know what a condo-hotel is all about? Check out this thorough explanation.

I know that power polls don’t really mean much, but still this is a welcome sight. The Florida Times-Union, which has zippy Virginia bias, ranks the Hokies #3 in this week’s power poll behind guess who.

This is a repost of “The Opposing View” from January 14th, right before the VT @ uva game. We interviewed an alum of the hated hoos of virginia, or as I like to call them, “Others Receiving Votes” since they always seem to be on the fringe of actually being good, but not quite getting there.

I’d like to thank Chris Graham of thesportsdominion.com/ for participating and being a good sport.

Interviewee/Victim

Chris Graham (CG) is a 1994 graduate of the university of virginia and the husband of the former Crystal Abbe, a 1999 graduate of Virginia Tech [Niemo: at least he made one smart decision]. The Grahams own and operate the Waynesboro-based Augusta Free Press Publishing, the parent company of The New Dominion Magazine, a quarterly print magazine, two news websites, and thesportsdominion.com, a website that is also the home to “The SportsDominion Show,” a daily sports podcast and weekly radio show covering sports in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

General Questions

Q1: uva has been a member of the ACC for over 54 years now. In those 54 years, how many OUTRIGHT* ACC Championships have they won in Men’s Basketball and Football (ie: the real sports)? *co-championships do not count

CG’s A: The one in ‘76 comes to mind. (Basketball, The Miracle in Landover. VPISU was probably playing vmi and washington and lee that weekend. And probably losing.)
Notice how the question is framed by a VPISU booster, though. “Men’s Basketball and Football (i.e. the real sports).” I don’t want to hear you guys claiming later on in this Q and A that you’re all the sudden now good in soccer. You’ve defined the terms in the way VPISU grads are accustomed to doing.

Niemo’s Note: 1 is the correct answer - uva won the 1976 men’s basketball tournament title. They tied for the football title just twice - in 1989 and 1995 - but have never won a football title outright despite the fact the ACC consisted of just seven or eight teams and no fsu until 1992.

Q2: Virginia Tech has been a member of the ACC for less than four full years now. In that time, how many OUTRIGHT ACC Championships do the Hokies have?

CG’s A: Is it two? I would want to count the track and field championship from this year, but again, those sports don’t count in Blacksburg, apparently, so we’ll go with the two from football. Both, by the way, have to be attributed to uva president John “HokieLoveFest” Casteen, without whom you would still be the Beasts of the Big Least.

Niemo’s Note: 2 is the correct answer. That’s right, VT has more in 4 years than uva has in 54. VT has two outright football championships in just four years - 2004 and 2007. And speaking of the Big Least, I should point out the Big East has won their last three BCS games, defeating the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 champs while the ACC has lost eight straight BCS games.

[Many more questions and answers below…]

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With the verbal commitment from Erick Green last week, the Hokies now have two on-board for the 2009 Class (Ben Boggs is the other).  Along with the three signees in the 2008 Recruiting Class, that puts the Hokies at 13 guys on scholarship once the 2009 Class enrolls.

Here’s the breakdown:

The NCAA allows 13 scholarships for men’s basketball.  That means Tech is short one schollie this season, even with six scholarship freshmen and having given Travis one for this season.  (Tech was short one last year, also)  Hence how Tech can bring in three guys next season despite only losing two. 

Assuming Tech loses four guys over the next two seasons, the Hokies can bring in five players, which they are on pace to do.  So, unless someone leaves the program, such as a Vinson if he decides not to come back for a fifth year as a redshirt-senior, or someone transfers, the 2009 Class is done.

When Virginia Tech hired Seth Greenberg in 2003, I was a sports writer and columnist at The Fauquier Citizen in Warrenton, Virginia. The Citizen, by the way, was the top weekly paper in the state back in those days; before the publishers sold it to their archrivals, the Fauquier Times-Democrat. But, I digress.

Anyhow, back to Greenberg’s hiring in 2003 — I wrote a scathing column ripping Virginia Tech Athletics Director Jim Weaver (one of my favorite pastimes) for hiring a relatively unknown and average coach, who, by the way, used to be an assistant coach at uva back in the early 80s. Greenberg was to be the second straight Hokie hoops coach with ties to those nancy boys in jeffersonville. “Freakin’ great,” I thought at the time.

The link to my article in the Citizen is no longer available online since the paper was sold and folded into the evil empire of crappy papers; but, a year later, after I had left the paper I wrote a column for tsl in 2004, following the Hokies’ final season in the Big East, which was Greenberg’s first season as head coach.

