Sometime Tuesday afternoon, I came to an interesting revelation: the last time the Hokies played postseason basketball, TechSideline.com � actually, HokieCentral.com, which was the site's first name � wasn't even in existence. Given that HC/TSL turned nine years old four days ago � that's a looong time to go without playing postseason basketball. So the Hokies will take this NIT gig and like it, thank you very much.

The NIT has some tough nicknames � Nobody's Invited Tournament, Nobody's Interested Tournament, etc. � but at its core, it is filled with 40 teams that usually fall into one of two categories: teams that are very disappointed about not making the Big Dance and aren't very happy about being relegated to the NIT; and teams that are on the rise and see the NIT as a chance to keep building their program and making a name for themselves.

Count the Hokies in category #2, much the same as they were in 1995, when a Tech team that hadn't seen postseason play since 1986 roared to the NIT championship, laying the foundation for a 1995-96 team that spent the entire year in the rankings and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

It's easy for the Hokies to embrace the NIT, because for the last eight years, they've had nothing. It reminds me of the old Eddie Murphy comedy routine, where the starving man gets a single saltine cracker, gobbles it down voraciously, licks his fingers, and loudly proclaims, "THAT'S THE BEST CRACKER I'VE EVER HAD!!" We'd all rather eat the filet mignon of the NCAA tourney, but when you've gone without for a long time, that NIT saltine tastes killer.

In the five NIT games played so far, the Hokies have the largest crowd:

Hokie fans turned out over 7,400 strong, made some noise, and spurred their young team to victory, again. Landing home games in the NIT is critical for this young squad, which ran out of gas for road games back in early February but can still get a high-octane boost from a good Cassell Coliseum crowd. General admission, first-come-first-served seating lends an edge to the crowd, which arrives early and is pumped up an hour before game time. It's that kind of energy that explains why Jamon Gordon can look exhausted most of the game, play 40 minutes, and still summon enough energy to give Temple's leading scorer and only good ballplayer, Mardy Collins, fits. Collins scored 16 points but was only 6-19 from the field.

The Hokies get very little contribution from their bench, so when a guy like Wynton Witherspoon, who had scored all of 15 points in 2005, pours in 9 points in 15 minutes, it lifts Tech's beleaguered starters and makes a Hokie victory much more likely. In a tournament like the NIT, where very few of the teams boast more than two or three weapons, having a spark off the bench can make the difference between playing on and an early exit.

By the way, Witherspoon is the perfect example of why you always accept an NIT bid. Never, ever turn it down. Witherspoon had been struggling for two months, but in a mere 15 minutes of playing time last night, he got his moment in the sun and probably had his entire outlook on his freshman season altered for the better. He now has something to build on, he knows he can do it, and he knows how good it feels.

Home games, loud crowds, solid play from the starters, and a surprise from the bench. That's VT's ticket to Madison Square Garden, where the Hokies would be making their fourth trip to New York, if they can get through two more rounds.

(Which brings up Hokie basketball trivia: VT played in Madison Square Garden in 1973 and 1995, winning the NIT both times. If they advance to MSG again this year, then when was the fourth appearance that I speak of in the paragraph above? See the bottom of the article for the answer.)

With home games being so important for continued success, what's the outlook for the Hokies getting the next round at home?

The NIT awards home games based on bids submitted by the participating schools, among other things. Each school makes a financial offer to the NIT, and once that bid is accepted, it's up to the school to recoup its cost through ticket sales. The NIT doesn't care if you bid $100,000 then only sell 75 tickets, because they get their money.

If the Hokies wind up playing Memphis in the second round, VT will have a good shot at winning the bidding war. Memphis plays in FedExForum, home of the Memphis Grizzlies, which seats 18,500. The Tigers only averaged 9,684 fans per game this year, so a large crowd is not a guarantee. The Tigers have to rent FedExForum in order to play in it, an added expense, plus there's the issue of Memphis Grizzlies games. The Grizzlies play at home on the 18th and 20th. The NIT second round is played on the 19th, 20th, and 22nd. If the Hokies have to play Memphis in the second round, in Memphis, it would have to be on the 19th (Saturday) or 22nd.

Watch Wednesday night's Memphis/Northeastern attendance. Memphis message boards were reporting that the Tigers had sold 6,000 tickets through Tuesday, so they could put 8,000-10,000 in the seats for their game with Northeastern. That could lead to an interesting battle to host a second-round game with VT, should Memphis win their first-round game.

