Oh Mark Byington, we hardly knew ye. Virginia Tech assistant basketball coach Mark Byington spent one season in Blacksburg and already, he’s off to greener pastures, which, to be honest, isn’t hard to do.

Byington is leaving the Hokies to take over as the head coach of georgia southern, a team that inexplicably beat the Hokies last season.

The eagles fired their coach, Charlton “C.Y.” Young, after four seasons in which he led them to a 42-84 overall record and 26-46 in Southern Conference play. Last season, the eagles were 14-19 overall and 7-11 in conference play.

Before coming to Blacksburg, Byington spent nine seasons at the college of charleston, six of which were as Bobby Cremins’ top assistant. He also served as charleston’s interim head coach during the final month of the 2011-12 season.

So now the Hokies have lost a player, Robert Brown, and a coach, from a team that by most standards, greatly underachieved.

You can’t fault any coach for taking a head coaching job, but you have to wonder if he didn’t see much of a future for VT hoops.

Updated with Niemo’s Notes…

Earlier this morning, Niemo wrote a post title “Transfer Train” and addressed a rumor going around that an unnamed player was going to transfer from Virginia Tech’s basketball team. Shock of shocks, right? Yeah. Not really.

A few hours later, the Washington Post’s Mark Giannotto posted to his @HokieJournal Twitter account that Robert Brown, the sophomore guard that struggled mightily this season, would transfer to a school closer to his home. Giannotto cited Brown’s father as the source.

Perhaps surprisingly to some, Brown was not the player to which Niemo was referring in his post. We still won’t name that player, but Brown may not be the last Hokie to exist stage right in what has become an annual right of passage for some players at Virginia Tech.

And while some Hokie fans are already dismissing this as no big deal, likely because of the lackluster season Brown had, he showed that he could play as a true freshman and merely struggled this season. It’s hard to imagine he would have extended that slump into his junior year. But, we’ll never know now.

And while he can certainly be replaced, losing another player to a transfer is a psychological blow to the team and its fans. Just two days ago, we watched as a former Hokie, Tyrone Garland, hit a game-winning shot to send his new team, la salle, into the Sweet 16. In the opening round, Garland scored 22 points.

We’ve also seen former Hokie Ben Boggs make the NCAA tournament a couple of times with valpo. Dorian Finney-Smith is redshirting this year, but his new team, florida, is also in the Sweet 16.

James Johnson may have some talented players coming in next year, but he’s going to lack veteran leadership in a big way.

Niemo’s Notes:

This one is odd to me because my sources told me back after Robert’s junior year in high school in Florida that he needed to get away from home, and that’s part of the reason why he went to Hargrave for his senior year.  I guess three years was enough for him (and I’m not surprised to hear that his father was the source for this announcement… I’ll leave it at that).  That said, I’ll believe it when I hear it from Robert and VT.  Not saying this story is wrong (**cough** uva and gt to the Big Ten **cough**), but just because the Post posts it doesn’t make me a complete believer – ARTICLE

Other random thoughts:

• I guess Robert will have to get a new twitter handle (RbrownVT_1).
• Brown would be the 5th Hokie to transfer in the last 27 months (Boggs, Atkins, Garland, and Doo Doo).
• Brown was 3rd on the team with 8.3 ppg this year, up from 6.8 as a freshman.
• Through the first 8 games of this past season, Robert was averaging 14.4 ppg, shooting 45% from the field and 37% on 3-pointers.
• In his final 23 games he averaged just 6.2 ppg, shot just 27%, and made just 11/67 3-pointers (16%).

Let me add a note about those shooting woes — keep in mind he had a foot injury in the preseason (July — and he had surgery) and that may have impacted his ability to work on his shooting (I know, why did it impact him after a month instead of right away).  Just sayin’.  It could have had limited his reps and taken a toll as the season went on and he got beat up.  Maybe… maybe not.  We’ll see the next season he plays if his numbers take off, then we may have a clue that it was reps or work ethic.

Final Assessment: This is obviously devastating for the Hokies’ program.  With EG gone, Brown was still one of Tech’s best players and had two years of experience.  Freshman don’t star in the ACC, especially guys that weren’t that highly rated.  So to think a Clark or Emelogu or a German are going to come in and fill his void next year — it ain’t gonna happen.  Smith, the transfer, will help as a third-year sophomore, but he doesn’t have the height to guard other ACC shooting guards.

