That’s right. Tyrone Appleton, who led midland college of Texas to the national JUCO title in 2007 has signed with kansas.

The Hokies will host defending Big Ten regular season and tournament champions, wisconsin on Monday, December 1 to tip off the 10th annual ACC-Big Ten challenge. This will be Tech’s first ever meeting with the badgers on the hardwood.

This is definitely one of the marquee games of the 2008 challenge, and a clear sign of respect for the Hokies from the schedule makers and ESPN. Other big match-ups include duke at purdue (12/2), clemson at illinois (12/2), ohio state at miami (12/2), indiana at wake forest (12/3), and unc vs. michigan state (12/3). However, the Hokies and badgers will be the first game of the challenge and the only game on the 1st. It’s got the making for a big-time non-conference tilt in the Cassell, which has been rare this decade.

The Hokies are 1-2 all time in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Tech defeated iowa in 2006 and lost to ohio state in 2005 and penn state in 2007.

Check out hokiesports.com for more info.

Washington averaged 17 points, 6 boards, 2.67 assists, and 2 blocks per game, and shot 5 of 12 of his three point attempts. You can read more about his performance at hokiesports.com.

Found this 2008-09 ACC preview on a random blog tonight. Hokies are picked 5th.

Frankie Allen, who coached the Hokies for four seasons from 1987-1991, is now the head coach of the women’s program at maryland-eastern shore. Coach Allen wasn’t too successful at Tech even though Bimbo Coles played for him during Allen’s first three years.

Allen went 56-61 during his four years, but only had one winning season - his first when the Hokies finished 19-10. However, the Hokies did not play in the postseason that year, despite their strong record. I was a freshman in 1989 and recall an Allen-coached Hokie victory over a Top 25 ranked alabama team that resulted in a massive celebration on campus, and specifically in the “prairie”. I look back at that and laugh because Tech basketball has come a long way since then. Now we are beating the likes of duke and carolina. Call me crazy, but I don’t think a victory over the crimson tide would trigger a similar response.

While this isn’t directly related to Virgina Tech basketball, it is worth posting. ecu head coach, Mack McCarthy, was given a long term contract by the pirates after leading ecu to a 11-19 season. Now you are probably wondering what’s so impressive about that. Well, Mack, a Virginia Tech alum, did not have much to work with. He took over for former Virginia Tech head coach ricky stokes, who went 14-44 overall and 3-27 in C-USA play over a two year span. Combined with ricky’s 46-69 record at VT, that makes stokes 60-113 (35%) overall and 21-73 (22%) in A-10/Big East/C-USA conference play as a head coach in six seasons.

Coach McCarthy led the pirates to 5 conference wins in Conference USA this season, the most ever by ecu since joining C-USA and they defeated n.c. state in December for ecu’s first win ever against an ACC school.

I used to work with Mack when he led chattanooga to the Sweet 16. I couldn’t be happier for my fellow Hokie, and hope his success continues in Greenville (as long as they don’t beat Tech).

Read the rest of the story from the Raleigh News & Observer.

Niemo’s Note: How stokes got another job is beyond me after how he nose-dived our program into the ground. I guess that’s what you get when your [stokes’s] former coach [terry holland at uva] is the AD at a school [ecu].

Coach Greenberg is taking a different look at non-conference scheduling, and I couldn’t be happier with his strategy. Check it out (along with his quick look at the ACC next season) at the Roanoke Times.

Box Score | Buy Tickets Now!

The Hokies jumped out to a quick lead that they never relinquished, enabling Virginia Tech to cruise to a 75-49 victory over uab in the 2nd round of the NIT. The Hokies continued their sharp shooting from their opening round game. They opened the game 7 of 7, and finished shooting 47% from the field and 43% from 3 point land. In addition to the impressive performance on offense, the Hokies shut down uab’s best player, Robert Vaden. Vaden, who averages 21.4 points per game, only scored 9 on 3 of 17 shooting.

Unlike the opening 10 minutes of the morgan state game, this game was never close. In fact, uab coach Mike Davis called a timeout 28 seconds into the game. I’ve never seen a team call timeout that soon after tipoff. A Deron flop (successful one) and three pointer led to the T-O call. It didn’t help because A.D. Vassallo drained a 3 pointer 30 seconds later. The Hokies had a 10-point lead at the first TV timeout.

