Saturday, February 17, 2018

Hokies Throttle Jackets

Attended today's GT/VT game with Reid and Andrew.
We got there nice and early, and had great seats thanks to George,
the owner of Taqueria Del Sol.
Thanks to our close proximity I snapped more photos than usual. Hokie Chris Clarke (#15) wore some interesting sneakers - looked like volleyball shoes. Note the ref with his hand on the box on his belt. In college the refs have mics so they can communicate with each other across the court
Our seats were great for sneaker spying.
For some reason Justin Bibbs (#10) was rocking pink sneaks.
Dude to his right in the suit wore black Huaraches.
Before the game Reid predicted a 18-20 point loss.
Georgia Tech started out strong, matching threes with Virginia Tech
before falling behind by as many as 35 points. 
Before the game started I noticed a Hokie fan in a snappy cap just one section over. Looked just like former Hokie QB and recently retired Phoenix Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians, and indeed it was. Fun fact: at a school that boasted standout dual threat QB's Michael Vick and Tyrod Taylor, Arians still holds the single season school record for most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback.
The game pitted the Tift County Jackson brothers:
senior guard Tadric for the Jackets and freshman Tyrie for the Hokies. 
Tadric started hot and reeled off three straight three-pointers.
Tyrie came off the bench to pester big brother. 
The Jackson family was well-represented (some twenty strong),
sitting to our immediate left.
Three or four generations of mothers and daughters
wearing t-shirts of the two favorite sons.
Coach Arians (far left) wasn't impressed. 
Not sure if these Jackson brothers also sing.
Lots of sponsors and signs: Delta, Sprint, Coke - and Libman.
Not too much defense from the Jackets today.
Thought it would be a good day to break out my Grizz Gaming tee,
but didn't. Andrew did, and Reid wore his Grizzly's jacket.
I wore my Louie Giglio starter kit.
Clarke (below) preferred the foul shot spin move.
The Hokie fans wore their colors, like this dude in the halftime pizza line.
Near the end of the game Hokie head coach Buzz Williams shared a laugh with Clarke. Before the game ended for some reason Buzz took off his tie.
The Jackets did have one second highlight: a Hokie breakaway was thwarted with a Jacket rejection.
I got a close up of Chris Clarke's volleyball sneakers
when he stood right in front of me.
Virginia Tech came into the game on the bubble for the NCAA tournament. Coach Williams played every player, finally stepping off the gas late in the game. The Jackets hit a three with 2.5 seconds remaining to make Reid's pre-game 20 point prediction come true.
Tech's retired numbers. Waiting in line before the gates opened,
former Tech great Roger Kaiser was right in front of us.
He still looked like he was in great shape.
When Reid asked if I wanted to go to the game I checked the schedule.
Sure enough it was a bobblehead game. Only one thousand were given out, and we were early enough to get ours: Imam Shumpert.

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