2011-12 Basketball Schedule Released

We interrupt everybody's excitement about being 10 days away from Hokie football for a little roundball news...

The ACC announced its' 2011-2012 basketball slate this afternoon, culminating with the ACC Tournament, this year held at Phillips Arena in Atlanta from March 8-11. The Hokies have 32 games on the docket, including a potential 24 televised contests, 17 of which could end up on one of the ESPN Family of Networks. Here's some quick hits about the schedule:

• Preseason NIT
• The Hokies will play a maximum of 16 games outside the ACC, highlighted by the NIT Season Tip-Off. Tech's previously-announced pod of Monmouth, Florida International, and George Mason will venture to Blacksburg on November 14 for a doubleheader in Cassell Coliseum. The winner of the two games will meet the next day for a spot in the Semifinals, held at Madison Square Garden the following week. Syracuse, Oklahoma State, and Stanford are the other hosts for the tournament.
• Out of Conference Strength
• In addition to the Preseason NIT, the Hokies will host Kansas State on December 4 (the day after the ACC Football Championship) and BYU January 25 in the premier out-of-conference games. The KSU game will be aired on ESPNU while the battle against the Jimmer-less Cougars will be shown on ESPN3.

  Tech will travel to Minnesota on November 30 as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and will also tangle with Rhode Island (December 7) and Oklahoma State (December 31) on the road.

• ACC
• Tech's 16-game ACC slate starts with a trip to Wake Forest on Saturday, January 7.
• The Hokies face Florida State, Boston College, UVA, Duke, Clemson twice this year. Tech will travel to Wake Forest, Miami, and Maryland without return visits, while hosting North Carolina, Georgia Tech, and NC State without venturing to those schools.
• For the second straight year, FSU visits Blacksburg while students are on vacation, this time on Tuesday, January 10.
• Tech will have to play two conference games in three days twice this season, both on a Thursday/Saturday combination. The first is back-to-back home games with Duke and Clemson on February 2 and 4, respectively, while the second features a 7pm game at Florida State on February 16 and a 3pm tip on the 18th at home against Georgia Tech. In addition, the Hokies will play four games from January 19-28, with bouts vs North Carolina (1/19), at UVA (1/22), vs BYU (1/25), and at Maryland (1/28). Insert Greenberg rant here...
• UVA will play at Cassell on February 21 at 9pm.
• The Hokies will play back-to-back road games just once in conference play, traveling to Duke February 25 and Clemson on March 1.
• Senior Night will be March 4 against NC State.

There is still a lot to be decided about this team, mainly because of the talent loss and the questions around the performance of the incoming freshman class. Tech could be facing a top 25 team in George Mason just three games into the season, which doesn't provide a ton of time to prepare. There are some quality opponents on this year's out-of-conference schedule, that with a couple wins, could push VT pass the threshold that everyone already knows about.

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below...