Hokies knocking at door of Big Dance

Each of the past two seasons, Virginia Tech has seen its ACC Tournament run end at the hands of North Carolina. What followed were two consecutive berths in the National Invitation Tournament — just short of the Hokies’ goal.

The NIT is little consolation for a team that just missed out on an NCAA Tournament bid, and the goal of the Hokies’ 2009-10 campaign is to prevent that disappointment from happening for a third time.

Va. Tech will have to accomplish this task without graduated swingman A.D. Vassallo, who led the team in scoring as a junior and as a senior. He notched 19.1 points per game last year.

But the Hokies return the next four top scorers from 2008-09, a core group of four juniors who will lead the team.

Guard Malcolm Delaney is the apparent heir to the team’s scoring crown.

The Baltimore, Md., native put up numbers very comparable to Vassallo’s last year, including 18.1 points per game.

Va. Tech’s other key contributor hails from nearby Washington, D.C. Forward Jeff Allen, who led the Hokies in rebounds, blocks and steals last year, in addition to logging a third-best 13.7 points per game.

Rounding out Va. Tech’s experienced core are forward J.T. Thompson and guard Dorenzo Hudson, a high school teammate of Allen’s.

If the Hokies manage to put together a winning conference record and a berth in the NCAA Tournament, they will begin to establish themselves as a program in the top half of the ACC.

Last year the Hokies finished 19-15 overall and tied for seventh in the conference with a 7-9 record.

Five years after defecting from the Big East, Va. Tech is 38-42 in the ACC. The program has shown flashes of the potential to be NCAA Tournament mainstays but has been unable to procure a spot in the tournament in recent years.

This year will be an important one for the Hokies as they fight to earn their second NCAA Tournament bid since 2004 and prove that they can compete in the ACC.