The ACC over the decades has built quite the basketball reputation. This has been done with game after televised game and year after year of exciting, down-to-the wire finishes in front of enthusiastic crowds. Last-second shots, sterling defensive stands, coaches matching strategic and tactical wits with their opposite numbers - these have long been the hallmark of ACC basketball. Judging by the results of the last fortnight or so, it would seem Tech is fitting right in. Three straight league wins, including one at one of the conference’s most notorious pits, has served notice to the ACC.

The school that stormed the ACC in football is now making a little noise in basketball, too. Tech knocked off one of the league’s storied basketball programs in North Carolina State, punctuating the victory with a clutch shot by Coleman Collins and a terrific defensive play by Jamon Gordon on Wolfpack star Julius Hodge . The Hokies then sauntered into Alexander Memorial Coliseum and pulled off one of the more remarkable road wins in Tech history, stunning ranked Georgia Tech in a place where the Yellow Jackets rarely lose. The basketball win at GT follows the football one there, making that other Tech the first of the previous ACC membership to lose at home to Virginia Tech in both major sports. The Hokies have encountered only slightly more resistance in Atlanta than did Sherman.

Tech’s winning streak has caused them to replace Miami as the ACC’s latest new big thing. What the heck, the Hokies shoved the Canes off the football stage; they might as well do the same in basketball. Tech was notching its ACC wins at a time when fast-starting Miami was getting a heavy dose of ACC basketball reality, being slapped down by conference royalty Duke and Carolina. It was Tech that provided the positives in the week that saw the expansion teams go 2-2 against last year‘s NCAA participants, 1-1 against 03 Final Four teams. Try and keep up, Miami.

The week that was for Tech basketball saw the team accomplish some other improbables around and among the Hokie Nation. Many Tech fans took time out from their annual January Internet obsession with teen-age boys who play football to actually pay attention to the basketball team. A few even actually showed up at Cassell to watch the State game, altering the general concert-hall atmosphere of the arena into something a little more in tune with the rest of the league. Basketball excitement at Tech: what a concept. If this keeps up we might see something truly remarkable, the season ticket holders from NOVA actually showing up for a game. Or re-allocating them to somebody that will, which seemed to work fairly well for UConn last Saturday against Pittsburgh.

There are elements to this recent basketball success that can be recognized by Tech’s knowledgeable football fan base. This team is based on defense, not an alien concept at the place that employs Bud Foster. The strategy of using defense to keep the game close against more talented opponents, giving you a chance to win at the end, is one employed by many football coaches, including Tech’s. The basketball Hokies are winning the turnover battles, something very familiar to those who follow Beamerball. One would almost think that Frank Beamer was supplying direction as well as depth to the Tech basketball program, but that would be grossly underestimating the capabilities of Seth Greenberg.

Seth has brought command and control to the basketball head coaching position at Virginia Tech, a job that for nearly the last two decades has enjoyed all the stability of the Liberian presidency. He looks to have this team believing in him and at times seems to be almost willing them to victory. His often-manic sideline demeanor, his seeming quick grasp of game situations and his generally-positive comments about what this team and program have to do to compete at this level are traits that have not recently been seen in the Tech coaching box. Seth came to Virginia Tech with modest career accomplishments. Coaches with his record generally do not find themselves coaching in the ACC and indeed, Greenberg finding himself matching wits with Herb Sendek and Paul Hewitt are the result of a rather unique set of circumstances. He seems to be making the most of the opportunity, however.

Just as last year’s Tech team greatly surprised some Big East people who had come to view the Tech game as live practice for the next big game against Syracuse or UConn, this year’s team is doing the same in a different league. The ACC is quickly learning that a failure to take Tech seriously will bite them. NC State had a legitimate concern coming into the season that supposedly-woeful teams at Virginia Tech and Miami might drag down the league’s RPI enough to cost the Wolfpack an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. I doubt many around State seriously considered that the Hokies and Canes would inflict grievous harm to the prospect of that bid by actually beating the Pack. It’s a tough league, eh, Wolfpack?

The early returns on Seth Greenberg seem to indicate that he is a very able coach who has spent most of his career toiling at places outside the college basketball mainstream, outposts where it is very difficult to win. While it certainly remains to be seen whether Virginia Tech is a place where one can consistently achieve success or that Seth will even hang around if he does [keep this up and more prominent programs will come calling], things are looking good so far.

Tech’s team revolves around its backcourt. Jamon Gordon and Zabian Dowdell have established themselves as a very capable ACC guard tandem, and as freshman Marquie Cooke gradually learns both Greenberg’s style of play and what is demanded of him, a serviceable guard rotation has been established, proving that strong guard play means much in college basketball. Gordon and Dowdell, along with inside man Coleman Collins, who also is demonstrating that he can play in this conference, provide evidence that recruiting star power is not everything; development and determination count too, something to bear in mind as the annual football recruiting frenzy nears its zenith. Tech has little of the highly-regarded talent that studs most ACC rosters, including those of the teams that Tech has beaten. The Hokies have overcome it so far by practicing what Seth preaches, competing at or above the level required for success in an elite conference such as the ACC.

After three straight wins it is still probably a little early for Tech fans to be making travel arrangements for St. Louis. As Seth constantly reminds us, Tech basketball competing successfully in the ACC is a process that is still in its infancy. The three victories have all been by the skin of the Hokie Bird’s teeth, and the basketball gods dictate that some of Tech’s fortunate bounces will eventually go the other way. Tech will continue to play against teams that can put more sheer talent on the floor than can Seth.

There are three games remaining against Duke and Wake, two of the Tobacco Road triumvirate that along with Carolina have established themselves as the early class of ACC basketball. Tech will certainly get a good eyeful of life in the ACC this Sunday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium; winning at Alexander was one thing; Cameron is the holiest of the ACC’s shrines. There are some serious bumps in the road ahead. Nevertheless, Tech has proven that it can indeed play on the basketball side of this league and was not just some football afterthought.