It's hard not to get caught up in the game-by-game goings on with the Hokie men's basketball team, but the simple truth is, their out-of-sync, never-in-the-game effort against NC State Saturday wasn't indicative of any program-wide malaise � it was just a reflection of life in the ACC, where you never know what's going to happen when two teams take the floor.

There can be no doubt that the Hokies weren't ready to play Saturday evening. They were unsure on offense, lacked energy on defense, and took themselves out of the game early when the Wolfpack hung a 17-0 run on Tech and took a 17-4 lead. It was a critical game for the Hokies � all of them are, at this point � but it was a critical game for NC State too, and the Wolfpack responded. Tech didn't.

Them's the breaks. One day after I watched the Hokie men get mauled, I made my way to Cassell Coliseum Sunday to catch the Hokie women, who pulled a whack job on Miami that makes what NC State did to Tech's men look tame by comparison.

You want a team that wasn't ready to play? Miami's women weren't ready to play. They had beaten the Hokies four straight times coming into Sunday's contest, but once the opening whistle blew, they ran into a Virginia Tech buzz saw, and four games of bad mojo all came crashing down on the Canes. When Miami's Tamara James, the nation's leading scorer, finally got on the board with 5:29 left in the first half, VT had already taken a 33-4 lead, and the ball game was over.

The Hokies went on to win 90-45, Tech's largest margin of victory ever in conference play � any conference, ever. By the end, the Canes were subjected to the ultimate embarrassment, the sight of Virginia Tech players laughing and smiling as they cruised their way to a win (think Aaron Rodgers, 2003 Insight Bowl). Carrie Mason got a chuckle out of a shot clock-beating three-pointer, and the Hokies' lone senior, Erin Gibson, got into the act by launching her first three-point attempt of the season � she missed it � a shot that was definitely just for fun and just for show.

And remember, this was a team that had beaten the Hokie women four straight times. Gibson was the only player on Tech's roster who had ever played in a win over the Canes until Sunday.

How about Tech's own men's team? Last season, the Hokies ventured to Piscataway, New Jersey to take on Rutgers, and after an old-fashioned three-point play by Bryant Matthews, held a 3-2 lead two minutes into the game. Over the next ten minutes, Rutgers laid an amazing 30-0 run on the Hokies to take a 32-3 lead, a margin I found unfathomable until I watched 33-4 unfold yesterday in Cassell. Repetition makes the extraordinary seem ordinary.

That same Tech men's team beat Rutgers twice in eight days less than a month later. Sometimes you got it, sometimes you don't.

There are other examples. A Maryland team that beat Duke twice also lost to Clemson, twice. Wake Forest manhandled mighty UNC 95-82 on January 15th, then bombed out at ACC bottom-feeder Florida State three days later, losing 91-83.

A recent ACC Area Sports Journal had a leadoff column titled "ACC History Lesson: Conference Race a Marathon, Not a Sprint" that had some words of wisdom best heeded at a time like this:

The lessons should be clear to anyone with a passing knowledge of ACC history. Things change. Teams evolve. Basketball seasons are like basketball games; teams go on runs, then go cold for stretches. Because a team is playing at one level today doesn't mean it will be on that level tomorrow. � ACC Area Sports Journal, Vol. 28, No. 12, Feb. 3-16, 2005

Frank Beamer has been spouting that mantra for years. "Things are never as good as they seem, and never as bad as they seem." We've heard it so often it's become a clich�, but I have a saying about clich�s: they're clich�s because they're true.

Rather than get bogged down in the moment when following a basketball team � or a football team, or a baseball team � the proper thing to do is to let the season unfold and then evaluate the body of work as a whole. We learn this lesson all the time. I last learned it when I figured the team was out of gas following a loss to Wake Forest back on February 5th. That was when the fatigue question came into play, but the Hokies who took the court against Duke and Miami in their last home stand looked anything but tired.

Having said that, you can spot some trends in the team lately. Number one, they have now performed poorly, lacking defensive intensity in particular, in three straight road games: at Maryland on February 8th (an 86-71 loss), at Virginia February 12th (65-60, Cavaliers), and now at NC State (a 74-54 beat down that wasn't that close). That trend doesn't bode well for Tuesday night's game at Clemson, where the Tigers are surging as they fight to remain NIT-eligible.

Number two, the Hokies are still tough and inspired at home � witness the victory over Duke and the hammer-job they laid on Miami two days later. That bodes well for the season-ending game against Maryland, although the wildly inconsistent Terps are shaping up just in time for the end of the season, and they won't come into Cassell and lay down.

What do those two trends � poor road performance and solid-to-spectacular play at home � have in common? Youth. It's no surprise at all to see a team that starts three sophomores and a freshman � then brings two freshmen (Marquie Cooke and Wynton Witherspoon) and two walk-ons (Jeff King and Chris Tucker) off the bench � wither on the road in February. It's also no surprise to see them regroup and play to their potential at home, feeding off the emotion of their home crowd.

This is the first time these kids have been around the block in the ACC. They have tied a knot at the end of their rope and are just hanging on, as the old saying goes. And though their coach is savvy, knows basketball inside and out, prepares well, and adjusts well during the game, it's his first time around the league, too. He's learning about the ACC stretch run, as well.

The Hokies are playing with the big boys now, coaches and players who understand that the regular season, to a large degree, is just fluff (losses to VMI notwithstanding, because there are some things you should never do in the regular season). It's all about building momentum going into the tournament. Clemson Tuesday night is one thing, but don't be surprised if Maryland comes into Cassell and steamrolls the Hokies next Saturday, because Gary Williams is a good coach who knows how to spend all season tinkering with his players' minds, then slam the hood and have them purring like a kitten come ACC Tournament time.

Or, the Hokies might just blow Maryland out of Cassell Coliseum. The Hokies might stink at Clemson, or might win by 20. We won't know until the games are over.

Don't mistake me for an apologist, though. If VT loses their last two regular season games and finishes 7-9 in the conference, I'll acknowledge that that's a great debut for a team that's trying to build a program. But I'm not satisfied, per se, with that result. I'm still bugged by the road loss to FSU, and the road loss at UVa vexes me. I still want these guys to win every time out.

But while that's what I want, I also understand that sometimes you're the Louisville Slugger, sometimes you're the ball.

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