NIT Bound

Virginia Tech was issued a 2-seed in the 2009 NIT Tournament. The Hokies will host Duquesne on Wednesday night, and if they win that game, will then host the winner of the Georgetown/Baylor matchup. Tech should be able to get by Duquesne with relative ease, but either Baylor or Georgetown are certainly capable of giving the Hokies all they can handle. That game will be a good test as to the quality of this Virginia Tech team here at the end of the season because both Baylor and G-town were fighting hard for NCAA bids this year, and both have at least one player that has NBA talent (Curtis Jerrells for the Bears and DaJuan Summers & Greg Monroe for the Hoyas).

Duquesne will not exactly be a pushover... they made it to the final game of the Atlantic 10 tournament and beat a good Dayton team along the way, so they are hot right now. Aaron Jackson is Duquesne's do-it-all senior guard... he can score, he can dish, and he can rebound. His stat line reads 18.5 pts, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game. The Dukes of Duquesne are a high-scoring team, but they aren't a particularly good defensive team. The Hokies will have a size advantage on the Dukes and they will need to really take advantage of that and pound the Dukes inside the paint. Oliver Lewinson is the tallest player for the Dukes at 6'9" and he only plays about 8 minutes per game. Their tallest starter is Damian Saunders, who is all of 6'7" and 210 lbs. I think it's likely that the Hokies will go small most of this game, with Jeff Allen at the 5. Allen should be able to dominate Saunders down there. Cheick Diakite will probably start the game though as Greenberg will want to see if he can keep up with the smaller Saunders and keep him from hurting the Hokies on the glass. Diakite is also our best option for the opening tip-off. Hank Thorns will most likely play a lot in this game as the Dukes will play 5'11" Eric Evans for a majority of the game.

Virginia Tech got placed in a pretty tough bracket in this year's NIT, so they will need to come out with something to prove. The Hokies will face 22-11 Auburn if they can make it through the early gauntlet. Auburn played in the weak SEC, so I'm not exactly sure how they got a #1 seed now that I think about it. I could see them getting bested by 4-seed Tulsa or 5-seed Northwestern, and I definitely think that whoever comes out on top among VT, Baylor, and G-town will go to the NIT Final Four. The Hokies have the advantage since their first two games will be at home, and possibly their 3rd game if Auburn gets beat. This is a good chance for the young Hokies to gain some experience, and it's a good chance for Vassallo to put together a resume worthy of the NBA draft, so I expect the Hokies to play well. Go TECH!