March Madness has arrived with gale force in Blacksburg. The ACC tournament tips off Thursday, and recent history tells us that Virginia Tech will sit idly by and watch the opening games of the tournament on opening day, again relegated to sitting in front of their television sets and not participating in the tournament. We know that scene all too well; it�s a scene that we became accustomed to almost every March in the Big East Conference, when tournament play kicked off, while Virginia Tech stayed far away from the Big Apple, not allowed to unpack their gym bags for the trip.

But this year, Tech's first ACC tournament comes with a twist. As usual, Virginia Tech will not play on Thursday, but this time, it's because they earned a first-round bye, and the Hokies will make their conference tournament debut on Friday. As the fourth-seeded team.

Yes, you are allowed to repeat that phrase again. As the fourth-seeded team. I�m thinking I like these new rules and this new conference. If you need any additional proof that times, they-are-a-changin', then look no further than that.

The challenge for this team becomes making some noise in Washington D.C. in the tournament. This won�t be a lengthy discussion of how many games Tech needs to win to gain entrance into the NCAA tournament. We will find that out on Sunday. This will be about the continuous evolution and shaping of expectations in Blacksburg for the basketball program, and how that step is always the most critical one in any program.

The Hokies have some recent demons that they are starting to cast aside, and a fourth-place finish serves as proof that people can start setting their hopes high. Expecting failure will hopefully be something of the past. Raising the bar and getting fans energized again in the program is now construction that is well underway toward completion.

Those demons aren�t just the ones that have hovered over the entire basketball program for most of the last decade. They affected an individual far more recently.

Very few people should be surprised that Jamon Gordon came out on Senior Day and established a career high with 23 points. Coming off a game just last Tuesday against Clemson, when his late game turnover resulted in a Sharrod Ford dunk at the buzzer that gave the Tigers the home victory, Gordon had hinted to teammates that he had something special in store on Saturday. Erasing the bad taste in his mouth from his late game miscue showed a fierce determination and tenacity that marks Gordon�s makeup. Ask most any Virginia Tech player, and they will tell you Gordon is the heart and soul of this team. Winning players shake off bad times, knowing they don�t last. Gordon wiped his out rather quickly, shutting down point guard John Gilchrist, getting inside Gilchrist�s head and causing him to mumble to himself on several occasions, while making key baskets early and down the stretch for the Hokies.

It was a game that both teams needed desperately to win. That Virginia Tech was able to do so in a game that was equally important to both teams was another huge step forward in the evolution of the program. It can�t be argued that Maryland had an at-large berth clinched and wasn�t as sharp as they needed to be. It can�t be argued that Virginia Tech had much more to play for than Maryland, so consequently the mental edge was in their favor.

No, this was a game that was critical for Maryland and the defending conference tournament champions, who had almost their entire team back from last year with the exception of forward Jamar Smith. The Terrapins are used to playing under pressure and under must-win situations, but they could not get it done against a hungry Virginia Tech team playing in front of its increasingly enthusiastic and rabid fans, who are sure starting to make the home court advantage a sweet one indeed for the Hokies.

The Hokies did it with their now characteristic opportunistic fast break opportunities, improved rebounding in the latter part of the season, finding and exploiting defensive mismatches on the part of the opponent and bringing back an old friend on Saturday.

That old friend had not been around as much lately, but like all old friends, it sure was good to see their face again. Tech won the turnover battle on Saturday, for just the second time in the last seven games. The Hokies forced 15 Maryland turnovers, while having just 12 themselves, and that led to some fast break opportunities that the Hokies seized upon, beating the Terrapins at their own game. Without a dominant low post scorer to demand double teams on the floor for Maryland, Tech played straight up defensively and got a fine defensive job by Gordon on Gilchrist and by Carlos Dixon on Nik Caner-Medley, who had torched the Hokies earlier in College Park.

On the other end, part of the success of Gordon�s career scoring game can be attributed to Seth Greenberg�s exploitation of the defensive matchup that was clearly in Tech�s favor. Head coach Gary Williams of Maryland elected to put Gilchrist on Zabian Dowdell, while having his other starting guard, Chris McCray, guard Dixon. That left the 6-7 Caner-Medley on Gordon, who is five inches shorter and much quicker than Caner-Medley. Tech and Gordon constantly exploited this mismatch, as the taller, less-quick Caner-Medley struggled to stay with Gordon, who beat him off the dribble consistently.

Throw in the outstanding board work by the team in general, and Coleman Collins specifically with his 15 rebounds, and you have a winning recipe in a game that was very important for the team psyche going into the tournament and for the individual psyche of Gordon. This team did not want to arrive in D.C for the tournament on a three-game losing streak, a scenario it faced with a home loss to Maryland.

Instead, we saw that mini-losing streak dispatched. We saw a team win a game at home that was every bit as relevant to its opponent as it was to the Hokies. We saw an individual player exorcise his own demons from earlier in the week with an impressive performance punctuated on both ends of the court. And, we saw the bar raised yet again in what fans can expect out of this team and program.

But, uncharted territory is still left to be mined going into the tournament. Collins, Gordon and Dowdell know what it feels like to perform in a conference season-ending tournament, as do juniors Shawn Harris and Allen Calloway. The rest of this team does not, and most incredibly, that includes senior Carlos Dixon. Dixon will be experiencing something for the first time on Friday when he laces them up. Virginia Tech sat at home and did not qualify for the Big East Tournament during Dixon�s first three seasons in Blacksburg. Last year, Dixon sat out as a medical redshirt and did not get to play in the Big East Tournament.

Yes, we are all starting to see barriers torn down, expectations reshaped and many past demons buried beneath the rubble of earlier, darker days. This program hasn�t arrived, but the days are starting to look somewhat sunnier for everyone. Another first will be witnessed Friday at approximately 2:30 when Virginia Tech plays in their first ACC Tournament game. That game will come after the first opening round tournament bye in history for the program, in its first year in the conference.

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