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Mark Berman here from Columbus, Ohio, where I have been interviewing Virginia Tech and Illinois players and coaches about tomorrow's big NCAA tournament game.
Tech's big defensive challenge will be stopping 6-9 forward Warren Carter and 6-10 center Shaun Pruitt.
"Carter, this guy is a tough matchup because he can post you and shoot that little jump hook," Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. "He's tough to keep off the glass.They do a great job of having him pick and pop, whether it's off a screen or off a ball screen. So you've got to guard him on the interior, you have to find him in transition because he could be the trail spot, he could get to the block, he could be at that left wing where he likes to catch it. Pitch-aheads, you've got to keep him off the glass."
And then there's Pruitt.
"That guy is a mountain masquerading as a man," Greenberg said. "You've got to check him off. For a big guy, he does a great job of second-effort rebounding and getting either fouled or putting the ball in the basket.
"They've got a great scheme in trying to get the ball in places where they can score. They did a great job of stretching the court with [guard Rich] McBride, who you have to chase because his range is unlimited.
"I would suspect that we're going to have great defensive discipline because if they don't have any transition I would suspect they're going to try to make us guard for long periods of time."
Illinois allows an average of just 57.7 points.
"They put good pressure on the basketball. They can extend if they want," Greenberg said. "They're big people. They do a great job helping the helper. They do a very good job of defensive transition and limiting you to one shot. They're tough fighting through screens.
"It's real easy to sell your team on their ability to defend because when you're watching filom and it's a television game and they've got the score on the bottom and it's the second half and it's like 24-22, they're checking some people. They're hard to score on."
Pruitt is the backstop of the defense, said Illini coach Bruce Weber.
"We needed a backstop to our defense, somebody back there maybe not to block shots but to take charges and jam up things and fight people in the post," Weber said. "We take pride in being a good defensive team, but I guess we've made an overemphasis, just trying to give them something to do [so] that we had a chance to win."
Illinois is concerned about Tech's transition game.
"We have to take care of the ball," Weber said. "If you don't care of the basketball, they're good in passing lanes, they've got quick hands, they seem to swarm to the ball.
"It's going to be hard enough stopping them in the half court with so many different weapons ... so I think that's the big thing, taking care of the basketball, playing smart, not taking quick shots. I don't want them to be tentative and tight and not shoot open shots, but if we shoot quick 3s in transition, they're going to get it and go the other way and we're going to be in trouble.
"We've got to make sure we have touches for Pruitt inside. There's no doubt about that. When we have been successful, we've been able to get it into them. But ... if they swarm him, he's got to be patient and kick it out."
Weber likes the defensive talents of guards Rich McBride and Chester Frazier and small forward Brian Randle, so he hopes to contain Zabian Dowdell and Jamon Gordon.
"We have people I can say can guard their guys, and I'm not saying we're going to stop hem, but I think they'll at least be in their way for a little bit, so it gives you a little bit of a glimmer of hope," Weber said.
Frazier hurt his knee in the Big Ten tournament last Friday but will play today.
"He's played with worse injuries, so I would think he'll be raring to go," Weber said.

Virginia and Virginia Tech both received bids to the WNIT on Monday, and both received first round byes.

The Cavaliers will host a second-round game on Monday at John Paul Jones Arena. They will host the winner of Thursday's Charlotte vs. High Point first-round game.

The Hokies will also host a second-round game, tentatively scheduled for Saturday at Cassell Coliseum. They will play the winner of Thursday's Western Carolina vs. East Tennessee State first-round game.

Aaron McFarling here from Tampa, where the third-seeded Hokies have been ousted from the ACC tournament after a 72-64 quarterfinal loss to the 10th-seeded Wolfpack.

Strange vibe in that Tech locker room, where there was a mix of bitter disappointment in losing a game these guys thought they had and the rare realization that hey, it's not over. So if my column makes little sense tomorrow, you'll know why. It's the company I've been keeping.

Free throws really killed the Hokies tonight. They shot 8-for-19 from the line and missed three straight front ends of one-and-ones in the second half. Meanwhile, the Wolfpack made 24 of 28 from the line. Coleman Collins, who missed two front ends, said it was brutal watching himself and teammates Jamon Gordon and Zabian Dowdell struggle at the line.

