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.
Against Temple in Philadelphia, the Hokies got 32 points of production from Delaney, but the rest of the team combined to shoot an inexcusable 8-36 from the field en route to a 61-50 defeat.
Unlike last year, the Hokies bounced back and continued to fight until the very last millisecond in wins against Delaware and Iowa on the road.
In their game against Delaware, the Hokies were out-shot 45.5 percent to 35.5 percent in the second half. While the Hokies were expected to win, they were forced against the ropes, and a late run by Delaware sent the game into overtime with all the momentum shifted to the Blue Hens.
In overtime, the Hokies took care of business and won by eight.
Against Iowa, the Hokies were pressured multiple times but never let up.
The Hawkeyes began the game Tuesday night with an 11-3 run to which Tech answered with a 10-2 run of its own, but whenever it seemed Tech was ready to pull away, Iowa had an answer.
Iowa shot 44.9 percent from the field and a shocking 44.4 percent from three-point range, connecting on 12 of 27 shots from beyond the arc.
Even in a home game and against a team picked to finish eighth in the ACC, that wasn’t enough for the Hawkeyes.
When the Hawkeyes took the lead with 6:27 remaining in the game, the Hokies kept fighting and it paid off when Tech strung together six straight points off a 30-second timeout to take back the lead for good.
This season seems different.
Last season, the Hokies had four players average more than six points per game, with Vassallo, Delaney and Allen all in double-figures and J.T. Thompson clocking in with a mediocre 6.5 points per game.
So far this season, six Hokies are averaging more than six points per game, and there’s a much deeper rotation at head coach Seth Greenberg’s calling.
Even players who aren’t averaging more than six per game, such as freshmen Ben Boggs and Erick Green, are contributing. Tuesday, Boggs knocked down two three pointers early in the game to spark the Hokies’ comeback from an early 11-3 deficit.
While there’s still a long road ahead for the Hokies, some are beginning to understand why Delaney brushed off the predictions made for his team before it even stepped foot on the court.
If close losses turn into close wins for this Tech team, the postseason destination will be different at the beginning of March, and as for the talking heads who don’t mention the Hokies name when discussing ACC basketball — well, Delaney isn’t too worried about that.