Indeed, this post is almost as thick and juicy—at least in terms of word count—as one of the delicious bison burgers served at Rivermill, a fine bar and restaurant here in downtown Blacksburg. Check it out next time you’re in town. In the meantime, here’s some stuff about sports ...

*

HOOPS ROSTER NEWS

Not sure how much of this will make tomorrow’s print edition, so we’ll go ahead and include the full version here ...

When the season starts, Virginia Tech’s men’s basketball team may have one of the two freshmen who spent the summer working on their academics.

J.T. Thompson, a 6-6, 210-pound forward, has been admitted to school but is waiting to be cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse, coach Seth Greenberg said. Thompson has 14 days to practice with the team while waiting.

The Hokies began practicing yesterday for three exhibition games they will play Sept. 1-2 in Windsor, Ontario. Thompson will participate in those games if he is cleared, Greenberg said.

Dorenzo Hudson, a 6-4, 200-pound guard, will join the team in December after the last day of fall semester final exams, Greenberg said.

“Dorenzo has taken care of everything he needed to take care of academically,” Greenberg said. “Just the time frame in which he was able to get everything done did not meet the university’s timeline [for fall admission].”

Thompson and Hudson, who are cousins, played together at Forest Hills High in Marshville, N.C., near Charlotte.

Thompson spent last season at Hope Christian Academy in Kings Mountain, N.C., where he repeated his junior year. He planned to attend Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham this season.

But after the NCAA created a new rule that limits the number of credits players can earn at prep schools such as Hargrave, Thompson completed the necessary course work this summer to enroll at Tech.

Hudson spent last year at Hargrave after spending three at Forest Hills.

ITEM: The Tech football team’s third and final full scrimmage of the preseason, on Friday, will be open to the public. It was originally scheduled to be closed. The team will arrive at Lane Stadium at 4:15 p.m., with the scrimmage running from 4:45-6:15. Gates open at 4. In a press release, Tech coach Frank Beamer said he’s opening the scrimmage because he wants to replicate a spring game atmosphere as much as possible—especially to help test his kickers. Tech’s spring game was cancelled after the April 16 shootings on campus.

*

HOOPS PRACTICE THOUGHTS

Lots of new faces out there as Seth Greenberg’s gang convened for its first official practice today. The Hokies will practice nine times before playing three exhibition games Sept. 1-2 in Windsor, Ontario—against the Windsor All-Stars, the London (Ont.) All-Stars and the University of Windsor. Methinks The Powers That Be will not be burning the cash to send one of our scribes.

The practice time and scrimmages are valuable for the Hokies, who have six freshmen among their 11 scholarship players—and that does not count Hudson, whose situation is detailed above. Was hoping to chat with some of the freshmen today, but Greenberg put them off-limits to the media.

“This gives us a chance to get them all together and get a better feel for who we are,” Greenberg said. “We can do skill instruction in the preseason [when not playing exhibition games such as the Canada trip], but we can’t do team concepts. This enables us to do that. We’re not going to get all the answers here. We’re going to try to put in our baseline defense. We’re going to try to emphasize certain things offensively.”

Quick aside: Sports information director Bill Dyer noted that teams are allowed to play exhibition games in other countries once every four years. The Bahamas hosts similar games to the ones Tech will play in Canada.

In watching the first 20 minutes or so of practice today—which is all we media mongrels were allowed to watch—I jotted down a couple things in my notebook: “Allen—huge. Thorns—tiny.” Allen is Jeff Allen, a 6-7, 220-pound freshman forward who looks physically ready to play now. Thorns is Hank Thorns, a 5-9, 175-pound freshman point guard who will start this season because Nigel Munson decided to transfer.

Thorns is the team’s shortest player by three inches. (Munson was listed at 6 feet.) Thorns, from Las Vegas, was lightly recruited, so some cynics—and fans of cinematic masterpiece ”Kingpin”—might say that Tech’s backcourt is Munsoned out in the middle of nowhere. Don’t count Greenberg among those cynics, though I’m not sure what he thinks of “Kingpin.” He’s said multiple times that he likes Thorns, but he knows that freshmen point guards often experience growing pains—especially in the ACC.

Washington Post Lord of Lethargy Adam Kilgore and I got into a fist fight while debating how Tech’s starting lineup might look this season (OK, maybe I’m trafficking in hyperbole just a tad). But after talking it out and mixing in a couple open-hand slaps, here’s how we think the lineup might look ...

PG Hank Thorns—freshman
SG Malcolm Delaney—freshman
F Deron Washington—started 32 of 34 games last season
F A.D. Vassallo—started 11 of 34
C Lewis Witcher—started 20 of 30

Post man Cheick Diakite should be the sixth man, and Allen also figures to get some decent time. Then again, this is based off nothing other than shoddy guesswork and the fact that I was able to get Kilgore in the Figure Four while arguing about Delaney’s role.

Finally, when the Hokies broke huddle for the first time today, they shouted “trust!” The word also appears in bold, capital letters on their T-shirts. With the influx of youth, they’ll need plenty of it this season.