It was an interesting day in the Cassell. Having seen only two basketball games this year (the women vs. Virginia and the men vs. ETSU), I figured that the women were going to blow Duquesne out, despite the Dukes 7-0 record, and the men were going to get destroyed.

Wrong on both counts. The Tech women were mostly underwhelming, with the exception of Tere Williams and Nicole Jones (more on that later), and the men were a different team from the lackluster, talentless bunch that I saw lose to ETSU, for crying out loud.

The Women

This wasn't the same bunch that I saw destroy Virginia in workmanlike fashion a couple of weeks ago. In particular, Amy Wetzel, Michelle Houseright, Katie O'Connor, and Kim Seaver didn't play well offensively. Those four went a combined 5-28 for the game, with Houseright (0-7) and Seaver (0-4) putting up goose eggs.

Duquesne was impressive. They moved the ball well, got open shots, and hit them. Their best player, 5-9 guard LynDee Howell (#33 for those of you who were in attendance), did a great job of getting open, plus driving to the hoop for scores. Howell is really a special talent, and she pushed Duquesne to a 26-17 lead late in the first half, over a Tech team that was sluggish and wasn't hitting their shots.

With Seaver and Houseright struggling, Bonnie put in 6-1 freshman Nicole Jones, who is smooth with the basketball and plays with remarkable confidence for a first-year player. Jones had 11 points in 16 minutes, and she appears to be quite an athlete. At one point, Lisa Witherspoon rocketed a pass into the paint to Jones, and not only did she catch it, which was amazing enough, but she collected herself and scored, as well.

Bonnie lit a fire under the troops, and they managed to storm back from the 26-17 score to a 30-29 half time deficit. At that point, I was thinking about how Bonnie and her players place special emphasis on the first five minutes of the second half. Against Virginia, they scored 14 straight points after intermission to take control, and I was looking for a similar statement against Duquesne.

I got it. Much like in the Virginia game, Tere Williams came out of the locker room possessed, and by my account, she scored 12 points in the first six minutes or so of the second half. The Hokies went on a 15-8 run that put them up 44-38, and it was enough that Duquesne would never be able to close the gap again.

Williams finished with 26 points and 14 rebounds, and in this game, she carried the team. What went unnoticed, I think, was the defensive job Wetzel did in the second half on Duquesne's Howell, who couldn't be stopped in the first half, when Wetzel had foul trouble. Howell finished with 24 points on 11-21 shooting, but I'm guessing that she only had about 8 in the second half, when Wetzel guarded her full time and made life difficult for her.

All in all, it wasn't a great team effort for the Tech women, but it was good enough, and enough of them played well to notch a 67-60 victory. They are now 8-0 (1-0 in the A-10) on their quest for an NCAA tournament bid.

The Men

After an hour break, the men took the court, and it got ugly early. After five minutes, it was 12-2, and it looked as if Wake Forest might run them out of the building.

But then a funny thing happened. Eddie Lucas hit two straight three-pointers, and Tech stormed back to make a game of it. Wake Forest displayed very little scoring punch inside, but they hit enough three pointers and got enough of a game from their star guard, sophomore Robert O'Kelley, to successfully battle the Hokies.

Ultimately, with the game tied at 47 with about three and a half minutes to go, Tech would fold down the stretch. The Hokies missed four straight free throws after that, and Wake chipped away, with a point here and a point there, to take a 52-47 win.

In my opinion, all else being equal, free throw shooting was the reason that Tech lost the game, which left many Tech fans grumbling after the game. It's irritating to watch a team play hard (and the Hokies did play hard, not like they did against ETSU) and battle a quality opponent evenly, only to lose the game on a fundamental skill such as free throw shooting. The Hokies shot a horrid 3-11 from the line, while Wake was going 18-25.

