Associated Press

Tech's J.T. Thompson (33) battles for a rebound against Duke. The Hokies have been outrebounded in eight ACC games.

Since moving to Division I in 1995, the Wofford men's basketball team has never made the NCAA tournament.

But this might be the year.

"I would streak back to Radford if that were to happen," said Wofford coach Mike Young, a Radford High School graduate.

Young, 47, has steered Wofford (21-8, 13-3 Southern Conference) to its first 20-win season at the Division I level.

"There's a lot of things to enjoy with a Heineken in hand this spring, but still a lot to accomplish," said Young, an Emory & Henry graduate.

The winner of Thursday's game between Wofford and visiting College of Charleston (19-9, 13-3) will clinch the SoCon regular-season title -- and an automatic bid to the NIT, should that team not win the automatic NCAA bid that goes to the SoCon tournament champ. Wofford has never been to the NIT, either.

Wofford, a Spartanburg, S.C., school with just 1,439 students, has won eight straight since losing to Bobby Cremins' College of Charleston squad 70-68 last month.

Young, who has been the Terriers' head coach since 2002, is the cousin of Radford University athletic director Robert Lineburg and the nephew of former Radford High School football coach Norman Lineburg.

The Terriers made a splash in nonleague play this season, beating Georgia and South Carolina.

Wofford lost 63-60 at Pittsburgh after leading by 10 points in the second half. The Terriers lost 72-60 at Michigan State after trailing by three points in the second half and lost 78-64 at Illinois in a game that was tied in the second half.

"We're old and we're tough, and those are two pretty nice things," Young said.

Special year for EMU

ODAC regular-season men's basketball champ Eastern Mennonite won 14 league games this season. That's one more ODAC win than coach Kirby Dean was part of in his entire EMU playing career.

Dean, a former VMI assistant who played for EMU from 1988-92, has steered his alma mater to a stunning season.

The Royals (21-3, 14-2) are ranked No. 7 in the D3hoops.com poll. They are the top seed in the ODAC tournament for the first time since 1980.

The Harrisonburg school has followed a string of nine straight losing seasons with a second straight winning season. This is the first time the Royals have won at least 20 games, and only their fourth winning season in the past 24 years.

The Royals lost starting point guard Austin Twine (Pulaski County) to a torn knee ligament last week. The senior's career is over.

But EMU still boasts five players who average double figures in scoring. The Royals rank second in Division III in scoring offense (90.2 ppg), so they should be fun to watch at this week's ODAC tournament at the Salem Civic Center.

"We have five or six kids that could get the headlines on any given night, and they've really put their personal agendas aside," said Dean, in his seventh year as EMU's coach. "There's just a lot of different ways that we can hurt you.

"We do create a lot of turnovers, which ignites our transition game. ... People will enjoy watching us play because there's going to be activity. We're not walking it up."

The Royals have never won the ODAC tournament and have never made the NCAA Division III tournament.

EMU will play in the ODAC quarterfinals Friday. The tournament concludes Sunday, and the NCAA field will be announced Monday. The ODAC boasts four nationally ranked teams, but the league has never gotten more than three NCAA bids in one year.

Tech's rebounding woes

Virginia Tech could be in for another rough time on the boards tonight.

The Hokies, who have been outrebounded in five of their past six games, will visit Boston College at 7 p.m.

Tech (21-5, 8-4) has been outrebounded in eight ACC games this season. The Hokies were outrebounded 47-38 in Sunday's loss at Duke, with 7-foot-1 center Brian Zoubek snaring 16 rebounds.

"That's an area we need to continue to improve and need to continue to harp on. We need to be more physical on our block-outs," coach Seth Greenberg said Monday of his team's rebounding woes. "Zoubek is a huge human being and we just didn't do a good enough job of blocking him out.

"Some of it has to do with how we're guarding ball screens -- we're stretched out and we're rotating back. And some of it has to do with we've just got to be more physical and be more determined to rebound the ball."

In ACC games, Tech ranks 10th in rebounding margin.

"We're relying on our guards to rebound the basketball a great deal," Greenberg said. "We don't have a huge, dominant frontcourt player."

BC outrebounded Tech 29-23 in the Hokies' 63-62 win last month.

"We've got to be able to compete because it's going to be a physical game," Greenberg said. "They've got big-bodied guys that are extremely physical and tough."