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Men’s basketball
Saturday
Virginia Tech at Boston College
8 p.m. at Conte Forum

Some key questions:

How will Tech bounce back from that devastating collapse against Clemson?

How will Tech fare playing in its 2nd game in 3 nights, considering BC has not played since winning at Maryland on Tuesday? That could be the key to the game, if BC has fresher legs in the 2nd half.

Will AD Vassallo start, considering his sideline tantrum against Clemson? My guess is yes.

Vassallo got testy with coach Seth Greenberg after being taken out of Thursday’s loss to Clemson with 5:09 remaining. ESPN2 sideline reporter Holly Rowe heard Vassallo talk back to Greenberg. “They had an exchange,” Rowe said during the telecast. “Vassallo sat down on the bench, and then the next time that Seth Greenberg motioned to him with his finger — 'Hey, come here’ — Vassallo said some words that I can’t repeat, to his coach. ... The assistants had to go over and calm Vassallo down. He wouldn’t come and talk to his coach. He was being quite unreasonable.” ESPN2 cameras caught the end of the tiff. Vassallo returned to the game with 4:11 to go, though.

Records: Tech 14-6, 4-2 ACC; BC 16-6, 4-3

TV: WDBJ

Last meeting: Tech won 79-71 at home on Jan. 17.

Tech probable starters: F J.T. Thompson (4.9 ppg), F Jeff Allen (14 ppg), C Victor Davila (4.4 ppg), G Malcolm Delaney (18.6 ppg), G A.D. Vassallo (18 ppg).

BC probable starters: F Corey Raji (11.1 ppg), F Joe Trapani (13.8 ppg), C Josh Southern (5.8 ppg), G Tyrese Rice (18 ppg), G Rakim Sanders (12.2 ppg).

Notes: Tech has beaten BC four straight times, including an overtime win at BC last season. … BC has won three straight since losing at Tech.

Greetings from Blacksburg, where Virginia Tech blew a 15-point second half lead and suffered a very disappointing loss to Clemson, 86-82.

Tech seemed well on its way to tying Duke for first place in the ACC, winning its sixth straight game, beating a ranked foe for the second straight week and notching its third straight win over a team in the top 50 of the RPI.

"You've got to finish," coach Seth Greenberg said. "We got a little down when they made their run. We have to stay upbeat and energetic and get stops. You've got to get stops. It's all about getting stops. You get stops, you score. You don't get stops, it's hard to score."

Tech lost to Clemson for the 4th straight time.

"We are a little stunned," said Jeff Allen, who had 13 points and nine rebounds. "Coach told us before the game it was going to be a game of runs. ... I guess we weren't prepared for it."

Malcolm Delaney had 37 points and six 3-pointers for Tech, recording a career high in points for the second straight game.

"We wanted to attack the press. That was the mind-set of the last two days of practice - attack the press, attack the press, throw over the press," Greenberg said. "He got in a rhythm, and then he made some great plays in transition, and he saw a big basket."

But he was sort of outshined by former Oak Hill star KC Rivers, who had 29 points and made seven of Clemson's 14 treys.

"He hurt us a lot tonight. He made big shots," Hank Thorns said.

"He made shots, but I don't think we closed on him hard enough and made him a driver," Greenberg said. "He scored a lot of baskets coming off those ball screens. We didn't do a good enough job of outnumbering the ball on the ball screens. ... On drives we were too far in the gap, so it's harder to get back out to the shooter."

"He was huge," Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said.

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Look who's tied in the loss column with Duke! If Tech beats Clemson on Thursday, the Hokies will be tied with Duke for first place in the ACC. That would also give VT a 3rd straight win over a team in the top 50 of the RPI.

Of couse, Clemson has beaten Tech three straight times, so that won't be easy. Clemson leads the ACC in steals (9.7 per game) with its tenacious pressure defense. Clemson also leads the league in blocks (6.7 per game).

