Tuesday, March 17, 2009 Print Edition

tuesday march 17, 2009 blacksburg, va.

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news ARREST MADE IN JUNE CAR CRASH Blacksburg Police have charged Zachary Grinnan, 21, with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The arrest is connected to a motor vehicle accident that claimed the life of a 16-year-old girl on June 28, 2008.

Grinnan allegedly supplied alcohol for Ayesha Wintersdorff.

She died later that night in a single-car crash on U.S. 460 in Blacksburg.

He is free on $1,000 unsecured bond, with a court date scheduled for June 12, 2009.

TECH TO TEST NOTIFICATION SYSTEM Virginia Tech will test its Emergency Notification System on Tuesday, March 17 at 9:45 a.m.

This time was selected in order to participate in the statewide tornado drill scheduled for the same time. Tornado Preparedness Day in Virginia is March 17.

sports TECH HOSTS DUQUESNE IN NIT OPENING ROUND The Hokies narrowly missed a bid to the NCAA Tournament, but will participate in the National Invitational Tournament for the second straight year. As a No. 2 seed, Tech will face visiting Duquesne on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the first round. The winner goes on to play the victor in the Baylor-Georgetown match-up.

With an overall record of 21-12, the Duke reached the finals of the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament, ultimately falling to the Temple Owls.

BASEBALL FACES VMI FOR TWOGAME SET Tech baseball plays a pair of games at English Field on back-to-back days against VMI, beginning Tuesday. The Hokies will try to rebound after losing twice to top-ranked North Carolina. Their encounter with the Keydets is part of a ninegame homestand. Both games will begin at 5:30 p.m.

tomorrow’s weather

VBI under investigation by state CALEB FLEMING

ct news editor The Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, owned and operated by Virginia Tech, is currently under investigation by the Division of State Internal Audit.

University spokesman Larry Hincker said last week that the university was unaware of the allegations and denied a direct relationship between the DSIA’s audit and the dismissal of a top administrator inside VBI. Executive Director Bruno Sobral stepped down from his position on Feb. 23 at the request of Tech President Charles Steger.

“Dr. Steger felt like it was too difficult for him to handle the management enterprises and … do research,” Hincker said. “The value that Bruno has to this university is that he is a world-class scientist.”

Hincker was unaware of why Sobral was asked to step down from his position with no notice, effective immediately.

“I can’t answer that,” Hincker said. “That’s

between Dr. Steger and Dr. Sobral.”

Sobral had served as the institute’s director for eight years.

State Internal Auditor John Spooner confirmed that VBI was being investigated but declined to comment on whether the focus was on VBI or Sobral.

“Virginia Tech’s internal auditing department is investigating VBI on our behalf, but I can’t say anything other than that,” Spooner said. “We expect the results of the audit to be returned back to us in early April.”

DSIA operates a state employee fraud, waste and abuse hotline that allows for state employees to anonymously report issues to a higher authority. Allegations presented to the hotline are then investigated by the DSIA or a partnering organization.

Sharon Kurek, director of internal audit at Tech, declined to comment on the investigation and said Hincker would be able to speak on the university’s role in the state audit.

Hincker said the only familiarity he had with the commonwealth’s audit was through what he

Rosenzweig to fill Town Council slot in interim

had read in newspapers.

“I don’t know what the Division of State Internal Audit is doing,” Hincker said. “It is not a normal process for them to confirm that a hotline call has come in. Maybe one of the reasons for that, though, is that so few of them are ever substantiated. I don’t know the content, who called it in, or about whom or what.”

In early February, Steger appointed Minnis Ridenour, a senior fellow for resource development, to conduct an evaluation of Sobral and other management and organizational issues inside VBI, according to a letter sent to VBI staff members.

“Minnis does a lot of special projects for the president because of his prior experience as the university’s chief operating officer,” Hincker said.

“President Steger contacted him quite some time ago to begin developing this process.”

VBI was the first university research center scheduled for evaluation by Ridenour’s process, still in development.

Hincker said Ridenour encountered concerns regarding the effectiveness of Sobral and

St. Patty’s Day Drinks

ZACH CRIZER

ct news reporter Virginia Tech research scientist Mike Rosenzweig began his temporary tenure as Blacksburg Town Council member on Friday.

Appointed unanimously by the other Blacksburg Town Council members, Rosenzweig accepted in hopes of maintaining Derek Myers’ presence in the town.

Myers, who died on February 23, was only months into his four-year term.

“I met with Derek Myers’ wife Rhoda on Friday,” Rosenzweig said. “I’d also like to serve his spirit in town council. There are people who elected him to town council. I’d like to represent his ideals as best as possible.”

Mayor Ron Rordam appointed council members Susan Anderson and Tom Sherman to research potential candidates.

Anderson said they were familiar with Rosenzweig and his work in Blacksburg.

“We were looking for someone who had been a longtime community member,” Anderson said. “Someone who seemed to be a community builder with some experience in town matters.”

Rosenzweig first came to Blacksburg as a Virginia Tech graduate student in 1986. Moving away briefly between 1993 and 1995, Rosenzweig returned and has been a resident ever since.

He is no stranger to the town government, as he currently ROSENZWEIG serves on several committees, including the Mayor’s Stormwater Management Task Force, the Museum Committee, the Town Gown Community Relations Committee and the Watershed Education Committee.

He is also active in the Bennett Hill-Progress neighborhood.

“He seemed to be a good fit,” Anderson said. “Many of us have worked with him in neighborhood activities.”

Rosenzweig is also the co-founder of SEEDS, a local non-profit educational group that allows youth to learn about ecology and cultural awareness.

Vice-Mayor Leslie Hager-Smith said Rosenzweig had many attributes suitable to the position.

“His commitments have not only been steady but various,” Hager-Smith said. “In addition to reaching out to children and holding his capacity on campus, he has been very active in his neighborhood.”

Hager-Smith said Rosenzweig’s age was a positive aspect to her. Rosenzweig will become the youngest member of the town council and the only member under the age of 50.

“He is in his 40s,” Hager-Smith said. “Nobody else on the council is in their 40s. It’s a lot of work. It takes a very special situation to deal with that commitment. His age was a definite plus.”

Rosenzweig said he is not looking to impose his own views on the town.

“Since I’m an appointed member, my main objective is to be a listener for the citizens,” Rosenzweig said.

This mentality did not come as a surprise to Hager-Smith.

“He has a mature temperament,” Hager-Smith said. “He is very measured, very calculated.”

The position was not open to applications. Instead, Anderson and Sherman proposed Rosenzweig’s appointment to the council, and he was chosen as the preferred appointee at last Tuesday’s meeting.

After spending several days in “careful consideration,” Rosenzweig accepted.

Rosenzweig will serve until an election is held for the position in November. He does not intend to run.

Planning commissioner Ben Crawford was Rosenzweig’s final competition for the seat.

Former town council member Paul Lancaster was also considered but withdrew his name from the running.

DANIEL LIN/SPPS

Jason Brauns, bar manager of TOTS, pours four of the seven liquors in the specially-themed “Green Rail.”

See page seven for a complete round-up of area bars’ creatively combined Irish beverage concoctions.

Mexican drug cartels cause Tech trip cancellation PHILIPP KOTLABA

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An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 106th year • issue 29

questioned his ability to manage a large-scale enterprise while trying to run his own research centers.

But Hincker also added that Steger’s decision to ask Sobral to step down was not the result of an evaluation by Ridenour.

“It was a result of the personal analysis of Dr. Steger and his own judgment,” Hincker said.

Sobral serves as a professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and is the director of two research groups within VBI. The groups are PathoSystems Biology Group and Cyberinfrastructure Group.

Paul Knox, former dean of the College of Architecture, is currently serving as the interim director of VBI while the university searches for a permanent replacement.

“Dr. Knox is a very seasoned, experienced administrator, former dean, and someone who Dr. Steger thought would be a good interim as they began the search for a new director,” Hincker said. “He was hired because we had a person in there who we knew could jump in and take the reigns immediately on an interim basis.”

ct news staff writer Escalating drug-related violence in Mexico between the government and wealthy drug cartels has prompted the State Department to single out the issue as one of the top threats to the United States in a recent report.

Mexican drug cartels “dominate the wholesale illicit drug market” in the U.S., according to the February text.

As a result, safety concerns have altered some Virginia Tech programs. After six years of annual summer trips with students to Mexico, Spanish proBIXLER Tech fessor Jacqueline Bixler was forced to cancel her plans for the 2009 trip, citing drug-related violence as the foremost reason.

Bixler’s trip used to take students to Xalapas, the capital city of Mexico’s

COURTESY OF JACQUELINE BIXLER

Students from last year’s trip to Mexico pose in Xalapas. This year’s trip to Mexico has been canceled because of drug cartels and violence. state of Veracruz, each year.

“My friends down there say, ‘It’s fine, don’t worry about it, everything’s, you know, fine. That’s just a bunch of hype,’” Bixler said. “I just think, ‘Well,

I think it’s enough.’ That’s a lot of responsibility to take.”

She made her final decision after she spoke with a student who had been studying abroad in Mexico last semes-

ter. The student had been advised by her program leader not to go out at night because of safety concerns.

“When she told me that, I thought, ‘There has to be something going on here,’” Bixler said.

“We know there, these issues, and others (leading trips to Mexico) have been canceling left and right,” said Matthew McMullen, program director for Education Abroad. “Now with the drug wars it’s obviously too dangerous in certain parts of Mexico.”

Bixler has been traveling on her own to Xalapa since 1973. In 2001, she initiated an exchange program between Tech and a local university, the Universidad Veracruzana. This summer would have been her ninth trip with students. None of the students who planned to go this year had applied formally or had paid any deposits for the trip by the time it was cancelled.

Still, McMullen added, Mexico is not inherently dangerous to visit, even now.

“They’re not targeting American

college students. It’s just like any big city. Unfortunately, there’s crime — especially right now,” said Jeremy Billetdeaux, associate program director.

The fear to speak out against drug violence is a major challenge in addressing the crisis, Bixler said.

“I think people are really afraid to go out and talk about this. There’s a reluctance in Mexico for journalists to even publish this kind of stuff. So the question is, how prevalent is it?”