And this is all assuming Brown played the exact same way next year.  Assuming he progressed with a healthy offseason and a good (not even needing a great) work ethic on his shot, he’d have been a solid player next year.  This just makes the outlook for next season that much bleaker.  In all honesty, I think we have to start looking multiple years down the road now as a program, and that means getting our young guys loads of experience next season, even though it may be brutal at times, to help them down the road.

Click on the image above to join our Yahoo! bracket challenge. If, for some reason, ricky “program bomb” stokes managed to screw up the link, the group ID is 161687, and the password is: programbomb.

Who’s got liberty going all the way? Personally, I’m going with Gene Swindle and the james madison dukes.

Introducing the first ever printable NCAA tournament bracket from TechHoops.com.

Click on the image above to view and download the PDF, or click here.

It’s not the way Erick Green wanted to end his career, but with the way the Hokies have played this season, today’s 17-point loss to nc state is hardly surprising.

Green hit his first two shots of the game, back-to-back threes, but was ice cold from that point on, scoring just 15 points on 5 of 19 shooting, as the 12th-seeded Hokies lost 63-80 to the 4th-seeded wolfpack.

The Winchester Rifle(man) really struggled. He had four turnovers in the first half, equalling his season-high for a game. Lorenzo Brown did a terrific job of shutting down the ACC Player of the Year. Of course, Green still got 15 points, so even on a bad day, he’s still good enough for 15.

Jarell Eddie played his best game in more than two months, scoring 21 points in the loss, the most he’s scored since he had 21 in a home loss to boston college on Jan. 9.

Outside of Eddie and Green, the Hokies didn’t get much from the rest of the team. Cadarian Raines had 8 points, pretty much all on dunks, and Marquis Rankin also had 8 points.

Tech managed to keep it relatively close in the first half and even led for a bit, but Richard Howell pretty much had his way with the Hokies inside the paint. Howell scored a game-high 22 points, but got help from C.J. Leslie, who had 15, while Scott Wood and T.J. Warren each added 13 points.

The Hokies have one of the worst defenses in the country and it was on full display Thursday afternoon.

It’s sad to think that this was how Erick Green ended his career at Virginia Tech. There is no post-season. No NIT. No CBI. Nothing. He’s done as a college player.

Earlier in the week, it was reported that the Hokies practiced with metal chairs on the court, presumably as teammates, sympbolizing the level of help Green got from the rest of the team this season. Apparently that didn’t help with motivation.

The Hokies, under first-year head coach James Johnson, finish 13-19, their worst season in 10 years, when they went 12-17 under ricky “program bomb” stokes.

Considering Erick Green became the first player from the ACC since 1957 to lead the nation in scoring, it would have been criminal to leave him off the ACC’s first team.

The ACC announced its first, second and third teams today and The Winchester Rifle(man) made the first team, as expected. He is joined by Mason Plumlee (duke), Shane Larkin (miami), Joe Harris (uva) and Richard Howell (nc state).

Green scored 35 points in his final regular season game as a Hokie and in doing so, broke Bimbo Coles’ single season scoring record. Coles scored 785 points in 31 games during the 1989-90 season. Erick Green scored 786 points this year. He beat Bimbo by one point.

Green also led the nation in scoring with 25.5 points per game, which is 8.2 more ppg than the second leading scorer in the ACC, Plumlee, who averaged 17.2 a game. The last time a player from the ACC took the nation’s scoring title, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president and a guy named Grady Wallace from south carolina led the country in scoring.

Without further ado, here are your first, second, and, oh for the love of God, there’s a third team?

From Niemo: It’s worth noting that Plumlee got 73 first place votes while Green (and Larkin) only got 72.  Plumlee had one more point than Green and two more than Larkin.  This doesn’t determine ACC POTY but is interesting.

The Hokies delivered a dud of a regular season finale on the road against wake forest, losing 79-90. This game was never close. The final score is not an accurate representation of how soundly the Hokies were beaten today, especially in the paint.

The good news is that Erick Green went off for 35 points, tied for his career-high, and in doing so, gave him 786 for the season, one more than Bimbo Coles’ school record of 785. We should say Coles’ OLD record because Erick “The Winchester Rifleman” Green is the new sheriff in town.