But within the game, there were some interesting subplots. One was the fact that Tech's guards, who haven't played very well as a group this season, carried the load against Wake. Lucas, Dunlop, and Kimbrough scored 31 of Tech's 47 points and shot a sparkling 8-15 from three-point range. At one point, Kimbrough scored all eight of his points in a row to wipe out a deficit and light up the Cassell Coliseum crowd.

Down low, though, things weren't going well. Rolan Roberts struggled to a 2-11 night (although he did have a monster dunk in the second half), Russ Wheeler was 1-5 and only had three rebounds in 28 minutes, and Andre Ray only grabbed two rebounds in 27 minutes.

Things went well for Dennis Mims, who was playing against the school he almost went to. Mims was 2-3 with five rebounds, but the problem was, he only played 15 minutes. Dennis, you see, had a tooth knocked out early in the first half, roots and all. As one basketball staffer told me, "That was the longest thing I had ever seen, and Doc Lagan just pushed it back in."

Herein lies the rub: it took Doc Lagan the entire first half to get the tooth back in, so Dennis spent most of his first half time in the locker room, not on the floor. But in the second half, he played well, and in particular, he rebounded well. He's coming along nicely, although he was responsible for a few defensive breakdowns that O'Kelley took advantage of by driving to the hoop. But Dennis is getting better by leaps and bounds, and as we thought, I think he'll be a good one.

All in all, there were some encouraging signs from the men, but they still need to put together a complete game against a quality opponent, and they need to start hitting their stinking free throws. I still think they'll struggle, but at least I finally saw some encouraging signs from them.

For stats and links to articles on the games, be sure to visit my Men's Hoops and Women's Hoops pages.

I've got to admit that as the football season matured and I started to think about the Hokies' possible bowl destinations, I was rooting pretty hard for the Music City Bowl.

First of all, I didn't think that the Tech offense was up to playing in a BCS bowl.   The defense and special teams are, but after watching average defenses from West Virginia, Syracuse, and Virginia close down our offense in the second half, I wasn't liking our chances against the likes of Florida and Florida State in a BCS bowl.

The next possibility was the Gator Bowl, and I didn't think the Hokie fans would travel well to that one, given that it would have been our third trip there in five years, and the first two (Tennessee in 1994 and UNC in 1997) were woodshed experiences.  I also didn't think the Jacksonville public would come see us again, which would result in lousy ticket sales all around.  But I will say that the possible matchup with Georgia Tech would have been a great one.

Tech's next bowl possibility was the Insight.com bowl in Arizona.  A December 26th bowl, 1500 miles from Hokie-land?  Blechh.  Who's the Insight.com genius who decided a Big East tie-in was a good idea?  WVU, who eventually got invited to the bowl, has only sold about 1,000 tickets to this point, and I can't say I'm surprised.   Tech would have done about the same, maybe less.

Which leaves the Music City Bowl, which is actually an at-large bid.  The chance to play only 400 miles from Blacksburg, against a mid-level SEC team, in a cozy stadium (41,000 seats), in a great "destination town" ... need I say more?

Despite the fact that this is our sixth straight bowl, and Hokie fans are starting to get spoiled, we easily sold our allotment of 12,000 tickets.  And many Tech fans, perhaps 2000-4000 more, bought their tickets directly from the MCB, so there will be a large contingent of Hokie fans there.

All this against a young Alabama team that the Hokies match up well with.  The Crimson Tide have a thin offensive line, which should work to the Hokies' advantage, and on defense, teams have had success running against the Tide.

On the down side, the Tide have a freshman quarterback, Andrew Zow, who has displayed an uncanny ability to lead his team back from deficits late in the game, something the Hokies have fallen prey to three times this year.  Gulp.  Don't be surprised if this game plays out very similar to the Temple, Syracuse, and UVa games.  I just hope that we win it this time, if that happens.

In any event, it's a great bowl, in a great town, against a team with a storied history.  It's a chance to make an impression in the heart of SEC country, against an SEC team.

A bowl game for the city of Nashville seems like a natural fit.  I'm glad the bowl exists, and I'm really glad the Hokies are heading to it.

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