In 2008 alone, drug cartels fighting over the lucrative trade routes to the United States claimed more than 6,000 deaths.

“There’s nowhere in the world where you have numbers that high,” said John Boyer, instructor of geography.

“The U.S. demand for drugs is excessive, it’s huge, it’s the biggest in the world. We’re the biggest consumer of illegal narcotics on the planet,” Boyer said. “A huge ton of illegal narcotics are based just south of our border.”

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see ABROAD, page two

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2 news

editor: caleb fleming email: nrvnews@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: tth 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.

march 17, 2009

Students promote agriculture on the Drillfield JON PFAEHLER

ct news staff writer Virginia Tech will celebrate its second National Agriculture Week between March 16 and March 20.

Agriculture and life sciences students will engage the campus in games, with prizes and giveaways in exchange for students’ quicktested agricultural knowledge and its significance in everyday life.

Created in 1973 to help promote American agriculture throughout the country, National Agriculture Week will be celebrated all over the United States from March 16 to March 20 this year. When asked about the impact agriculture has on his life, Kathi Conrad, an employee of the Agriculture Council of America said, “How does it not impact everyone’s lives? Every day somebody does something that is brought about

by American agriculture.”

Yet National Ag Week will be looking to make its first big splash on the Hokies’ campus during its second instantiation.

According to student organizers, in 2008 Ag Week was lightly promoted with fewer events than those planned for this year. This year, the Collegiate Young Farmers have taken steps to get the student body more involved.

Christy Huffman, a co-chairman of the Collegiate Young Farmers at Tech, said that the CYF has been cooking up ideas since last August, but seriously began planning advertisement and detailed work at the start of the spring semester.

“I hope that it can become a tradition for the college,” Huffman said. “In the long run, I hope it makes students at Virginia Tech more aware of the importance of agriculture and of the presence of agriculture on this campus.”

Today there will be a “Spring Fling,” which will involve

Olympic-style games that pertain to agriculture. This will take place in the Livestock Teaching Arena on Plantation Road, near Smith’s Landing.

On Thursday — in an attempt to capture all of Tech’s demographic, in and outside of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences — students can play games and learn while cutting the rug in a game of “Ag Twister” or by answering questions at open booths on the Drillfield.

The FM radio station Hot 100.7 will do a live broadcast during Thursday’s activities.

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences hopes to create plenty of opportunities for all students to participate in the agricultural community.

Stop by the booths of various organizations from the College of Agriculture on Thursday, March 19 between 9-3 on the Drillfield.

Zoey from 100.7 will broadcast live between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Planners say these events during Ag Week are not just a way to enjoy the Drillfield in between classes.

According to Zach Wakeman, an agriculture major who helped map out some of the activities, Ag Week will “hopefully be an eye-opener to a lot of people, and they will see how big of a role agriculture really plays in our lives, from the food we eat to the clothes we wear.”

According to the Agriculture Council of America, 41 percent of the United States’ total land area is farmland. Additionally, 22 million employees in farm-related jobs supply food and habitat for 75 percent of the nation’s wildlife.

editor: sara mitchell email: universitynews@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: mw 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Abroad: Gang activity is moving to US from page one

The National Drug Intelligence Center estimates Mexican and Colombian drug cartels generate up to $24.9 billion each year from the American market for drugs.

“From a business standpoint, they’re better at what they do than any government trying to stop them, and they have unlimited funds to do it,” Boyer said.

A “large share” of heroin and an estimated 90 percent of cocaine enters the United States from Mexico, according to the State Department.

“There are terror tactics involved now, where they’re decapitating.

They’re going around cutting off the heads of six or seven cops ... and throwing their heads in public dance halls,” Boyer added. “Heads were rolled in simply to scare the living shit out of the local population so that nobody will mess with them. This is terrorism.”

Thanks to the brutal violence, students would have had “to stay in their houses and not go out at night,” Bixler said. These kind of reports, and the added burden on the students, convinced her that cancelling her trip was the best choice.

“It doesn’t matter where you go, there’s always some inherent danger. The idea is, come prepared,” McMullen said. To prepare students for their trips, the Education Abroad programs require students to attend

Guadalajara Mexico City Xalapas

SARA SPANGLER/COLLEGIATE TIMES

a pre-departure lecture on what to expect and what to avoid. “We try to do our best to express that to our students.”

According to Boyer, the drug cartels have increasingly become an American problem. Obtaining a foothold in many American cities, the cartels are using street gangs as a conduit for smuggling their goods, he said.

Since 2007, U.S. authorities have arrested over 700 individuals in states as distant as California, Maryland and Minnesota, in an effort to crack down on this trend. Mexico received $27.8 million in counternarcotics assistance from the U.S. in the 2008 fiscal year.

“This is not a Mexican problem anymore. Americans need to wake up and realize that you’re part of

a bigger continent here, and this is a continent-wide issue. The criminal activity and the gang activity is moving into the U.S.,” Boyer said.

“Analysts are now saying that this drug cartel issue is the number two priority, after Al-Qaeda. The State Department says, ‘Yeah, that’s our biggest issue.’ And it amazes me, because so many Americans don’t know this.”

Economy changes spring break plans LINDSEY FRANK

mcclatchy-tribune Alli Parsons, a senior at University of Delaware, embarked on what one may consider the typical spring break trip as a college sophomore. Traveling to Acapulco, Mexico, with seven of her friends, she described numerous contests and beach activities by day, and bars and clubs by night. It was what Parsons called “one big party.”

There are many options for students hoping to go on a spring break trip during their college years. Some students, like Parsons, travel to Mexico,

while others choose to stay within the United States and travel to places such as Panama City, Fla. and South Padre, Texas. While all of these trips can be fun and lead to many memories, there is often the issue of cost lingering on college student’s minds. And with the suffering economy, can students still afford to go on that elaborate, allinclusive spring break trip they have heard so much about?

The answer is no, according to Joey Isaacson, a University of Colorado student, who went to Puerto Vallarta twice in high school but can no longer afford it. “I’d like to go back to Mexico

while in college, but I definitely can’t,” he said. “I just don’t have 700 bucks lying around.”

Students like Isaacson have adequate reasons for concern, but there are ways to work around the steep costs associated with spring break trips, and still have an enjoyable week off from school.

Spring break trips range in price, depending on package deals, locations, and length of stay. This year’s most popular spring break destinations through Student City, an organization designed to help students organize and promote their dream

spring break, are Acapulco, Cancun and the Bahamas, said Student City regional sales manager Anthony Chirichello.

Consider this scenario: You are booking a flight from the John F. Kennedy airport in New York, to go to Acapulco, Mexico. You plan to stay for seven nights and have a group of five people. You want to get a package deal, which may include items such as express entry into clubs, free cover, and an open bar. According to the Student City Web site, your trip would cost anywhere from approxi-

see BREAK, page three

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tuesday, march 17, 2009

Goodwill to open in Blacksburg location in 2009 KAITLYN GLEASON

New Goodwill Location

ct news staff writer

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Sunday: Noon – 5 p.m.

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In summer 2009, Goodwill will join the Blacksburg community with the addition of a new retail store located on 1413 North Main St. in the Patrick Henry Shopping Center.

The 8,470 square foot facility will serve as both a retail store and donation center offering a wide variety of donated clothing and household goods, as well as job opportunities.

“We are very excited to be opening our first store in Blacksburg,” said President and CEO Bruce Phillips in the Goodwill Industries press release.

“It will provide a great place to work, a place to recycle clothing and household items, and a wonderful low cost alternative to find great quality clothing and household items for the entire family.”

Goodwill’s new location in Blacksburg was demanded because of the negative effects of the economy.

“More and more people need our help from an employment standpoint because companies everywhere are laying off workers,” said Goodwill

SARA SPANGLER/COLLEGIATE TIMES

spokeswoman Kelly Sandridge. “Our retail stores provide employment opportunities for those who have been laid off due to the economy. The other side is that more people need our stores. People who have not used

An Attended Donation Center is now open in the Patrick Henry Shopping Center, until the actual store opens in the summer.

Goodwill as a means to shop, are now turning to us for that low-cost shopping alternative.”

Since the nation’s economic fall, Goodwill stores have experienced an 8 percent increase in revenue.

Sandridge said that the aim of Goodwill Industries goes beyond providing affordable retail goods. The non-profit company also assists members of the community with education, training and career opportunities for

the homeless, welfare dependent, as well as individuals with physical or mental disabilities.

Goodwill uses the money to provide the necessary training to help individuals get successfully back into the workforce.

“We have a mission of helping people and families in our community achieve a better life through work and independence. The way we support these career services is through the revenue generated from our retail services,” Sandridge said.

Last year, the donated goods operation of Goodwill Industry of the Valleys generated $22.2 million in revenue and provided more than 400 jobs throughout the Virginia area.

The revenue generated was able to reach over 10,000 people with career

service aid.

“The goal of the new location in Blacksburg is to service both college students and Blacksburg residents that aren’t able to make it to the Christiansburg location,” Sandridge said.

Because the Christiansburg Goodwill is the most established and successful retail location in the southwest Virginia area, despite its close proximity to the new location in Blacksburg, Goodwill does not anticipate any decline in its business.

Christiansburg Goodwill management declined comment.

An Attended Donation Center is currently open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m to 5 p.m and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday in the parking lot where the Blacksburg Goodwill will eventually reside. The community of Blacksburg is encouraged to recycle gently used clothing, household items, furniture, small appliances and computers of any brand and condition.

The Blacksburg Goodwill expects to hire 15 employees. Applications are available on the Goodwill Industries of the Valley’s Web site.

Break: In downturn, students scrounge for deals from page two

mately $1000 to almost $6000, a hefty price for anyone — especially college students.

With the decline of Student City spring breakers reaching about 15 percent this year, organizations are doing everything they can to keep students booking trips. Looking through the Web sites of popular spring break organizations, there is an obvious trend of new specials available to potential spring breakers. In fact, Student City even has a section for “hot deals,” which features incentives and discounts for those looking to go on spring break without breaking the bank.

According to Chirichello, this year Student City is offering new specials as an incentive. “Obviously, with the way times are these days, there has to be some kind of incentive,” Chirichello said. “Everyone takes a hit.”

