Share on your favorite social network:

Anybody
out there got any crow? I promised to eat some if the Hokies exceeded my meager
expectations, and it’s time to put on a bib and chow down. This is not an
offensive juggernaut, and they’re not playing the toughest
schedule around, but they’re doing what no Tech team has done since the
mid-1990s: winning a lot of games early.

If you follow Tech basketball, then you’ve heard the stat: Virginia Tech’s
8-1 start in men’s hoops is their best since 1995-96, when an Ace Custis-led
team started out 12-1 on their way to a 23-6 record and the second round of the
NCAA tournament.

This is easily the best start of the Seth Greenberg era. In an interesting
statistical twist documented in last
Friday’s TSLMail, every Greenberg VT team has started out 5-3. That TSLMail
was written when the Hokies were 7-1, and now that they’re 8-1, they’re putting
more distance between themselves and past Greenberg Hokie editions.

ACC play opens on January 10th at UNC, but before then, the Hokies have three
more home games and a game in Cancun, Mexico. The home games are against teams
the Hokies should beat: Charleston Southern, Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC),
and Longwood. Pull that feat off, and the Hokies will be 11-1 when they tip off
against Seton Hall in Cancun on January 2nd.

Seton Hall will be a much stiffer test. Currently 9-0 and #53 in the RPI,
Seton Hall will be Tech’s toughest opponent since Temple, who drubbed the Hokies
61-50 earlier this season.

Add it all up, and 11-2 before ACC play starts is very doable, and 12-1 isn’t
out of the realm of possibility. Throw in a January 18th game against NC Central
in Cassell, and the Hokies can go 12-2 or 13-1 in their 14 out of conference
games. A modest 5-11 or 6-10 record in ACC play would put Tech anywhere from
17-13 to 19-11 going into the ACC Tournament.

See where I’m headed with this? Tech’s strong 8-1 start has put the NIT
squarely in the Hokies’ wheelhouse. If Tech can beat the media’s