Back on the bubble! After three straight victories and a second week off within a month, the Virginia Tech Hokies are right back on the verge of getting an automatic bid to the Big Dance. But then again, who isn’t? By my count, in the six major “BCS” conferences alone, there are 25 teams with conference records within either two games over or two games under the .500 mark, putting themselves squarely on the bubble. 65 teams will go dancing, and right now there are 27 teams I consider locks (you know who you are, I’m not going to list all 27). There are 15 conferences who figure to only receive one bid, but 31 automatic bids will go out in all. What does all this mean? A lot of teams jockeying for an invite, other than that, go ask Joe Lunardi maybe.

What I do know is this, some teams will have their bubble burst on March 16. But for the Hokies, it’s separation time this week. Time to separate the contenders from the pretenders. If Tech can beat wake on senior night Tuesday night, that would push the Hokies to 9-6 in conference, clinching a winning record and drop the deacs to 6-9, guaranteeing them a below .500 conference record and end any hopes they have of entering March Madness. Rarely is a team with a winning record in the ACC not included in the NCAA Tournament and a 10-6 ACC team has never been excluded. As Seth Greenberg would say, the most important thing right now is the next 40 (sometimes 45) minutes. Take care of the next 40 minutes and things will take care of themselves.

Tuesday night will be the last appearance in the Cassell for Hokie seniors Marcus Travis and the human highlight film, Deron Washington. Does it seem like four years already have gone by since the lanky, 6’7” Washington first stepped on the court? During that time, Deron has left Hokie fans with countless gravity defying memories. He has also improved his game from simply being an athletic freak of nature, to a solid player, an excellent rebounder from the small forward position, and a good leader for this year’s crop of freshman.

Here are my favorite Deron highlights from his time in Blacksburg. (Don’t forget to scroll down and vote for yours!)

5. Deron swatting away greg paulus’ weak attempt at a game winning shot, thus preserving the Hokies victory in Cameron last year.
4. Deron’s dunk at ga tech earlier this year
3. Deron soaring through the air & jamming on boston college last year in the Cassell.
2. Deron’s game winning bank against uva, making the Hokies the first ACC team to win at the john.
1. And finally, you guessed it……Deron, over paulus, in Cameron. I still love to check out the astonished looks on the faces over the devil fans/geeks sitting behind the basket as they are watching this transpire. Priceless!!

Thanks Deron!

Popularity: 3% [?]