Hokie fan-favorite and all-time human highlight film legend Deron Washington was waived yesterday by the Detroit Pistons. Deron is guaranteed a cool $250,000, which should ease the pain, but that falls well short of the millions that Deron is achingly close to if he can pick up a more permanent spot on an NBA roster somewhere.

What’s especially curious about this move is that Detroit apparently has a 15th roster spot available, which they have chosen to leave open, even though they’re paying Deron whether he’s on their roster or not — he was essentially available to them into January for nothing more than travel costs and meal per-diem. With flu tearing teams and organizations everywhere wide open, an extra young player seems worthwhile to have around.

Hopefully Deron will be able to pick up with someone, or perhaps more likely, find a nice spot overseas and continue to develop his game. Since he was waived, Detroit has no ongoing rights or ownership — Detroit will have to pay, but Deron is free and clear to go anywhere.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Coleman Collins is blogging again for ESPN’s True Hoop. Check out his latest installment.

Popularity: 15% [?]

According to Virginia Tech men’s head basketball coach Seth Greenberg’s Twitter feed, 6’9″ freshman forward Cadarian Raines will miss the first eight weeks of the season after breaking his foot today. I’m not sure how much the Hokies were planning to rely on Raines and his size this season, but at the very least, he’s out eight weeks of valuable practice and conditioning.

Popularity: 17% [?]

No, A.D. Vassallo did not sign with uva, but he did sign a one-year contract to play for paris-levallois in France, which is basically charlottesville. Vassallo was not selected in the NBA draft and tried out for the Chicago Bulls. After failing to make the summer roster, Vassallo accepted the one-year deal for $230,000.

The team posted a news release mentioning Vassallo on its Web site, but it is entirely written in French and I don’t know about you, but I don’t speak wahoo – I had to use Google’s translator tool. I’ll save you the trouble:

From 26 August to 6 September Levallois Paris will have a representative in the Americas qualifying tournament for the championship of the world. In fact the new recruits came from Virginia Tech, Daniel Angel Vassalo, is part of the host team, the Puerto Rico. Currently in preparation, he and his team fell in Group A with Canada, Uruguay, Mexico and the Virgin Islands. Solid but it is perfectly playable for AD Vassalo and his teammates. At home, the goal is of course to qualify for Turkey. They can rely on values as the leader NBAer Arroyo and the solid backbone stamped Euroleague Santiago. During the preparation matches, Puerto Rico has not shone, bowing including twice against the Republic led by Francisco Dominincaine Martin (Sacramento), Villanueva (Detroit), Al Horford (Atlanta), but by the Greer brothers (Nancy ).

Daniel Angel Vassalo? C’mon Frenchies! You just signed the guy that you plan to put into your starting five immediately and you can’t even get his name right? Keep that up and you might end up working for the Washington Nationals or even the Washington Redskins.

Congratulations to A.D. on his first professional gig – can’t wait to see him light up the the Ligue Nationale de Basket (said with a Inspector Clouseau-like French accent). Wait … did I read that right? The National Basket League? No wonder Vince Carter can teabag their seven-footers, they’re not even playing the right sport.

I know I’ve been a bit snarky today, but I have just one more question: When Vassallo goes baseline for a dunk, will the french (I’ve made the exeuctive decision to lowercase the french from now on) simply surrender and let him through?

Oh, and Seth Greenberg’s favorite Roanoke Times reporter – Mark Berman – had a little writeup about A.D.’s signing. Remember their little feud? Refresh your memory with round 1, round 2, round 3 and round 4.

Popularity: 74% [?]

Deron Washington’s dunks are on display in the NBA Summer League. Here are some highlights from last night’s Pistons-Raptors game.

Popularity: 20% [?]

The Weekend Warrior has been whining about getting some pictures of the new Virginia Tech basketball practice facility, so while I was on campus this afternoon I snapped a few pics. For the most part it is complete, at least on the exterior. Check out our Facebook page for more pictures and while you’re there, become a fan! We only need three more people to become fans so that we can reach 100!

Popularity: 58% [?]