"Them and Maryland (have) the two best presses" in the ACC, said Malcolm Delaney.

"They do a good job defending," AD Vassallo said. "They're always one of the good defensive teams in the league, and they do a good job forcing turnovers. And they play really hard."

Clemson ranks 2nd in the league in 3-pointers (7.2 per game). Forwards KC Rivers and Trevor Booker each average 14 points, center Raymond Sykes and guard Demontez Stitt average 8 points, and 3-point ace Terrence Oglesby averages 13.7 points.

"We've got to handle the pressure. We've got to defend their motion," VT coach Seth Greenberg said. "We can't let Oglesby knock down open 3s. We've got to guard Booker on pick-and-pops and post-ups.

"We've got to be able to defend the jump shooters and defend the dribble drive. They're much better offensively than they've been the last few years. They really are a good offensive team now."

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Time to turn in another ballot to the Associated Press.

I had to kick out Georgetown after it got hammered at home by WVU and lost at lowly Seton Hall. It was hard to kick out the Hoyas because of those wins over UConn and Syracuse, but the Hoyas have lost 5 of their last 7 games, including 0-2 this past week. They are simply not playing like one of the best 25 teams in the country right now. not suffering a 3-game skid. Time for them to earn their way back in with a better week.

I also evicted Minnesota after that home loss to Purdue. They did win at Indiana, but they have lost 2 of their last 3.  I want to see how they do against Illinois this week before I consider them worthy again.

I also booted Ohio State after the 2 straight losses to Illinois and Mich. State.

I also kicked out UCLA after that loss at Washington. I only had UCLA at No. 22 in my ballot last week because I am just not that sold on the Bruins. They have lost 2 of their last 3, and their resume isn't that great. I am sure they will still be ranked, but I think they are overrated. I want to see how they fare against Cal and Stanford this week before I rank them again.

I also booted Florida State after that loss to Miami, and I kicked out Cal after that loss to Oregon State.

My ballot follows.

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My article in Sunday's paper and online Sunday is about how the defense has been a factor in Tech's four-game winning streak, but let's look here at some other reasons for the Hokies' rise.

For one, Tech has not been a 2-man show of late. Jeff Allen has been playing well, and Hank Thorns, JT Thompson, Dorenzo Hudson and Cheick Diakite all had their moments at Wake. That has hardly been the case in many games this season.

"Jeff's play has elevated. We're getting contributions from more people," coach Seth Greenberg said. "Getting more people contributing is so imperative.

"The more people that contribute, the better off our team's going to be."

When Tech has more to worry teams with than AD Vassallo and Malcolm Delaney, Tech looks very good indeed.

"It's hard for you to win with two guys carrying the load," Vassallo said. "It's a tough league, and you need five or at least seven guys to contribute every night."

"What people don't know, everybody on our team can flat-out score," Thorns said. "But everybody gives up something to make the team better."

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Greetings from WInston-Salem, where Virginia Tech knocked off a No. 1 team for just the third time in its history, beating Wake Forest 78-71.

Against the 2nd-best team in the country in field-gpal percentage defense, Tech shot 56 percent from the field in the 2nd half. Wake also was no. 2 in the country in field-goal shooting, but Wake shot just 43.1 percent Wednesday. Wake also was a great rebounding team, but had just a 35-34 advantage on the boards.

In the first half, Wake never went to the charity stripe, while VT was 10-of-14 from the line. Tech led by 10 at halftime.

"Getting (James) Johnson in foul trouble and then (Al-Farouq) Aminu missing some minutes (when he got 4 stitches for a laceration on his forehead) at the beginning of the game gave us a chance to have some flow and cut into their depth," coach Seth Greenberg said. "Our defense in the first half was great, as good as we could play defensively against that level a team.

"We shrunk the court, we handled the ball in transition, we outnumbered the ball in the break, we kept them out of transition, we finished plays and we made shots.