Erick also moved into the top 10 on the Virginia Tech all time scoring list.  His 15th point on the day moved him past Ace Custis. He now has 1,727 career points (Ace had 1706).  Baring a deep ACC Tournament run, he’ll finish in 10th.

And in case anyone is wondering, Green’s 786 points came in 31 games. Bimbo’s 785 points also came in 31 games. So to quote Techsideline.com, “it’s a legit record.”

Although it was already locked up, it’s pretty much official that Green will finish the regular season as the nation’s and ACC’s leading scorer. And get this, he’s the first ACC player since south carolina’s (yes, they used to be in the ACC) Grady Wallace did so in 1957. Think of all the ACC greats that ever accomplished that feat: Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, Ralph Sampson, etc., etc., etc.

Outside of those two highlights, that was about it. Virginia Tech’s “big men” played pretty small today. As Bill Roth said during the game, “Hokies giving up layup after layup.” It was about ugly as a game as we’ve seen all season. And how many times have we said that this year?

After the game, ACC broadcaster and former virginia player Cory Alexander gave his vote for ACC player of the year to Green. All the votes are due by 9 p.m., Sunday night (tonight), so we should probably hear something later this evening.

If you want to recap the play-by-play, go to HokieSports.com and look up the box score and relive the agony of defeat.

Want numbers of who scored what? Here you go:

The Hokies fall on the road against duke, 85-57, despite 25 points from Erick Green. It was senior night for duke (thank the gods), which finished it’s 2012-13 home schedule a perfect 16-0.

This game was closer than the final score would have you believe. Tech trailed by just three at the half (38-35), and actually led for a large chunk of the first half.

Jarell Eddie got things started on a good now for the Hokies early on, burying back-to-back threes to put Tech up 6-1. Green, however, was the only Tech players to put together a solid game start to finish. Eddie started strong, but duke shut him and everyone else down from then on. Eddie finished with 13 points.

Tech actually played a decent game. They committed only 10 turnovers, which isn’t bad considering some of their previous performances. But, duke only turned it over three times.

But the turnovers weren’t what won this game for the home team. It all came down to shooting percentages and duke was pretty much unstoppable. The little devils hit 52 percent from the field (30/58) and 52 percent from three-point range, connecting on 12 of 23 attempts. The Hokies shot 37 percent from the field (22/57) and 29 percent from three (5/17).

The officiating, as you’d imagine, seemed to favor the home team, but the Hokies did get some calls go their way, which usually sent Coach K into his usual spittle spewing tirades.

Look, no one was disillusioned enough to think the Hokies could actually pull of an upset of the dookies on the road, on senior night, with a healthy Ryan Kelly back in the lineup. What was a little surprising was how close the game was.

Four duke players scored in double digits: Seth Curry has 20, Kelly 18, Quinn Cook and Mason Plumlee both had 14. The Hokies had only two players, Green (25) and Eddie (13), reached double digits.

Not a single Tech player register a plus rating in this game.

Just one more regular season game left for Coach James Johnson and his team.

Well, what did you expect the Hokies to do on the road against the 5th ranked team in the country, which was coming off an embarrassing blowout loss to wake forest?

Virginia Tech got manhandled Wednesday night in Coral Gables, losing to the hurricanes 76-58 behind 22 points from Shane Larkin and 20 points from Kenny Kadji.

Erick Green failed to score 20 points in a game for just the third time this season. He lead the Hokies with 16 points. C.J. Barksdale scored 12, giving him three straight games with in double-digits. He’s really starting to come on strong – a good sign for Hokie hoop heads thinking ahead to next season. Barks also led the team with seven rebounds.

Robert Brown added 12 points, all in the second half. It tied his career-high for points in a regular ACC game. He scored 16 against duke in last year’s ACC tournament.

Green appeared to roll his right ankle, though there was speculation that it might have been his hip, about midway through the first half. He sat for a couple of minutes and appeared to be in excruciating pain, but did return the game. He had only six points in the first half.

The canes held a 15-14 lead and the Hokies were in the game with Miami struggling to score. And then the dam levies broke and the canes surged ahead courtesy of a 23-5 run to end the half and take a 38-19 lead into the half.

The second half was more of the same. Sure, the Hokies scored twice as many points in the second half (39) as they did in the first half (19), but they couldn’t guard miami, who scored another 38 points in the second half.

