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.

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.

Here are the final plus/minus numbers for all the Hokies, split up by starters, bench, and deep bench.  It includes cumulative +/-, average in wins and losses, in ACC play, and overall average per game for the season.  I’ve also included the +/- by player for each game (a blank means he didn’t play).

Barksdale, as expected, had the best average for the season and in ACC play other than Beyer (who didn’t play nearly as many minutes).  C.J. seemed to have the best numbers in most games.  Rankin had the worst of anyone on the team, though he posted positives in each of the final two games (both losses).  Hopefully that carries over to next season and largely was due to him being more aggressive off the dribble.

GAME-BY-GAME:

Here are the plus/minus numbers from Thursday’s season-ending ACC Tournament loss to nc state for the Hokies.

Rankin had his second straight positive game (+1 – best of the regulars) and really finished the season strong and aggressive on offense (and he’s Tech’s best on-ball defender).

On the flip side, Raines had a -20 and Eddie a -21.

The Virginia Tech Hokies’ season ends with an 80-63 loss to nc state in the First Round of the ACC Tournament.  Erick Green, the ACC Player of the Year, scored 15 points, finishing the season with 801 points (first Hokie to eclipse the 800-mark) and 25.03 ppg to lead the nation.  Tech finishes the season at 13-19.

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.

After I heard that the Winchester Rifle had won the ACC POTY on Tuesday I was extremely excited for him and our program, as it is a great recruiting tool to say you CAN be the ACC POTY at Virginia Tech.  But after those giddy moments, I started to think, “Would I have voted for Erick as ACC POTY if I was a real member of the media and not just running some 2-bit VT hoops blog?”

At first, my answer was “No”.  I’ve said since the second VT/miami meeting that I thought Shane Larkin was the MVP of the ACC.  Larkin finished 13th in the league in scoring, 4th in assists, 2nd in steals and 5th in assist-to-turnover ratio.  But more importantly, his team won the ACC regular season title.  And this isn’t duke or unc we are talking about, this is the c-a-n-e-s canes, a school that hadn’t finished above .500 in league play until this year.  A team that averaged less than 4,000 fans per home game last year!

And Shane was clearly the straw that stirs the drink for this team.  If this was baseball, his WAR would be tops in the league, even better than Erick’s (I mean, where would VT have finished without Mr. Green?  1-17?  We know we would have beaten wake at home regardless since they have Coach “Can’t Win on the Road” Bzdelik — 1-24 all time in ACC road games).  If we give Erick a WAR of +3, you’d have to put Shane around +6 since they had never finished over .500 but were 15-3 this year with largely the same loveable losers as in past years, but with a more mature Larkin as a sophomore.

But, the award isn’t called ACC Most Valuable Player, it is the Player of the Year.  And based on that, I would have voted for Erick.  It doesn’t take orange & maroon glasses to appreciate what he did.  Despite being Tech’s only scoring threat in ACC play, he went for 20+ points in all but two ACC games (3 overall), scored 30+ three times in league action (4 overall), led the league and nation in scoring (something done just once before in ACC history), finished 8th in FG% (2nd among guards behind just Reggie Bullock of unc), 6th in assists, 3rd in FT%, 7th in steals, 6th in assisst-to-turnover ratio, 1st in minutes, and he would have been 5th in 3-Pt% if he had shot just 7 more 3s on the year (he didn’t shoot enough to qualify).

While Larkin meant more to his team, Erick was the best player in the league… by far.  To shoot for that high of a percentage as a guard with every team putting their best defender on you, score that much (he accomplished a Tech single season record for points), and still finish in the top 6 in assists, you are the player of the year.  Period.  Upon further review, there is no debate, and clearly the media agreed with 50% of them casting their vote for the Winchester Rifle (heck, Obama calls 50% a resounding win so Mr. Green can, too… and Larkin finished 2nd with just 30%).  Again, congrats to him for all he accomplished and here’s looking forward to seeing him represent Virginia Tech in the NBA, which is currently void of Hokies.

Congratulations to Virginia Tech senior guard Erick “The Winchester Rifle” Green for being named the ACC Player of the Year!  And he not only won it, he dominated it, getting half of all the votes:
ACC POTY Votes (76 total)

• Erick Green – 38
• Shane Larkin (miami) – 23
• Mason Plumlee (duke) – 12

I’ve arm curled an ACC POTY!

Erick becomes the first ever Hokie basketball player to win the ACC Player of the Year.  He’s also the third Hokie to win a conference player of the year honor ever:

• Erick Green – ACC – 2012-13
• Bimbo Coles – Metro – 1987-88 (co-POTY)
• Dell Curry – Metro – 1985-86

Erick is also just the second ACC player ever to win this award while playing for a team in the lower half of the standings, joining the late Len Bias of maryland back in 1986 (there’s a great ESPN 30-for-30 moving about Len).  I’m assuming Green is the first player to win POTY on a team that finished dead last in the ACC, which speaks to how great of a season he had.

