Collegiate Times

The Virginia Tech men’s basketball team will be put under the national spotlight on ESPN’s College GameDay — the first time in program history.

The Hokies will meet fellow Atlantic Coast Conference foes, the Duke Blue Devils, on Feb. 26th in Cassell Coliseum. The matchup will be the only game on the program featuring two ACC opponents.

“It’s a matchup that has created some great drama within our league. There’s been some great games between Duke and Virginia Tech since we’ve become a member of the (ACC),” said Seth Greenberg, head coach. “I think it’s a reflection of the tremendous passion and ownership we have from our student body, our community, our alumni, the Hokie nation, and (ESPN) had tremendous success here televising games from Blacksburg in terms of the environment.”

The popular eight-week program returns for its seventh season on ESPN. GameDay will kick off 10 a.m. on ESPNU with the coverage moving to ESPN at 11 a.m. Then a one-hour special at 8 p.m., will be aired on ESPN, concluding with the tip-off at 9 p.m.

“It’s huge, I think it’s big for Virginia Tech and it’s big for the basketball program,” said Terrell Bell, a senior forward. “We have a great team this year and the more we play as a team I think the better we’ll be. College GameDay is just a plus added onto our season, it’s going to be a big day for Virginia Tech.”

Senior guard Dorenzo Hudson agreed, describing the impact it would have on Tech’s basketball program as a whole.

“We’re definitely trying to put ourselves on the map,” Hudson said. “We’re definitely trying to let people know that we’re not a joke. I think last year they kind of took us as a joke because of our schedule. Coach sat down with us and asked us what kind of schedule we wanted to play and we told him we wanted to play this tougher schedule.”

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A version of this article appeared in the Aug 31 issue of the Collegiate Times.