Hokies Hoops, Vol. 11 (Win and In edition) ...

A quick blog before I hit the road for Atlanta. Should’ve posted this stuff right after the win over N.C. State, but the bum elbow has been giving me a good bit of trouble lately.

I’ve also been working on some bigger projects and have been a little negligent in my blogging. My apologies. Also, to those who were highly offended at me saying the “USA! USA!” chants to a Venezuelan opponent were “borderline racist,” I’m sorry.

First, let me say that I didn’t – as some have angrily accused – call anyone racist. I said it was bordering on it. Whether I’m wrong (or, as some have hurled, too stupid to know what the word means) is really pretty debatable. I can see both sides.

I don’t think it is up for debate that it was in poor taste. Doesn’t make the people who did it bad people. Just guilty of bad judgment in the heat of an exciting basketball game. I wasn't trying to offend anyone, rather to point out that the chant might've. I hope we can all move on now.

Much more important to the Hokies is this fact: Win at Georgia Tech tomorrow and Virginia Tech is in the NCAA tournament. That’s not a fact, but pretty darn close to it. The Hokies would have 23 wins ... 10 of them in ACC play. No team from the conference has EVER been left out of the Big Dance with 10 ACC wins.

Tech would also have three wins over teams with a top-50 ranking in the Ratings Percentage Index. That would help balance the Hokies’ horrendous non-league schedule.

Now for the bad news: Georgia Tech is 14-1 at home this season. Virginia Tech is 5-5 on the road, 2-5 in ACC games.

The good news? The Hokies have won two in a row in their series with the Yellow Jackets and are 5-2 against Georgia Tech since joining the ACC (2-1 in Atlanta).

The X-factor in this game, I think, will be how much injured guard Dorenzo Hudson (foot) plays in this game ... and how effective he can be.

Here’s Hudson and his teammates talking after their win over the Wolfpack. I talked to Hudson, along with forward Jeff Allen, again yesterday in anticipation of this final regular-season game. I’ll post those quotes in the morning.

Enjoy ...

G DORENZO HUDSON

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF NOT LOSING: “We needed this win, to help ourselves out with the ACC tournament. We did a pretty good job on our senior night of playing hard.”

ON HOW BAD HIS INJURED RIGHT FOOT HURT: “It hurt pretty bad, but I’ll be alright. I’ll make it through. (Said it’s been hurt since Florida State, but this week was the worst.) I think it’s just a little bone bruise, nothing serious – hopefully.”

ON HOW HE BLOCKS OUT THE PAIN: “I just have to play. I know my team needs me on offense. I know they needed me to fight through it and play ball.”

ON WHEN IT HURTS THE MOST: “Lateral movement, trying to push off on it.”

ON KNOWING THIS WAS A MUST-WIN: “It was a must-win. We knew it going into the game. We played as hard as we could and got the win.”

F JEFF ALLEN

ON PLAYING HARD, PLAYING WELL AND STAYING OUT OF FOUL TROUBLE THE LAST TWO GAMES, AND WHAT’S THE BIG DIFFERENCE: “I’m not going for steals. That’s where I got a lot of my fouls, reaching. Then after I get my first foul, trying not to get that second one. Just chill out.”

ON NOT HAVING TO SPEND HALF THE GAME ON THE BENCH: “It feels great. You come out in the second half and you’re not all stiff. You’re kind of still loose from the first half. It feels good. I feel like I contribute a lot without the foul trouble. Instead of a second-half player, I’m playing the first and the second half. I’m putting one and one together, and coming out with a better outcome.”

ON, LATELY, ATTACKING AND FORCING OPPONENTS INTO FOUL TROUBLE: “We work on it in practice. Me and J.T. (Thompson), that’s what we do. We’re faster than most of the other big men, so you’re either going to foul us or we’re going to get the layup.”

ON WHETHER HE LIKES PLAYING AWAY FROM THE BASKET AND DRIVING PAST BIGGER, SLOWER POST PLAYERS: “Instead of standing in there banging? Yeah, definitely.”

G MALCOLM DELANEY

ON ALL THE BUBBLE TALK: “We’re not going to get into all that. We’re worried about getting to 10 wins in the league, and getting a buy (in the ACC tournament). We know if we get a bye, the NCAA stuff will take care of itself. We know if we play good, we control our own destiny. We don’t want to live on the bubble.”

ON JEFF ALLEN STAYING OUT OF FOUL TROUBLE THE LAST TWO GAMES: “I put that on Coach. He’s done a great job with Jeff. When he gets that first quick foul, he takes him out and gives him some time to rest up and think about some stuff. I just put that on Coach. He’s thought through a great game plan for Jeff and keeping him on the court. We’re a much better team with Jeff on the court, and he knows that.”

ON HOW MUCH BENCHING HIM BRIEFLY AFTER THE FIRST FOUL HELPS: “It relaxes him a lot. Sometimes he gets caught up in maybe that first foul wasn’t really a foul, and sometimes he tries to reach. Now he can go to the bench and settle down and get ready to come back out, because he knows how important he is to this team and how much we need him to stay on the court.”

ON HUDSON PLAYING THROUGH PAIN: “It just shows the toughness of our team. He wasn’t supposed to play. He didn’t practice. He didn’t shoot around this morning. He’s been in a boot. He was basically done. And he begged to play. That just goes to show how much we’ve put into this and how together we are. He knows how important this game is.”

ON LITTLE-USED SENIOR LEWIS WITCHER PLAYING BIG MINUTES AND PLAYING WELL: “Lew played hard, man. Our bigs, they did a tremendous job (on State standout Tracy Smith).”

ON THRIVING THIS SEASON IN SPOTS WHERE THIS TEAM STRUGGLED WHEN THE CORE OF THE TEAM WERE FRESHMEN AND SOPHOMORES: “We know how it feels to be on that other side. Now, we know, when we’re in this situation like we’re in now, we’re controlling our own destiny. We want to do damage in the (ACC) tournament. That’s what we’re aiming for right now.”

ON STARTING 3 OF 13 SHOOTING, THEN FINISHING 21 OF 40: “We had open looks. It just took us a while. We knew we weren’t going to miss all of those. We just had to put a run together. We just had to be patient. We couldn’t rush it and force shots.”

ON HIM HITTING THREE STRAIGHT 3-POINTERS AFTER STATE CUT THE LEAD TO TWO: “It felt good. I knew I had to hit a couple shots to get the lead back up, so we could play a little more relaxed.”

ON A MUST-WIN: “We knew that. We hear everything that’s going on.”

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