Confessions of a webmaster: Throughout the Signing Day hysteria Wednesday, my heart raced and pounded, but it wasn't because of the ongoing recruiting drama, server crashes, and high levels of traffic on the site. It was because the Hokie men's basketball team was facing a critical road game at Miami. There, it's heresy, but I said it: I was more hyped up over basketball than recruiting.

While Hokie football fans' stomachs churned at the decommitment of tight end John Hannah to the South Carolina Gamecocks, my stomach churned at the thought of trying to contain the Hurricanes' three-headed backcourt monster of Guillermo Diaz, Robert Hite, and Anthony Harris.

For we old schoolers, who are loving the Hokie basketball renaissance, this game against Miami was as pivotal as it gets. As Chris James wrote in his preview, "Win, and the Hokies will stay in the upper tier of the conference for a couple more games; lose, and they'll start to move towards the lower tier."

Halfway through the conference schedule, 5-3 is a world better than 4-4. 5-3 gets you sole possession of fourth place, while 4-4 leaves you in a quagmire with too many teams to count.

Going into this one, the status of VT senior guard Carlos Dixon, who banged his elbow in a nasty spill at Duke, was questionable. He was going to play, but how effectively? And in a game where guard depth was critical, backup Marquie Cooke was also questionable for the game with back spasms.

So the Hokies did what they have done since the calendar rolled over into 2005: they won by committee. Zabian Dowdell (career-high 23 points on 5-10 three-pointers), Carlos Dixon (17 points, team-high two steals, and Jamon Gordon (11 points on 5-6 shooting) all stepped up.

Not to be overlooked is the performance of skinny freshman forward Deron Washington. Washington started the year out with his feathers blazing, dunking all over Tech's creampuff opening schedule. Then the opponents got tough, and Washington, ever the athlete but not yet a good "basketball player," struggled.

But lately Washington has found his stride. He's still inconsistent, but fortunately for the Hokies, he was on an uptick this night. Washington filled the stat sheet Jamon-Gordon-style: 14 points on 6-9 shooting, a three-pointer, 7 rebounds, a team-high 4 assists, and six charges taken.

Say what? Six charges taken?

That's right. The reed-thin Washington dropped and flopped his way to an amazing six charges taken, as the ACC referees, who cut VT no slack Sunday against Duke, got a lot friendlier with the Hokies in this game, on the road no less. Washington's six fouls taken were 40% of Miami's 15 turnovers. On a night when Tech center Coleman Collins was struggling his way to 4 points on 1-9 shooting, there was very little margin for error elsewhere, and Washington elevated his game.

Not to discount the efforts of Dowdell, the Pahokee, Florida native who had several dozen family and friends in attendance, sporting "Zabian Dowdell -- FO SHO" T-shirts. Dowdell's cheering section was so vocal that they could clearly be heard over the radio feed every time Dowdell did something positive … which was often. Talk about money and time well-spent; Dowdell's cheering section got the most out of their T-shirts and their efforts to travel to the game. (It's about a hundred mile drive from Pahokee to Coral Gables.)

With the Hokies floundering through a listless, out-of-synch first half, Dowdell hit a three-pointer with three seconds left before the break to make it 30-29, Hurricanes. With the Hokies clinging to a 56-52 lead with less than five and a half minutes left, Dowdell scored Tech's next seven points in 89 seconds to stake the Hokies to a 63-57 lead with 3:42 remaining. His teammates brought it home from there.

Coach Seth Greenberg once again flexed his coaching mind, with half-time adjustments that carried the Hokies to 44 second-half points. It was the potent Hurricanes who were the most likely team to explode for 40-plus points after the break, but instead, VT pulled it off.

Carlos Dixon's steal and score with 1:53 left that turned a slim 63-60 Hokie lead back into a two-possession 65-60 game was also the result of good coaching and scouting. In a torrent of X-and-O language that a relative basketball novice like myself could never hope to explain or repeat, Greenberg said in his post-game comments words to the effect of, "We scouted that passing tendency, drew up a defense for it, and executed it to get the steal."

Cooke turned out to be well enough to play, and play well he did. With 12 minutes, Cooke was on the floor more than any of the other backups, and he made the most of it with 3 assists, second-most on the team.

Even the bit players got into the act. Jeff King had an offensive rebound and a stick-back, scoring two points in six minutes of play. And with Collins struggling, Seth Greenberg put in walk-on Chris Tucker, who promptly hit an 18-footer for his two points in five minutes.

In the end, the Hokies won because they beat Miami at their own game. Tech outshot Miami from three-point range, making 9-22 three-pointers to Miami's 4-14, and VT battled the Hurricanes, the 23rd-best rebounding team in the country, to a 32-32 draw on the boards.

The victory got a big monkey off the Hokies' back. Not known as a basketball powerhouse, the Canes had beaten VT six straight times, dating back to early 2001. The Hurricanes were the victims in Tech's first-ever Big East basketball win, back on January 10th, 2001 (an 85-74 win that featured a 33-6 second-half run by the Hokies), but since then, it had been all Miami, as the Darius Rice-led Hurricanes beat Tech over … and over … and over… (repeat three more times).

Looking at the ACC standings continues to be a surreal experience for Hokie basketball fans. The Hokies reside all alone in fourth place, with most of the schools having played half of their conference schedule or more.

The first milestone of 14 victories (assuring that the Hokies would enter the ACC Tournament with at least a 14-13 record, 7-9 in conference) is now just two wins away. VT has eight games left to hit that target, and after that, it's all gravy.

Naturally, though, there's no reason to be satisfied with that, and no reason to think that the Hokies can't do more. We keep saying they could lose every one of their remaining games -- and they could -- but they could also continue to surprise us. They get their next chance this Saturday, against the Demon Deacons in Cassell Coliseum.