Collegiate Times

Who are these guys wearing Virginia Tech uniforms running up and down the floor in Cassell?

Certainly can't be the team that was counted out before the season even began. A rebuilding year everyone said; one that was going to be filled with plenty of growing pains.

No way a team with six freshmen, two juniors, and just one senior in the regular rotation is currently in third place behind Duke and North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

But Seth Greenberg's squad, picked to finish 10th in the preseason, is turning a few heads. They've beaten Virginia (picked 5th), Maryland (6th), Boston College (8th), and Florida State (9th) on the way to a 4-3 record in the ACC.

Not to mention that Tech is 2-0 in ACC overtime games, has handed Virginia its first-ever conference loss at John Paul Jones Arena, and won at Boston College for the first time in program history.

And this isn't a by-product of the ACC experiencing a down year. True, there are only two ACC teams (No. 3 Duke and No. 4 UNC) in the Top 25, but the ACC ranks first in Conference RPI (ahead of both the Big East and the Pac-10), and every single team in the conference has a winning overall record.

How on earth is Tech pulling this off then? The good ole' fashioned way: winning the rebound battle, playing stout defense, taking care of the ball on offense, and carrying a nice sized chip on its shoulder.

After being dominated on the boards night in and night out last season, Tech has outrebounded its opponents in each ACC game this season.

Even while leading the team in scoring most nights, senior forward Deron Washington is finding time to lead a defensive effort that has held opponents to 63.1 points per game.

Freshmen guards Malcolm Delaney and Hank Thorns both have positive assist-to-turnover ratios and have shown that they want the ball in their hands when the game is on the line.

Then there's that chip that comes with being picked to finish in the conference cellar.

"We like being the underdog," Thorns said. "We're the underdog in almost every game we go into, so we just play with a chip on our shoulders."

They've gelled as a team quicker than anyone could have expected.

Against Florida State, the small things such as Delaney's no-look whip pass to freshman forward J.T. Thompson in the post for the easy bucket, Thorns' dish to Jeff Allen who threw down a thundering dunk, and junior swingman A.D. Vassallo's timely dagger three-pointers were all traits of a team that plays with an innate understanding of one another.

"I think when we lost a couple games early, we saw that us playing as individuals wasn't going to work that we had to do something to change it," Delaney said. "When we started trusting each other, we came together as a team and I think that comes from us bonding on and off the court."

Even when the young Hokies were given lemons they still found a way to make lemonade. Allen's two-game suspension following his contact with an official at Georgia Tech left a big question mark.

But Thompson made the most of his opportunity to showcase his talents, going for 13 points and eight rebounds against Duke, and then leading Tech with a double-double (14 points, 12 rebounds) against Boston College. Even with Allen back in the lineup against Florida State, Thompson got the start and tallied for 11 points and 5 rebounds.

"I feel like I had it in me, and I feel like Coach thought I had it in me," Thompson said. "That's what he's been telling me, 'Play hard and the game will come' and that's what happened."

They've been playing hard, but more importantly they've been playing with savvy. Their exponential growth and sharp learning curve has them in a position to finish in the upper half of one of the toughest and most storied conferences in the country.

Not too bad for a rebuilding year.