Virginia Tech travels to New York City to take on the Seton Hall Pirates in Madison Square Garden on Thursday night. This is an important game for the Hokies, who are looking to continue their three-game winning streak. If Tech can pull out a victory over the Pirates, it would do a lot for the Hokies' RPI rating, which is a respectable 56.

Seton Hall is a name program from the Big East with a first year coach in Bobby Gonzalez. Gonzalez enjoyed success at Manhattan before making the jump to Seton Hall. His offense is fast paced, and he has the Pirates off to a 6-1 start, but their schedule hasn't exactly been the toughest in the world.

Seton Hall's strength of schedule ranks 279 in the nation according to RealTimeRPI.com. They have five victories over Morgan State (310 RPI), St. Peter's (302), St. Mary's (173), Monmouth (201) and Penn State (152). Their one loss came to Fairleigh Dickinson (124). They also beat Division II Caldwell 91-52.

The Pirates are #145 in the RPI, but since the Hokies are playing them on a neutral court, a win would count as a road victory in the RPI, which would be a big boost.

Bobby Gonzalez has dubbed freshman point guard Eugene Harvey as the future of the Seton Hall program. Harvey is a blur on the court. He can get to the basket and finish, and he protects the ball well. He has just 18 turnovers in seven games as a freshman. Harvey's one flaw is that he isn't much of a shooter. He has connected on just 2-of-13 three-pointers on the season for 15.4%.

Brian Laing averages 15.4 points per game, and he is also Seton Hall's top rebounder. He and Harvey were both Virginia Tech recruiting targets in high school, so the Hokie coaching staff are familiar with them. Like Harvey, Laing can get to the glass, but he doesn't have much of an outside game. He has hit just 22.2% of his three-pointers this season.

The third member of the Seton Hall perimeter is off-guard Jamar Nutter. He is the team's third leading scorer, and he is hitting 37.5% of his three-pointers, which is best amongst the starters. But he shoots just 35.5% overall from the field. And although it hasn't shown this year against Seton Hall's weak schedule, he has had a tendency to turn the ball over in the past.

Stan Gaines and Grant Billmeier are the biggest players on Seton Hall's roster. Their numbers aren't as good as the other three starters, but they can be productive. Billmeier in particular has put up decent numbers, considering he plays just 17.4 minutes per game.

Seton Hall's top player off the bench is 5-11 guard Paul Gause. Gause is averaging 11 points per game.

Seton Hall plays an up-tempo style, so it is surprising that they haven't turned the ball over more with a freshman point guard. The Pirates have just 87 turnovers on the year, compared to 153 for their opponents. But at the same time, the Hokies will be by far the best and most athletic team Seton Hall has faced this season.

Look for the Hokies to spend most of their energy on defense guarding the dribble penetration and interior. Seton Hall's two best players don't have much of an outside game. They do most of their damage getting to the glass. The health of Jamon Gordon's knee will be a key for Tech. It will hurt if Gordon is not 100%. This will be a low scoring, defensive game, so look for Markus Sailes to get a lot of playing time off the bench for Tech.

If this game were in Cassell Coliseum, Virginia Tech would be the definite pick. The Hokies are now 6-0 at home on the season. They are a better, more experienced team than Seton Hall. But this game is in Madison Square Garden, and the Hokies are just 1-3 in neutral site games. That alone is cause for concern.

That said, I can see this one going in the same direction as last year's game with Stanford in Las Vegas. Of course, it's worth mentioning that Coleman Coleman Collins had 16 points and 12 rebounds against Stanford, and that was his fourth double-double in a six game span at that point in the season. If Collins can ever get back to approaching those types of numbers this year, Tech will be tough to beat.

One last interesting note on Seton Hall: they have not played a real game since December 9. Because of this long layoff, the Pirates played an exhibition game, which does not count towards their record, against William Patterson last Friday. Seton Hall won 83-56. Other than that, the Pirates have not played an opponent that counts in nearly two weeks.

The Seton Hall Pirates check in at a nifty 6-1 on the 2006-2007 season. That looks pretty good on the surface, but Seton Hall has played a schedule so soft that even the Keebler elves would be making cupcake jokes galore. Seton Hall is led by super freshman Eugene Harvey, a 6-foot scoring point guard deluxe; and Brian Laing, who is one of only two returning Pirate starters. Swingman Laing is barely second in scoring and leads the Pirates in rebounding.

Seton Hall is 2nd in all of D-1 in defensive steals per game and is 25th in offensive turnovers per game. This is a reflection of the frenetic style of play that Seton Hall head coach Bobby Gonzalez used to lift little old Manhattan to NC2A post-season fame for the previous seven years. Further, it should be noted that this style of play does not fit the Greenerball modus operandi of winning games via gaining extra offensive possessions from opposing turnovers very well.

Seton Hall is a smallish team vertically, as they only field one player who tops 6-7 in their ten-man rotation. However, the Pirates do have four ballers who top 215 lbs. in that rotation, so there is some bulk involved here. From what I'm seeing the Hokies have a bit of a defensive edge here, but they really need Gordon's knee back at 100% to check Eugene Harvey on the perimeter, as Harvey is shooting a very lowly 15% from 19-9 this year.

If Gordon can lock Harvey down, then Deron Washington can sag off of Brian Laing (who is only 22% from downtown this year). Laing does not have much in the way of an outside game, so sagging will help eliminate his driving to the hoop. I'm hoping that all the hype associated with playing up in Gotham City and playing in the highly fabled Madison Square Garden will wake our sleepy hoops team up. This one will be a low scoring affair, but this group of Hokie upperclassmen seems to play a little harder under the bright lights of big-time exposure.