Duke

The Hokies don't begin spring practice until March 28, but other teams on their schedule have been pitching around the oblong. Here's a look at their opponents that are already popping pads.

Boston College

Start: Feb. 18
Game: March 31

Montel Harris re-aggravated his left knee injury after BC's first spring practice. He's being held out for the rest of spring, a move that seems more precautionary than anything.

The Eagles have a brand new offensive coaching staff, so getting the new system installed is the highest priority.

Who: Virginia Tech Hokies (12-9, 1-5 ACC) vs Duke Blue Devilss (18-3, 5-1 ACC)

When: Thursday, February 2 @ 7:00 p.m.

TV: ESPN (Mike Patrick, Len Elmore, Jeannine Edwards)

Where: Cassell Coliseum (9.847), Blacksburg, VA

Thanks to some technical difficulties on my end, my previously-written Duke preview disappeared last night. So, in lieu of a typical preview for this game, I'm using this space as a place for us fans to gather and talk about this team. After this weekend, we'll be halfway through the ACC slate, and Tech could be 3-5 and on the upswing or sadly, as bad as 1-7 and talking about whether the NIT is even a possibility at this point.

This is a defining weekend for our basketball team. And it all starts with the team that we earned our defining moment against last year. Our guys came out and showed just how well they could be if everything went right. Duke provided us with what is possibly the best day in the history of Virginia Tech basketball. Sure, it's a bit different this year with College Gameday not being in town, but this still could be a shining moment against an otherwise bleak backdrop.

I'm going to play the optimist card here and say that the guys are just beat up, and that's why Saturday's game was so ugly and flat.

I will give credit to the defense, though. Duke isn't exactly Georgia Tech or Clemson, but they mostly did a fine job.

Overall, I thought the guys played well here and there. Some of the third down calls blew my mind. Are we not trying to keep drives alive?

The few extra days of rest couldn't be coming at a better time. Everyone better buckle up for next Thursday...

I'll be honest, I had to watch this game in parts, and I had a better time trying to figure out why Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries filed for divorce.

Note: My game feed dropped out between Martin's touchdown and Whitley's personal foul.

1. Antone Exum - Quiet most of the afternoon, except when he absolutely leveled one of the Duke receivers on the sideline. It should be noted that I saw him blanketing his assignment multiple times.

2. Josh Oglesby - Who would have thought his touchdown would be the game winner? He knows how to run tough.

3. Logan Thomas - Well, he certainly threw a lot of interceptions. I thought he was actually OK otherwise, but the first pick was just brutal. These last few games are a good time to start giving him more carries, right? By the way, very nice tackle on his first pick.

Let's start by getting all the pleasantries out of the way. We won. A tick on the left side of the column is all that matters. Boykin and Coale had another stellar game. We're going to reminisce about this duo at tailgates for a long time to come. Anytime we recruit another little known two-star receiver you better believe people are going to say, "kid could be another Coale."

After every game I realize how important Cris Hill is to this team. I give a lot of well deserved credit to Kyle Fuller for being able to step in and play Whip/Nickel, but without Hill filling in for him strongly at corner that'd never be possible. He had another 6 tackles and held his ground all afternoon in coverage.

If that game itself was the trick, then David Wilson was the treat. YEAH BAD HALLOWEEN PUNS FOR EVERYONE. Believe me there are runs when I'm screaming for him just to take the couple of yards that are there, instead of shooting for the moon. But afterwords when I take a look at his entire body of work I appreciate his aggressive and ambitious running style and the numbers and points he puts up. Also, credit to Josh O for doing work and putting up six in relief of Wilson. That was a tremendous cutback on his 31-yard run.