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A couple of notes on two of Roanoke's finest sports alums:

Just got an e-mail from Roanoke Star director Danny Beamer announcing that former soccer standout Danny Karbassiyoon has been named honorary president of Arsenal America, a club for U.S. fans of the famed English Premier League team.

Karbassiyoon, a Northside graduate, became the youngest Yank to sign with Arsenal in 2004. He retired last season at age 22 after a series of knee injuries and became a North American scout for the club.

One of his new duties will be to manage the Arsenal America team in the Supporters Club tournament, held in London every year. Good to see Danny doing well -- he's always had an impressive attitude, even when injuries were crippling his dreams.

As for Tiki Barber, reader Robert Smith sent me a link to an accuscore column breaking down whether the Giants are better off without their former running back. Because they are in the Super Bowl, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the analysis will show that they are. Just a guess. And oh, yeah, Robert's a Tech fan and Tiki's a former Hoo, so take that for what it's worth.

And we leave you today with another great piece of fake news from one of my favorite Web sites.

--Aaron McFarling

Maryland shot 51.9 percent from the field and got every rebound down the stretch in holding off Virginia 85-75 at Comcast Center.

The Terps (13-8 overall, 3-3 ACC) led 13-2 to start the game and hit their first six shots from the field. Virginia (11-8, 1-5) ditched its customary man-to-man defense in favor of a 2-3 zone that Maryland riddled for seven 3-pointers in the first half.

Virginia, which now has lost six of its last seven games and continues to fall deeper into the ACC cellar, got as close as 76-71 during a late-game rally that was sparked by senior guard Sean Singletary.

Singletary, who has a hip pointer and was not cleared to play until 45 minutes before game time, scored 17 of his team-high 23 points in the second half and did not have a turnover for the first time in 75 games.

Maryland scored on its last 11 possessions, including four trips when Virginia made a defensive stop, only to see the Terps grab an offensive rebound and either score or go to the free-throw line.

The Cavaliers visit Virginia Tech on Saturday for a 1 p.m. tipoff.

Mark Berman back here in Blacksburg, where the Virginia Tech men's basketball team held off Florida State 89-80.

Tech is 4-3 in the conference. I am rather surprised to say the least. And Tech still has five home games left out of its nine remaining, so 8-8 in the league is actually realistic.

AD Vassallo had 22 points for Tech, with Hank Thorns adding 15 and Malcolm Delaney 13. JT Thompson had 11 points. Deron Washington had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

FSU shot 60 percent from the field in the second half, including 8-of-11 (72.7 percent) from 3-point range, to throw a scare into Tech. But the Hokies made enough free throws in the final minutes. Tech was 35-of-47 from the charity stripe.

The Hokies led the entire second half even though they shot 38.5 percent from the field in the half, cooling off from the first half.

Look for the game story in Wednesday's paper and online Wed., but I will also have a complete follow with plenty of quotes in Thursday's paper.

Mark Berman here in Blacksburg, where the Virginia Tech men's basketball team is up 42-24 at halftime of its game with Florida State.

The Hokies jumped to an 18-4 lead with 11:02 left.

AD Vassallo has 15 points and three 3-pointers for Tech, which is shooting 60.9 percent from the field.

FSU has 11 turnovers, many unforced, and is shooting 38.1 percent from the field.

Deron Washington is just 3-of-7 from the field but has seven points. JT Thompson, who again started, also has seven points.

Jeff Allen, back from his two-game suspension, came off the bench. He has five points.

It’s not too early to start thinking about who will make the field of 64 this year, so I took a look Monday at the RPI. Tennessee is No. 1, but the most interesting tidbit was found all the way at the end of the list. Eastern Illinois is last at No. 341 with a 2-17 record and Jacksonville State is 2-16 and No. 339. Both teams play in the Ohio Valley Conference. Both of them trail a winless team, which doesn’t say much for the OVC. North Florida is No. 338 and 0-18. New Jersey Institute of Technology is No. 340 and 0-21. Higher strength of schedule ratings saved these winless teams from being at the bottom. It sure seems like winning two games ought to count for something. When the NCAA dissects these numbers for tournament-worthy teams in March, it will be good to know that they rely on more than the RPI when you see things like this. — Jeff Gilbert