"In the beginning of the 2nd half when we were trading baskets, which I was really concerned about, we made a lot of shots."

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Virginia Tech has a mighty big test Wednesday, visiting the No. 1 team in the country, unbeaten Wake Forest. Wake is coming off a big win at previously unbeaten Clemson.

For some insight, I turned to Radford U coach Brad Greenberg, whose team lost to Wake 83-61 on Dec. 30 in Winston-Salem. RU led Wake 48-47 with 14:12 to go.

"Their team is very balanced. They've got length, they've got quickness, they've got depth," Brad said. "They're getting more and more disciplined as the year has gone along. It seemes like earlier in the year, I think they were a little more turnover-prone than they are now.

"We were able to do some stuff around the basket against them because we've got two big kids. We just couldn't get back on defense when we struggled to score in the last 10 minutes of the game. Because they're deep, they can put a lot of pressure on you. So at any time, they can go on a little run; they've got that much firepower. And they're very athletic, so in the open court, they're coming at you with superior athletes."

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Time to turn in another ballot for the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

I booted Michigan after it lost to both Illinois and Ohio State.

I also kicked out Notre Dame after it lost to Louisville and Syracuse. This is the AP poll, not the BIg East poll. Time to go.

I also booted Arkansas after its losses to Ole Miss and Florida. 3 losses in a row? Time to go.

I also decided to evict Baylor. Baylor lost at Texas A&M and beat Oklahoma State in OT. It was a close call, since Baylor does have a nice win over Ariz. State, but I decided to see Baylor do a bit more before I rank them again.

Here's my ballot:

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Greetings from Blacksburg, where Virginia Tech beat Boston College 79-71.

"That's probably as well as we've played over an extended period of time all season," Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. "We were tough when we had to be tough."

It was win No. 100 for Greenberg in his Tech career.

Tech won for the 7th time in 8 games, including the past three.

"We're going back to how we usually play basketball," said Malcolm Delaney, who had 19 points. "Before, we weren't as tough. We were letting teams out-tough us. Now we're starting to get back into us playing defense and out-toughing teams."

Jeff Allen scored a career-high 30 points for Tech.

"We had pretty good spacing. We got it too him early. He's been working really, really hard," Greenberg said. "Can he continue to do it each and every night with the consistency we want him to do it with? Obviously that's going to be the challenge. He's put in really good work the last two weeks and I think you're seeing the benefits of that hard work. And you're seeing our guys get better offensively so we're getting him the ball in positions where he can make a quick play.

"We've had a couple really good talks, and I think he kind of understands where we're coming from. .... These are 18, 19, 20-year-olds. Sometimes basketball is the furthest thing from just giving him a chance to talk, and listening. Sometimes they just need to get some things off their chest. ... There's going to be highs and lows, whether it's family, personal, school. ... Different people deal with those things in different ways.

"We're doing a better job of getting him the ball. We got him the ball quicker. And our ball movement was much better. We had better flow to what we were doing."

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How much of a test will Virginia Tech get against visiting Boston College on Saturday?

Will BC be the team that handed then-No. 1 UNC its first loss two weekends ago? Or the team that has lost three straight games, all at home, to Harvard (82-70), Miami (77-71) and Wake Forest (83-63)?

Was the UNC win a fluke, as Sports Illustrated has now declared?

"We could really care less about what the media thinks," BC point guard Tyrese Rice told me Friday. "We're playing for us. We always feel like we have something to prove, but that's just within our team, just trying to earn the respect from other teams around the conference. I still feel like we're one of the better teams in the conference. So we're definitely going to make some changes ... that's going to put us back on that right path."

BC had won 10 straight before beginning its current three-game slide. BC is shooting 39 percent from the field in this skid.

Rice, who has not won at Cassell Coliseum since his freshman year,  said his team was playing harder during its winning streak than it has been of late.

"We [were] communicating a lot better," Rice said.

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