Once again, the Hokies had a balanced attack on offense. This has been a trademark of the Hokies offense ever since the loss at Chapel Hill in mid-February. A.D. Vassallo led all scorers with 18, followed by Malcolm Delaney with 17, and Deron Washington with 16. This threesome shot 60% from the behind the arc. J.T. Thompson provided a nice spark off the bench (again). He finished with 8 points on 4 of 4 shooting and 7 boards in 22 minutes.

The Hokies’ held the blazers to 18 points below their season average, and just 3 three-pointers on 18 attempts. That’s 17% percent. They didn’t do that much better from inside the arc, shooting 36% from the entire field. The Hokies also forced 16 uab turnovers.

Other Notes:

• The battle underneath was pretty even: 37 to 36, Hokies.
• Virginia Tech had 16 assists.
• The crowd was doing the wave before the game.
• The crowd thanked Coach Greenberg (again) towards the end of the game.
• Greenberg returned the favor by applauding the fans at the end of the game.
• VT improves to 10-0 all time in NIT home games.

Did I mention the crowd? I was not at the game, but I did speak to Niemo, who was there. According to him it was one of the most electric crowds at Cassell ever. This seems to come up every year, but the Athletic Department really needs to find a way to get the students better seats. If there is a silver lining to being snubbed by the NCAA, it’s that the NIT has given not only our team, but our fans, the opportunity to show a national TV audience what we are made of.

Thanks to tonight’s win, the fans are rewarded one last time with a home game on Wednesday vs. the second seeded ole miss rebels. The game will be on ESPN2. Tipoffs will be 7 p.m. The winner advances to the NIT Final Four in the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden.

Before the game, the Hokies honor Head Coach Seth Greenberg with a game ball from his 300th career coaching victory, the win over morgan state.

Niemo’s Notes:

• VT won by 20+…. that means another Bear Fight! (Jay-ger Bomb and Car Bomb back-to-back… are we going to Bear Fight our way through the NIT?)
• Malcolm Delaney is playing out of his mind right now. He looks like Zabian Dowdell on offense… only he looks like a seasoned Dowdell. The sky is the limit for this kid. He’s averaging 15 points per game over the last four games. But here’s the really scary part: he’s 21/31 from the field (68%) and 12/16 on threes (75%). Dude cannot miss. FYI: He’s the only VT player I’ve tried to arm-curl I failed on… hmm.
• As Wick said, the crowd was unbelievable. The best atmosphere I’ve ever seen for a VT basketball game, PERIOD. That’s because when we play unc or duke, 25% of the crowd is for them. And this crowd was much better than the uva @ VT crowd this year. As Wick said, get the students better seats, Weaver. They make a difference. Or take Ron Franklin’s word (ESPN play-by-play announcer), “This crowd is incredible.”
• The Hokies hit their first seven shots tonight. That means that Tech hit 26 of 30 shots from the start of the 2nd half of the morgan state game through the seventh shot against uab.
• Tech is 14-0 this season when leading at the half.
• I’d hate to be the wife of uab head coach mike davis. I have never seen someone complain so much. It turned the officials completely against him. There were several points where they told him to shut up, and finally T’d him up.
• I hope 2008 signee Durant can play, because Hank Thorns is just awful right now. He was 0-6 from the field. He’s gone from bad, to good, to a power play for the other team.
• Vaden, who as Wick mentioned averages 21, had 2 at the half. O-ver-rated!
• VT shot just 57% from the line but uab was AWFUL, hitting 4/14 for 28%. Crowd? Thank you.
• If only the NCAA Tournament was like bowl games. We’d get bids just based on our crowd. We were known for having a great football fan base. Scratch that. We have a great fan base. Let’s keep it up. No more 4-5k crowds for basketball games.

Cope-acabana’s Notes:

Niemo and I were waiting in line (which is an outrage, don’t they know who we are?) outside of the Cassell with our entourage prior to the game. It was near freezing and with the wind chill, it was well below freezing. Then, Seth Greenberg came out of nowhere and walked up to the doors on the east side of the Cassell and told them to open up and let us in. The doors weren’t supposed to open until 7:30 and he had them opened at 7:15 … and the Greenberg legend continues to grow.

