BLACKSBURG, VA.
At ACC men's basketball media day in November, you couldn't pay anyone to talk to Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg. Or Hokie forward Carlos Dixon. Or guard Jamon Gordon.
While other conference players and coaches were swamped in a throng of reporters, the Virginia Tech representatives sat largely by themselves, aside from the occasional venture from a reporter concerning the difficulties of entering the best basketball conference in the nation.
Yet, on January 27, 2005, just two months later, you could swear you were in some kind of college basketball wonderland. Or hell, depending on where you hold your allegiances. Despite predictions for a finish in the cellar of the ACC, Virginia Tech sat in fourth-place at 4-2.
"Who would have thought that Virginia Tech would go down to Georgia Tech and won," Virginia center Elton Brown said as he answered questions in the team meeting room last Saturday. "I'm sure nobody in here thought that, and if you did, then I don't believe you."
Sitting at Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, the stands bounced like it was football season. The fans were obnoxious as always -- yet the Hokies finally have a basketball team to be obnoxious about. The capacity crowd of 9,847 rumbled the foundation of the arena with every Hokie success.
Though it pains me as I type it, at the very least, Virginia Tech proved that they can compete with any team in the ACC. They will not win the conference, instead finishing in the middle of the pack. But they have and will continue to be the biggest surprise in the ACC this year.
In a strong contrast, frustration marred the Cavaliers during the initial 20 minutes of play. Teammates yelled back and forth at one another on the floor. After a first half turnover, sophomore forward Jason Cain kicked a chair on the Cavalier bench upon being removed from the game, then was quickly reprimanded by Virginia assistant coach Walt Fuller.
After this peak of aggravation, however, the team did play through stints of the game with heart. Forward Devin Smith created the elusive four-point play with 3:25 remaining to bring the score to 70-67. Elton Brown hit a lay-up with nine seconds on the clock to bring Virginia to their high-water mark at 75-73, but then missed deep coverage on defense to allow the Hokies to pull ahead for good.
"Early in the second half, we fell down 16," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "We came back, we showed courage, we showed toughness, but you can't dig a hole like that."
What is being decided in the next few weeks is who will sit with the adults and who will eat at the kiddie table in the 2005 ACC. Outside of all previous speculation, the Hokies have proven thus far their ability to sit far above the cellar in the conference. The Cavaliers have much less to brag about, firmly exhibited by the infighting which occurred in the first half.
Yet, what happened after the buzzer sounded on the 79-73 Virginia Tech victory is what pristinely exemplifies the new mentality of the Hokies. Instead of rushing the court, as fans did after a win in Blacksburg two years ago, the Hokie faithful turned the decibel level down for the first time in the evening and quietly left Cassell Coliseum.
As painful as it is in Charlottesville, the program has earned that kind of swagger.
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