Update: All 3 Hokie 2008 recruits, Davila, Swindle, and Durant, have signed with VT. 

Point Guard Kendall Durant (no relation to you-know-who) and Center Gene Swindle have both verballed to the Hokies and are expected to sign on the dotted line this week as members of the 2008 Recruiting Class.

Durant is a lengthy 6’3″ and will add some much needed depth at the guard position.  He is from New Hampshire but plays for Boo Williams (Tidewater) AAU team. Durant had offers from penn state, colorado, and the gamecocks of south cack-a-lacka. He was rated a 3-star prospect by both Rivals.com and Scout.com.

Swindle brings some much needed height to the Hokies. He stands 6’11″ and weights a robust 260 lbs. He is considered a project and is rated just a 2-star by Rivals.com and Scout.com. Swindle had offers from penn state, nebraska, and Greenberg’s former team, south florida. He previously committed to south florida before re-opening his recruiting. Swindle is from Miami, FL, and visited Tech this past weekend.

2008 Recruiting Class

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Our friends at ACC Nation posted a column about Tim Peeler’s new book, When March Went Mad, the story of n.c. state’s 1983 national championship run. For me, I have to credit the pack of ’83 for my first ever anti-uva feelings. I was not a fan of ralph sampson and the hoos in the early 80′s, given the hoos’ status among the ACC elite. In ’83 I was a shooting guard on my junior high team, and I sided with the little guys like Derek Wittenberg and Sidney Lowe rather than the Ralph Sampson’s of the college basketball world. Along came the cardiac pack in ’83, who knocked the hoos off in the ACC Championship and then again in the Elite Eight, ending uva’s best chance ever of winning the national championship (’83 was sampson’s senior season). Besides the nat’l championship game, those two games were the sweetest of state’s most improbable run.

Click here to order When March Went Mad by Tim Peeler.

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If you are a reader of TechHoops.com, then you should be aware of all the coaching changes that happened in the offseason. The CT ran an article this morning chronicling the progress of the three new members of Coach Greenberg’s cabinet: Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach David Jackson, Assistant Coach James Johnson, and Director of Basketball Operations Bill Old.

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The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors approved the construction of a new basketball practice facility for the men’s and women’s programs. The only major difference in the design since the BOV’s announcement of the facility in March is the elimination of a weight room for Olympic sports teams.

The facility, to be located on Washington Street, should be ready to open in the Summer of 2009.

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Jeff Allen became the first ACC Rookie of the Week for the 2007-08 season after his 19 point, 11 rebound, 4 steal, and 2 block performance against elon on Friday.

Deron Washington is the only other Hokie to have won ACC Rookie of the Week honors.

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Exclusive Highlights from Virginia Tech’s victory over elon. Click here for our Game Recap.

Introductions:

First Half Highlights:

Second Half Highlights:

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In case you haven’t noticed, and judging by the attendance, you haven’t, Hokie basketball is back! The Baby Hokies never trailed in this game, controlled the game throughout, but could not put away the pesky phoenix due to poor free throw shooting in the second half (stop the presses).

The Hokies had to work harder in this one than people may have expected, mainly thanks to horrific second half foul shooting (13/26), but found a way to hold on and win. Tech took a 4-2 lead early and never lost it. VT led by as many as 15, but the game remained in single digits most of the second half.

Jeff Allen (Fr) led the Hokies with 19 points, including 13 in the first half. I’m not going to anoint him the best Hokie forward since Ace Custis just yet, but… Jeff was the most impressive freshman of the four that played tonight. He was a beast on the boards. He was a force on offense, including a three-pointer. His only glitch was that he was beaten in the low post a couple of times in the first half and gave up some easy hoops. But after that, he showed his shot blocking presence with two or three blocks. Allen had a double-double, chipping in 10 rebounds.

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Niemo continues to make the rounds over the airwaves with an appearance on The Sports Dominion this week. You can listen to the entire show by clicking the play button below, or you can skip ahead to listen to Niemo at 17:22 into the podcast.

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The Sports Dominion is a news partner of TechHoops.com. You can find them on the web at thesportsdominion.com.

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Gameday Thoughts: I feel like today is Christmas Day, yet I have no idea what I’m going to get. This team is mostly a complete mystery at this point. How will Deron and A.D. be as leaders? Which freshman will step up? Can we develop an inside game for the first time since the mid-90s?

Expect Thorns and Vassallo to start at guard, with Deron, Allen, and Diakite down low. Deron will likey guard the other team’s best player (in this case, #10 brett james) with Vassallo on the slower, less quick player. Deron will be our stopper, at least until Hudson comes on board.

I still think Delaney will be the starting PG by ACC part of the season. Expect to see a lot of him at PG and SG today.

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* Statistical category leader from last year that is returning this season

Hey, Hokie fans, hit I-81 a little early on Friday and head on down for your fsu weekend appetizer: the Virginia Tech men’s basketball team makes their 2007-08 debut when they take on the elon fightin’ Christians… er, I mean phoenix, at Cassell Coliseum. In all likelihood, VT will welcome their 4 millionth fan to Cassell during this game!!!

