Men's hoops:  Wednesday night, the George Washington Colonials come to town for a battle that is always intense and hard-fought. The last two Tech home games against GW have been among the most enjoyable games of the past two seasons, and if you're there in Cassell Coliseum on Wednesday night (highly recommended), you'll be treated to 7-foot center Alexander Koul and 5-3 guard Shawnta Rogers, a bizarre and entertaining pair to watch. Rogers, one of the most talented guards in the A-10, regularly gets serenaded with calls of "Webster!" from the Tech fans, while Koul and the rest of GW's roster, which definitely has an "international" flavor, will often hear chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!"

Two years ago, Tech beat GW in Roanoke, where the game had been moved due to excessive snow on the roof of Cassell Coliseum (since then, Cassell has undergone a $3 million+ roof renovation to strengthen it). In that 1996 game, the Hokies opened up a big lead in a first half that featured a season's worth of running, gunning Tech highlights. GW fought back in the second half, but the Hokies were able to cruise to victory.

Last year, of course, the Hokies won a thriller 45-43 on a buzzer-beater by Ace Custis (see Sights and Sounds for the video capture).

The Tech/GW games are among the nastiest and most hard-fought games in the A-10. This rivalry is turning into a great one. On January 31^st, at GW, the Hokies jumped out to a half time lead but then succumbed to a torrid GW comeback, so Tech will be looking to even the score in Cassell.

To spice up this week's game even more, Ace Custis is scheduled to be in town for a half time ceremony in which Tech will retire his #20 jersey. It will be great to see Ace again, and his presence will no doubt boost the crowd and help make this game an evening to remember.

Wednesday night, Tech vs. George Washington, 7:00 p.m., Cassell Coliseum. Be there. And to answer your question, I don't think this one's on TV, so if you're local, come on down.

Women's hoops:  On the women's side, Tech has finished strong with a young team and will host an A-10 tournament game on Tuesday night. On Saturday, the Hokies downed Fordham 59-44 in New York to close the regular season at 17-9 (11-5 A-10).

In Tuesday's A-10 tournament opener, the Hokies, seeded third in the West Division, will again play the Rams, this time at Cassell Coliseum, at 7:00 p.m. Fordham finished the season 5-21, 3-13 in the A-10, and if the Hokies win this one, they'll travel to St. Joseph's, the West second seed, for a Thursday night game.

Also in Tech women's basketball, freshman sensation Tere Williams was named A-10 Rookie of the Year for her stellar performance this season. I know I haven't even mentioned the women's team here at HokieCentral, but I've had one eye on them all season long. Congratulations to the Hokies, Coach Bonnie Henrickson, and Tere Williams for a great year. For this team, the future is bright, indeed.

In football news last week, Tech lost offensive line coach J.B. Grimes to Texas A&M. J.B. said it was one of the toughest decisions he's ever had to make, but I imagine it wasn't really all that tough, after all - he liked it at Tech, but at Texas A&M, he'll receive a pay raise and will now be only five hours away from his family in Arkansas. Good luck to J.B., who is well-liked at Tech.

Frank Beamer didn't waste any time naming a replacement, promoting tight ends coach Bryan Stinespring to the position. In addition to being the tight ends coach, Stinespring has served as the assistant offensive line coach (which I guess is like being an "assistant assistant coach") for the last four years. He stepped in and coached the line for about four weeks last year when Grimes underwent open-heart surgery after the Miami of Ohio game.

Stinespring started his Tech coaching career as a graduate assistant in 1990 and 1991, then he became the director of sports programs in 1993.  He returned to coaching in 1993 as the tight ends/assistant offensive line coach, where he has spent the last four years.

As far as I know, there is no solid word yet on who Stinespring's replacement will be, although rumor has it that he will come from outside the Tech program.

(If the replacement has already been named, and I just flat missed it, then ... sheesh!)

Bobby Hussey said something about recruiting that was not-so-subtle on the Hokie Hotline radio show last Monday night, and Doug Doughty picked up on it and discussed it in his on-line Notebook Plus column on Friday.

Namely, Hussey said that the Hokies were still recruiting, looking in particular for a big guard who can score, rebound, and "do it all." Most observers thought that Tech had no more scholarships to give for next year, since the Hokies only lose two seniors (Myron Guillory and Shawn Browne), and conventional thought is that those two scholarships will go to recruit Dennis Mims and current non-scholarship player Eddie Lucas.

Dennis Mims will definitely get one of the two available scholarships next year, but the question is, who gets the other one? I've got to think that Lucas, who now starts and is probably Tech's best three-point shooter, is a lock for the other one.

Of course, this means that the only way for Tech to continue recruiting is if one of the current non-senior players won't be back next year. The question is, who?

Anything further that I would say on this point would be rumor-mongering and speculation, and I like to avoid that kind of thing when players' futures are at stake, so I'm going to stop right here. Doughty has some more concrete thoughts on the subject in his column.  I just wanted to point out that something is indeed afoot, so keep your eye on that as this season blends into the next.

In other news, Tech's baseball team started their season last week. Speaking of bright futures, the Hammerin' Hokies, who won the Atlantic 10 Tournament last year and followed that up with an NCAA victory over baseball power Southern California, have only three seniors on the roster this year.

It was generally thought that when Tech was booted from the Metro and had to take solace in the cold-weather Atlantic 10, that it sounded the death knell for Hokie baseball. It's tough to recruit kids to play baseball at a school that has a long winter, sometimes snowing as late as early April.  But Tech baseball is alive and well, thank you, and things are only going to get better, with such a young roster.

Oh, yeah … the games.  The Hokies dropped their opener to The Citadel on Friday but rebounded for consecutive victories over Georgia Southern and St. John's to pull their record to 2-1 entering this week.

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