Tech shot a hair under 40 percent from the field (21/53) and just 19 percent from behind the arc (3/16). Against FSU, the Hokies were deadly from the charity stripe, against miami, not so much. They hit just 68 percent of their free throws (13/19).

Meanwhile, the canes shot an even 50 percent from the field on 23-of-46 shooting; made 73 percent of their free throws (22/30); and 8/21 three-pointers (38 percent). The canes made more free throws (22) than the Hokies attempted (19).

Next up, clemson. Saturday night, 8 p.m., at the Cassell. It’s senior night, so wear Green in honor of Erick Green, who will play his final home game. Let the sobbing begin.

Box Score

UPDATED Feb. 25, 2013, 8:22 a.m. to correct Rankin’s playing time. He played the first 2 minutes and 48 seconds of the second half and then left the game. Earlier, we incorrectly reported that he missed the entire second half. We blame it on Leonard Hamilton’s hack-a-Barksdale strategy that made the second half go on FOREVER.

The nine-game losing streak is over. Virginia Tech, which hadn’t won a game in more than a month, frustrated florida state all day and got balanced scoring and deadly accurate free throw shooting down the stretch to beat the noles 80-70.

The victory prevented the Hokies’ first 10-game losing streak since the 2001-02 season.

Erick Green, the Winchester Rifleman, scored a game-high 26 points on 8/17 shooting and a perfect 9/9 from the free throw line. Ever more impressive, Green finally got some help Sunday evening. For the second straight contest, sophomore C.J. Barksdale scored a career-high 17 points and made 9/11 free throws – eight in the final 2:37. In addition to Barksdale’s big night, the Hokies got 25 points from the bench.

Robert Brown played arguably his best game since he scored 18 points in a 95-79 win over Iowa back on Dec. 7, 2012. Brown was 6/8 from the field and 5/5 from the FT line in that game. Sunday night, he was 4/8 from the field, 1/3 from three-point range, and 2/2 from the charity stripe.

Marquis Rankin played out-of-his-mind defense on Michael Snaer in the first half. Snaer, as you probably recall, killed the Hokies last season with a buzzer beater to win the game. Rankin, who has 8 points in the first half, got sick during halftime, and only played the first 2:48 of the second half. After that, he did not return.

Trailing 6-3 in the opening minutes of the first half, the Hokies reeled off a 6-0 run to take a 9-6 lead. The noles responded with an 8-0 run of their own. Tech was not to be denied, though. Brown scored six straight points for the Hokies to keep the home team within striking distance.

With the score 21-19 in fsu’s favor, the noles’ head coach Leonard Hamilton started screaming at the officials and kept on screaming. He was finally T’ed up and darn near got thrown out of the game. That sent Tech’s Erick Green to the free throw line for a pair of uncontested shots that tied the game at 21.

Green went on to score VT’s last seven points (and 9 of its last 11) in the first half to give the Hokies a slim 28-26 half-time lead.

The second half was all Hokies for the most part, despite not having Rankin and his lockdown defense on Snear. Tech opened the second half with a 14-3 run and while the noles closed the gap a few times, the Hokies weren’t to be denied their first win in more than a month.

Green scored 15 of his 26 points down the stretch to secure the victory, but this was the first total team win in a long time for first-year head coach James Johnson. Though Green played a game-high 38 minutes, he wasn’t the only threat the noles had to worry about tonight. Barksdale played very well, especially crashing the boards and going after loose balls.

Rankin, as we mentioned, was incredible on defense. Walk-on Christian Beyer even got in on the action with a pretty reverse layup (that didn’t get blocked) that gave the Hokies a 23-21 lead. And Will Johnston (aka Willy-J), another walk-on making his third career start, had a career-high three steals.

This was a must-win game. This team, and in particular, this coach, did not need the dubious distinction of being the first Virginia Tech squad in 11 years to lose 10 straight games.

Earlier in the day, on the same court, the Virginia Tech women defeated the 19th-ranked fsu women’s team, 71-52. When the men followed with their win over the noles, it marked the first time since March 6, 2004, that both the Virginia Tech men’s and women’s basketball teams beat the same opponent on the same day.