If you haven’t been reading TechHoops.com (shame on you), you might want to buy a program because there will be a lot of new faces for the Hokies. The last time the Hokies walked off the Cassell Coliseum in the spring, VT said goodbye to over 4500 points, 1500 rebounds, 1000 assists, and 500 steals. Tech lost five seniors (Dowdell, Gordon, Collins, Sailes, and Tucker) along with two transfers/deportations (munson and krabbendam). Baby Hokie Roster

That said, the Hokies welcome their biggest and arguably most talented recruiting class ever, and that’s even without gus gilchrist or Darrion Pellum. [Note: gilchrist has recently verballed to the communist party, aka, the maryland terps.]

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TechHoops.com would like to welcome the Cassell Crusader, a new member of TechHoops.com’s Student Section, where students voice their opinions on Virgina Tech basketball.

The Cassell Crusader is running the Student Government Assocation (SGA) sponsored “Hokies on Fire” Campaign to boost student spirit at home games and hopefully set some new traditions for VT Basketball. Click here to read more about the Cassell Crusader.

The “Hokies on Fire” SGA Program was created in the hope that we can mirror the success of the Hokie Effect football campaign. Hokies on Fire started out that way, but I hope it will become so much bigger than that. Our objective for this program is to dramatically increase awareness that Virginia Tech IS a basketball school.

Virginia Tech basketball needs to be on student calendars. Home games CANNOT be an afterthought. The sale of t-shirts, campus posters, and reminders about upcoming games will increase overall awareness of Hokie basketball within the student body.

The next step is to ensure that when people show up for home games, they are amazed with the atmosphere of Cassell Coliseum. It is a fact that the intensity of the student fans has literally changed the outcome of games. Cassell may be smaller than Lane, but that doesn’t mean it should not be as loud.

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This Year’s Motto: Can’t Tell Anyone Without a Program!

Outlook:

Let’s skip right to my conclusion before I give the evidence. Gone are a lot of points (4500 to be approximate) and leadership. With the extreme youth, inexperience, and lack of proven leadership on the 2007-08 Hokie team, anything over .500 is a successful season. With a minimum of 31 games on the slate, that means 16-15 is the over/under. A NIT trip this season is about the best VT can hope for.

Returning Players:

Jamon Gordon? Gone. Zabian Dowdell? Adios. Coleman Collins? Thanks for the memories. Markus Sailes? Aloha means goodbye. Chris Tucker? See ya. Robern Krabbendam? Don’t let the door hit ya in the… Nigel Munson? We hardly knew you. Wave bye-bye to over 4500 points, 1500 rebounds, 1000 assists, and 500 steals.

That’s right, VT returns just four players who have played more than 40 minutes of Hokie basketball. That’s only one game’s worth!

Deron Washington will be the senior leader for this inexperienced bunch. This will be a complete 180 in terms of roles for the Human Highlight Film. He’s had Z and Jamon as leaders his first three years, while he could just do his thing — dunk, and dunk hard. Now Deron will be called upon to set an example for the baby Hokies.

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From the Collegiate Inn of Blacksburg, a TechHoops.com sponsor -

Come join us for the Collegiate Inn Open House, located at Attitudes Lounge in the Holiday Inn at 900 Prices Fork Road. The Open House will be on Saturday, November 10, from 9 AM to 2 PM. We will have food, refreshments, entertainment for the kids, an opportunity to view our model rooms, and prizes – including an opportunity to win an all Expenses Paid Weekend for any Virginia Tech 2008 home football game. All attendees will receive a prize, so come join us for food and fun.

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On my way out of Baby D Stadium in the ATL last night, I couldn’t help but savor the victory. I love winning. This caused my buddies and me to put our index fingers in the air in a defiant #1 symbol and whoop and holler at each other in celebration. Maybe not the classiest thing, but considering we were at the world’s largest nerd convention (georgia tech), there wasn’t much fear of being pummeled. We weren’t in lil’ havana (aka the Orange Bowl).

Then things got weird. No less than three gt fans yelled the following at me over the course of the night: “How about that bc game?” or “Way to lose to bc.”

Um, hello, georgia tech lost to bc also! In fact, they were soundly beaten 24-10 (it wasn’t that close) by the flutie flakes. I’m sorry, but if you are going to talk trash about a school by referencing a loss, at least pick a team you beat (hasn’t happened in this case) or a school you haven’t played (lsu). You would think nerds would be a little smarter than that. By the third guy to say this, I was nearly beside myself laughing.

Fact: VT – 1st place in the division, gt – FINISHED. ‘Nuff said. Take your whoopin’ and go home and play with your protractors and other nerd-linger gear.

Niemo’s Random Thought: Wild Turkey = pain. Why does one of the worst tasting bourbons have to be almost-kinda-sorta named for our mascot? The end result is I keep drinking the stuff game after game and end up feeling like 2 lbs of poop in a 1 lb bag, as I do today. Thank God for long weekends.

If only Wild Turkey was called Wild wahoo or something, then I’d never touch the stuff and be able to live a much happier life.

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I ran across this good synopsis from The Sporting News of all the preseason men’s basketball tournaments that ACC schools are playing in. Should make for an exciting November and December.

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