I admitted that I was wrong about Greenberg’s hiring - at least for his first season. I also wrote that I gave ricky stokes four years, and a full recruiting class, before I decided it was time for the Hokies to cut him loose, therefore I would give this Greenberg guy at least four years to see what he could do. Well, he’s done a damn good job in his first 4-1/2 seasons, and as a result he earned a contract extension through the 2012-2013 season.

Highlights during Greenberg’s first four seasons (1 in the Big East, 3 in the ACC) include a winning record in his first season (15-14); being named the Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year in 2005; coaching his teams to first-round byes in the ACC Tournament in two of their first three seasons in the league; oh, and beating No. 1 unc, No. 4 unc, No. 5 duke; and winning a first round NCAA Tournament game in exciting fashion last year.

Greenberg may not be a Coach K or Roy Williams, but he’s the right man for this team and this university — and that makes him alright with me.

I am kicking myself already for doing this, but I’m officially jumping on the “Virginia Tech is going to the postseason in basketball” bandwagon today. As of a few weeks ago, I think the wagon only had two riders: DuffHokie and vatechhokies50. They were the only ones, at least on TechHoops.com, that initially picked Tech to do well enough in ACC play to qualify for the postseason. I think Duff later wussed out, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for his initial pick. Well, move over Duff, and get me a tall boy, I’m riding shotgun all the way to…. hmm, which postseason tourney will we be in?

The Postseason Tournaments:

1. NCAA Tournament (65 teams) - VT’s chances? Not gonna happen. Or, at least, I’m not getting on that bandwagon any time soon. Tech’s RPI is in the 60s, which is “on the bubble”, but they just aren’t there yet. Realistically, the Hokies magic number (wins needed) to make the NCAAs is 7 (maybe 6, but that’s a stretch) with nine regular season games left and the ACC Tourney.
2. NIT (32 teams) - VT’s chances? Pretty darn good now. VT must be at .500 or better by the end of the ACC Tourney to qualify. To do that, they just need to go 3-6 the rest of the regular season and they will be above .500 no matter what happens in the ACC Tourney. But again, that’s just to qualify. I think the magic number to make the NIT is 4.
3. College Basketball Invitational (16 teams) - What is this, you ask? Here you go… We’re goin’ to the CBI! (I hope not). Basically, the entire tournament will be played on-campus. The finals will consist of a best-of-three, with the higher seed at home in Game 1 and 3. The committee for this tourney has not set qualification standards, so technically speaking they could take the Hokies no matter what. But obviously they want teams that are over .500. I’d say 3 is the magic number here. Could this be the New Orleans Bowl of basketball? I guess we shall see.

To summarize, 113 teams will be dancing this postseason. I now think VT will be one of those “elite” 113. The question is just — will it be the Big Dance limo style? Or will we be dancin’ at the local Y all doped up on Tussin and Bear Fights with tall boys in our pockets at the CBI?

TechHoops.com Recap | Box Score

Box Score

Behind the best first half of basketball Tech has played this year, the Hokies had to hold on in the second half to outlast f$u 89-80 at the Cassell tonight. Virginia Tech withstood a furious seminole rally in the final few minutes, which had me (and others, I’m sure) thinking of the wake choke in December.

The Hokies held a 16 point lead with 5:42 remaining, only to see it fall to 6 with 1:20 left. The Hokies were 4 of 9 from the line during that stretch, but eventually turned it around from the charity stripe to seal the victory.

The story of the night was the outstanding performance in the first half though. I’m sorry our DC fans missed most of it (wizards game went to OT), but I’m sure Gary will have the game film up soon. The first points scored by the Hokies tonight were by the player of the game, A.D. Vassallo. He drained a three to begin the scoring and went on to finish with 15 in the first half, 22 overall. A.D. was 4 of 8 from behind the arc, 6 of 12 from the field, and 6 of 8 from the line. The Hokies got out to an early lead behind great shooting and solid defense. f$u looked like a deer in headlights in the opening minutes, eventually having more turnovers (11) than field goals (8) in the first half. Check out these other first half stats:

• Tech shot 61% from the floor
• The Hokies out rebounded fsu 16-7
• VT had twice as many assists (10 to 5) as fsu
• Tech outscored the noles 18-8 in the paint.

Complete domination, which resulted in a 42-24 lead at halftime. Sort of reminded me of the second half of the bc game last year when we just opened up a can on the eagles. It was also similar to Saturday’s game at bc as five Hokies scored in double figures again (Vassallo, Thorns, Washington, Delaney, and Thompson). Notice who wasn’t on that list? Jeff Allen. That’s scary. You gotta love it.