Specials can range from a $50 discount, to free meals or drinks, to the “deal of the day” offer, where students who sign up that day receive a trip perk. An example is destination dol-

lars, which provide students up to $60 to spend at their spring break location.

Specials change from week-to-week, and can depend on variables such as how early students sign up for their spring break trips.

For those students still looking to go on a spring break trip, but concerned about the price, Chirichello suggests options for budgeting trips. “A lot of college kids can’t have their cake and eat it too,” he said. “They want to stay at the best hotel, all-inclusive and spend 600 bucks. You have to be able to budget it out.” Suggestions for budgeting trips include going for four or five nights, instead of seven, which can save $200 to $300. Another tip is to pay more up front to avoid paying as much upon arrival, or visa versa, Chirichello said.

“A lot of girls in my sorority have gone to Acapulco in the past and usually go back senior year. But this year most of us aren’t going back because it is so expensive,” said senior Towson University student Shayna Baddock.

“You have to put down a certain amount of money for the deposit and

people just don’t have the money, so they are trying to go other places that aren’t as expensive. We are all trying to find the best deals possible,” she continued.

Another way to decrease cost is to stay in the United States. By doing this, students can save money on airplane fares, especially if they can drive to their destination. Trips to Panama City, Fla., for instance, typically begin at about $759 per person for a fiveperson trip package through Student City. When booking through Student City, students travel to Panama City by bus instead of plane.

However, staying in the United States is not always less expensive.

Booking a five-person, seven- night trip from JKF to South Padre, Texas, for example, would cost about $1000 or more through Student City.

Students like Isaacson have decided to follow the advice of staying in the U.S. to cut back on costs. Isaacson is considering going skiing in Colorado during his one-week break from school, which would save lodging and transportation fees, since he already

lives in the area.

Other popular spring break locations within the U.S. borders include Las Vegas, Nev., San Diego, Calif., and the Outer Banks, N.C. Seven-night trips to Las Vegas, including flight and hotel costs, can be anywhere from about $500 to about $2000, according to Orbitz. Trips to San Diego, including flight and hotel costs, total anywhere from about $700 to about $2000 per person, according to Orbitz. Students travelling to the Outer Banks typically rent homes instead of staying in hotels, and most home rentals begin at about $1000 per week during spring break, according to ResortQuest’s Web site. These prices all vary depending on starting location, number of people, and hotel and flight choices.

Some colleges and universities, such as the University of Indiana, have programs that offer spring break trips at reduced prices. The Indiana University Outdoors Adventure program, for example, organizes trips all over the country. Trips include Kayaking in the Florida Everglades,

skiing, rock climbing, and stewardship in Mammoth, Cal., and mountain biking in Moab, Utah, according to senior adventure specialist Tyler Kivland. Prices for the trips range from $425 to $500 for students, and $475 to $550 for the public.

Another way to cut back on costs is to ditch the all-inclusive, cliche spring break entirely, and instead consider a do-good Alternative Spring Break.

Break Away, a national nonprofit organization, provides training and information to colleges and universities about quality alternative break programs. Alternative spring breakers travel to places such as Washington D.C., New York City, New Orleans, Boston and areas in Southern California, to help families in need.

The average cost of the trip last year was $272, and Break Away representatives are expecting 62,000 students to participate this year, said Break Away executive director Jill Piacitelli.

“These alternative spring breaks are really life changing,” Piacitelli said.

“They are very fun, but then you get a taste of what type of life others are

facing and you get to contribute to those solutions...Not only do [students] have a good time but they may change their careers or find a passion they didn’t know they have.”

Annie Kiefer, a Boston University student and past coordinator for its alternative spring break program, went to Palm Beach, Fla., on a spring break trip in 2007. While on the trip, she worked with a group of her peers to rebuild homes that had been damaged by the hurricanes that hit the region. Over the one week span, she and her team put new roofs on three houses.

“It was a very meaningful way to spend spring break,” Kiefer said.

“Any college student can hop on a plane to Mexico and hang out on a resort. This way you make a lot of new friends and have a meaningful way to spend your time... No one had ever done that type of work before so it was a great learning experience. These people had been living under a tarp for three years and we essentially gave them a new home.”

page 4

tuesday, march 17, 2009

After delays, Discovery headed to space station ROBERT BLOCK

the orlando sentinel CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — It was a long time coming, but space shuttle Discovery finally blasted its crew of seven into a cloudless Sunday evening sky — the first orbiter flight of 2009 to the international space station.

Its mission: to provide more electricity to the orbiting lab.

A month behind schedule, the mission has been delayed four times by fragile valves inside the shuttle’s propulsion system. Then a hydrogen gas leak scrubbed Discovery’s first launch attempt last Wednesday.

But Sunday there were no signs of leaking gas, no hardware issues. Even Florida’s fickle weather was perfect.

The shuttle thundered into a clear sky, trailing a plume of pale vapor that turned bright pink as it caught the last light of the setting sun.

The launch was made possible by NASA engineers who worked overtime Thursday, Friday and Saturday to fix the leak, giving astronauts a nearfull mission.

Delays did shorten the mission by a day to 13 days, and one of four spacewalks was dropped. That’s because Discovery needs to leave the space station to make room for a Russian Soyuz spacecraft bringing new residents to the complex.

Discovery’s crew, which includes two school teachers, should reach the international space station Tuesday.

They are commanded by Air Force Col. Lee Archambault. The crew are pilot Dominic “Tony” Antonelli, a Naval Cmdr., mission specialists, Steve Swanson, a computer engineer, John Phillips, a Navy Reserve Capt., Koichi Wakata, a veteran Japanese astronaut, and Joseph Acaba and Richard Arnold II, both teachers and first-time fliers.

They’re accompanying a 45-footlong, 31,000-pound truss segment, the last U.S.-made piece of major hardware for the space station and the final section of station’s “backbone” structure.

Connected to the truss is the last set of solar wings to complete the space station’s power system.

Once it was clear the unexplained gas leak had been fixed, preparations for the launch were smooth, but colorful, not least because a fruit bat had attached itself on the shuttle’s external tank before takeoff.

The bat clung to the backside of

RED HUBER/MCT

Shuttle Discovery blasts off from Kennedy Space Center on March 15.

Discovery’s tank, about a quarter to a third of the way from the bottom.

Its presence forced NASA to run an “’engineering analysis” on the bat — seriously — just to makes sure that the small winged critter did not represent a threat to shuttle on launch.

NASA officials said they expected it to fly away on its own when the engines began to rumble to life. They even saw it as a good omen: the last time a bat was attached to a shuttle was on STS 72 in 1996 and both the bat and the shuttle flew off safely. Coincidentally that flight was the first for Wakata, who is now headed to station for a stint as Japan’s first long duration astronaut.

But in a news conference later, Kennedy Space Center launch director Mike Leinbach suggested the bat did not survive its brush with Discovery.

In response to a reporter’s question, he said: “We are characterizing (the bat) as unexpected debris and he’s probably still debris somewhere.”

The mission has been dubbed “Full Power” — and that’s what the astronauts hope to give the space station.

Once Discovery reaches the station on Tuesday, the astronauts will start preparations to install the truss and solar panel.

The $300 million truss segment is the 11th piece of the station’s backbone, which will measure the length of an American football field when complete. The truss segment is nearly identical to its counterpart on the port side of the station, but includes some

modifications to hold spare parts and some sensors to measure wear and tear.

The two solar wings are made up of two sets of “blankets” which each hold 32,800 solar cells. They each span 115 feet in length and 38 feet across are now folded in boxes to a thickness of about 20 inches.

When unfurled in space like giant shower curtains, they will provide more power to help the station support larger crews of six and conduct more science research. The first six-person crews are scheduled to take up residency on the station in October this year.

But the job of unfurling the solar panels is not easy. Previous sets of solar panels have had problems like sections of the solar panels getting snags as they opened out to their full length, or they got stuck together and refused to unfurl.

“It’s something we take seriously because these two solar electricity blankets we’re going to deploy have been in the box, one for five years, and one for eight years,” said astronaut Phillips who will be operating the space station’s robotic arm to help spacewalkers Arnold and Swanson install the wings.

In addition to getting the wings up and working, the mission’s other objectives are to ferry a new part for the processor that turns urine into clean drinking water and to bring home U.S. astronaut Sandra Magnus after four months in space.

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opinions 5

editor: laurel colella email: opinionseditor@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: mw 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

march 17, 2009

EDITORIAL

Preventovercrowdingby not incarcerating those guiltyof minor offenses The opening of the Western Virginia regional jail in Roanoke County will relieve a heavy burden for the Montgomery county Jail which is currently at three times its recommended capacity. According to the Roanoke Times, the daily population of the jail was 180 in 2008 and 202 in 2007. Originally rated to hold only 60 inmates by the Department of Corrections, in 1989 the jail bunked as many beds as possible, creating 115 available beds. The number of inmates has far surpassed that however, forcing many to sleep on mats on the floor.

Consequently, within the past couple years the Montgomery County jail began paying other jails to hold some of its inmates.

Capt. Robert Hall, who oversees the jail, told the Roanoke Times that it costs $25 to $38 a day to rent a bed at another facility. Unfortunately, he says, it’s a necessity.

The new regional jail will start accepting inmates next week, first from the Roanoke County Jail, then Montgomery and Franklin counties. Given the history of overcrowding in our local jails, the building of this regional jail is a positive step in getting the population of inmates down to recommended capacities. Renting beds from other facilities for potentially $38 a day is not an effective use of taxpayer money, but given current laws and circumstances was the only real option.

Unfortunately the overcrowding problem in our local community is merely a microcosm of the bigger problem affecting our jail system across the country.

According to the New York Daily News, a report that came out in early 2008, names the United States as the world’s number one incarcerator. At the time, one out of every 100 adults was in jail or prison.

The Public Safety Performance Project, an

operating project of the Pew Center on the States released its landmark study titled, One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008, citing that the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for spending in higher education.

Not a very effective use of our money.

The study encourages states to curtail spending by placing fewer offenders convicted of lesser crimes behind bars. The fact of the matter is that there are a significant number of people currently incarcerated who probably do not need to be.

