Let's buy some Christmas socks and catch a b-ball game

I am back and blogging after a long week that included strep throat, Christmas, and being in a wedding in Charlotte. My reward for being a g-man was a handsome VT hooded sweatshirt with embroidered lettering. The groom got every groomsman a hoodie from their alma mater, which ended up making a pretty sweet picture with all the different colors (Tennessee, USC, Florida State, East Carolina, Oklahoma State, and of course Virginia Tech). So I am finally back in the office, and with zero direction from my boss as to how to accomplish my task for today, and with my boss being out of town, I am blogging again. I might as well tackle VT's basketball games from last week.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to actually see the Aeropostale Holiday Festival, but there wasn't much to see anyway (doesn't that tournament name make you want to run out and buy a trendy new top with a matching belt as a gift for a loved one? Well the sponsors figured it would). Virginia Tech was expected to be the champion of the tiny four-team tournament at Madison Square Garden in NYC, and that's exactly how it played out. The wannabe contenders? Try Columbia, Marist, and St John's on for size. They don't fit very well, do they? Playing any of those teams is quite unfulfilling, like wearing a wool turtleneck underneath an ugly Christmas sweater; there's just nothing to get excited about. The Hokies took the first game against Columbia with relative ease, although it was a closer game than I would like to see against an Ivy League bottom-dweller. In fact, Penn and Princeton are the usual winners of that league, with everyone else being a distant third. The Hokies had 19 turnovers against Columbia, a fact that induces vomit when you consider that the guys playing for Columbia are much more concerned about 16th century French poetry than they are about playing hoops. The second game was against St John's, who beat Marist in their opening matchup. You might actually have heard of the St John's Red Storm before because they used to be a decent team in the 90's, although they're pretty much a joke in the Big East these days. They were 9-1 this season before facing the Hokies, but they hadn't really played anyone of note. Right now St John's is 9-3 with all 3 losses against ACC teams (Boston College, Virginia Tech, and Miami). It was a fairly easy tournament for the Hokies, and you can rest assured that hardly anyone was at MSG to watch it.

JT Thompson is finally healthy and started his season against Columbia with a mediocre, but not terrible, performance. He followed that up with a better performance against St John's. He didn't do much offensively against either team, going a combined 2-6 from the field with no free throws in either game. This is a little strange considering his penchant for being around the rim and getting his points inside, but I'm willing to cut the guy some slack due to his time out with an injury and let his offensive game come around. He was a big factor on the boards, gathering 14 rebounds in the two games with 10 of them coming in just 18 minutes of play against St John's. 5 of those 10 rebounds were offensive rebounds, which is an area where Thompson excels. The guy is always crashing the boards after a VT shot. So what can we expect from the Hokies now that Thompson is back? The biggest difference will be our rebounding margin, which should be an advantage for VT against most foes. 3-point attempts will go down since Thompson will be stealing Hudson and Bell's minutes, and JT doesn't shoot it from the 3-point line, but I don't see this as a problem. In fact, I am cool with Allen drifting out to shoot a 3 as long as Thompson, Vassallo, and one of Diakite/Davila/Witcher are under the rim. Delaney and Vassallo are already obvious threats from deep, but with Allen's excellent 3-point percentage, it'll be tough for teams to let him jack up the open shot.

However in spite of JT coming back, we also had the bad news of backup point guard Hank Thorns going out before the tournament with a sprained MCL. That meant that Malcolm Delaney played all 80 minutes of the tournament because there are no other point guards on the Hokie roster. We don't even have a combo guard to ease the burden, so if Delaney were to get into foul trouble, our team would have been toast. Dorenzo Hudson simply cannot play the point. However, Malcolm responded with two of his best games of the season going 15-31 from the field (that's an excellent shooting percentage for a guard in case you didn't know). He also went 6-16 from 3-point range, which is a decent 37.5%, and a studly 11-11 from the free throw line. He did have an usually high number of turnovers against Columbia, giving the ball to the other team a whopping 7 times, but he regrouped against the Red Storm giving the ball away only once in 40 minutes of play while racking up 8 assists. That just shows you the type of player Malcolm Delaney is... when he has a bad game in one statistical category, he will come back the next game with a renewed sense of purpose to get back on track. And possibly the most impressive thing to me is that he didn't get into foul trouble despite the fact that the opposing teams were trying to make that happen. He's a big time player and I have a gigantic man-crush on him. Is it still considered a man-crush if you are pasting pictures of the both of you onto wedding photos? Sure, why not.

Overall the Aeropostale Holiday Festival was a success for the Hokies and a good step in the right direction for the rest of the season. VT will ride down to Charleston Southern tomorrow to take on the lowly Buccaneers. The game shouldn't be close, but you never know with this year's squad. Hank Thorns is still out with that sprain, so if Delaney gets into foul trouble then a VT loss is possible, but I certainly wouldn't bet the farm on that happening. You know, if you own a farm that is. The real fun starts on Sunday when VT will travel to Duke to open their ACC slate! "'Vengeance is mine', declareth the Lord." Go Hokies!