Tyrod Taylor’s presence in Blacksburg sure is making it hard for Virginia Tech to recruit quarterbacks. The Hokies got a commitment from Ju-Ju Clayton on Wednesday, a quarterback from Richmond. The other schools at the top of his list were Army, William and Mary, Norfolk State and Youngstown State. Maybe the Tech staff knows something nobody else does, but after this year Clayton is the only backup to Taylor and he might not join the team until 2009 spring practice. A top quarterback for the class of 2009 is certainly a must in case Taylor is injured and Clayton is overmatched. — Jeff Gilbert

Starting this summer, a law goes into effect that will require most boaters in Virginia to eventually take and pass a boating education course. Tuesday the board of directors of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries was listening to a presentation about proposed testing requirements when one of the directors spoke up. “Is this going to be like the driver’s test?” he wondered. “Because I remember on that test they try to trick you. I had to take it twice to pass.” Everyone in the room burst into laughter. The concerned board member was professional stock car driver Ward Burton. — Mark Taylor

UVa has now lost five of six games after dropping a 90-82 overtime affair Sunday against visiting Georgia Tech.

In its last three losses, Virginia has squandered leads of nine, 10 and 13 points, including a 48-35 advantage late in the first half Sunday.

The Cavaliers went nine-of-18 on 3-pointers in the first half, then went 2-of-14 in the second half. Two-time first-team All-ACC selection Sean Singletary missed all six of his 3-point shots and was 5-of-19 from the field.

Singletary is 9-of-30 from the field in his last two games, including a 69-67 loss Wednesday at Florida State.

After going 24-2 in its first 26 games at John Paul Jones Arena, Virginia has lost two of its last three games, both in overtime to a pair of Techs, including Virginia Tech (70-69).

The Cavaliers (11-7, 1-4) dropped deep into the ACC cellar, of which they already had sole possession. Georgia Tech is 10-9, 3-3 after its second ACC road victory in five days.

The loser in four of its last five games, Virginia has hit nine of 18 3-point attempts to take a 48-38 lead over Georgia Tech after the first half at John Paul Jones Arena.

Sophomore guard Calvin Baker leads all scorers with 13 points in 13 minutes. Five different UVa players have made 3-pointers but Sean Singletary is 0-for-2 from beyond the arc.

Freshman center Mike Scott has seven points and six rebounds for UVa in his best outing of late.

Mark Berman back here at Boston College, where Virginia Tech beat BC 81-73 in OT.

I did not see this one coming. Tech was without Jeff Allen, had never won here and was coming off back-to-back double-digit losses. Tech was playing for 2nd time in less than 48 hours while BC had not played since last Saturday.

"Get a road win, that's a great thing," said JT Thompson, who had 14 points and 12 boards and a big steal while starting in Allen's place.

"We had a great practice yesterday. We went an hour and 15 minutes hard," coach Seth Greenberg said. "The second game in 3 days, if we wanted to make it an issue, it would've been an issue. But I told you guys after the Duke game it wasn't an issue. We were not going to build that in, just like we're not building that we're young in for the reason we're turning it over or we're going to lose game.

"We're not going to build in reasons why not. We're going to build in reasons why. From the second that Duke game ended, I didn't want to hear 36 hours. I didn't want to hear we don't have Jeff Allen."

Deron Washington (19 points) made a layup to give Tech a 63-61 lead with 4:27 left in regulation, but Tech left the door open for BC by making no baskets and making just three of six free throws the rest of regulation. Tech also had two of its 8 turnovers in that stretch.

BC's Rakim Sanders hit his only trey of the game to tie the score at 66 with 3.6 seconds left in regulation.

But Hank Thorns hit a trey to give Tech a 71-68 lead with 3:37 left in OT. Thorns added a layup and Washington scored to extend the lead to 73-68 with 1:36 left and the Hokies led the rest of the way.

BC's standout point guard, Tyrese Rice, had 27 points and four treys. But after making a 3 with 9:29 left in regulation, he had no baskets and made just two free throws the rest of the way. He had a big turnover late in regulation and missed two free throws during Tech's 7-0 run in OT.

"We were switching on the ball screens," Greenberg said. "We were switching on the chase cuts and we were trying to make it harder for him to get [the ball] back."

"Late in the second half they started leaving guys around the basket, so it made the lanes to the basket a lot harder to get to," Rice said. "We weren't running down the court as hard because we was a little tired. That played a part."

"I tried my best to deny him and not let him get the ball back because without him they don't really run offense as well," Thorns said. "I started to learn in the second half. I studied him his first half."

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