Collegiate Times

Prior to the start of its season, the Virginia Tech men’s basketball team was picked to finish eighth in the Atlantic Coast Conference. After closing out the 2008-09 campaign with numerous letdowns late in games and later losing A.D. Vassallo and

Cheick Diakite to graduation, the Hokies weren’t necessarily the hottest college basketball search on Google to begin the season.

And some would say deservingly so.

The Hokies face a tough Atlantic Coast Conference schedule as always this year, and the average age of their roster, which lacks a senior who gets any legitimate playing time, is only 20.

Some, however, disagreed with Tech’s predicted finish from the get-go.

“We’re better than most teams,” said point guard Malcolm Delaney the week before Tech’s first game. “I mean, look at the stats from the last couple years. We’re like the third or fourth winningest program in the ACC. It doesn’t matter if we get picked eighth in the preseason — they do that every year.

“If you look at it on paper, the teams we beat and the teams we lost to in close games. ... I ain’t really worried about that,” Delaney added. “We’re better than most teams in the ACC.”

Six games into the season, Delaney’s point is slowly being made now that the Hokies stand at 5-1.

While many of Tech’s opponents have proven lackluster, coaches will tell you at the start of the season that wins are wins.

Last season, the Hokies dropped four out-of-conference games by four points or fewer before they even sniffed the better competition on their in-conference schedule.

While many fans expected last season’s team to be one of the best Tech had ever seen, the Hokies couldn’t catch a break all year.

In San Juan, Puerto Rico last year, the Hokies lost back-to-back games against Xavier and Seton Hall on their first road trip of the season. 

Against Xavier, Tech forward Jeff Allen forced a two-point lead with 1.9 seconds remaining in overtime, and the Hokies looked like they were going to earn a valuable win early in the year.

Instead, it wasn’t a missed assignment or a bad foul that led the Hokies to relinquish their lead, but it was as close as you can get to an act of God in the game of basketball that sent the Hokies home when Xavier hit a half court heave at the buzzer for the win.

Two days later, the Hokies looked flat and shot 9-20 from the free-throw line in the second half against a flat-out worse Seton Hall team, lollygagging to their second loss.

After beating Elon by just nine points in their next game, the Hokies lost yet another close game days later against Wisconsin in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

This time, the Hokies showed the fight people expected but did not see against Seton Hall, coming back from a double-digit deficit in the second half and tying the Badgers at 72 with just seven seconds remaining.

Just before time expired, though, Wisconsin’s Trevon Hughes drove to the top of the key and hit a running jumper despite Delaney’s hands being in his face to give his team the win over Tech with just under a second remaining.

Another one-point loss against Georgia just before the start of their in-conference schedule set the tone for what would be a year of “what ifs” for Tech basketball fans.

Had Tech defeated Xavier, an eventual four-seed in the NCAA Tournament, and had the Hokies beat Wisconsin, an eventual 12-seed, things may have been different.

Those close losses, as Delaney noted, dictated the predictions made for Tech this season.

Six games into the season, though, the late game losses have not appeared.

The Hokies’ one loss this year comes against a Temple team that very well could be in the tournament this March.

Like last year, Tech took its first three out-of-conference games with ease this season, defeating Brown, UNC-Greensboro and Campbell with little problem.

Like last year, the Hokies lost their first game against real competition on the road.

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