Tech loses another for season
The injuries keep mounting for the Virginia Tech football team, as defensive tackle Antoine Hopkins tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in the Hokies’ 23-3 loss to Clemson on Oct. 1 and will miss the remainder of the season. Hopkins, a redshirt junior from Highland Springs, Va., became the third Tech player to go down for the season. Defensive tackle Kwamaine Battle tore an ACL in a scrimmage before the season and receiver Dyrell Roberts broke his arm in the Hokies’ win over Arkansas State.
“That’s a tough loss for us,” Tech head coach Frank Beamer said of Hopkins.
Hopkins recorded eight tackles in five games. Either Luther Maddy or Corey Marshall, two true freshmen, will enter the starting lineup. Redshirt juniors Isaiah Hamlette and Dwight Tucker figure to see increased reps as well.
Bilas to speak at Virginia Tech Basketball Tip-Off Banquet
ESPN College Basketball analyst Jay Bilas will be the featured speaker at the annual National Bank of Blacksburg/Virginia Tech Basketball Tip-off Banquet on Nov. 6 at the Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center.
Bilas provides color commentary from courtside on college basketball games and in the studio as the co-host of ESPN’s popular studio shows College GameDay and College GameNight. He also writes for ESPN.com, and contributes numerous reports for ESPN SportsCenter. Bilas and the GameDay crew were in Cassell Coliseum on Feb. 26, as the Hokies served as ESPN’s hosts for the show and defeated No. 1 Duke, 64-60.
The banquet will again feature both a silent and a live auction. Along with various sports memorabilia, fans will have the opportunity to bid on seats on the bench for selected ACC games.
The program will also feature comments from Tech head coach Seth Greenberg, and a video highlighting the Virginia Tech 2010-11 season and previewing Tech’s 2011-12 Atlantic Coast Conference season. A majority of the money raised from this year’s banquet will be used to fund a future summer trip to Europe for the Hokies.
Corporate tables of eight are available for $2,000, which will include a current Virginia Tech player or coach. Individual seating is available for $220 each. Seating is limited. For more information or to reserve a table, please contact Sharon Spradlin in the Virginia Tech men’s basketball office at (540) 231-6725.
River Course again receives national acclaim
The Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech was rated ninth on the 2011 Golfweek Best Campus Courses list. A year ago, the River Course came in at No. 18, and the course stands as the survey’s fastest riser this year.
The Course at Yale, located in New Haven, Conn., received this year’s top ranked campus course honor, followed by Taconic Golf Course at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., and Rawls Course at Texas Tech University.
A total of five Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) courses made the list. That includes Duke University Golf Club (16th); the University of North Carolina’s Finley Golf Course (23rd); the University of Virginia’s Birdwood Golf Course (24th); and North Carolina State University’s Lonnie Poole Golf Course (30th).
Tech highlighted for athletics and academics
The National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) rated Virginia Tech 40th among NCAA Division I universities and 82nd overall in its annual NCSA collegiate power rankings. These rankings take into account the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup ranking, the NCAA student-athlete graduation rate, and the U.S. News and World Report ranking.
The average of the three accounts for a school’s overall ranking by NCSA. Fewer than six percent of colleges and universities earned a spot among NCSA’s top 100 in 2011.
Tech finished 45th in the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup race, scoring points in the sports of golf, men’s tennis and men’s and women’s track and field – all four made the NCAA Championships. The Hokies finished 149th in the NCAA graduation rates (among schools at all levels – Division I, II and III), and they claimed 69th in the U.S. News and World Report ranking (again, at all levels). Tech’s scores averaged out to 87.67, which came out to 40th among Division I schools and 82nd overall.
Only Duke (No. 1), BC (11th), Wake Forest (16th), North Carolina (19th) and Virginia (25th) finished ahead of Tech among ACC schools.