On March 2, 2009, the Project released its newest report, One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections, examining the “scale and cost of prison, jail, probation and parole in each of the 50 states, and provides a blueprint for states to cut both crime and spending by reallocating prison expenses to fund stronger supervision of the large number of offenders in the community.”

This report is interesting in that it encourages us to get to the root of the problem by using money to taking steps to prevent crime, rather than solely preparing for the consequences of it.

The new regional jail is a necessary addition to our community, given the overcrowding situation in many of the more local jails. It is not, however, a solution to our problems. We can keep building more and more jails to incarcerate more people, regardless of the severity of offenses, or we can look toward passing legislation that keeps the number of inmates at a reasonable level based on the severity of crime committed.

Technological advances are slowly taking over our lives Spring break was last week — it doesn’t feel long enough, you know? Too many books to catch up on reading, a handful of papers BEN to write, too many high school friends WOODY to visit (skipped regular the UVa kids) and columnist returning to the subservience of my parents’ house for a couple nights ruined my perception of time.

The first half of my week was spent in Tampa, Fla., at the University of South Florida. I have never resented Blacksburg so much as I sat by a pool on a Monday afternoon, people-watching as several USF students lugged their textbooks and tablet PCs to the pool between classes.

Oh my God, I love Virginia Tech and all, but, I mean, you know.

We had seven inches of snow the week before spring break. And I hate walking across the Drillfield in the middle of Hurricane Jack Frost every day.

But back to these tablet PCs. All afternoon I sat at the pool, puffing on a clove cigarette and texting my friends who were vacationing in North Carolina, completely ignoring my friends who were right next to me.

They were texting their boyfriends, roommates, younger brothers.

There’s nothing wrong with keeping in touch with your friends — it’s just that your strange rectangular tan line from your Blackberry doesn’t look so hot in the morning.

Then again, that sunburn you got when your drunken friend hit 80

percent of your back with sun block is equally appealing.

The fact of the matter is that we were on vacation. We drove nearly 800 miles through five different states to strand ourselves in the warm sun (it’s still technically winter and it was 81 degrees), and they just wanted to have contact with the outside world. I left my phone in the car for a day. I came back to 12 missed calls and 27 text messages.

Granted, whipping out the old camera function to capture the eye candy that graced your senses with her presence to send to your friend who thought it would be awesome to go to Toronto to freeze himself numb is the tastiest look-at-what-you-missed-out-on piece of schadenfreude.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting at the kitchen table in my friend’s apartment, typing away on this column, drinking a cup of Eight O’Clock Coffee, eating scrambled eggs and staring at my three friends.

They’re doing similar things — reading Cracked.com, stuffwhitepeoplelike.com, and anything else they can find to start conversation.

I can’t handle this. I don’t really understand why technology has become so ubiquitous insofar that conversation has been supplanted by Facebook posts.

Now, conversation has shifted to the ever-changing Facebook homepage.

My friend is sitting on her Crackberry, checking her Facebook profile … for the third time in 15 minutes. Why don’t these kids just use Twitter?

It’s absolutely hilarious to have my parents, professors and bosses insist that they keep up with the technologically vogue through the usage of Twitter. Do you know what Twitter is?

You’ve heard of it, probably. It’s trendy.

It’s supposed to replace Facebook.

The editorial board is composed of David Grant, David Harries, Laurel Colella.

Jenna Marson and Alexandra Kauffman.

All year, Seth Greenberg has been writing letters imploring our students to fill the Cassell and be loud for the basketball team. This letter is directed at certain members of the student body, and you know who you are.

You, the students who insist on disrespecting our National Anthem by yelling “Oooooh!” in the middle of it. And you, the person who almost got a technical foul called on the Hokies by throwing something onto the court.

And while we’re at it, let’s not forget the masses who shed a miser-

able light on our entire institution by making obscene chants that are perfectly audible on national television.

I am all for being as loud as possible and making the Cassell a nightmare for opposing teams, but the things I have seen from our students cross the line.

If you are going to come to basketball games to support the Hokies, that’s one thing.

If you are going to come to basketball games to taunt opposing players, harass opposing fans, and generally make a fool of yourself and of this university, then stay home and give your ticket to a real fan. You know who you are.

Ryan Schuyler Junior, sociology

Your letter could be here.

E-mail us at: opinionseditor@collegiatetimes.com

Collegiate Times Editorial Staff Editor in Chief David Grant Managing Editors David Harries, Sara Spangler Public Editor Cate Summers News Editors Caleb Fleming, Sara Mitchell News Reporters Gordon Block, Zach Crizer, Justin Graves, Kelsey Heiter, Riley Prendergast, T. Rees Shapiro News Staff Writers Debra Houchins, Phillipp Kotlaba, Gabe McVey, Will Thomas, Ryan Trapp Features Editor Bethany Buchanan Features Reporters Topher Forhecz, Teresa Tobat, Jonathan Yi Features Staff Writers Ryan Arnold, Mary Anne Carter, Drew Jackson, Tom Minogue, Alex Pettingell Opinions Editors Laurel Colella Sports Editors Thomas Emerick, Brian Wright Sports Reporters Joe Crandley, Justin Long, Ed Lupien, Melanie Wadden Sports Staff Writers Garrett Busic, Matt Collette, Lindsay Faulkner, Hattie Francis, Alex Jackson, Mike Littier Copy Editors Erin Corbey, Thandiwe Ogbonna, Kristen Walker, Michelle Rivera Layout Designers Go-Eun Choi, Velechia Hardnett, Kelly Harrigan, Rachel McGiboney, Mina Noorbakhsh, Josh Son Illustrator Mina Noorbakhsh Multimedia Editor Phillip Murillas Multimedia Producer Candice Chu Multimedia Reporters Kevin Anderson, Peter Velz Online Director Sam Eberspacher Collegiate Times Business Staff Business Manager Ryan McConnell College Media Solutions Staff Advertising Director Patrick Fitzgerald Asst Advertising Directors Tyler Ervin Jenna Given, Katelynn Reilly Ads Production Manager Anika Stickles Asst Production Manager Allison Bhatta Ads Production/Creation Breanna Benz, Jennifer DiMarco, Lisa Hoang, Rebecca Smeenk, Lindsay Smith, Lara Treadwell National Account Executive Account Executives Libbey Arner, Aaron Brock, Maggie Crosby, Brandon Collins, Oran Duncan, Judi Glass, Alex Iskounen, Kendall Kapetanakis, Marcello Sandoval, Amanda Sparks, Jennifer Vaughn Assistant Account Executives Carissa Nichols, Diane Revalski, Tyler Terhune Marketing Manager Sayali Shirgaonkar Office Manager Kaelynn Kurtz Student Publication Photo Staff Director of Photography Sally Bull Business Manager Paul Platz

Voice your opinion. Readers are encouraged to send letters and comments to the Collegiate Times.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Sportsmanship matters at Tech basketball games

Do you have a Twitter account? Are you interested in one? All you junior executives don’t count.

I figured you weren’t.

Are you a fan of the new Facebook layout? I can’t stand talking about this anymore. It bothered me immensely that my friends and I took a heavy vacation from the juvenile drama, cold weather and schoolwork and couldn’t leave their issues in Virginia.

And here we are in Blacksburg, once again, getting ready to dive right back into the tiresome and mundane crap we escaped. Or tried to escape from.

Don’t get me wrong — I’ve enjoyed myself to the fullest since I’ve been away from the gray skies of Blacksburg.

I just can’t understand why our social lives have become so dependent on our smartphones and our Facebook accounts. Since my freshman year at George Mason University, I have spent two separate weeks without a cell phone.

Aside from relying on my roommate’s alarm clock every morning, my social life remained intact. Dinner at Ciao Hall with my neighbors and “The Daily Show” with the romantic interest kept my thoughts together.

Last semester’s phone sabbatical was far trickier. It’s difficult to find someone to snag a meal with on campus when you’re without a phone, and you have to resort to being far more spontaneous.

It’s hard to figure out what people are doing when you can’t talk to them.

Just try being without a phone for a couple days. I dare you. Delete your Facebook page for a week. I’m sure you can do it.

Maybe once you’re not on Facebook every 10 minutes you can actually use the online databases without dragging your night on until midnight.

The Collegiate Times is an independent student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903

NATE BEELER/THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

We must protect the ideals on which this country was founded KEVIN GILLISPIE regular columnist This year’s election has been a devastating wake up call for the conservative movement. John McCain rode a tentative confidence out of the primaries, and his subsequent loss to Barack Obama left the GOP scrambling to reinvent itself.

The Republican National Convention replaced its leadership with Michael Steele. A man expected to put a fresh face on the GOP, but who instead seemed to spark a blogosphere battle about whom the “real” leader of the conservative movement is. Unification, solidarity, whatever word one wants to use to mean a team working toward a common goal, was not the end result.

But this “reinvention” is antithetical to what the word “conservatism” — the ideology around which the GOP claims to revolve — explicitly stands for. Conservatism is about protecting the ideals upon which the nation was founded. And not about hiring perception managers to fix public opinion.

(Not that I’m accusing the Republican party of such tactics, but a loss of identity in the public forum can lead to desperate measures. And neither party is without survival instincts.)

What the conservative movement needs are more people like AlfonZo Rachel — ‘Zo to his blog-o-buddies at Hotair.com — and Steven Crowder, former “babe magnet,” according to his Web site. If conservatism is to survive, it will need voices brimming with the raw candidness found throughout the vlogs these men post to YouTube.

The former (YouTube channel “machosauceproduction”) is an Air Force brat who was a “panty-huntin’ teenager” who experimented with psychotropic drugs. He is a man who speaks fondly of his great-grandmother, a former slave, who lived to 114 years of age — 112 years independently — who, as ‘Zo puts it, “was a woman who truly embraced freedom.”

Rachel is a man of great convictions who can articulate without hesitation, doubt or stammering for the best possible word any aspect of what he believes — nay, knows — to be true. Even Rush Limbaugh commented at his CPAC address that conservatives can speak off-the-cuff about their ideologies — drawing the comparison to Obama, who needs a teleprompter even at the briefest of speeches.