Niemo’s Notes:

• The Hokies are 4-3 in ACC play and alone in 4th place!!! Even more amazing, Tech swept fsu in football and basketball! This hadn’t happened since the 1968-69 school year. Do you believe in miracles? Yes!
• With the win, the Hokies moved to 8-1 at home on the season and clinched a winning record at home! Tech has now had a winning record in the Cassell 46 of the 47 seasons they have played there! The lone exception was, of course, under ricky stokes in 2000-01.
• It is really great watching these freshmen grow. Each guy is getting better, with the exception of Allen (who is playing the same) and Hudson, who is playing more tentatively and is seeing his minutes shrink. But Delaney is becoming much more assertive on offense. He has a money pull-up jumper in transition and even had a blow-by to the hoop tonight, along with a clutch three. Bell is finding a niche as a high energy guy, although he draws fouls quicker than raw meat draws flies. Thorns and Thompson, see below.
• A.D. Vassallo broke out of his shooting slump. He was 2/15 on threes in his last 3 games before tonight, but hit 3/4 in the first half from behind the arc and 4/8 for the game. The 6/8 mark from the line was also an improvement of late. However, he was just 1/6 from the field in the 2nd half after going 5/6 in the 1st.
• J.T. Thompson is the new Dorenzo Hudson. When Hudson first joined the Hokies, he was aggressive out there - attacking the rim. Now, J.T. is playing like a beast. He got the start over Allen tonight and reached double digits for the third time in a row (all starts). J.T. is averaging 13 points and 10 rebounds over that stretch.
• Deron got his 3rd double-double of the season and 7th of his career with 14 points and 10 rebounds. But he was just 4/14 from the floor, including missing a left-handed dunk (why was he dunking with his off-hand?) and several layups.
• Jeff Allen looked rusty tonight. He scored 4 quick points after coming off the bench, but just never got into the offensive flow. The noles played some zone, which helped keep him from getting the ball, or collapsing on him when he did. VT just didn’t look for him much. He only played 20 minutes despite not being in foul trouble.
• Hank Thorns had his 2nd solid game in a row. He is Tech’s best ballhandler and is doing a good job of knowing when to penetrate now. Hank was 8/12 on the line down the stretch.
• 40 minutes?  Tech has yet to play two good halves in the same game, especially on offense.  In their first four ACC games, VT had lousy first halves and fell behind at halftime, before picking it up in the 2nd stanza.  In the last 3 games, the Hokies have played solid 1st halves and then struggled in the 2nd.  Tech has not outscored a team in both the 1st and 2nd half yet in ACC play.
• fsu hit 8/11 on threes in the 2nd half which is what got them back in the game. As absteele mentions, this has a lot to do with bad switches on the perimeter. The helper on a screen wasn’t picking up guard and leaving him wide open. Or, VT’s perimeter D was collapsing inside to help (which they should not have been doing since fsu has no inside game), which left perimeter shooters wide open on kick-outs. This is Tech’s biggest flaw on an otherwise terrific defense. Teams with good shooting guards continually kill VT. Luckily, fsu didn’t figure this out until it was too late.
• Tech had 17 turnovers for the game. They have been under 20 in all 4 ACC wins, and over 20 in all 3 losses.
• VT won the rebounding margin: 31-24. The Hokies have won the rebounding margin in EVERY ACC game. This is a huge turnaround from past years. And it isn’t just because of Allen since he didn’t play the last two games before tonight.
• The 56 points that VT allowed in the 2nd half was obviously a season worst. The 47 they scored in the 2nd half tied their high mark for a half on the season (2nd half vs ga tech).  But Tech’s offense was very sloppy in the 2nd half.  Most of those points were on free throws at the end when fsu started fouling with 2:10 to go.
• 89 is a season high for VT. In fact, this is the first time they won in ACC play when scoring more than 69 in regulation.
• Seriously, do NBA teams really need 5 or 6 timeouts per game? So boring (side note).
• Forget your popcorn, get your brooms ready! Here come the hoos on Saturday to get their whoopin’!

Cope-acabana’s Observations:

• The attendance for this game was a joke! It was a worse turnout than the terps game. And with about five minutes left in the second half, about a third of the crowd got up and left. SHAME on those who left early and SHAME on those season ticket holders who didn’t show up or give their tickets away - you people suck. You are all officially on my $h!t list, just under YouTube.
• The fans that were there (about 7,000) were nice and loud most of the time.
• Favorite chant tonight: “Just - like - foot - ball!” (clap clap clap clap clap)
• Some fans are trying to start a new tradition by shouting “Deron Washington” just after DWash releases a free throw attempt … it started catching on a bit toward the end of the game, but not sure it’ll stick.