Update: For those of you that watched the florida state NIT game Tuesday night, you probably noticed it was more empty than a SEC Tournament game. Seriously, let’s not embarrass our school by only have a few thousand at the game on Wednesday. If you are on the fence about going, YOU ARE GOING! This team is fun to watch. Consider yourself lucky to get to see Deron dunk one (or two or three) more time(s). And it isn’t like we are kentucky or unc, going to the NIT should be a big deal to us. We didn’t make the postseason from 1997-2004. I’ll get off my soap box now…

THE SETUP

“Well then I guess there’s only one thing left to do… Win the whole [bleepin'] thing!” -Tom Berenger in Major League.

Like it or not, deserving or not, the Hokies are in the 71st National Invitational Tournament as a #1 seed. And this is a good opportunity for the Hokies. This team is young and have every significant player back except for Deron Washington next year. Any chance this team gets to play together is a good thing, and this tournament beats the crap out of the one VT played in up in Canada in September, eh?

ACC COY Seth Greenberg must dip into his magical bag of motivational speeches and tell Tech to forget what might have been and focus on the “what is”. A.D. Vassallo said all the right things on Saturday, saying he just wanted to keep playing wherever, now the team has to prove it.

I’ve always said ESPN Classic, who is broadcasting this game, should have a sister station called “ESPN Crapper”. That’s where they’d show replays of football games with 6-3 final scores, every duke-unc football would be an automatic showing, and they’d join blowouts in progress once teams had cleared their benches. Well, if I have my way, this game will be an “Instant Crapper” as I’m hoping the Hokies will come out focused and motivated, not disappointed, and lay the woodshed to the visiting morgan state bears from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, or “MEAC” as they say on the mean streets of Fairfax, VA where I grew up.

THE NUMBERS:

• VT leads the series 6-0, including four wins from 2002-2005. Deron Washington, A.D. Vassallo, and Cheick Diakite have all played against morgan state.
• VT is 8-0 all time at the Cassell in NIT play! Considering they could get up to three home games if they keep winning, I like our odds of making NYC and MSG.

VT’s NIT HISTORY

This year marks Virginia Tech’s ninth appearance in the NIT, which used to be the premiere basketball tournament until the 1960s. In fact, the Hokies 1973 NIT Championship is regarded as the biggest moment in program history by many, including me. In that game, Bobby Stevens recovered his own miss and hit a 12 foot jumpshot at the buzzer for a 92-91 overtime win in the championship game. The Hokies won their four NIT games that year by a total of seven points and each of the last three wins were by one point. I watched the tape of the game in the VT library and I have to tell you, I got chills when Stevens hit the winning shot, even 25 years later.

Tech also won the NIT back in 1995, again in dramatic fashion as Shawn Smith hit two free throws with less then five seconds left for a 65-65 overtime win over marquette (for you hoops junkies, William Gates from the movie Hoop Dreams was on that marquette team but did not play in the game). This tournament included one of my favorite all-time VT games, a 64-61 win over new mexico state on a Travis Jackson three-pointer in the final seconds. The win sent VT to New York and nearly sent me to the hospital. I was one of the first to try and jump on the court but one of the cops caught me in mid-air and slammed me down onto the railing right on my twig and two berries. It was still worth it. After the championship game, students flooded Main Street and it had to be closed off.

The Hokies finished third in the NIT in 1984 using an ABA style multi-colored ball. Their last appearance in the NIT was three years ago. VT won at home over temple before falling to a memphis squad that included several of the players they have this year.

THE OPPONENT

• morgan state university bears (used to be the golden bears yet their colors are orange and blue… go figure) is a historically black college
• Founded: 1867
• Location: Baltimore, MD (Malcolm Delaney’s area)
• Conference: MEAC
• Enrollment: 6,000 and like VT, have a student from all 50 states
• Were just 4-26 two years ago, 13-18 last year, and 22-10 this year. Based on that, they improve by nine wins each year and will lose this game.
• Have a women’s bowling team
• Head Coach Todd Bozeman coached another golden bears team, at cal, and coached Jason Kidd. He won the MEAC COY this season.
• This marks msu’s first postseason appearance on the D-I level.
• morgan state won the MEAC regular season title.
• Boubacar Coly was the MEAC Defensive POY. He averages 11.1 rebounds (4th in the nation) and 2.6 blocks. But he is just 6’9″ so I assume this was padded by weaker competition.
• Jamar Smith, the MEAC POY, missed the MEAC title game with a foot injury. His status is uncertain for this game and he has missed three of the last five games.

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