‘Zo speaks with passion about slavery throughout history and explains that no ethnicity, no race or people have not been involved with slavery at one point or another. He goes so far as to say that black people were practicing slavery and oppression against whites millennia before white people perpetrated it against blacks. Everyone can look back through their genetic history and find despicable behavior on the part of their ancestors. The point being is that it is how we, the modern, contemporary generations behave toward each other now that matters.

But this is only the tip of his iceberg of topics. He addresses abortion, environmentalism, gun control and the fundamental nature of our constitutional republic, to name a few.

His production value is minimalist in the utmost, and that adds to the raw charisma of his messages.

The latter (YouTube channel “StevenCrowder”) is a former child actor born in Detroit and raised in Canada. His vlogs become progressively better with each addition, both production-wise and in delivery, as he becomes comfortable with the media, thereby allowing his humor to flow more readily.

He addresses some of the same topics as ‘Zo — topics that inspire the most passion in conservatives — but his knowledge of the Canadian health care system is especially important. He sums up the Canadian health care plan as “don’t get sick.”

Sure, it’s simplified for comedic effect, but his description of a visit to a Canadian hospital gives one pause

concerning socialization, his hyperbole notwithstanding.

But isn’t that the purpose of the satirist: to boil off the excess and show us the absurdity behind, well, behind life?

Crowder makes an insightful and eloquent observation regarding PETA as an organization where “nobody’s against your pro-animal agenda, it’s that your message is ultimately anti-human.”

In his latest he takes on torture and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

His most inspired work yet. I don’t want to give away any of its juicy goodness so I will simply quote another of his eloquent insights, this time regarding Abu Ghraib: “The very fact that Abu Ghraib was considered such a travesty and so appalling to Americans proves that we hold a higher standard than our enemies.”

I know some of you will guffaw at my celebratory look at video bloggers as though I had just discovered the medium. No, the purpose here isn’t to evangelize about the miracle of the Internet, but celebrate new voices of clarity. New voices of reason.

These two vloggers exemplify the sensibility of what William F. Buckley Jr. was writing about when he penned the National Review’s mission statement.

Specifically, this passage: “The largest cultural menace in America is the conformity of the intellectual cliques which, in education as well as the arts, are out to impose upon the nation their modish fads and fallacies, and have nearly succeeded in doing so. In this cultural issue, we are, without reservations, on the side of excellence (rather than “newness”) and of honest intellectual combat (rather than conformity).” [Emphasis mine.]

Though the upper echelon of the Republican Party has set out to reinvent itself from pain of defeat, it is individuals such as AlfonZo Rachel and Steven Crowder who have a firm and untiring grip on the core values of American conservatism. And their easy vernacular speaks more forcefully than any consulting pundit the RNC may hire.

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6 features

editor: bethany buchanan email: features@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: w 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., f 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.

march 17, 2009

Explicit and violent, ‘Watchmen’ challenges film ratings’ value MICHAEL PHILLIPS

chicago tribune It’s the one point on which “Watchmen” audiences can agree: Director Zack Snyder’s slavishly faithful adaptation of the graphic novel is not best experienced in an auditorium filled with the cries of preteen children whose alleged adult guardians think it’s fine to bring their kids to any old R-rated film they themselves want to see, let alone this particular R-rated film.

“Watchmen” offers splatter-movie violence and dogs chewing on the severed leg MOVIE REVIEW of a victim of child molestation and the specter of sexual assault and — least offensively; 9 out of 10 child psychologists would surely agree — Dr. Manhattan’s cobalt genitalia.

Regarding that last one, the sight of a radioactive superman’s gents is bound to cause fewer psychic scars and nightmare-related trauma than any of “Watchmen’s” 10 most “coolest” nasty images (that’s how Snyder works as a director), including the sight of a man’s arms being sawed in half by a buzz-saw-wielding fellow prisoner.

I suspect some of these kids feel like prisoners themselves, stuck in a multiplex with their folks, cringing through “Watchmen” at age 6. Or worse: not cringing.

This bizarrely widespread notion that something like “Watchmen” would, in any respect, be OK for kids because, well, little Billy has already seen “Saw V” over at little Jimmy’s house on DVD, and who can police any of this stuff, really, and — stop.

Don’t be an idiot. It’s not for kids.

I say this as someone who made it his business as a kid to see movies a couple of years ahead of schedule,

without a parent or an adult guardian. Some were good: “The Long Goodbye,” “Chinatown,” “Harry and Tonto.” “Harry and Tonto” got an R rating. And “Billy Jack,” made three years earlier, didn’t; it was a mere PG. The Motion Picture Association of America made it easy to see the wrong things at the wrong age, then and now. “Billy Jack,” with its protracted rape sequence and gleeful, vengeful brutality cloaked in a message of peace and harmony, getting by with a PG?

WATCHMEN DIRECTED BY: Zack Snyder STARRING: Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Malin Akerman RATED: R PLOT: A team of ex-superheroes must band together after one of their own is murdered SHOWTIMES: 11:30 a.m., noon, 12: 30, 1:10, 3, 3:30, 4:10, 4:50, 6:20, 7, 7:50, 8:30, 9:50, and10:30 p.m. at Regal New River Valley Stadium 14 The ratings priorities in this country, skewing toward brainless leniency for violence and puritanical nervousness for nudity and language, continue to this day. My favorite recent example: The Irish film “Once” got an R for language. The notion of “Once” being confined to the same ratings classification as “Watchmen” boggles the mind. But then, I can’t understand parents who would rather their kids see an ax blade jammed into someone’s skull than hear some charming Irish characters deploy the occasional f-word, with that lovely brogue.

The controversy over “Watchmen”

and its various talking points — the splatter-movie violence, a superhero-on-superhero sexual assault, a separate, consensual tryst between Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II — has kicked up the most intense debate of the new movie year. Scan the 350plus comments under “Who Watches Who Walks Out of ‘Watchmen’?” at chicagotribune.com/talkingpictures, and you’ll see what I mean. Love it, hate it, in-between it, the book written by Alan Moore (whose name, conspicuously, can’t be found on the credits) and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, brings up questions about nearly everything.

Was the big-budget project guided into the marketplace under false advertising? Are some people taking their preteens to it because the superhero costumes and “X-Men”-style ensemble pose lead them to believe they’re in for a rollicking good time that has ended up, simply by chance, with an R rating?

If “Watchmen” is instructive in any way, it’s probably as a Rorschach test fitting, because Jackie Earle Haley’s Rorschach is one of its few vivid characters, along with Carla Gugino’s Silk Spectre.

Various contributors to the blog have noted, in the freaked-out-preteens department, that parents often let their children witness an act of brutality on screen, dozens of them, hundreds - but along comes a consensual sex scene, and it’s “Cover your eyes! I said cover your eyes, Melissa!”

Everyone draws their own line on these things, and I am certainly in for a few debates of my own, as our son grows up and — with luck — begins to see things on screen that he doesn’t instantly fold into his own playtime behavior, complete with startlingly realistic laser and rifle sound effects.

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tuesday, march 17, 2009

Blacksburg’s drink o’ the Irish?

SEE HOW OUR STAFF WRITER AND FRIENDS RATE SPECIAL ST. PATRICK’S DRINKS AROUND THE BURG . PHOTOS BY DANIEL LIN Despite having blue eyes and fair — strike that RYAN — “Casper” skin, my Irish enthusiARNOLD asm hardly extends features beyond the last bite staff writer of my ironically expensive marshmallow treasures in a bowl of Lucky Charms when I admire the pale green milk before pouring it down my gullet.

Or when replenishing my tissue supply, I might snag the vivid green two-ply.

This may seem like an Irish impulse, but I simply find it funny to color coordinate my nasal discharge with tissues. Forgive my candidness.

Reading that will undoubtedly shame my mother who cherishes her maiden name Kelly with four-leaf clover conviction. A natural blond, she has dyed her locks radish red for more than a decade. Her eyebrows might as well be rainbows; her pupils shimmering pots o’ gold.

“My father’s family came from Donegal and Roscommon,” she tells me.

Under the reins of my a n c e s t r a l

guilt, I figured I could pay pseudo-homage to my withered roots by drenching them with liquor.

While many of you were vomiting off the sides of swaying ships or stubbing your toes on skimboards last week, my roommates and I assumed the roles of perpetually parched bar vagrants here in Blacksburg.

Linh Kooc (her family is not, in fact, dyslexic) and Nathaniel “Tweety” Ball (he has no idea where his nickname originated) are both senior industrial design majors and seasoned legal consumers of alcohol.

On behalf of the Collegiate Times, I asked several local watering holes to conjure their most eccentric St. Patty’s Day beverages and courageously set them on a pedestal for our ranking and your holiday consumption.

We used a 1-100 scale to produce averages that yielded standard exam letter grades, although what each letter means isn’t exactly concrete. It’s something along these lines: An “F” would be like gargling your liver’s bile while an “A” is the delicious nectar of the heavens. To compliment our alphabetic designations, each judge has offered a flavorful synopsis for each drink to wet your appetite.

TOP OF THE STAIRS

TOTS manager Jason Brauns whips up ‘The Green Rail.’

TOTS was closed last week, but 11-year employee and current general manager Jason Brauns kindly opened the doors for our taste test.

The ambiance of an unoccupied TOTS is reminiscent of what could be a scholar’s yacht. The wooden walls are mature and the lighting is soft and warm; I half-expected to see a pale (well, dead) Ernest Hemingway pulling literature from library shelves and puffing on a pipe.

For protection, Brauns did wield a guard dog: a seven-week-old Boxer puppy named Maggie.

Clearly suffering from youthful ADHD, Maggie frantically roamed beneath our feet, resulting in sporadic yelps when our shifting stances nipped a paw.

Brauns eventually took her behind the bar to oversee his production of TOTS’ specialty beverage.

“The Green Rail” Ryan: It’s like the last few chews upon

THE GREEN RAIL INGREDIENTS all liquors on the rail blend of sodas and juices melon mixer for green color

The Verdict: Ba piece of watermelon Bubble Yum. The taste is distinct but subdued with hardly a sensible kick of liquor. Two of these could have you singing “O Danny Boy” at the top of your lungs; thereupon Brauns might give you the boot for being a terrible vocalist.

Linh: The Green Rail is much like the original rail in that its flavors are subtle and the several shots of liquor are well masked; however, the green version pleasantly surprises you with sweet and tangy melon undertones.

