On Tuesday night the Hokies avenged their most heart breaking loss of the season in big-time fashion, with an 80-58 dismantling of the wake forest demon deacons. Take a second to think back to December 23, 2007. Tech was facing wake in the ACC opener for both squads and the baby Hokies were about to get their first taste of life on the road in the ACC. No problem it seemed as the Hokies led by 8 with 1:22 remaining. But turnovers and mistakes doomed Tech down the stretch as they somehow seized defeat from the jaws of victory and lost on an Ishmael Smith buzzer beater. It was the kind of loss that could take a while to get over and could even affect the rest of the season if the hangover persisted.

Think back to the 2005-06 ACC opener. With less than a second remaining, it appeared as if the Hokies were about to upset the duke blue devils in Cameron, only to have things slip away as sean dockery hit a half court shot at the buzzer. This loss seemed to cast a shadow over the rest of the season, as Tech struggled to a 14-16 (4-12, 10th place in the ACC) record. And this was a fairly experienced team that never could really recover from this heart breaking defeat, especially compared to this year’s team.

I think this says a lot about the job that Seth Greenberg and his staff have done this season. Being able to put the past in the past and recover from a potentially devastating defeat is certainly not an easy thing to do, and is one of the more amazing accomplishments by the Hokie coaching staff and players this year.

There is no doubt that A.D. Vassallo has made the transformation from simply a stand still shooter to a complete basketball player. The 6’6” junior from Toa Baja, Puerto Rico is the Hokies leading scorer at 16.4 points per game, and is making a late season push for all-ACC honors. Though A.D. still has some work to do on his ball handling skills, he has pretty much mastered his runner/floater in the lane and greatly improved on his ability to drive to the hole and get to the free throw line. In addition he has also become maybe the best rebounding shooting guard in the conference.

When the Hokies need a basket, A.D. is definitely becoming our go to guy. Regardless of whether he makes first, second, or third team this year, look for Vassallo to be a strong candidate for first team all conference next year.

Seth Greenberg has compared this year’s clemson team to last year’s Tech squad. The tigers are led by seniors cliff hammonds, james mays, and sam perry. As we all remember, clemson spoiled the most emotional senior day in Hokie basketball history one year ago, upsetting Tech 75-74 in Cassell, raining on the parade of Dowdell, Gordon, Collins, and the rest of the Hokie seniors. Needless to say, we owe them big time payback in Littlejohn on Sunday.

If that’s not storyline enough, throw in the fact that a win will almost ensure Tech of an at large bid to the NCAA Tournament, giving them a much needed “signature” win, and this has easily become the most anticipated game of the season thus far. I think the Hokies match up well with the inside game of mays and trevor booker. Tech must avoid the slow start that has sometimes plagued them, and the x-factor may be freshman guard terrance oglesby. We cannot afford to let him have a matt causey-like performance on Sunday. Expect another thriller. I, for one, can’t wait to get things tipped off!

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