If none of the above avenues to ticket procurement work out in the next day or so, I would suggest as a fall-back position the tried and true method of waiting until after Clemson has played its first game and then buying ticket books sold by their fans as they head back to South Carolina for football practice. It never fails.

Virginia Tech prepares to participate in its first ACC basketball tournament. For those of us who have spent years following basketball in the conference, to have Tech playing is another of those magical moments, ranking right up there with that night almost two years ago when Tech was first voted into the ACC, the exhilarating evening when our Athletic Director stood on a podium with ACC Commissioner John Swofford and Miami’s AD Paul Dee holding an ACC cap and polo shirt, the morning last July when a group of Hokies had cake and chatted with Swofford during the ACC’s ‘Welcome Aboard’ gathering, the sight of the Duke football team taking the field at Lane Stadium for Tech’s first ACC football game, and the North Carolina basketball one taking the court at Cassell for the inaugural conference basketball game. Virginia Tech is truly a member of the ACC.

The Tech basketball team that will be playing in its first ACC tournament has become a special one. It is a team that has confounded all of the so-called experts by exceeding all preseason expectations. That tenth place prediction in basketball looks about as stupid now as the sixth place football one looked by the first of December. Tech basketball in its first ACC season managed a .500 record and a finish in the conference’s first division. Imagine that.

The Hokies head to the MCI Center looking not to merely get a taste of tournament flavor, but to burnish its still admittedly long-shot hopes for making the NCAA tournament. Teams with fifteen wins are not generally considered to be NCAA bubble teams, but Tech can wave that 8-8 record at the Tournament Committee. The selling task would be greatly facilitated with an ACC tournament repeat of Tech’s regular season success. Going .500 in the tournament, pushing the win total to sixteen, would then likely cause the selection folks to take a very long and hard look at Tech’s inclusion.

That Tech is even considered to be a bubble team is due to a solid win over Maryland last Saturday. It was a strong effort coming on the heels of what could have been a devastating loss at Clemson. The Maryland game was a must-win for both teams, and Tech was the team that responded. When the logjam created by the mass of squads in the middle of the ACC standings had shaken out, Tech was on the high side of the group with a fourth seeding. The Terps were left to slink back to College Park with their own hopes for the NCAA tournament having taken a serious hit. They were not the only ones.

By the time the weekend ended with Chris ‘Slugger’ Paul raising his fist high in the air after his last-second shot beat NC State, the fist a part of a hand that several Wolfpack players declined to shake, since they knew where that hand had been, there were three teams on the wrong side of the .500 mountain that conventional wisdom claims is necessary to scale to make the NCAA field of 65. This should make for an interesting conference tournament. Maryland, NC State and Miami all finished with 7-9 ACC marks and will need to do serious damage this weekend to get back onto the selection committee’s radar.

This is not new ground for Maryland to be plowing. Last year they staggered into the ACC tournament with the same 7-9 league ledger and needed to win the tournament to make the NCAA one. Maryland promptly did just that, ending Duke’s run of consecutive ACC tournament championships at five. The Terps’ hopes of repeating hinge on beating a Clemson team that twice knocked off Maryland this year, then swallowing hard and taking a shot at the Carolina juggernaut that looms ahead. You want a best-case scenario? How about Maryland knocking off the Tigers Thursday AND the Tar Heels in Friday’s first game, then facing a Tech team that has beaten Georgia Tech? The Terps would be playing their third game in three days and it would likely be a tired bunch of turtles that would face a comparatively refreshed Tech team. A fast-track to the finals would sure make folks sit up and notice. And how about NC State beating Florida State Thursday, then knocking off a Paul-less Wake Forest? Certainly the Wolfpack’s Julius Hodge would have his voice back by then and maybe his game too.

Of course, the above scenario is predicated on Tech beating Georgia Tech, as are any NCAA hopes for the Hokies. 15-13 will likely not cut much ice with the selection committee, and who knows how the Big East-centric NIT will view Tech? There is at least a possibility that as they were against Maryland, Tech will again be fighting for their postseason lives. Throw in NC State, Maryland and Miami all also angling for NCAA inclusion and it should make for an interesting Thursday and Friday in DC.