Tweety: If I want a quick kick, this drink is probably what I would get.

I rated it high because I couldn’t taste the alcohol, but I would just prefer disguising the alcohol with something that isn’t so fruity or sweet.

“Do you think you’ll ever do a Valentine’s Day Rail?” asked our photographer, Daniel Lin. “I should,” Brauns said through a chuckle.

PK’S Before Tweety arrived, we loitered in front of PK’s, but we didn’t face Main Street. Lost in a large window’s reflections, I was inadvertently staring at a family within. They had essentially stopped eating and returned my gaze with offended eyebrows. I did a 180degree spin, quickly.

I originally talked with enthusiastic PK’s manager Ed Darling. He asked bar manager Mike Hollett to host our visit.

Hollett whipped up three heavy shooters, but we decided his first was best.

“The Blarney Stoner” R: It’s like a high five between Mr. Columbia Coffee Juan Valdez and the

Nesquik Rabbit, which is only theoretically possible. Maybe that’s why I loved it.

L: I expected a typical creamy shooter.

Instead, it was a delightful treat for my taste buds. Brimming with vibrant sweet and creamy coffee flavors, the Blarney Stoner was enjoyable for someone who doesn’t even drink coffee.

T: I’m not an avid coffee drinker, and this drink was almost too much like that. The only time I picked up on the coffee flavor was when turning up the cup, though, and the long-lasting aftertaste was really good. I would prefer drinking this over a long period of time; not as a shooter.

If “The Blarney Stoner” isn’t for you, ask for a “Nutty Irishman” or an “Irish Candy.”

HOKIE HOUSE We stood in an idle circle — no one was behind the first floor bar. I leaned heel-to-toe for 60 seconds before Rocky jogging upstairs to see whether anyone actually worked there.

Alas, I spotted a bartender intently watching one of many television screens.

“I’m looking for Brian Palmer,” I said.

Apparently he was downstairs all along. The bartender disappeared behind a wall to contact Palmer via tin can phone, Morse code or quite possibly an intercom. I chose to imagine him descending an exceedingly narrow spiral staircase devoid of light, nursing a hunchback each step of the way. But, of course, HoHo is not a medieval castle.

Palmer, a six-year employee and current bar manager, greeted us jovially and got down to business. He had us toss back three shooters, but he was particularly enthusiastic about one.

“Ish’s Banana” Palmer explained that “Ish” is his nickname, and the innuendo clicked.

Nice.

“The ladies love it,” a female bartender, Tara, teased as she passed.

I looked askance at Palmer.

“She’s my girlfriend,” he said.

R: It’s like the Chiquita woman offered you a puree of fruits from her head basket. Only after a gulp do you realize she

THE LONDON UNDERGROUND

ISH’S BANANA

INGREDIENTS Van Gogh double espresso vodka Dark crème de cacao Half & half

Vodka Malibu rum Banana schnapps Peach schnapps Pineapple juice Sours

The Verdict: A-

The Verdict: B-

THE BLARNEY STONER

must have a The London Underground manager John Bissey tops off flask strapped the drink, ‘Irish Eyes,’ with mint garnish. to her thigh.

L: The only qualms I have with this drink is in its plethora of flavors. Banana and coconut are encountered bl arprimarily, but as you coni n g tinue sipping, an unsavory Alice In Chain’s tangy flavor is introduced.

“Angry Chair.”

Simplicity is key.

“Stomach hurts T: I liked the fact that I could taste and I don’t care,” the alcohol in this drink — I really Layne Staley defilike Malibu. I could pick antly sang above up on the banana, but it our heads. wasn’t an overpowering Staley must have taste. had superior digesIf “Ish’s Banana” isn’t for tion, though, for you (ha), ask for a “Green Tweety couldn’t finish Gatorade” or a “Strawberry Irish Eyes.

Vanilla Milkshake.”

R: When I say that the simple syrup pleasantly calmed the drink’s bite, some of you might think, “Yeah, just like Tylenol calms the pain of a shattered femur.” If you’re a fan, Irish Eyes Snap, snap, snap. That’s what I wanted is a solid sipper.

L: Whiskey, anyone? Phew. Personally, to do when I entered The London Underground, but not in the manner I’m not a whiskey drinker, but I did of a pretentious intellect; the place is enjoy how the minty nuances brought just cool. The attitude is relaxed and the out the natural sweetness.

T: This drink was made to sip and conversational volume modest.

Their six dart boards were all occu- enjoy over time. The mint leaf has a pied, and I smirked as I watched a player pleasant smell as you turn up the glass, so the first thing that hits your nose isn’t kiss his flight before a throw.

Manager John Bissey was the only the alcohol. The whiskey taste comes person behind the bar, and his custom- across very easily, but you can pick up ers were thirsty. He existed mostly as a the hint of sugar and how well it is workblur, not unlike a Sonic the Hedgehog ing with the whiskey. spin attack, although I highly doubt Winner: PK’s with “The Blarney Bissey has plans to assault his patrons.

With a few spare moments, Bissey Stoner” grabbed three glasses and carefully IRISH EYES crafted his drink. He gave an eloquent Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey description — the only bar that did, actually — of the drink’s minimalism Simple syrup (boiled water and brown symbolizing the determined “meat sugar) and potatoes” lifestyle of Irish generaMint garnish tions past.

“Irish Eyes” It’s worth noting here that Tweety The Verdict: C+ was very full from prior drinks. As he watched Bissey pour our beverages, Tweety’s eyes displayed an apprehension suitable for the shores of Normandy. He found it necessary to hype himself up by feeding the jukebox a dollar and

PKwanager Mike Hollett mixes “The Blarney Stoner.”

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8 sports

editor: thomas emerick, brian wright email: sportseditor@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: w 12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.; t 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

march 17, 2009

South regional preview: Carolina to recover, rebound First Round Upset: No. 12 Western Kentucky over No. 5 Illinois The traditional 12-5 upset seems to be looming in the South. Illinois has JUSTIN lost three of its last LONG four games, which does not bode sports well against a hot reporter Hilltopper squad.

Western Kentucky has won seven straight to close out the season in strong fashion. The guard play of the boys from the Sun Belt looks great on paper, having four guards that average over 12 points per game. Specifically, Illinois will have trouble containing Orlando Mendez-Valdez and A.J. Slaughter. The Illini will try to pound the ball inside to 6-foot-9 Mike Davis, who has 20 pounds on his 6-foot-9 counterpart, Jeremy Evans. The advantage down low clearly goes to Illinois, but Western Kentucky has proven to be a handful come NCAA Tournament time. And as for the non-believers in the strength of schedule of the Sun Belt, take a look back to non-conference play on Nov. 30

when the Hilltoppers beat the regular season and tournament champions of the Big East, the Louisville Cardinals.

Sleeper Team: Clemson Will an early exit at the hands of Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament and some added rest translate to an upset over Blake Griffin and Oklahoma? My vote for now is yes (but I’ll probably change my mind another 10 times before Thursday).

The Tigers are a very well balanced team with an inside post presence in Trevor Booker and do-it-all forward K.C. Rivers. Terrence Oglesby is also the kind of point guard that has worked his whole life for this time in the spotlight.

Count on him taking advantage of his time to shine with his ridiculous .396 three-point field goal percentage.

On paper, Clemson appears to be too deep for an Oklahoma team that has not seen this kind of a look and likes to slow the game down by running half-court sets. We will finally see just how tough Booker is, and Clemson’s full-court press will give the backcourt of Willie Warren and Austin Johnson all they can handle.

Impact Player: Ty Lawson Of all the possible injuries in the human body, it all comes down to a single toe. How healthy Ty Lawson’s is will undoubtedly have the greatest weight in the South region. With his average of 16.5 points and 6.5 assists comes speed that is unmatched by anyone in all college basketball. Anyone who watched the ACC Tournament saw that Wayne Ellington and Danny Green do not look nearly as spectacular without him. Hansbrough is a lock to get his 20 points and eight rebounds, but without Lawson, the Tar Heels look like a very beatable team. So the question becomes: Was Roy Williams putting all of his marbles in one bag by sitting Lawson in the ACC Tournament?

It’s become pretty clear that he has the larger prize in mind.

of what I think, Blake Griffin versus Tyler Hansbrough is the best potential match-up in this region. Coincidentally, they’re averaging 21.4 and 21.9 points per game, respectively. Blake Griffin is listed at a stocky 6-foot-10, 251 pounds.

Tyler Hansbrough is 6-foot-9, 250 pounds. Nearly identical. Although Hansbrough seems to have a lot more help surrounding him, watching these two big men post up against each other in the regional finals would be quite a sight. Their positioning skills and passing ability make them the clear-cut leaders of their teams. They both have excellent footwork on the low block and present the ability to get the other man in foul trouble quickly. It’s the Big 12’s hoss versus the 2008 ACC Conference Player of the Year, but will we ever get the joy of seeing it?

Best Potential Matchup: North Carolina-Oklahoma.

Obviously, I didn’t pick this to happen, thinking Clemson will upset the Sooners. However, since I picked it, it’s probably going to be wrong, since past March Madness brackets have taught me a little about my prediction ability — or lack thereof. Regardless

Winner: North Carolina This region is set up for UNC to be able to shift into cruise control until the regional final. During that time, Lawson should regain most health and Green will have found his stroke. Looking at the numbers, it’s really difficult to pick anyone else out of this region. North Carolina (28-4, 13-3 ACC) is averaging

SHANE KEYSER/MCT

Oklahoma forward Black Griffin (23) tries to push through an Oklahoma State defender during the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals on Thursday. over 90 points per game coming into the tournament. With all five starters averaging double-digit points per game, they have a lot of weapons on the floor at any given time. Their sheer speed and shooting ability will enable them to blow some teams out in the early rounds, giving them plenty of time to

rest their legs (and toes). To top it off, they have one of the greatest coaches in Roy Williams to prepare them. And does anyone remember what happened the last time UNC was bounced in the semifinal of the ACC Tournament?

That would be 2005, when the Tar Heels went all the way.

