The Hokies Are Hot, Showdown With Duke Looming

The Duke Blue Devils are on top of the ACC, ho hum so what's new. It's just a matter of time before they win their 9th Duke Invitational (AKA, The ACC Tournament) since 1999 which starts in 3 weeks.

Well there's a team in Blacksburg, Virginia that has the look of a real challenger, the Virginia Tech Hokies.

Virginia Tech has the tools of a title team. The Hokies have a go-to guy in Malcolm Delaney, who leads the ACC in scoring (20.2 PPG), a compliment to Delaney in Dorenzo Hudson who averages 12.0 PPG, a commanding inside presense with Jeff Allen and a team that values defensive stops.

Tuesday night Virginia Tech defeated Wake Forest 87-83 at Cassell Coliseum for their fifth win in a row and now are 14-0 this season on their home court.

The only other ACC team unbeaten on it's home floor this season is the Duke Blue Devils. Virginia Tech can change that Sunday night as the hot Hokies take on the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Head coach Seth Greenberg calls his Virginia Tech team resilient and tough minded, qualities that the Hokies will need to escape Durham with a significant win.

Here's the highlights and post game sound from of the Virginia Tech/Wake Forest game from WSLS-TV in Roanoke, Virginia.

Photo Courtesy: AP

Friday Carousel: Georgia, Oklahoma, Memphis, Arizona

Georgia made it official hiring Nevada's Mark Fox as their new head men's coach...
FOSG Karen Graham caught up with the new Dawg at about the 2:20 mark...
Fellow FOSG Buck Lanford anchors Fox 5 Atlanta's coverage of Friday stuff...

Dave Morris and John Helsley and our friends at newsok.com let us in on the new Jeff Capel extension for seven years at an undisclosed value...
Helsley's article is in black...

Dan Wolken starts the Memphis coverage with the idea that Scott Drew is now their new number one man in their search... to Drew's friend's surprise...
And Geoff Calkins is, apparently, not high on the Scott Drew bandwagon...
To wit...

If the Memphis Tigers hire him — and word is that they just might — it could turn out to be the best thing for this city since pulled pork.

But that’s not what people who know Drew seem to think. I made a lot of calls on this. And Drew was invariably described as:

1) A phony.
2) A man who has never met a recruiting rule he couldn’t bend.
3) A lousy bench coach.
4) And, really, what more do you need?

It’s not just me, saying worrisome things about Drew, either. It’s everyone. Jeff Goodman, the national college basketball writer for FOX Sports, said on my radio show that hiring Drew would be a mistake. Texas coach Rick Barnes has publicly criticized Drew’s recruiting tactics.

George Lapides — a newspaperman without a newspaper — took the extraordinary step on his radio show of warning Memphis not to hire Drew.

Lapides said he thought about saying the same thing when Memphis was on the verge of hiring Tic Price. When the Price era played out as it did, Lapides vowed never to keep quiet again.

Finally, Paola Boivin has a new Number One at Arizona- Virginia Tech's Seth Greenberg.

From her work in the Arizona Republic:

Whether this has gone past the measuring interest stage is uncertain. The Roanoke Times' Mark Berman just emailed me back and said he was told by the Hokies' athletic director, Jim Weaver, that he hasn't been contacted by Livengood.

By the way, cross Xavier's Sean Miller and UNLV's Lon Kruger off your lists. Not interested.