Recap | Box Score

Recap | Box Score

Remember midnight madness? Man, that used to be so much fun. Yeah, well, they don’t do that any more. Now it’s called “Late Night with the Hokies.” It’s kinda lame sounding, but for die hard Tech Hoops fans, it’s the fix we need until the season starts on Nov. 15.

The format last night was disorganized to say the least. To be honest, the most entertaining part of the evening was watching the Virginia Tech women’s volleyball team stomp Georgia Tech, 3-0. Hopefully it was sign of things to come tonight at 6 p.m.

The men’s and women’s basketball teams were introduced one at a time as they ran out of the tunnel through the smoke machine. Women’s coach Beth Dunkenberg and men’s coach Seth Greenberg addressed the crowd. (Seth’s speech is included in the video below.) The women had a dance routine, which was mildly entertaining, followed by the men’s performance, which was kinda funny too. The freshmen men and women paired up for a Dancing with the Stars contest, which Ben Boggs and his partner won. There were some fan contests mixed in, too.

There was no game. No practice. There was a three-point contest between two women’s players and two men’s players (Malcolm Delaney beat Dorenzo Hudson easily, 30-19). The dunk contest was interesting — they lowered one hoop to five feet so some little kids could dunk. The kids would do a dunk and then the men’s team would have to duplicate it at the other end on the regulation net. The kids won 4-2.

They played some two ball and by that time it was after 10 p.m., and people started leaving because, well, it was getting late and the night was dragging on. It was supposed to end at 10. All that being said, most people seemed to have a good time and the players, to their credit, embraced the silliness of the whole thing and made the most of it. And as a dad with a son who loves Virginia Tech basketball, it was nice to be able to go this family friendly version of midnight madness.

Late Night with the Virginia Tech Hokies from Gary Cope on Vimeo.