West regional preview: Don’t sleep on Memphis or Mizzou First Round Upset: No. 10 Maryland over No. 7 California Maryland slipped in to the NCAA tournament thanks to an upset over RYAN Wake Forest in the ACC tournaTRAPP ment and a close staff loss to eventual writer ACC Champion Duke. So, it’s flying under the radar without a lot of pressure or expectations. It also has the kind of big-game player in junior guard Greivis Vasquez, leading the team in points, assists and rebounds, who could carry this team through the tournament. Maryland doesn’t have a lot of height, which could pose a problem down the road, but California doesn’t have strong interior play either. Timing is everything when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. Teams playing their best

basketball at the season’s end can help carry momentum into the Big Dance, but Cal has struggled as of late losing four out of their last six. As long as Maryland can contain Bears’ shooter Jerome Randle, the Terps could pull off a first round upset in their 23rd trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Sleeper Team: Missouri It’s hard to call Missouri a sleeper team sitting at a No. 3 seed, but the Tigers come into March Madness with a lot of tenacity and nothing to lose. Missouri hasn’t reached a NCAA Tournament in six years and was picked to finish seventh in the Big 12 Conference. Ignoring critics, the Tigers put together a 28-6 season capped off by a Big 12 Tournament championship over Baylor. They love to pressure on defense and run the ball to establish a fast-paced, high-scoring tempo, leading the conference with an average of 81.1 points per game.

A potential second-round encounter

against Marquette could slow them down, but the absence of Golden Eagle guard Dominique James will likely give the Tigers the advantage to get past them. Connecticut has played sporadically since the loss of Jerome Dyson, and Missouri’s style of play matches up very well with Memphis; so the West is really up for grabs. A game against Missouri has been called “the shortest 40 minutes in basketball.”

The Tigers frantic style of play has the ability to trip up defenses and could carry Missouri very far.

Impact player: Hasheem Thabeet UConn brought home a number one seed despite the fact it has lost three of it’s last six games. The Huskies have struggled in absence of Jerome Dyson, the team’s junior guard who went down in February with a torn lateral meniscus that required seasonending surgery. In order to shoulder the team’s expectations, freshman center Hasheem Thabeet will have to step

up and carry the team throughout the tournament. The loss of Dyson takes away a large portion of the Huskies’ perimeter game, creating a more one-dimensional offense. It’s hard to see UConn and the 7-foot-3 Big East Player of the Year running into any trouble early on, but Thabeet’s ability to dominate the paint on both offense and defense will be crucial in the later rounds, as potential match-ups against Memphis, Purdue, Marquette or Missouri come to fruition. Both times the Huskies have won the national title have been when they’ve come out of the West region, but Thabeet will need to step up and carry them through a competitive bracket.

Best Potential Match-up: Marquette-Missouri The Missouri Tigers come streaking into the tournament, coming off a Big12 championship and as winners of five of their last seven, while Marquette lies on the opposite end of the spec-

trum. The Golden Eagles hobble into the Big Dance without guard Dominic James and after losing five of their last six, but it’s not all as bad as it sounds.

All five of those losses were against RPI Top-25 ranked teams, and guard Jerel McNeal has started to pick up the slack, taking 19 or more shots in four of his last six games. Both teams like to work the ball around the perimeter and take a lot of shots, so offense shouldn’t be an issue in this game. However, I think Missouri can take advantage of James’ absence and Marquette’s lack of depth to pull out a win over the Golden Eagles. A victory here could give Missouri significant momentum it could carry over into a potential match-up against the dangerous Memphis Tigers.

Winner: Memphis Despite being ranked number three nationally, Memphis failed to receive a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers are often

considered an overrated team, naysayers argue that the Conference USA is too easy of a league to play in and the Tigers 31-3 record isn’t an accurate representation of the team’s talent.

Regardless of the conference, this year’s edition is playing eerily similar basketball to last year’s team that made it all the way to the national championship game and is even shooting better from the free throw line. Riding the league’s longest winning streak of 25 games, head coach John Calipari continues to carry the “we don’t get no respect” attitude that provides Memphis with the motivation to tear up the brackets year after year. They may not surprise anyone like last season, but the Tigers are quick, long and play very strong defensively. Freshman Tyreke Evans is acting like Derrick Rose did at this time last year, and the Tigers’ ability to simply shut teams down on the defensive end has Memphis playing some of the best basketball in the country right now.

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editor: thomas emerick, brian wright email: sportseditor@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: w 12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.; t 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

BASEBALL FALLS TO TAR HEELS TWICE The Hokies’ baseball team dropped two games to No. 1 North Carolina this weekend in a rain-shortened series in Blacksburg.

Despite Tech having the lead in the first game against UNC (14-2, 4-1 ACC), the visiting Tar Heels stormed back to a 7-3 victory on Friday.

Junior outfielder Steve Bumbry hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning to put the Hokies (10-6, 1-4) on top.

Redshirt senior Rhett Ballard suffered his first loss of the season, allowing four runs and striking out five in six-and-one-third innings.

Inclement weather shortened the scheduled double-header on Sunday to just one game.

UNC defeated Tech 13-5. Redshirt freshman Buddy Sosnoskie and redshirt junior Steve Domecus both went 2-4 with one RBI. The game was close throughout but things got messy in the ninth inning when UNC tallied seven runs on the board. The Hokies struggled on defense again, committing three errors.

Only four of the seven runs scored in the ninth were earned.

Sophomore pitcher Justin Wright had to leave the game after four pitches because of a strained hamstring.

Redshirt freshman Marc Zecchino took over for three-and-two-thirds innings, allowing four runs off six hits and striking out three.

A bright spot for the Hokies was freshman pitcher Mathew Price.

Against a top-ranked opponent, Price pitched four solid innings allowing only two hits and one unearned run.

He struck out five.

The Hokies take the field again Tuesday and Wednesday at English Field against VMI. Both games with the Keydets are scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.

– Ray Nimmo

RAIN HALTS HOME OPENER, BUT SOFTBALL STAYS BUSY The Virginia Tech softball team’s home opening series against the North Carolina State Wolfpack was cancelled this weekend due to inclement weather and an unplayable field. The games would have also marked the beginning of Atlantic Coast Conference play for the Hokies. After Saturday’s contests were postponed, officials from both schools agreed on Sunday to cancel the entire series. As of now, the games are not to be made up.

Despite the weekend off, Tech still kept very busy during spring break.

Last weekend, the Hokies traveled to Clearwater, Fla., to take part in the USF Under Armour Invitational, where the team posted a record of 3-2. Tech also played last Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn., where they lost 5-4 to Lipscomb.

The Hokies return to action this Saturday when they host Georgia Tech at noon.

– Chad Mosesso

LACROSSE HITS ITS STRIDE WITH FOUR STRAIGHT Tech lacrosse (4-4, 1-1 ACC) is on a hot streak coming off its fourth straight victory, including the program’s first ACC win since joining the league in 2005.

Over spring break, the Hokies first hosted the George Washington Colonials (1-7).

Both senior Rachel Culp and sophomore standout Allie Emala led Tech with six and five goals, respectively, in what ultimately was a 20-10 victory at Thompson Field. The Hokies won the opening draw and controlled the game all the way through, which is something they have struggled with in the past. Tech even out-shot the Colonials by a margin of 41-27 on the afternoon.

Next, they traveled south to face the Davidson Wildcats (5-3). With things finally starting to fall into place, the Hokies trounced the ‘Cats by a final score of 20-5. Culp, who set a careerhigh with seven goals, once again led Virginia Tech. Also adding to the goal tally was Emala with four and Ryan Rotanz with three.

It has not only been the Hokie attack that has improved this season, but also the defense. Tech was able to hold the Wildcats to just 13 total shots, versus the Hokies’ 45, and senior goalie Kari Morrison was able to hold the opponents scoreless until the 13:48 mark in the second half.

In its third and final game over break, Tech hosted Boston College (5-2). Despite being down 6-1 early, the Hokies fought their way back to defeat the visiting Eagles in overtime, 16-14. Culp, who racked up six goals, netted the eventual game-winner 30 seconds into the extra session. With just 33 seconds left, Emala finished the scoring and sealed the victory with her goal.

The Hokies face highly-ranked ACC-foe Duke on Wednesday afternoon in Durham, N.C. – Melanie Wadden

DIVERS TAKE THE STAGE FOR TECH Tech sent six divers to Knoxville, Tenn., last week to compete in the 2009 NCAA Diving Zone B Qualifier.

Junior Mikey McDonald, sophomore Daniel Martin and freshman Trevor Michalak represented the H2Okie men, while sophomore Sarah Milton along with freshmen Cara Murnan and Natalie West competed for the women.

McDonald led the H2Okie squad with two fifth place finishes in both the 1-meter and 3-meter events, locking up a bid for him at the NCAA Championships later this week. The trip to the finals will be the second for McDonald of his three-year career with Tech, at which he will compete in the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform dive.

Not lost on the day was the performance of Martin, who posted a score of 268.65 on the 3-meter and finished in 35th place.

march 17, 2009

Leading the way for the women was Murnan, who had a stellar showing in her first visit to the qualifiers. She posted a score of 474.85, good enough for an eighth in the platform dive event.

In College Station, Texas, McDonald and the H2Okie women swimmers will take part in the NCAA Championships. Competition will start on Thursday when the swimmers hit the pool at 11 a.m.

– Ryan Trapp

TECH TRACK SUCCESS AT NCAAS Five Hokies garnered All-American honors as the Tech Track and Field teams completed their season at the NCAA Championships in College Station, Texas, on Friday and Saturday.

Junior Yavgeniy Olhovsky led the way with a second place finish in the men’s pole vault and his third All-American performance in three years.

Originally from Israel, Olhovsky was named NCAA Southeast Region Men’s Indoor Field Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association a day before the NCAA meet.

Olhovsky cleared 17-10.50 for his runner-up finish, earning the Hokie men eight of their 10.50 total points.

Sophomore Hunter Hall also placed in the event, finishing seventh and achieving All-American with a clearance of 17-02.75.

Junior Kristi Castlin took home her fourth All-American performance by finishing third overall in the women’s 60-meter hurdles. Castlin, who got all six of the Tech women’s overall points, ran 8.07 seconds in the finals.