Wick’s source was correct. This was the most enthusiastic, intense and in-tune-with-the-game crowd the Cassell has seen all year and according to my source at the game, it was the best crowd in 10 years. I echo Wick’s sentiment that Virginia Tech needs to find a way to get more students at the games. For crying out loud, the fans were in the seats 1 hour and 45 minutes before tip-off and were cheering the Hokies as they stretched … seriously. Tech’s players were stretching and all 9,000-plus fans were chanting “LET’S GO HOKIES!”

During the uab player introductions, you couldn’t hear a word the PA announcer was saying through the deafening chants of LET’S GO HOKIES!” I honestly got chills it was that impressive and Tech players could feel it, too.

Oh, and Niemo arm-curled a fan waiting in line. The fan recognized the greatness that is Niemo and begged to be arm curled. Niemo obliged.

Box Score

There was no bubble bursting letdown tonight as A.D. Vassallo tied his season high of 27 points to lead the top seeded Hokies to a 94-62 victory over the 8th seeded morgan state bears in the opening round of the NIT. Coach Greenberg earned his 300th career victory, and the Hokies are now 9-0 all-time in NIT play at Cassell.

The game was tight for the first 10 minutes. morgan state led 16-14 at the 11:57 mark thanks to sharp shooting and out-rebounding Tech 8-3. But then the Hokies started to break away by going on a 26-9 run to close the half. The bears just couldn’t find a defensive scheme to cool down A.D. morgan state switched from zone to man-to-man back to zone, but nothing worked as A.D. scored 19 of the Hokies’ 40 first half points. Vassallo, my player of the game, shot 11 of 14 from the floor including 3 of 5 from behind the arc. He easily would have topped his career high of 29 if he had played his normal minutes, but Coach Greenberg pulled him early given Tech’s large lead.

The second half was a shooting clinic. There were enough great plays to fill an entire Hokie highlight DVD. Tech made their first 15 shots of the second half. The first miss came at the 5:08 mark when a Terrell Bell three pointer caught iron. Tech finished the second half shooting 19 of 23 from the floor (83%). That’s nasty, just nasty. Overall, the Hokies shot 65% from the field, 82% from the line, and 57% from three point land. They quickly made up that early rebounding deficit and finished the game with 14 more boards than the bears.

You don’t expect to see the third team play in March, but it happened tonight. Marcus Travis, Paul Debnam, Terrance Vinson, and Tom Amalfe all got some quality PT tonight. Debnam and Amalfe each scored 2 points. Debnam now has 8 career points and Amalfe has 4. What a great opportunity for these guys, especially on their home court.

The Hokies move on to the second round against the #5th seeded uab blazers, who upset fourth seed vcu 81-78 in Richmond tonight. The game will be at Cassell, and probably on Monday. uab is coached by former indiana head man, Mike Davis. I’ll leave the rest of the uab preview to the King.

Niemo’s Notes (presented by Niemo):

• My “player” of the game? The fans. We were just 200 short of a sellout. Compared to other NIT crowds, that is amazing. Thank you. Seth thanks you. The team thanks you. Amazing support. You gotta love our fans.
• 20+ point wins equals a Bear Fight (Jay-ger bomb and car bomb back-to-back). I did mine. Did you?
• The Hokies are now 9-0 all time at home in NIT games. 10-0 on Monday???
• The 94 points VT scored marks their season high. 92 against gt at home on 2/23 was the only other time they hit the 90 mark. The last time VT scored this many was when they beat #1 unc at home last January, also scoring 94.
• Jeff Allen added 3 more steals to his VT freshman record, now at 65.
• Seth has 87 wins at VT, 108 at s. florida, and 105 at long beach state.
• This is the 2nd time Seth has reached 20 wins at VT, and 2nd year in a row.
• Ten different Hokies made a shot in this game. Of those 10, Thorns was the only player that didn’t shoot at least 50% (NASTY!).
• VT hit six three-pointers in the first 13 minutes of the game. I couldn’t help but think, “We’ve finally found the range from three-point distance… and now they are moving it back by a foot next year. Might take us another 15 years to be good at threes.”
• Witcher had a powerful dunk. Continues to show bursts, but needs to be more consistent.
• VT is a NCAA team. Period.

Check out Coach Greenberg on Mike & the Mad Dog earlier today, courtesy of WFAN in NYC.