“It’s a terrible feeling," he said. "Jamon missed the front end of a one-and-one, I missed two front ends of the one-and-one, Markus [Sailes] missed a bunch. Zabe, uncharicateristically, missed one or two. It’s tough, man. Because we definitely felt like we could win that game and we definitely felt like we could win the next game if we got there. We keep telling ourselves, usually this is where it stops. I guess I’m in that last year feel to it. I guess I haven’t really realized that tomorrow is a brand new day. It hurts, man, but I’m sure I’ll feel better tomorrow at 6 o’clock.”

That, of course, is when the NCAA tournaments will be unveiled, and Tech is a lock. Funny, though -- the players were still asked by one reporter if they were nervous about possibly being on the bubble. Gordon had the right response, albeit with his usual liberal use of "ain't."

“I ain’t really scared," he said. "If they put us in the NIT, that would be ridiculous. I ain’t really got no concern. I just wanted to get a great seed, man, stay close to Blacksburg, get our fans down there."

Coming into the day, the Hokies were probably looking at a No. 6 seed. You wouldn't think this loss would be very damaging, but we'll see.

Wherever they go, the Hokies need Dowdell to bring his usual game with him. The All-ACC first-teamer was off in this one, just as he was in the loss to Clemson that ended the regular season. He shot 1-for-7 and committed four turnovers in the first half. Perhaps he just needed to get some nerves out of his system, because he looked better in the second half, going 5-for-12 and committing no turnovers. Mark Berman (hi ho!) will have a sidebar story on Dowdell in tomorrow's paper and on roanoke.com.

Collins and Gordon were really good interviews after the game, as they normally are. Here are a few excerpts:

From Gordon
On the NCAA tournament:
“We kind of excited about that. But it’s something we’ve known for weeks; it’s not going to be a surprise like we’re a bubble team…It’s good for the program. It’s good for our younger players. They’ll get the feeling of going to the tournament. But we wanted to win tonight so bad.”

On what was the problem against N.C. State:
“We couldn’t make shots, man. That was the main thing. We couldn’t hit free throws. We tied it up, and every time we tied the game up we’d send them to the line, and they’re a great free throw shooting team. You just can’t make mental mistakes.”

On defending N.C. State:
“I think tonight this is the best time we’ve ever guarded them tonight. We played them kind of great tonight. But once again we like to double, and when you double against a team that can pass and shoot, they play like a European style, they just cut and slash and stuff like that, that’s all they’re waiting on. They’re waiting on you to double and if you can’t stop one of their post players man-to-man, they’re going to beat you, and that’s how they beat us every time.”

On watching State make so many free throws:
“That’s when you know you lost. You know they’re making shots and you’re trying so hard to get the ball in and it’s just rolling in and coming out. Sometimes it just don’t be your night. Last night was our night. Tonight it wasn’t our night.

On the slow pace of the game:
“That had a lot to do with it. They controlled the pace from the tip. And when you control the pace on us, we usually struggle, and that’s what happened tonight.”

Collins
On recovering from this:
“We’re a resilient team, man. We’ve had setbacks, and we usually bounce back...We still feel like we can be one of the elite teams in the nation if we come to play and play well and knock down shots, which we weren’t doing tonight.”

Well, turns out I used most of my good Collins stuff in the column tomorrow, and I don't want to spoil it. We'll have plenty of coverage on this one in Sunday's editions, and of course, we'll be all over Selection Sunday.

GROUP A
Girls
Clarke County 69, Floyd County 64

Boys
Clarke County 60, Gate City 55

GROUP AA
Girls
Hidden Valley 63, Charlottesville 53

Boys
William Fleming 66, Brunswick 57

GROUP AAA
Girls
Hampton 46, Edison 45

Boys
Highland Springs 79, George Washington-Danville 52

North Carolina State's Dennis Horner (31) drives to the basket over Virginia Tech's Deron Washington (13) during the first half of a semi-final game of the Men's ACC basketball tournament in Tampa, Fla., Saturday, March 10, 2007. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Aaron breaks down the game between Virginia Tech and N.C. State.