Box Score

The Hokies dropped their ninth straight game Thursday night before a national TV audience, losing to sixth-ranked duke, 88-56, at home. So much for #BEATDUKE. The 32-point loss is VT’s worst ACC loss this season. Their worst loss was a 36-point defeat (88-55) at the hands of colorado state.

Erick Green just about got his, as we figured he would, scoring 22 points (3.3 points below his average) to maintain his status as the nation’s leading scorer with 25.1 ppg — creighton’s Craig McDermott is second in the nation with 22.9 ppg.

Green did get some help tonight, but as usual, it was not enough. C.J. Barksdale scored a career-high 14 points and added 8 rebounds. Cadarian Raines also reached double-digits with 10 points.

The Hokies jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead and then it all went downhill. Actually, that’s putting it nicely. The fit hit the shan. The flood gates opened. The four horsemen road into the Cassell. And death followed. Well, not exactly death, but really embarrassing loss.

The dookies reeled off 11 unanswered points including three 3-pointers from Seth Curry. Not surprisingly, duke shot lights out from everywhere on the court. In the first half, duke hit 8 of 9 three-pointers, all 10 free throw attempts, and 60 percent from the field. Curry had 19 at the half. Green had 13.

Once the blue devils went on their 11-0 run, this game was never close. Ever. And here’s why: duke made 12 of 17 three-pointers – that’s 70 percent. SEVENTY PERCENT. The Hokies, on the other hand, made just 1 of 16 three attempts for a mind-numbing 6 percent. Green hit a three in the second half to avoid the shutout.

The Hokies didn’t really have a shot in this game. They played nc state tough, so duke knew not to take them lightly. Plus, the dookies lost to maryland and Coach K was non too happy, so duke came to Blacksburg to lay the lumber to the DFL team in the league. And that’s exactly what they did.

Seth Curry, the son of Virginia Tech legend Dell Curry, torched the Hokies for 22 points, scoring 19 of those in the first half. Of course, duke didn’t need him in the second half; the game was already over.

At this point in the season, I think it’s safe to say that every team we play doesn’t just happen to have a hot shooting night against us. There’s something wrong with the way we defend — some would argue that we don’t defend at all and they’d be right in many respects — but Coach James Johnson needs to do something. Anything. You can’t let a team hit 70 percent of threes (12 of 17!!) on your home court.

Tech Hoops fans, please welcome the newest member of the family, Lil Niemo; all 9 pounds, 1 ounce of him! Dad, mom and the Hokies’ first commit for the 2031 recruiting class are happy, healthy and doing well. Also, Niemo wanted me to let know that he wrote the previews for the next two games in the labor and delivery wing.

Despite playing it’s best game, perhaps of the season, the Hokies dropped their eighth straight game Saturday afternoon, losing 90-86 in overtime to heavily favored nc state on the road.

Senior guard Erick Green scored a game-high 29 points. In his previous four games vs. the wolfpack, Green had just 27 points combined.

Virginia Tech held a 60-53 lead in the second half, but nc state went on a 14-0 run to take a 67-60 lead. The Hokies, however, did not quit. Trailing by three with :08 left, the pack fouled Green as he crossed mid-court with about :05 left. Green made the first and intentionally missed the second. Eddie grabbed the rebound and put it back up and in to tie the game at 78.

nc state’s Lorenzo Brown missed a desperation half-court shot and the game went to overtime. The Hokies led a couple of times in the extra period, but committed two critical turnovers that eventually cost them the game.

While the loss will sting, there is finally a few bright spots! Freshman Marshall Wood had his coming out part by scoring a career-high 14 points and pulling down a career-high 16 rebounds. And junior Jarell Eddie, who has hasn’t started the last two games, came of the bench to score 17 points.

Notes:
The Hokies’ 36 points in the first half were the most since VT scored 37 points against Maryland on Jan. 7. Tech trailed 37-53 at the half of that game.

Virginia Tech attempted a season-high 80 shots. EIGHTY! Their previous high was 68 attempts. Tech made 35 of those 80 shots for a 44 percent average.

The Hokies hit 11 of 23 free throws 48 percent from the behind the arc, well above their season average. The 11 made threes were the most since VT hit 14 vs. unc-greensboro.

Here’s a stat that’ll make you pull your hair out. The wolfpack attempted 43 free throws. The Hokies attempted seven. Yep. nc state attempted six times more FTs then VT.

