Uninvited

I feel your pain.

Pop.

Tech had its bubble burst by the NCAA Selection Committee Sunday, relegating the Hokies to the NIT (which might as well stand for Not Invited Tournament). Tech is the No. 1 seed in their region of the NIT and will face Morgan State at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Blacksburg. The winner of that game will face the winner of VCU and UAB. That game also takes place at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Richmond. Tech will not have to leave Cassell Coliseum on its road to New York.

Before the venting, let's take an opportunity to step back and consider the season and the job Coach Greenberg and the rest of the staff did this season. The Hokies were picked to finish 10th in the ACC in the preseason. And early on, that appeared to be spot-on. My first Virginia Tech basketball game was the season opener against Elon and the Hokies looked awful. Their half-court offense was pathetic. AD Vassallo was lazy without the ball and was therefore useless.

The one bright spot was Jeff Allen. Against Elon, he showed that he was capable into turning into a stud. He did that over the course of the season. Another freshman, Malcolm Delaney, slowly developed into a solid point guard. Early on, it appeared Hank Thorns was the man tabbed to be the point of the future, but I felt he struggled. Delaney became the point and Thorns became a good sixth man.

A team that looked like it was on its way to an abysmal season that may have led to no postseason was probably the last team out of the NCAA Tournament. Coach Greenberg was playing with house money this year. Nothing was expected of this team and he turned them into a team that went blow for blow with the best team in the country in the ACC Tournament.

It doesn't make it less disappointing that we didn't get in, though. First, the buzzer-beater loss to UNC, then Georgia's miracle run through the SEC Tournament likely moved the Hokies out of the field and into the NIT.

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It shouldn't have come to that, though. The Hokies should have closed the deal against Clemson and UNC and taken it out of the hands of the committee. But two come-from-ahead losses put them out of the Big Dance. Tech didn't have a signature win and didn't play anyone good in the non-conference schedule. The Hokies lost to Butler and Gonzaga in Alaska, but other than that didn't face anyone sexy. Villanova and Arizona did, putting them in The Tournament. But there are several reasons the Hokies should have made it. They played in the best league in the country, a league that got only three at-large teams in The Tournament.

The Big 12 was horrible beyond horrible this year and got five at-large teams in. Baylor and Texas A&M? Please. The SEC was weak and yet they got four at-large bids. Don't get me started on Kentucky. What a horrible, horrible team. All of their quality wins came in conference. They sported the same resume Tech did. Bad non-conference losses, young team that gelled late, got blown out by 41 points on the road. It's a travesty they're in the field.

Then there's the Big East. Yeah, its good, but its not that good. Half the damn teams got in, including boringly average Villanova. Like Tech, they lost to NC State, who might have been the worst team I saw all season. They also lost at Rutgers, Cincinnati and DePaul. That's terrible. Their big non-conference win was over George Mason. Their wins over UConn and Pitt got them in.

And the Pac 10? What a joke. Other than Luc-Richard Mbah a Moute and the Lopez brothers, its not a great league. Kevin Love doesn't impress me. Mayo is a good player, but USC is mediocre. Then there's Oregon, Arizona and Arizona State. Lame, lamer, lamest. Oregon won on the road against K-State (yawn) and that probably got them in. Arizona beat Texas A&M at home (yawn), which probably got them in. But they went 8-10 in the regular season against the Pac 10 and lost in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.

Oh, and the A10 got three teams in.

The Hokies won 10 games against ACC foes, including one in the ACC Tournament against an NCAA Tournament team. Put them in the field.

[/rant]

The good news is two-fold. First, Tech has another game to play. I didn't expect them to make the postseason this year, so bring on the NIT. Also, the future looks bright for a team that has had a top four finish in the best league in America three of the last four seasons.

Allen and Delaney will be great players. Vassallo turned into a leader late in the season and showed a fire I wasn't used to seeing from him. He has completely changed my perception of him in the last month.

The key will be finding players that can fill the role of stopper on defense and slashing, athletic playmaker on offense that will be left vacant by the loss of Deron. Hopefully that will be Terrell Bell, who has been touted for his defense and has the lanky Deron body type.

I've been a basketball fan for years now and it's fun to actually have my team playing well. I haven't had a college basketball team to root for, so the Hokies' hoop success is a welcome surprise.

Hopefully Coach Greenberg will stick around and keep improving the program like he has been doing.