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Saturday, in the first round of the NCAA tournament, the Tech women used phenomenal free throw shooting, tough perimeter defense, and torrid second half shooting to storm from behind and thrash the Wisconsin Badgers, 75-64.

It was apparent from the beginning of this game that Wisconsin had the Hokies outmanned on the inside.  The Badgers held Tech's third-team Freshman All American Tere Williams to a mere 7 points and had her gloved up and surrounded all night long.  In addition, the Badgers were dominating the rebounding battle, all the while racking up an amazing amount of offensive rebounds and getting 3 or 4 cracks at the basket on many occasions.

What was also apparent from the beginning of this game was that another Tech freshman, Amy Wetzel, was going to have a great night.  As the rest of the team tried to shake off early-game jitters, Wetzel scored Tech's first 6 points and never looked back, eventually pouring in 28 to lead the Hokies.  Wetzel's effort, which tripled the output of Tech's second leading scorer, Lisa Witherspoon, included a whopping 16-17 from the free throw line.

Although they were pounded mercilessly on the glass, losing the rebounding battle 41-27, Tech responded by whipping the Badgers on the free throw line.  The Hokies shot an incredible 27-31 (87%) to Wisconsin's pedestrian 15-28 (54%).  Do the math, folks.  That's a 12 point advantage for Tech, and - wouldn't you know it! - the Hokies won by 11.  Paging the Tech men's team:  report to Bonnie Henrickson's next free throw shooting clinic, STAT.

In addition to the great performance from the free throw line, Tech also shut down Wisconsin's outside game, pressuring the Badger guards on the perimeter and producing turnovers.

Wisconsin dominated the rebounds by such a wide margin that they still should have won the game, but the Badgers couldn't throw the ball in the ocean from the Titanic - after it sank.  Wisconsin only shot 35% from the field, as compared to Tech's 45%.  More telling was Tech's second half shooting, which at one point was 68%.  I don't have the final numbers on Tech's second half percentage, but when you consider that the Hokies only shot 31% in the first half ... well, you can see that they lit it up in the second half.

Meanwhile, the Badgers were laying enough bricks to build me and Mrs. HokieCentral a new house.  The Hokies were down by nine points with five minutes to go in the first half, but they closed the gap to 30-27 at half time, caught the Badgers early in the second half, and then whipped them down the stretch for the victory.

This is an upset win for the #11 seed Hokies over #6 seed Wisconsin, but it shouldn't be a surprise.  Those of us who hang out on the message board sensed a Wisconsin team that was looking past Tech to a potential second round matchup with #3 seed Florida.   In a newspaper article that ran in a Madison, Wisconsin newspaper the day after the NCAA matchups were announced, the Wisconsin coach and players made several comments about their possible matchup with Florida, but had very little to say about Virginia Tech.

What they did have to say wasn't very complimentary.  Strangely enough, the article has disappeared from the on-line version of the newspaper, but I remember one of the players (or maybe even the coach) saying something like, "All I know is that they're not the best team in their conference.  They got into the tournament because they won their conference tournament."

Uh-huh, yeah.  Nice.  That's a good way to talk about your upcoming opponent.  I love it when an arrogant Big 10 or Big 12 school learns what a Hokie is.   Anybody remember the shocked expressions on the faces of the Texas fans after the Sugar Bowl?

Meanwhile, Tech coach Bonnie Henrickson was very excited about the upcoming matchup.   Bonnie was an assistant with Iowa, a Big 10 opponent of Wisconsin, the last two years, so she knows the Badgers well.  As a matter of fact, one of her responsibilities was to scout Wisconsin.  So yes, she knew them very well, and she knew how to beat them.

When the NCAA matchups were announced, Bonnie said, "I'm very familiar with Wisconsin.  I'm excited for us.  I think this is a matchup we can win."   That's enough to make you cringe, given that a statement like that is primo bulletin board material, but fortunately, the Badgers weren't paying attention and didn't care.

Too bad for the Badgers.  The Hokies get to spend another two days in Florida, while Wisconsin gets the long flight home right away.

If there was any doubt in your mind that Bonnie Henrickson can flat-out coach, I'm sure that doubt has now been removed.  One year after going 10-21, the Hokies are 22-9 and one round deep into the NCAA's.  With the growing popularity of women's basketball, and the fact that everyone loves a winner, I imagine that the crowds next year will be larger than the 500-1000 fans that usually show up for women's hoops.

Tech now moves on to the second round, where they'll toss it up against #3 seed Florida, who easily dispatched #14 seed Montana.  The bad news is that the game is on Florida's home floor, so this is a very tall order for Tech.  I thought Wisconsin's inside game was pretty good, and the Badgers were pretty physical overall, but I'm betting that when Tech goes up against Florida, the Gators will be all that - and more.

The game against Florida is at 8:00 on Monday night and will be broadcast on WRIQ, 101.7 FM.  The Tech women's basketball announcer, Bill McShane (I have no idea if I spelled that correctly), is pretty good, so if you've never heard him, tune him in and root the Hokies on.  It's TBD as to whether the game will be on TV, but I'm sure Tech is working on it, and maybe WDRL out of Danville will come through again.

Game Notes:  McShane and his post-game guest, Tech AD Jim Weaver, both agreed that the game was officiated unfairly, to Tech's detriment.  In particular, they thought the Badger players were getting away with a lot of walking violations that Tech was being whistled for.  Also, the game was a bit physical for Tech's tastes, and was loosely called, but we ought to be getting used that by now, shouldn't we? .... the TV broadcast crew was a Wisconsin crew, but I thought they did a respectable job of remaining fairly impartial and being complimentary of Tech.  But the color analyst did slip up and call Wisconsin "we" at one point, and in another instance, when a Wisconsin player mugged a Tech player and committed a foul that was called, the same announcer called it "great defense."  Overall, not bad, though ... kudos to Lisa Witherspoon, who went 6-6 from the free throw line, despite being listed as a 57% free throw shooter.  Spoon also had 7 assists, just another day at the office for the small, tough guard.

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