Erick Green is having a phenomenal senior season, but where does he rank all-time?

The 2012-13 college basketball season hasn’t been kind to Virginia Tech fans. It began last winter when Jim Weaver, the Hokies’ athletics director, gave then-coach Seth Greenberg a vote of confidence and then pulled the rug out from under him a few weeks later.

One player transferred (Dorian Finney-Smith), and Montrezl Harrell, a highly-touted incoming freshman, asked to be released. That left Tech with just eight scholarship players coming into this season.

Most fans, however, believed that the Hokies could have a respectable season so long as they stayed healthy. And with the exception of freshman Marshall Wood missing seven games, Tech has, for the most part, avoided the injury bug that had plagued them over the last few seasons. Unfortunately, staying healthy hasn’t been enough. This team just can’t seem to get it together.

After starting the season a surprising 7-0, the team is just 4-13 since, including a current seven-game losing streak. One player was benched for an entire game for lack of effort during practice; another missed almost an entire half after an on-court temper tantrum that nearly injured his teammate; and that same player, who has been playing poorly, was replaced in the starting lineup by a walk-on. Yeah, it’s been that bad.

Enter the Winchester Rifleman, Erick Green

The only bright spot for Hokie hoops fans this season is senior guard Erick Green, who is still the nation’s leading scorer. With hopes of a winning season and post-season appearance all but gone, Virginia Tech fans have thrown their support behind the senior guard from Winchester, who is having one of the best seasons by a Hokie in recent memory.

Of VT’s 24 games this season, Green has led the team in scoring 23 times. He averages 25.2 points per game, tops in the country and seven points better than the ACC’s second-leading scorer, Mason Plumlee of duke, who averages 18.2 ppg.

If Green continues on his current scoring pace, he will become the first Hokie to average more than 25 ppg since Bimbo Coles did so during the 1989-90 season. Coles averaged 25.3 ppg that year, a tenth of a point ahead of where Green stands now.

And unless Green just completely falls off the map (he could go scoreless for the rest of the season and still be above 18 ppg), he’ll end the season as just the third tech player to average better than 20 ppg in the last 23 years. Bryant Matthews averaged 22.1 ppg during the 2003-04 season and Malcolm Delaney averaged 20.2 ppg during the 2009-10 season.

What’s even more incredible is the percentage of points Green scores for his team. Take a look below and you’ll see the leading scorer for each ACC team, their total points (through Feb. 12), and their team’s total points, followed by the percentage. The teams appear in order of the current ACC standings:

Green is the ACC’s leading scorer by nearly 200 points. He scores more than 35 percent (35.5 to be precise) of his team’s points; 10 percent more than the next highest percentage in the league – uva’s Joe Harris, who contributes 25 percent. That stat speaks volumes about the lack of support from Green’s teammates.

Now, one could argue that Green scores more points because he shoots the ball more. That’s a valid argument, on the surface. Take a look at the shooting percentages for each team’s leader in attempted shots.

*Seth Curry is the only player in the league to lead his team in shot attempts, but not in points.

But if you dig a little deeper than just the season stats, you’ll find that Green attempts, and scores on, a higher percentage of shots only when the rest of the team is struggling, which has been for a couple of months now.

In the Hokies’ first seven games, all wins, the team shot 48 percent from the field. In the last seven losses, that number is down to just 37 percent.

During the seven-game winning streak to start the season, Green attempted just 23 percent of the team’s field goals (95/404):

FGA in first seven wins
VT – EG
58 – 11 (19%)
57 – 15 (26%)
68 – 13 (19%)
53 – 15 (28%)
52 – 16 (30%)
61 – 15 (24%)
55 – 10 (18%)

During the team’s current seven-game losing streak, the percentage of shots by Green has increased to 34 percent (136/397):

FGA in last seven losses
VT – EG
43 – 18 (42%)
60 – 17 (28%)
53 – 20 (38%)
62 – 21 (34%)
65 – 23 (35%)
62 – 20 (32%)
52 – 17 (32%)

What about made field goals? Well, we’re glad you asked. During the first seven wins, Green made 25 percent of tech’s field goals (49/195). During the last seven consecutive losses, Green has made more than 40 percent of the team’s field goals.