Audio: Click the play button to hear highlights of the game by Aaron McFarling

Virginia Tech fell 72-64 to 10th-seeded N.C. State. The Wolfpack moves on to face North Carolina at 1 p.m. Sunday. Plenty more on this later.

Mark Berman here from Tampa, where the Virginia Tech men's basketball team trals 10th-seeded NC State 31-25 at halftime.
The Hokies seem on their way to a third loss to State this year.
Tech is generating plenty of turnovers with its defense but is playing poorly on offense. And on defense, Tech once again can't stop State, so it can't fuel a fast break.
State, which shot great in the first two meetings, is shooting 66.7 percent from the field to Tech's 39.3 percent. State is 4-of-5 from 3-point range. Ben McCauley isn't killing VT like in the first two meetings, but Gavin Grant has eight points and Courtney Fells seven. Plus backups like Dennis Horner (6 pts) and Trevor Ferguson and Bryan Nieman are scoring.
Zabian Dowdell is 1-of-7 from the field and JamoN Gordon is 3-of-8. Dowdell has four of Tech's seven turnovers. Tech had just two turnovers in last night's win over Wake.
Coleman Collins is 0-of-1 from the field with one turnover and two rebounds; basically giving Tech nothing on offense.
Deron Washington went to the bench with his 2nd foul with 9:52 to go in the half.
Tech has seven steals; State has 13 turnovers. But Tech has just 12 points off those turnovers.
Tech has just two fast-break points

Clarke County defeated Floyd County 69-64 to capture the group A girls state championship today in Richmond.

Boston College's Jared Dudley, right, passes around North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough during the second half of a semi-final game of the Men's Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament in Tampa, Fla

Aaron breaks down the game between North Carolina and Boston College. Boston College lost to North Carolina 71-56.

Audio: Click the play button to hear highlights of the game by Aaron McFarling

Aaron McFarling here, sitting on a fat wallet after a good night at the poker tables of the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa last night. Here's a poker tip for you: If you see people wearing colors of a team that just got eliminated from the ACC tournament, try to sit there. Odds are they'll be drinking heavily and more than willing to lose the money they just made scalping semifinal tickets.

There were no downtrodden Virginia Tech or N.C. State fans there last night, because both teams have a shot to get the finals in a little more than an hour. The other semifinal just reached the half, with top-seeded North Carolina leading No. 4 seed Boston College 38-23. Brandan Wright has 10 points for the Tar Heels, and BC's Jared Dudley is having his second straight rough performance. I'll provide some audio analysis of that one shortly after the game ends.

The focus for Tech today is all on defense. Normally when you play the Wolfpack, you probably want to defend from the inside-out, stopping the bulk inside. But the Hokies grew so tired of seeing those State perimeter shots go in that they're going to have to extend their guards and trust that they won't get beaten off the dribble.

"We can't let them have any open looks," senior Markus Sailes said. "All their guys can shoot."

I really think fatigue is going to be a huge factor today. The Wolfpack doesn't play up-tempo, but neither of its games was easy. If the Hokies aren't trying to hit the fast break on every possession, Seth Greenberg should be fired. OK, that's a tad extreme. But did you see that Greenberg's successor at South Florida, Robert McCullum, was fired yesterday?Of course you didn't, because nobody cares. But the local interest came when columnist John Romano wrote in today's St. Petersburg Times that "McCullum's most notable accomplishment in four years at USF was making the program even less relevant than it had been before he arrived. Which is akin to taking over Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign and losing ground." That would make Greenberg Dennis Kucinich. Nice. Aw, I'm sure he's been called worse.

Back to the Hokies. Zabian Dowdell said last night that the most important factor in playing good perimeter defense is communication, so look for Tech's guards to be yapping like crazy out there any time there's a screen.

And expect all the commentators on ESPN to be yapping about a UNC-Virginia Tech final. That's the prediction here, anyway. Close at the half, then Hokies by 12. Check back later today for more on poker...um, I mean the tournament.