MaxPreps.com is reporting that Tyrone Garland, a 6-foot-1, 165-pound point guard from Bartram High in Philadelphia, will announce his decision to attend Virginia Tech at a press conference later today at 5pm. Read more about Garland at maxpreps.com. (Thanks for the tip, @hokieguru)

Popularity: 34% [?]

Virginia Tech head coach Seth Greenberg posted on his Twitter account that former Hokie standout Deron Washington has signed a guaranteed contract with the Detroit Pistons, who selected him 59th overall (second round) of the 2008 NBA Draft. Washington played in Israel last season.

Greenberg, @HeadHokie on Twitter, posted 6:41 p.m. (eastern):

“congrats to Deron Washington for signing a guaranteed contract with the Pistons Great to have a Hokie in the league!”

I have yet to see this confirmed in any news reports, but I’ll take Greenberg’s word for it. Way to go, Deron!

Popularity: 13% [?]

Those who remember former Hokie basketball player Coleman Collins remember him as one of the great ambassadors in the history of Virginia Tech’s basketball program. The guy may be the smartest player to ever come through the athletic department at VT. He enrolled at Tech when he was 16 and graduated with honors in three years. Oh, he also got a master’s degree before he could legally drink.

Well, old Coleman is up to his usual well-spoken ways again with a very thoughtful commentary on the events happening in Iran following last week’s disputed election. Read Collins’ feature Democracy Matters at ESPN.com

Read Coleman Collins’ Bio at HuffingtonPost.com:

“Considered one of the NBA Development League’s standout athletes and most civic-minded contributors, Coleman Collins, a native of Stone Mountain, Georgia, is a 6’9″ center for the NBA D-League’s Fort Wayne (Indiana) Mad
Ants. The former Chamblee High School athlete and academic standout enrolled in Virginia Tech at the remarkable age of 16. He graduated with honors in just three years — by the age of 19 — staying an additional year to play basketball and complete a Master’s degree program in Public Health. A fixture in Virginia Tech’s starting line-up, Collins led the Hokies to a 20-win season in 2007 and into the NCAA Tournament. After college, Collins played for the German club EnBW L’burg during the 2006-07 season and, last summer, participated in the Toronto Raptors’ Summer League and in the Phoenix Suns’ training camp.”

Popularity: 9% [?]

Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach Seth Greenberg hired former virginia assistant Bill Courtney last week to fill the vacancy left by Stacey Palmore, who left to be an assistant with georgia. Courtney was an assistant at virginia for the past three seasons, but left after Dave Leito was fired. He took an assistant job with virginia commonwealth and had been there two months before Greenberg came calling.

Courtney is apparently a top notch recruiter, responsible for signing the core of the george mason Final Four team in 2006. He also recruited uva’s Sylven Landesberg, who was named the 2008-2009 ACC rookie of the year. He has strong ties to the Baltimore – D.C. corridor where a ton of talented players are recruited every year. Perhaps that will pay off soon. One thing is clear, Courtney is by far the best recruiter Greenberg has hired in his six year at Tech.

Read more at HokieSports.com and at Roanoke.com.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Cadarian Raines gets arm curled at the 2009 Capital Classic

Popularity: 16% [?]

At the 2009 Capital Classic

Popularity: 19% [?]

The Hokies prized recruit for the 2009 class officially announced that he has withdrawn his verbal commitment to Virginia Tech and will reopen his recruiting. According to the Richmond Times Dispatch, Jones is taking a visit to southern california in April. If he does indeed leave, that gives the Hokies four players in the ’09 class: Ben Boggs, Erick Green, Manny Atkins and Cadarian Raines. But Jones was the marquee point guard Seth Greenberg was counting on.

Read more in today’s Richmond Times Dispatch.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Congrats to the writers and contributors of TechHoops.com for being included in the April 2009 edition of Washingtonian Magazine as one of the “All-Star Sports” sites. It has been great to see our little site grow over the years and we thank all of our readers for their support.

Popularity: 10% [?]

At the 2009 Hokie Celebration

Popularity: 18% [?]

At the 2009 Hokie Celebration

Popularity: 18% [?]