The ACC stuck to their guns and are allowing the top 12 teams from the new ACC (based on their final RPI) to play in the Challenge. Since there will be 15 teams in the league, this means 3 teams will not play since the Big-whatever still has 12. VT, clemson, and wake will be excluded from the festivities because of their RPI.

Personally, I think this is bull. The ACC should have banned maryland from playing in it since they are abandoning the league (good riddance). Instead, they get to play ohio state, albeit at osu. And when VT joined the league they didn’t get to play in the challenge their first year despite finishing 8th or 9th in the Big East and winning a BET game. I’ll have to check their RPI but it smells fishy. Plain and simple, this is the league catering to the newbies instead of thanking their loyal members. Once again the ACC execs are about as spot on as the A’s/Indians umpires.

Here’s how they should have done it:
- maryland: excluded.
- Top 2 newbies make it based on RPI.
- Result: just one existing member (not counting md) gets excluded and one newbie gets excluded (which is fair)
- Fire Swofford, hire me

Here’s an ARTICLE with the list of VT’s 2013-14 ACC opponents.  For the second year in a row the league will feature an 18 game schedule.  But this coming year there will now be 15 teams in the league, which should be the norm going forward (pitt, syracuse, and notre dame have been added — maryland is still in the ACC for one more year but then louisville will replace them for 2014-15 keeping the league at 15 teams).  That means Tech will play four teams twice and 10 teams once each season.  This coming year the Hokies will play uva*, miami*, bc and maryland twice.

• Home games: uva, miami, bc, maryland, clemson, unc, wake, syracuse, and nc state
• Road games: uva, miami, bc, maryland, duke, georgia tech, pitt, notre dame, and florida state (fsu is the only venue Tech has not won at since joining the league of the teams already in the league)

*Tech will play uva and miami twice every season, with the other two teams rotating each year

Tech will be one of the four teams competing in the Coaches vs Cancer Classic in Brooklyn, NY at the Barclays Center (home of the Brooklyn Nets) this coming November.  Similar to the Las Vegas Classic last year, the Hokies will host two round robin games in Blacksburg between November 9th and 18th.  The other two teams will also play each other (not sure if that is also in the ‘Burg).  No matter what happens in those games, the Hokies will then advance to the semi-finals in NY and will face michigan state, oklahoma, or seton hall (let’s hope the latter-most) in the semi-finals on Friday, November 22nd with the Consolation and Championship Games on Saturday, November 23rd.  The games will be on truTV (you may have learned of that channel from the NCAA Tournament).  The opponents will be announced at a later date.

As you may remember from this past season, VT beat mississippi valley state but then lost to georgia southern in the Las Vegas prelim round, but still advanced to the semi-finals of the tournament in Vegas, beating bradley in OT in the semis but getting crushed in the finals by colorado state.

Tech has never played at the Barclays Center, a brand new arena.  They did own Madison Square Garden with two NIT titles and two Aeropostale Tourney titles.

God bless all 32 of you that had your life tragically taken away six years ago today.  And bless your families who no doubt struggle with this day.  We remember and are thinking of you and your families.

WE REMEMBER

Yesterday was all too familiar of a reminder of the bad side of humanity, and this great country.  God bless the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.

LINK TO TECH ALL AMERICANS

How many years has the ACC Player of the Year not been an AP First Team All-American? I’m not sure, but I bet it is pretty rare (that’s our crack research staff right there). The Winchester Rifle was honored by being named a Third Team AP All-American.

Update: Our buddy Miller Time said the following ACC POTY weren’t AP First Team since the ACC expanded: Zeller ’12, Vasquez ’11, ty lawson ’09, jared dudley 07. So actually pretty often. But they didn’t lead the nation in scoring!

The AP First Team was announced and included Burke of michigan, Porter Jr of georgetown, Oladipo of indiana, McDermott of creighton barrel, and Olynyk of gonzaga. Burke and Porter tied with the most votes.

It should be noted Larkin of miami and Plumlee of duke were on the Second Team, ahead of the Player of the Year from their own conference!

Just like I said with ACC POTY – this honor shouldn’t be about how your team did, it should be the 5, 10, and 15 best players in the nation from the past year. Can you really tell me Green fell in the 11-15 range while Larkin and Plumlee were 6-10 (2nd Team)? Can you tell me the nation’s leading scorer only deserved 3rd Team? I don’t buy it. No respect!

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.

In what was always an annual event with Coach Greenberg and now is spilling into JJ’s tenure, transfer rumors are out there in terms of a Hokie potentially leaving the ‘Burg.  This player*** has been rumored to be considering leaving since back in January, so this is nothing new but talk about it has heated up again.  I have no inside info so I cannot confirm or deny it, we’ll all just have to wait it out and see.

I will say this — I have seen guys who I knew were transferring before.  They start mailing it in towards the end of the season.  One case in point is Hank Thorns — his last game as a Hokie was against baylor in the NIT.  He was the absolute last player out for the shootaround and warm-ups, and the first back in the locker room.  This player, though, played his tail off the last month of the season.  So either he a) hadn’t decided (despite the earlier rumors), b) was ‘auditioning’ for new suitors, or c) that’s just his way.  Personally, I don’t think he didn’t play like someone on his way out (think about your work ethic when you know you are leaving a job), so I’m not convinced it is going to happen.

For now, we just have to wait and see.

***My policy is to not name names until it is fact, which I know annoys many of you, but I’d rather put it out there than just pretend like nothing is going on.  And many of you probably know, or could easily find out, whom I’m referring to.

Former Hokie Tyrone Garland hit the game-winning shot for la salle with 2.5 seconds left to propel the explorers to a 2-point win over ole miss and that punk Henderson in the NCAA Tournament Third Round. Garland and la salle are off to the Sweet 16. The legendary Philly Public League player (top 3 all time in points) has had 22, 2, and 17 in their 3 games.