Here are a few links/articles of note:

• HOKIESPORTS.COM ARTICLE
• LIST OF HOKIES HONORS AND CHAMPIONSHIPS

Some other accomplishments by Green this season:

• Averaged 25.4 ppg, more than 8 ppg better than the ACC’s second leading scorer
• Set the school’s single-season scoring record with 786 points, breaking Coles’ record of 785 by scoring 35 points in his final regular season game, a road loss to wake forest.
• Passed Ace Custis for 10th on the career scoring list
• First ACC player to lead the nation in scoring since 1957 (South Carolina’s Grady Wallace)
• Scored at least 20 points in 28 of 31 games during his season season
• Scored in double figures in 34 straight games and 64 of last 65 games

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.

Spread: nc state by 11.5.

The Hokies try to put an atrocious ACC regular season behind them and make some noise in the ACC Tournament starting Thursday. Their opponent will be another disappointment, the nc state wolfpack, in the second game of the early session on Thursday, tipping off around 2:20 to 2:40 PM.

nc state was picked to win the ACC by the media in the preseason, featured the Preseason POTY (C.J. Leslie) and the ROTY (T.J. Warren, another stud state freshman, is the one who will likely win it). And while they are #28 in the RPI and all but a lock for the Big Dance, they struggled to an 11-7 ACC regular season record. It was partially due to PG Lorenzo Brown missing a few games due to injury, and it is partially due to the fact that they are nc state and always seem to underachieve. You don’t build a team around a guy like C.J. “Derrick Coleman, Jr.” Leslie. I could also call him 50-cent, as in he only plays hard 50% of the time. He ended up just 3rd Team All ACC.

For the Hokies, I say we go for broke and do everything we can to win this game with no regard for Friday. Forget saving guys for the long haul of back-to-back-to-back-to-back games in the ACC-T format. I say we do everything we can to survive this one, especially considering we will be huge underdogs and likely won’t survive to live another day. I’d like to see Coach JJ, fresh off his first ever technical foul, implement the things he wants to do next year, like the full court press. I’d use it from the get-go. He wants to run it next year, so why not put it in during practice the next three days and go for broke with it Thursday. state has no depth (they really only play 7 guys), so picking up the tempo could wear them out in the 2nd half. That said, nc state has a very good offense (12th most productive/efficient in the nation out of 347 teams), so this could backfire, they could shred the press and hit a dozen alley-oop dunks and win by 40… So what? We are huge underdogs and expected to lose. I’d like to see us try something different and start to look to the future in terms of JJ’s “system”. Why not? That’s my 2 cents.

The winner of this game will face the hated wahoos at the same time Friday in the ACC Quarterfinals. uva will look to end their pathetic trend in the ACC Tournament in that contest — the hoos haven’t made it to ACC Tournament Semi-Final Saturday since 1995. That’s a streak of losing in the First Round or Quarterfinals for each of the previous 17 ACC Tournaments. They just have to win one, against VT or state, this year to end that streak.

First Meeting:

The game was a seesaw battle in the first half with neither team leading by more than 5 and Tech took a two point lead to the break. In the second half, the Hokies jumped ahead by 7 twice, including with 7:49 to go. But a 14-0 nc state run flipped the game to a 7-point state advantage with 3:30 remaining. Tech was down 6 with 20 seconds left, but a Rankin layup, Eddie 3, and 2/4 FTs for state gave Tech the ball down 3 with 8 seconds left. Green was intentionally fouled and hit his first FT. The next FT was one of the great Tech plays of the year — Green intentionally missed the foul shot off the right part of the rim, it bounced off the backboard, off to the right side of the lane, where a streaking Jarell Eddie rushed in from beyond the 3-point line (possibly too early), caught the ball, and put it in to tie the score.

In OT, Tech took an 84-83 lead behind two Eddie 3s, but state rattled off 6 straight FTs (they shot 43 FTs compared to 7 for the Hokies) and won 90-86 in overtime in Raleigh. Green had 29 for VT.

• Recap
• Highlights
• Plus Minus Stats
• Breakdown

Here are the plus/minus numbers from Sunday.  Wood with a +10, Rankin +8, and JvZ with a +4 (though most of that was in the final 10 minutes when the outcomes was no longer in doubt).  No one really had an awful plus/minus compared to others — all the starters were around -9 (Green) to -16 (Brown).  Barksdale had a rare bad day with a -15.

Here are some of the game, but mostly Erick Green’s, highlights from wake’s 90-79 win over the Hokies on Sunday.

Erick did move into 10th on the Virginia Tech career scoring list during the game with 1,727 points (passing Ace Custis), set a single season points mark for VT with 786 points (passing Bimbo Coles’s of 1989-90), and tied his career single game high of 35 points.

Marquis Rankin also chipped in a career high 15 points (not shown).

LINK TO VT ALL TIME LEADERS PAGE

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:

It wasn’t pretty for anyone tonight… And as usual, Rankin pulled up the rear…

The Virginia Tech Hokies drop their 6th straight game to duke in the last 24 months, falling 85-57 on the road to duke. The blue devils beat Tech by a combined 60 points in two games this season. Erick Green, the nation’s leading scorer, hit his average exactly with 25 points.