College Basketball Thread 2018

Not that US News rankings are be-all, end-all, but this is stark:

2019 USNWR rankings:
8. Duke
18. Notre Dame
25. Virginia (No. 3 public)
27. Wake Forest
30. UNC (5)
35. Georgia Tech (8)
38. Boston College
53. Syracuse
53. Miami
66. Clemson (24)
70. Florida State (26)
70. Pittsburgh (26)
76. Virginia Tech (30)
80. NC State (32)
171. Louisville (91)

 

In the Jimmy Sharpe era, Tech was probably the only football program in the south shittier than UVA. And that's saying something.

Unless you lived there at the time, you have no real idea the great, great work Frank Beamer and George Welch did turning those two programs around.

 

I posted this as a fanboi humblebrag about what's looking to be the greatest men's hoop squad in UT history, hoping to get them some love; alas, I somehow sparked a VaTech threadjack instead.

 

It's fun to talk it, and it's a lot of fun to bust your chops.

It's kind of like analyzing that a runner has a one-step lead at the 50-yard mark and, from there, knowing who will win the marathon.

Tony Bennett will forever be associated with UMBC. Just like Chapel Hill with Weber State, Duke with Mercer and Lehigh and NCSU with Murray State.

 

With my man Harold "The Show" Arceneaux and Eddie "The Thrill" Gill leading the way for the Wildcats...

 

A slight breeze blowing is all it takes to start a VaTech threadjack

 

But UVA will always be associated with Chaminade

 

This is exceptionally damning. University-6 is a disgrace for so many reasons.
The Hokies can stay. They were going to be invited eventually. But they don’t have much if any standing to mock UVA in anything except football.

 

My list all occurred in the NCAAs. UVa-Chaminade was the early-season tournament in Maui.

 

Virginia Tech should have been invited years before they were. But do you really think John Swofford had ANY intention of offering a spot to the folks in Blacksburg?

He's a media whore who saw no value in inviting Virginia Tech, hence the other dalliances with Rutgers (New York/New Jersey) and Syracuse the first time before actually extending a formal invitation when he wanted to make sure he had at least 12 schools so he could hold his precious football championship game (Upstate/Western New York).

Swofford had ZERO intention of inviting Virginia Tech, which is why Virginia had to basically tell him "either they're in or we're out."

If the Virginia contingent has a better version of this story, tell us. Or clarify anything I might have overlooked or omitted.

 

You've got things pretty well covered, from what I know. Mark Warner, then the governor, pressured then-UVA president John Casteen to demand that VT get in. The football schools were pushing for expansion (FSU, Clemson, GT). Duke and UNC didn't want to water down hoops and lose the double round-robin, so the football schools needed UVA's vote.

It was pressure from Bill Goodwin that supposedly provided the tipping point. He was rector at UVA for a couple of years and owns the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond. Supposedly the only billionaire in the Richmond area. Major donor to UVA, VT and VCU.

 

Virginia Tech is not better than Virginia in basketball, not historically, probably not right now (though we'll see next Tuesday...)

But, to quote Teddy KGB, "It's my post and I'll mock that UMBC loss venever the vuck I veel like it!"