Green’s not a ball hog by any stretch of the imagination. This kid WANTS to get his teammates involved, but they’re just not hitting shots. The team attempted 404 shots in their first seven wins and 397 in their last seven losses, so they’re still not afraid to shoot, but Green’s the only one hitting anything on a consistent basis. And he’s doing it while being double-teamed.

Say what you want about opposing teams giving Green space and letting him have his points, but from what I’ve been seeing, they’re not doing that at all. They’re guarding him using every combination they can think of and he’s still getting his shots off and keeping his team in the games.

What does it all mean, Basil?

If you are on Twitter and follow tech hoops, you’ve probably seen the comments arguing that Green deserves to have his jersey retired and his banner hung from the rafters of the Cassell.

Look, Green is having a heck of a senior season, especially under the circumstances, but before we start making room next to Ace Custis in the rafters, let’s take a step back and see where Green ranks among some of the greatest of all time at VT.

Green’s career isn’t done yet, so we have to do some predicting (not Niemo, he sucks at making predictions). The Hokies have seven regular season games left and at least one (and probably only one) ACC tournament game. So let’s assume Green has eight games left in his career. If he continues on his current statistical pace, here’s where he’ll likely finish in the record books:

Points Scored in a Season:
1. Erick Green (2012-13) – 810
2. Bimbo Coles (1989-90) – 785
3. Dell Curry (1985-86) – 722
4. Bimbo Coles (1988-89) – 717
5. Bimbo Coles (1987-88) – 702

Points Scored in a Career:
1. Bimbo Coles, 2,484
2. Dell Curry, 2,389
3. Malcolm Delaney, 2,255
4. Dale Solomon, 2,136
5. Perry Young, 1,899
6. A.D. Vassallo, 1,822
7. Allan Bristow, 1,804
8. Zabian Dowdell, 1,785
9. Bob Ayersman, 1,782
10. Erick Green, 1,750

Scoring Average in a Season:
1. Bimbo Coles (1988-89) – 26.6
2. Boby Ayersman (1958-58) – 26.5
3. Bimbo Coles (1989-90) – 25.3
4. Erick Green (2012-13) – 25.2

Free Throws Made in a Season:
1. Malcolm Delaney (2009-10) – 230
2. Malcolm Delaney (2008-09) – 225
3. Erick Green (2012-13) – 218

Free Throws Made in a Career:
8. Erick Green (2009-13) – 418

Free Throw Percentage in a Career:
T8. Erick Green (2009-13) .800

Assists in a Career:
8. Erick Green (2009-13) – 333

As great a season as Green is having, I’m not sure anyone can make a compelling case that he should have his jersey retired and a banner with his likeness hanging from the rafters with Ace Custis, Bimbo Coles, Dell Curry and Allan Bristow.

While Niemo is under a gag order not to make any predictions, naturally I wanted his thoughts on Green’s legacy at Tech.

As of today, I wouldn’t have Erick in my VT Top 10 and therefore wouldn’t retire his jersey. While he is having one of the five greatest seasons in Tech history, I don’t think his body of work is top 10-esque just yet. He may reach the top 10 in scoring and definitely will reach it in assists, but there are a lot of guys ahead of him that were very productive for four years, not just two and a half.

While I’m with Niemo on this, I played devil’s advocate and suggested that Green’s extraordinary senior season is made even more impressive given the fact that he’s doing more with less. Niemo countered:

Also, I don’t like the argument of “he’s doing more with less.” I actually think that lessens his scoring in my eyes. The numbers guys like Zabian [Dowdell], Malcolm [Delaney], and Dell [Curry] put up with a better supporting cast impress me more. If Erick could score 25 per game on a team that won and had other guys that could score consistently, I’d be more impressed. Still, his 50 percent shooting percentage this year is remarkable for a guard, and by the end of the season my opinion may very well change, but I would not have him in my top 10 and would not retire his jersey at this point.

The TechHoops staff have spoken. We love Erick Green and have enjoyed watching him play the last four years. He has done everything he’s been asked to do and has represented the team and the university with honor.

We’re not taking anything away from Green, but when you think about some of the great players that have come before him that have had more productive careers and DON’T have their jerseys retired, I think even the Winchester Rifleman would agree that while he’s had a fabulous career, he’s not in same category as those four legends.

Well, that was about what we expected. One of those days turned into one of those weeks that has turned into one of those seasons. And one of those seasons continued Tuesday with another one of those nights.

