A month ago, things looked bleak for Virginia Tech. The Hokies had ridden an OOC schedule so weak that even a team coached by Seth Greenberg only lost to the one good team it played. Coupled with a relatively-easy ACC draw that had the Hokies playing twice the worst teams in the league and Tech seemed [...]

Well, this very likely won’t be the first ACC basketball season where every single team finishes with an 8-8 record. While it looked for a while that the entire conference might finish at .500 in league play, and a bunch still might, a bit of separation has taken place in the standings. There is also [...]

The Hoos reacted to a Tech Internet columnist publicly proclaiming his support by losing to Arkansas in the College World Series. The announcement by a Tech fan that he was a closet supporter of Hoo baseball had something other than a positive effect on the Hoo team, as a blown late-game lead, a flurry of fielding [...]

Last Saturday night began my annual month or so of actually paying attention to college baseball. Not by coincidence, this period of time just happens to coincide with the NCAA playoffs and College World Series. Well, it beats the NBA playoffs, although there was amusement to be found from watching King James storm off the court [...]

05/04/09 There do seem to be a fair amount of problems besetting the Republic these days. From the recession to foreign wars to the death throes of the domestic automobile industry to the media’s Captain Trips scare, any and every venture into the various communication realms devoted to presenting what passes for ‘news’ these days brings [...]

So much for Destiny’s Darlings. The media-contrived efforts to turn a Michigan State team that won 26 games and the Big 11 title into some sort of Cinderella fighting for oppressed automobile workers everywhere lasted until Thompson’s first shot seconds into the game. The glass slipper was too small in the Heel. Carolina treated the Spartans [...]

Okay, let’s see a show of hands. When you filled out your NCAA brackets, how many picked Villanova and Michigan State in the Final Four? Anybody? I see a couple of hands, but not many. I was breezing along, having a pretty good tournament. Sure, I had made a couple of mistakes, such as vastly overrating [...]

The respite between rounds of the NCAA Tournament does afford the opportunity to take a look at the sporting life goings-on around the rest of the region. From Hooville to Lynchburg to the land of sand, scrub pines and Strawgraspers, there is humor to be gleaned. Finding low comedy from Hooville might seem like RUTS, since [...]

It was not exactly the stuff of Little Johnny’s tournament dreams. Of the seven ACC teams that marched off to do battle in the NCAA Tournament, four were home after their first game, while a fifth was bounced in its second. To add insult to injury, both of the league’s NIT entrants were gone by [...]

As usually happens this time of year, the NCAA has decided to conduct a basketball tournament. Once again, that august body’s Selection Committee closeted themselves in a luxury hotel, not emerging until they had thoroughly screened and vetted both the potential teams and room service options. We have the Final Sixty-Five. The NCAA Tournament will again [...]