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.



Zabian Dowdell and his
teammates got off to a slow

start, then raced away from the Temple Owls.


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.