Wednesday, February 06, 2008
N.C. State's hex on Hokies remains in force
Aaron McFarling
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RALEIGH, N.C. -- The shot clock was almost spent.
Virginia Tech's designed play was in shambles. Hank Thorns the distributor had to become Hank Thorns the scorer, a role the Tech point guard takes only in emergencies, but one he takes with confidence.
Thorns dribbled to his right. The N.C. State defender stayed with him. With no time to drive, Thorns leaped. He twisted. He shot off-balance, fading away, from about 17 feet.
Swish.
Two points, Hokies.
"Oooooooooh," went the crowd at the RBC Center, clearly impressed with the improvisation.
Then N.C. State came down, made a couple of easy passes, shot a wide-open 3-pointer, made it, and set the crowd off into yet another first-half frenzy.
Go figure. That's just the way this series has gone between Tech and N.C. State. Every shot seems a quixotic dream for Tech; everything's a breeze for State. In an unpredictable season in the ACC, the Wolfpack's 73-63 victory Tuesday night was a dose of normalcy, much to the disappointment of a young Hokies team bent on snapping the program's five-game slide in the series.
"We really thought we could come in and make a difference," said freshman J.T. Thompson. "We're a different team, but we're in the same jersey. I don't know."
Now they do. They know what it's like to come into a game riding a magnificent wave of confidence and see it disappear in mere minutes. They know what it's like to be the buzz team of the ACC, to start climbing onto bubbles and into tournament discussions, only to be knocked back into the thick conference murk behind Duke and North Carolina.
Now they know. And maybe it's just part of the process.
"I don't really think it's part of the process," junior guard A.D. Vassallo said. "I think we just played bad, to be honest with you."
Actually, that's probably it. The Hokies made just one of their first 11 shots. They turned the ball over on four of five possessions during one stretch in the first half as the deficit went from 18-8 to 25-8.
At that point, even ESPNU had to be wondering: "Why are we subjecting the four viewers who get our channel to this?"
Here's why: Because you never know with these Hokies, and that's the great thing about them. Last year's team, talented and laden with veterans, folded twice against State when it fell behind like this.
These guys didn't. They cut a 19-point lead to five in the second half before running out of moves and minutes.
"We're not going to make any excuses," Vassallo said. "We don't win here? Well, we've got to win here. Boston College, we didn't win there either, we went up there and won."
They did, one of those "stolen" road victories coach Seth Greenberg talks about so often. They got one at Virginia, too. So even with this loss, they are still set up for the stretch run. At 5-4 in the league, they are still poised to finished .500 or better in the ACC.
"It's tough to win on the road in the ACC," senior forward Deron Washington said. "This is a tough team to play.
"I still feel good about where we are. Nobody expected us to be doing this good. I think we can go from here, just look at this as a learning process and go on to the next game."
The next game is Saturday against Miami. It's at home. And you get the feeling Hank Thorns the scorer can return to being Hank Thorns the distributor. The Hokies can relax a little, can resist the urge to try too hard.
There's no Hurricane hex -- at least as far as we know.
