This is the promise of ACC basketball, the thrill-a-minute ride Hokie fans were craving when the league took a vote in the summer of 2003, and Virginia Tech could finally paint the ACC logo on their basketball floor. Visions of a packed, loud, frenetic arena; players scratching and clawing and competing for 40 minutes; coaches tinkering with lineups and strategies; games coming down to the wire. This was the promise, and on Wednesday night, Virginia Tech and NC State -- and Coleman Collins and Jamon Gordon -- delivered.

Okay, so Cassell Coliseum wasn't "packed." Attendance was announced at 9,874, though it was really somewhere between 7,000 and 8,000 fans. But it certainly was loud, and it certainly was frenetic. The atmosphere was the best it has been since January of 2003, when the Hokies whipped Virginia 73-55 in front of 8,000 rabid Hokies.

This basketball program will take its moments where it can get them, and the 72-71 nail-biter over the Wolfpack was indeed a moment worth remembering. The foundation for Wednesday's game was laid last Saturday, when the Hokies fought their way back from a deficit against Clemson to capture their first-ever ACC victory over the Tigers, 59-57. That win brought out a good-sized crowd for this game, and a chance for Seth Greenberg and his charges to keep building the momentum established Saturday, a chance for them to hook leery Tech basketball fans into coming back for more.

We've seen this many times the last few years. The team wins a game and starts to build momentum, only to lay an egg and lose the fans for the duration of the season.

This time it was different, and the Hokies scratched this game out the only way they know how, by coming at their opponent over and over and over, not quitting until the final horn sounded. It was a formula that worked for Frank Beamer's Hokie football team, a fact Greenberg alluded to in his post-game comments, and it brought the never-say-die Hokie basketball team their second win -- excuse me, second ACC win -- in a row.

Three times the Hokies came back from sizable deficits. NC State got up 7-0, and Tech stormed back to go up 18-14. The Wolfpack scored 7 points in 20 seconds to go up 45-32 early in the second half, and Tech chipped away at it and tied it at 54 and then 56. State scored 11 straight to go up 67-56 with 7:30 remaining … and the guy next to me in Cassell Coliseum got up and left.

I can't stand that, and I muttered a wish under my breath that he would get to listen to an improbable Hokie comeback on his car radio as he drove home.

I got my wish, granted by Coleman Collins' 10 points down the stretch, a stout Hokie defense that blocked two shots right underneath State's basket, and a laugh-out-loud game-ending block by 6-3 Jamon Gordon on 6-7 ACC Player of the Year Julius Hodge, a play that took Gordon's budding status as one of the ACC's best defenders and vaulted it into the stratosphere. Blocking Julius Hodge's shot, with the game on the line, and Hodge towering four inches above Gordon? Are you kidding me? Rejoice, Hokie fans.

Two straight wins in the ACC didn't seem possible on December 22nd, when the Hokies lost their fourth game out of five to fall to 5-4. Tech had started out 4-0, then laid one of those proverbial eggs at VMI (currently #328 out of 330 in the RPI ratings, for crying out loud), losing 72-68. Then came a loss to St. John's, a win over James Madison, then a 34-point hammer job administered by UNC, followed by a home loss to Western Michigan.

That five-game stretch was a bad one, but after the Hokies looked less than impressive beating Morgan State 67-54 on December 27th, Greenberg had some interesting post-game comments. He said that he was going to spend the next 19 hours figuring out what he wanted his team to be, who his go-to guys were going to be, and what their offensive and defensive identities were going to be.

Then he said -- twice, a few minutes apart -- that he "felt good" about VT's chances on December 30th against #21 Mississippi State.

Yeah, right.

But true to Greenberg's word, the Hokies have been a different team since the Morgan State game. They gave MSU a run for their money, falling by just 6 points, 71-65. Then the Hokies went down to Florida State, where many a ranked team has fallen, and again led late, 64-61, before giving up 9 straight points and losing 77-70.

After notching an expected win over Bethune-Cookman to go to 7-6, the Hokies have now won two straight ACC contests, in similar fashion. They defend, they scrap, and they don't give up, and they are the very epitome of Greenberg's favorite word: they compete.

This Tech team isn't deep, but the guys they do put on the floor are starting to click. Collins, VT's only post scoring threat, is bouncing back nicely from December foot surgery to remove a painful cyst that cost the Hokies who-knows-how-many games in the early part of the season. Dowdell, who knocked down 20 points against State, including 4-7 from beyond the arc, is growing visibly in confidence each time out on the floor. In a league dominated by guards, Dowdell seems eager to make his mark in that elite group, to prove that he belongs.

Jamon Gordon kills you softly, not with points but with steals, rebounds, and assists, and the occasional crowd-detonating block against one of the ACC's best players. Carlos Dixon has finally put things back together after missing last year with an injured foot. Deron Washington, a work in progress, is still learning how to play basketball, instead of just dominating opponents with athleticism.

In one of the more encouraging events of the season, highly-touted freshman guard Marquie Cooke, who was in danger of completely disappearing as he played just 18 total minutes against Bethune Cookman and Clemson and went scoreless in both, finally came out of his shell and forced the action against the Wolfpack. Cooke had been tentative thus far in his career, but against State he took it to the Wolfpack, driving into the lane, taking shots, drawing fouls, and playing more aggressively. Cooke's line might seem modest at 16 minutes, 3 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists, but trust me when I say that the proof was in the viewing: Cooke played harder and with more confidence. Greenberg reversed a recent trend and left Cooke in during clutch time, playing him 11 minutes in the second half.

As the players jell and turn into a cohesive unit, Greenberg is showing his stuff as well. Against Clemson, Greenberg spread the offense in the second half and ordered his guards to win the game. They did. Against NC State, Greenberg again created space, but this time he told his perimeter players to feed Collins, so the sophomore center could win the game. He did.

When players make plays, it does tend to make coaches look brilliant, but there is no denying that Hokie basketball fans are seeing something they haven't seen in at least 20 years, with the exception of Bill Foster: a coach who understands what's happening in the game and makes half time and late game adjustments. Sounds simple, but really, it has been rare in Blacksburg.

It's now apparent that the team Seth Greenberg put on the floor in the first ten games was a mish-mash of lineups and styles, as VT's second-year coach waited for Collins to get healthy, toyed with his combinations and tried to find something that would work. He eventually made up his mind and went with it, and his personnel and style decisions, combined with Collins' improving health and a never-say-die attitude that would make a cockroach proud, have given Hokie fans something to be proud of.