Sophomore Marcel Lomnicky also held an All-American worthy eighth place finish in the weight throw in just his third competition of the season. Hailing from Nitra, Slovakia, Lomnicky joined the Hokies in January and recorded a career-best throw of 68-10.50 in the NCAAs. The distance was the fourth best ever for a Tech track member.

Rounding out the All-American credits for the Hokies was senior Natalie Sherbak, who finished her impressive career with a 10th place showing in the mile run. Her finals time was 4:41.40.

As a team, the Hokie women finished 35th, with Tennessee winning overall. The Tech men fared slightly better, winding up in 22nd with 10.50 points, 43.5 behind champion Oregon.

– Matt Collette

MEN’S TENNIS TROUBLED IN TEXAS In the Lone Star State, the No. 25 Tech men’s tennis team extended its win streak to three matches before falling to the No. 11 Baylor Bears on Sunday night.

The Hokies (9-3) opened up with the lead as they were victorious in doubles matches. Tech won two of three, thanks in part to the groups of Brandon Corace and Pedro Graber as well as Nicolas Delgado de Robles

NICK JEREMIAH/SPPS

Sophomore utility player Austin Wates hammers a pitch against No. 1 North Carolina on Sunday. Virginia Tech lost the game by a score of 13-5, as the Tar Heels took both contests in the rain-shortened series in Blacksburg. and Patrick Daciek.

However, they would quickly fall behind as Baylor’s Denes Lukas, ranked No. 8, defeated No. 59 Yoann Re 6-1, 6-0. It was the first loss for the Hokie junior all season. The Bears’ Attila Bucko also won in straight sets, defeating Tech’s Sebastien Jacques.

Baylor (6-1) clinched the win when No. 30 Jordan Rux knocked off Nicolas Delgado de Robles. They would ultimately sweep the Hokies in singles matches.

Tech fared far better two days earlier at Texas Christian (5-9). Re helped record the clinching points in both doubles and singles play as the Hokies won 4-3 over the No. 38ranked Horned Frogs. After splitting a pair of doubles matches, Re and Jacques upset TCU’s 14th-ranked group of Adrian Simon and Emanuel Brighiu by a count of 8-4.

Re then from behind scored a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 triumph over Slah Mbarek.

The Hokies host Georgia Tech on

Friday at 2 p.m.

– Brian Wright

WOMEN’S TENNIS RIDES THE GREEN WAVE, LOSES TO UVA Against No. 18 Virginia, the Hokies’ women’s tennis team was handily defeated 7-0 on Sunday afternoon.

The two clubs played several close doubles matches.

To open, the pairs of Yasmin Hamza and Abbey Walker lost to Virginia’s duo of Claire Barlett and Maggie Yahner by a score of 8-4. In addition, the Cavs (10-2, 3-0 ACC) clinched the doubles victory when Amanda Rales and Neela Vaez edged Inga Beermann and Martha Blakely 9-8 (3).

Tech (9-4, 1-2) was unable to take control in the singles matches, also.

Three Virginia players won in straight sets, while the tightest match proved to be Lindsey Hardenbergh’s win over Hokie freshman Blakely, 46, 7-6 (2), 1-0 (3).On Thursday, Tech — ranked No. 45 — was the team that tasted victory. Tulane (8-9) provided little difficulty for the Hokies, who won 6-1 over the Green Wave.

They won five of six singles matches.

Beermann won 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (2) over Anna Bartenstein, while Tech’s youngsters took care of the rest.

Blakely and Holly Johnson won in straight sets, while Courtney Rauscher and Shannon Betts edged each of their opponents. Two of the three doubles contests went the way of the Hokies. Brouwer and Johnson along with Hamza and Walker were on the winning end.The BurrowsBurleson Tennis Center will play host to Tech’s next match on Wednesday.

That will come against Richmond at 2 p.m.

– Brian Wright

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editor: thomas emerick, brian wright email: sportseditor@collegiatetimes.com phone: 540.231.9865 office hours: w 12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.; t 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

march 17, 2009

Beaten but unbowed, Hokies head to NIT THOMAS EMERICK sports editor

AT L A N TA — Virginia Tech’s close-but-no-cigar conference tourney run fell in fitting fashion.

The maroon and orange faithful are probably tired of hearing announcers say, “Man, these guys seem to get their hearts ripped

out every week.”

I won’t pile on, or go too far into how Tech’s Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament run ended the same way as 10 of its 14 losses did — excruciatingly close. Though, anyone associated with the Hokies holding their breath during the NCAA Championship selection show was wasting it.

Tech’s Big Dance chances bounced away after Tyler Hansbrough went “Temple of Doom” on them. Coach agrees.

“I was pretty much resigned to the thought that we had to beat North Carolina to get in,” Tech head coach Seth Greenberg said.

My survey of reporters at the Georgia Dome shortly after Tech’s 79-76 loss to No.1 North Carolina found that the Hokies’ had the merits of an NCAA tournament team, but that the Tech wasn’t even close to meeting the selection committee’s usual criteria.

On Saturday, I asked sports writer Nathan Warters of the Lynchburg News and Advance to rate Tech’s NCAA berth chances on a scale of 110. He answered: “Zero.”

He thinks the bad losses — which include an early season miss against Georgia (12-20) and a February falter to Virginia (10-18) — hurt them more than the big wins they barely missed in the past month.

The team struggled mightily in the 2008 portion of its schedule, losing four times and failing to grab a quality non-conference win. This all came without the services of forward J.T. Thompson, a vital source of physicality on both offense and defense.

Thompson underwent surgery for an inguinal hernia just before opening night and his return in January provided crucial versatility and toughness.

KYLE MAXEY/SPPS

KYLE MAXEY/SPPS

A.D. Vassallo walks off the court in disappointment after an Atlantic Coast Conference tournament loss that Malcolm Delaney flies up and over Danny Green of No. 1 North Carolina would eliminate the Hokies from an NCAA Championship Tournament selection. Tech finished the season 18-14. for two points. The Hokies fell in the final seconds by a score of 79-76.

“J.T.’s a big part of the team and we needed him from the start,” Tech guard Malcolm Delaney said. “Not having him was a big loss.”

The Hokies routing at Duke on Jan. 4 and a loss at Virginia – during forward Jeff Allen’s suspension — would serve as the only embarrassing blemishes from then on out. However, on paper it still reads as a 7-9 ACC record.

Justin McTeer of CBS Sports told me that if the committee were looking for the best 64 teams, Tech would be in, but that the committee looks at conference records to a fault and probably wouldn’t choose the Hokies.

ESPN.com college basketball writer Joe Lunardi — or “Mr. Bracketology” — didn’t even have Tech as one of his first four teams out, or next four out. The Hokies weren’t even on the

page.

A number of reporters characterized Tech’s play in the ACC’s as passing the “eye ball test” of a Big Dance team.

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski saw the Hokies with his own two eyes on Feb. 28 when the Blue Devils narrowly walked away from a game that came down to the final minutes at Cassell Coliseum.

He vouched emphatically for the Hokies’ tourney credibility after that game and lobbied again after his team’s ACC semifinals win over Maryland on Saturday.

“I love the Big Ten, but I can’t believe people are saying seven or eight teams and they’re not saying nine or 10 from our conference,” Krzyzewksi said.

“In (the ACC), count how many teams have been ranked in the top 10.”

“Don’t tell me what your conference or even your overall record is. Virginia Tech’s record goes right up against anyone from the major conferences. It just does,” he said.

The Big Ten received seven NCAA Tournament bids despite not having a single team ever earning the top ranking this season.

The Hokies played four games against clubs that were at some point ranked No. 1 in the nation. This includes their signature victory at undefeated Wake Forest on Jan. 21.

Duke received a No. 2 seed and the right to play its first two rounds in Greensboro, N.C., while Maryland took the ACC’s seventh and final NCAA bid.

Kent Brown, a reporter for WVUM Radio of the Miami Hurricanes,

mused that the one thing that Tech had over the other bubblers was quality road wins, citing that they also “beat a Miami team that (on Jan. 25) was a pretty good team.”

Tech punished the ’Canes further in the first round of the ACC’s to the tune of 65-47. Though, most had figured a win over UNC in the second round was the needed bullet on its resume.

The Hokies won only two of their final seven games, and it was wellestablished going into each of those five losses that just taking one of them would cancel out a 13- or 14-loss record.

“If you look at them, they’re clearly competitive enough to play in the tournament,” Brown said. “But they’ve also missed several opportunities.”

Tech now hosts the National

Invitation Tournament opening rounds for the second consecutive season. Duquesne comes to Cassell for a meeting on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

With the way Tech clobbered Miami, a No. 4 seed in the NIT, it looks as primed to go deep in the tourney as any.

Losing five of its last seven to the likes of North Carolina, Duke and Florida State — all teams with a legitimate chance at the Final Four in Detroit — may’ve proved the Hokies to not be Big Dance worthy, but they’re likely battle-tested enough for a run in March.

“We had a lot of things that we just couldn’t click every game,” Delaney said. “I think we got everything back healthy and everything back good so we can get some wins now.”

1 Pittsburgh 16 East Tenn State 8 Oklahoma State 9 Tennessee 5 Florida State 12 Wisconsin 4 Xavier 13 Portland State 6 UCLA 11 VCU 3 Villanova 14 American 7 Texas 10 Minnesota 2 Duke 15 Binghampton 1 North Carolina 16 Radford 8 LSU 9 Butler 5 Illinois 12 Western Kentucky 4 Gonzaga 13 Akron 6 Arizona State 11 Temple 3 Syracuse 14 Stephen F. Austin 7 Clemson 10 Michigan 2 Oklahoma 15 Morgan State

16 Al St/Murehead St 8 Ohio State

9 Siena 5 Utah

12 Arizona 4 Wake Forest

13 Cleveland State 6 West Virginia

11 Dayton 3 Kansas

14 N. Dakota State 7 Boston College

10 Southern California 2 Michigan State

15 Robert Morris 1 Connecticut

16 Chattanooga 8 BYU

9 Texas A & M 5 Purdue

12 Northern Iowa 4 Washington

13 Mississippi State 6 Marquette

11 Utah State 3 Missouri

14 Cornell 7 California

10 Maryland 2 Memphis

15 CS Northridge

tuesday march 17, 2009

1 Louisville

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