If the Hokies were to be successful in hosting a game against Memphis, that would bring old Metro Conference rivals Memphis and Virginia Tech together again in Cassell Coliseum for the first time since January 5th, 1991, when the Hokies beat the then-Memphis State Tigers 81-66 before a crowd of just 3,864. Memphis State left for the Great Midwest Conference the following year, and the two schools, once bitter rivals, haven't played in over 14 years.

Having said all that, the rumors are very, very heavy that VT has already been selected as a host second-round site, on Saturday, bid process aside. Justin Ditmore of Channel 10 in Roanoke reported that the ESPN crew told him that, and several other sources have popped up and said the same thing.

One has to wonder if Marquie Cooke will ever be seen again in a Virginia Tech uniform. It has been a rocky year for the highly-touted freshman guard, who entered VT as the highest-rated recruit since Dell Curry over 20 years ago, and who may leave having scored fewer than 100 career points while at Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech announced Monday that Cooke was taking a leave of absence from the basketball team through the end of the season, and as is normal for these situations, no other information was given. Cooke has been moody and often sullen on the bench as he tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to adjust from being a prep star to being a bench player averaging just under 17 minutes and less than four points a game.

At times, Cooke is into the flow of the game, interacting with teammates both on the court and on the bench. At other times, he has sat on the bench, quiet and gloomy, even during wins that saw the other bench players up and rooting hard.

On the court, Cooke has shown only brief glimpses of the talent he displayed in high school. Cooke is a strong, physical guard who drives to the bucket with authority when he wants to, and who plays strong on-ball defense, though he is foul-prone. Several times this year, Cooke has gone to the rack with surprising speed, and for a freshman, he plays strong, one notable example coming when he easily sealed off a Maryland player as the two of them raced for a loose ball in VT's recent win in Cassell. Cooke has also fired several seeing-eye passes this year that hinted at his ability distributing the ball.

But Cooke has also shown a surprising lack of ball-handling skills, favoring a right-hand dribble and often picking up his dribble early, a no-no for a point guard. And his shooting percentage, which admittedly is not his strong suit, has been dismal: 31% from the field, 19% from three-point range, and 57% from the line.

Then there are the attitude problems, reflected primarily in his pouting on the bench. Sources say that Cooke refused to leave the bench and enter the game in the second half against Duke in Tech's February 17th victory over the Blue Devils, and sources also say that Cooke had an outburst in the locker room following VT's loss to Georgia Tech in the ACC tournament.

Cooke may have thought when VT was recruiting him that he could crack the starting lineup over Jamon Gordon or Zabian Dowdell, neither of whom is the true point guard Cooke supposedly is. But Dowdell has become one of the best shooters in the ACC, poor performances against GT and Temple notwithstanding, and Gordon boasts a complete floor game rivaled by very few sophomores in the country, if any. Dowdell and Gordon have locked down starting positions for the foreseeable future, and Cooke sees that he might not start until he's a senior.

At a school like Virginia Tech that isn't steeped in talent, it's imperative that everyone in the organization, from the head coach to the coaching staff to the players to the fans, place the team before themselves in order to achieve maximum results. Some teams are talented enough to get away with some me-first attitudes, but Virginia Tech is not one of those teams. With his apparent preoccupation with his lack of playing time and development, Cooke is focusing on himself instead of the team, failing to realize that when players put the team first, the individual results almost always follow naturally.

It's possible that Cooke's leave of absence isn't related to his freshman struggles, that there are problems at home, perhaps with the health of a relative. But the more likely reason is Cooke's ongoing inability to adjust to a backup role, and the likelihood that a season of struggling to adjust has finally come to a head. The ball is in Marquie's court, and just like in a game, he'll have better results if he drives hard to the hole, working on his game and shedding his moodiness, than he will if he simply picks up his dribble in the face of a little pressure.

Trivia question answer: In 1984, the Hokies advanced to the NIT semi-finals. The Hokies beat GT 77-74 in Cassell, beat South Alabama 68-66 in Greensboro, NC (no kidding, that's what the VT media guide says), beat Tennessee 72-68 in Cassell, then lost to Michigan in the NIT semi-finals in New York, 78-75. The NIT had a consolation game back then, and VT defeated SW Louisiana 71-70 to finish third in the NIT.

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