The surging cavaliers walloped the hapless Hokies 73-55 at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, handing tech its seventh straight loss.

Erick Green scored just one point in the first half, but scored 21 points of Tech’s 32 points in the second. Green’s 22 points led the team, but he was just 4/17 from the field. No other Hokie scored in double figures.

Meanwhile, Joe Harris scored a career-high 26 points tonight to lead the cavs. The 18-point margin of victory is the biggest in favor of the hoos in the series since 1991 when the Hokies lost to No. 18 ranked virginia, 86-61, in Richmond.

Statistically, this game was a virtual dead heat, save for one very important category: field goal percentage. The hoos shot 46 percent to just 34 percent for Virginia Tech. Both teams grabbed 33 rebounds, both teams attempted about the same amount of shots (VT – 52, uva – 50), and about the same number of free throw attempts (VT – 19, uva – 23). The only real difference is that uva made more shots.

virginia shot nearly 50 percent from three-point range, hitting 9 of 19 shots. Sound familiar? The Hokies jacked up 25 threes, but made only eight. They also hit just 18 of 52 shots. uva hit 22 of 50.

Make no mistake, this wasn’t an off-night for the Hokies and they didn’t get jobbed by the refs. They got beat by a better team. uva’s defense is really good and they smothered the Hokies all night. The cavs held Green to just one point in the first half.

The win was the 14th straight for the wahoos at home.

Also, there will be no game lights. Not that you’d watch them. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have a post-game interview with a Mr. Wild Turkey.

Box Score

Georgia Tech, Boston College, and virginia tech entered the weekend tied for DFL in the ACC standings. With the Yellow Jackets and hokies squaring off in Blacksburg, something had to give. And it was the hokies.

virginia tech dropped its sixth straight game Saturday afternoon, 64-54, to the Yellow Jackets, who picked up their first-ever win at Cassell Coliseum (1-7). Erick Green scored his usual 28 points, but didn’t get much help. Walk-on Will Johnston was the team’s second leading scorer for most of the game with six points on a pair of three-pointers. Robert Brown and Cadarian Raines scored a few late buckets when the game was already over.

Green had 28 points while the other four starters (Brown 10, Raines 6, Barksdale 1, Eddie 0) combined for a mind-numbing 17 points. Maybe it was the 38-hour turnaround between games. Maybe it was the flu that’s been going around. Maybe it’s that this team just isn’t good this year. Whatever it is, this is about as bad season we’ve seen since the ricky program bomb stokes era.

At least vt has Green, who has now scored at least 20 points in 21 of 23 games this season. The Winchester Rifleman has also led the hokies in scoring in 22 of the team’s 23 games this season. The only game in which he didn’t lead vt in points was against UNC Greensboro – Jarell Eddie had 26 to Green’s 24.

The hokies scored the first point of Saturday’s game; a free throw by C.J. Barksdale (his only point of the game). It was vt’s only lead of the game. Georgia Tech went on an 11-0 run and dominated the hokies the entire first half — leading by 22 at one point — and holding the hokies to a season-low 18 first-half points. vt’s previous half-time low was 22 against, wait for it… Georgia Tech. However, vt ended up winning that game in overtime, so it wasn’t unreasonable to think vt could come back.

Or, maybe it was. As we’ve seen the last four games, came us short, but didn’t quit. The hokies cut the Yellow Jackets’ lead down to 11 midway through the second half, 48-37, but vt couldn’t get any closer, at least when it mattered. The hokies did manage to cut the lead to 60-52, but with only :31 seconds left and Green on the bench, the game was already over.

You know the saying, “leaving it all on the floor”? That’s exactly was Green did in this game. In the final seconds, he had to come off the court with a cramp in his calf. He was completely gassed and looked ill. He sat on the bench with his eyes closed and his head resting on teammate Marshall Wood’s shoulder. When the final horn sounded, his teammates had to carry him off the court with team medical staff in tow.

Eddie struggled again in this game and his frustration caught up with him early in the second half when he slammed a water bottle to the court, causing the bottle to explode and spray water and ice all over the floor. Brown slipped and fell in the mess. James Johnson sat Eddie for the rest of game where the junior sulked.

After starting the season 7-0, the hokies are 4-12 since.