Update: JT Thompson’s charlotte team is playing in the NIT (though he’s out for the season with another knee injury) and Allan Chaney will be playing in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament for high point. That means Manny Atkins (georgia state) is the only one of nine former Hokies/commits who’s team isn’t playing in the postseason.

While Virginia Tech missed the NCAA Tournament for the sixth consecutive season (and 16 of 17), six guys who formerly played, or almost played, for the Hokies did make the Big Dance.

The table below shows the nine current Division I players who either: a) played for the Hokies at some point (this includes seven of the nine and I included Allan Chaney, who sat out two years at VT waiting to be cleared to play but never actually played in a game for VT), b) signed with Tech and were later released (Montrezl Harrell), or c) verbally committed to VT but never signed (Momo Jones).

I’ll repeat — of these nine guys, an amazing SIX will be playing (or redshirting as is the case with Doo Doo Finney-Smith) in the NCAA Tournament. And we aren’t just talking about basketball powers like louisville and florida, we are also talking about iona (2nd straight trip), jmu, valpo, and la salle (getting an at large bid, no less!).

While we are happy for some of these guys, in many cases it is a bitter pill to swallow and think “what might have been” had they stayed or even arrived at Tech. For example, Momo Jones averaged 23 ppg this year for iona, third in the nation behind our Erick Green and McDermott of creighton (he averaged just 6.6 ppg his freshman year at arizona — so he had a similar rise in scoring to Mr. Green). And Montrezl Harrell was the MVP of the Big East Championship Game in their win over syracuse Saturday night — as a freshman! Sure would have liked to see his big body in orange and maroon.

It is another disappointing season for the Hokies, and the days of being on the bubble are a distant memory now. Tech is closer to 10 years ago than their Humpty Dumpty days of a few years ago.

In other news, uva’s and maryland’s bubbles burst. uva’s finish to their season (home win over duke, struggle the rest of the way, not making the Big Dance) was a carbon copy of Tech’s situation two years ago. It was good to see at least uva was punished the same way VT was.

The ACC ended up with just four teams in the Big Dance — [Correction: 5 Atlantic 10 and Mountain West teams made the NCAAs! More than the ACC! How the mighty have fallen].

With their loss to nc state today, uva failed to advance to ACC Semifinal Saturday for the 18th consecutive year! They haven’t made it to the weekend of the ACC Tournament since my freshman year at VT. They must really want to get out of G-boro and back to Ch-ville for all those awesome wine and cheese parties and box socials.

Enjoy sweating out Selection Sunday like we had to two years ago, and I expect uva to have a similar result after losing 3 of 4 after beating duke (we lost 3 of 5 two years ago).

Check back later and I’ll post their record by round (1st and Quarters) over this span.

In less than four months notre dame will officially be ‘welcomed’ into the ACC.  I’m sure many of you are like me, and have always resented their ‘holier than thou’ attitude, and their unwillingness to join a conference for football yet still have the BCS and other conferences (such as the Big East) kiss their butt and let them take up bowl spots while reaping all of the revenue.

So pardon me if I don’t get out of my seat to shake their hand on their way in.

This is obviously great for the ACC, though, a conference that just a few months ago had lost maryland (boo hoo) and seemed about to lose uva and georgia tech.  And notre dame has agreed to play five ACC teams per year in football starting in a few years, so at least we’ll get to play them while they rob us of bowl bids they don’t deserve!

What it means next year for the ACC is there will be 15 teams in the league for basketball.  The 18 conference game format will stay the same.  Teams will play four teams twice, and the other 10 just once.

Since word is the ACC will only use the top 12 teams as ranked by the RPI (including incoming cuse, pitt, and nd) for the ACC/Big(14)Ten Challenge, and since the Big Ten still only has 12 teams next year, the Hokies have basically zero shot of being in the Challenge.  Tech fell below wake with their loss Sunday and now sit 11^th in the league in the RPI of the 12 current teams, ahead of just clemson.  I haven’t looked to see where cuse, pitt, and notre dame are in the RPI, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say they are safely ahead of VT.  The Hokies are #172, six spots behind wake, but 41 spots behind georgia tech whom they’d have to pass to get into the top 12, which ain’t gonna happen this late in the season.  Although the ACC could (and should) screw maryland and not include them in the mix, in which case VT would just have to pass wake.  But I’m not sure the league wants to go that route.

So, in conclusion, here’s mud in your eye, notre dame!  Literally.  Welcome aboard, jerks.

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.

Thanks to maryland’s epic collapse on Sunday night (they blew a 17-point lead and lost in OT at the hoos), uva locked up the #4 seed and a First Round bye in the ACC Tournament.

That drops nc state to the #5 seed. Tech will face them in the 5/12 game on Thursday afternoon around 2:30 pm in Greensboro.

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:

VT signee, 6’5″ guard Ben Emelogu, and his South Grand Prairie High School team lost the Texas 5A (highest level) State Championship Game 46-38 to Ford Bend Travis at u of texas in Austin. Ben led SGP with 13 points, right on his team leading 13.5 ppg average.

SGP finishes the season at 38-4.

Spread for Sunday: wake by 5.5.

Based on Saturday’s action, we now know this:
- VT is the 10-seed in the ACC Tournament if they beat wake and will play maryland, the #7 seed regardless of the result of their game vs uva Sunday (fsu locked up the 6-seed with their win over nc state)
- VT is the 12-seed with a loss to wake. They would play uva if uva loses to maryland, or nc state if uva beats maryland (uva locks up the 4-seed and a bye with a win.