A win is a win. Right?

The Hokies clinched their first ACC basketball win against the much-hated Hoos of UVA yesterday. The Hokies opened up a hefty 12-point lead with about four minutes left in the second half, but a late flurry (primarily from the Cavs' Mustapha Farrakhan, who must've borrowing Jesus' left arm for a bit) left the Hokies stunned and incredulous with a 1 point lead. However, AD Vassallo hit a turn-around jumper and some key free throws down the stretch to seal the win for VT. Vassallo and Malcolm Delaney went nuts in this game, combining for 53 of VT's 78 points. Vassallo had his best shooting day in a month and Delaney was a nuisance everywhere on the court hitting shots from outside and inside the 3-point line, including some excellent drives to the hoop, and defensively he came up with 2 steals and some solid on-the-ball defending. I hope we will see a lot more efforts like this from both Vassallo and Delaney now that the Hokies are in ACC play. This win evens the Hokies up at 1-1 in the ACC and puts them at 10-5 overall.

Let's take a second to talk about the UVA Cavaliers... okay that's long enough.

Just kidding, I'm going to give them some props; that team is going to be the most improved team in the ACC next year. They are a very young team, starting 3 freshmen, a sophomore, and a senior, but unlike most teams in that situation, the Cavs' best players are the freshmen and the sophomore. The Cavs will lose Mamadi Diane and Tunji Soroye off of their roster next year, and that might turn out to be addition by subtraction. Diane seems to have completely derailed this season and is completely useless for the Cavs. I think they'd be better off giving his minutes to Farrakhan or Jamil Tucker, but Dave Leitao keeps marching Diane out there hoping to get him back to his form from previous years. Also, it seemed like the Hokies went on a run every time Assane Sene came out of the game to be replaced by Soroye. The lineup of Sene, Landesberg, Zeglinski, and Mike Scott is pretty formidable, and could be even better if Farrakhan moves into the starting lineup, or if UVA can recruit another big-time freshman for next year. Honestly, I'm a little shocked that Farrakhan is only averaging 9.8 minutes per game, as he appears to be UVA's best pure shooter. He must be a defensive liability or something. Or maybe Dave Leitao has something against his grandfather, nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. I've also got some praise for Sylven Landesberg, who is already one of the best slashers in the ACC as a freshman. That kid can straight up finish a drive. I really thought that was the kind of game we would get from Dorenzo Hudson, but he hasn't shown that ability yet.

Now let's give some praise to some of Tech's lesser-known players. Terrell Bell had one of his best games of the season, although it didn't really show up on the stat sheet. Bell had 5 points on 2-5 shooting, but he was 1-1 on his 3-point shots, pulled down 3 boards, dished out 3 dimes, and had a steal as well. He was also a factor in one of Delaney's steals, tipping the ball that was about to sail out of bounds to Delaney, who then drove in for an uncontested dunk. He also played excellent defense on Landesberg and didn't give up much to him. I really hope this means that Bell is gaining confidence. Hudson usually plays more minutes than Bell, but that wasn't true in this game. Hudson only came into the game once for a total of 2 minutes. He did pull down a rebound to initiate a fastbreak for VT in that span though. Lewis Witcher looked active and displayed a decent scoring touch in his 11 minutes on the floor, but what VT fans will remember most was his inability to finish an easy layup (he probably could have dunked the ball if he wasn't such a pansy) at the end of the 1st half after Delaney hit him with a beautiful pass near the basket. That sort of inconsistency has become the norm for Lewis Witcher, who may never reach his full potential as a player due to what seems to be a lack of confidence in his own abilities. Cheick Diakite had an excellent game, although his efforts also won't really show up on the score sheet. He had some big rebounds and a couple nice shots despite having hands of stone. Jeff Allen had possibly his worst game of the season, going 0-7 from the field and looking like a scared child every time he went up against Sene. He just couldn't find a way around those Stretch Armstrong limbs of Sene, and instead of passing out, he kept trying to challenge the reach of Sene. Just one example of how "The Big Donut" doesn't really refer to Allen's physique anymore as much as his intelligence. A couple of dumb fouls on the offensive end kept Allen out for a large stretch of the first half. JT Thompson still looks extremely rusty and missed several shots that I really think he would have made last year. He also managed to pull down exactly zero rebounds, which I can't imagine will be the norm for him this season. My thought is that Thompson is a key component to the Hokies this year, and their season will go as he goes. If he can become a somewhat reliable fourth option for scoring, then the Hokies will make it to the NCAA tournament. If he doesn't, the Hokies are NIT-bound.

Hank Thorns doesn't have much confidence in his 3-point shooting. He missed one wide-open shot, and from that point on he kept passing up open threes to drive into the lane where he would immediately have to pass back out.

I suspect that opposing teams are doping their blood before games against VT this year. Somehow we keep getting everyone's best game of the season. UVA is a good offensive team, but they played with a renewed vigor on defense against the Hokies and we wouldn't have won without the individual efforts from Vassallo and Delaney. All in all it was a decent home effort, but the Hokies will need to play better if they want to make it to the Big Dance this year, and they'll need to do it against either UNC, Duke, or Wake Forest to win one of those games and give us a signature win for our tournament resume.