BLACKSBURG, VA.
They may be the sixth youngest team in the country, but the women's basketball players sure do get it.
They get head coach Debbie Ryan's philosophies. They get how to win. They get how to rebound and how to play as a team. And, of course, they understand the seriousness of the Commonwealth Challenge.
Sitting in the stands of the men's game Sunday evening, the girls became Dave Leitao's fourth assistant coach, calling out fouls and working the refs.
If the intensity of the Commonwealth Challenge was lost on the team before they arrived in Blacksburg, it did not take long for them to sense the electricity in the air.
With so many new faces on the team, and only two players on the roster from Virginia, the team had to see what all the fuss was about before it bought into the rivalry.
After Sunday's game, though, the team was ready to go right then and there.
"All of us, yesterday, we were ready to get out on the court," Lyndra Littles said after Monday night's 78-59 victory over the Hokies. "We had practice right after they played on the same court. [We were like] let's go, let's get this on."
The women's game itself was also representative of the rivalry. The hard-fought contest saw very physical play and even became a bit chippy at times. Rebounds were fiercely contested, and some of the piles created from loose ball scrambles were more reminiscent of those seen at adjacent Lane Stadium.
And despite coming into a building where the Hokies have been nearly untouchable in recent seasons, Virginia bullied and out-gunned Tech all night long.
The Cavaliers got the motor running early, shooting just over 60 percent in the first half while holding the home squad to a shade under 35 percent shooting.
Although Virginia Tech made a few nice stops on defense and seemed able to contain the Cavaliers in the half-court, the Hokies had no answer to Virginia's incessant fast-break.
A good barometer for how well a young team is playing is how often you say to yourself "Wow, they're only freshmen!" or, "Wow, she's only a sophomore!" If you never find yourself thinking that, it probably means that they're playing about as well as the seventh-grade YMCA team I help coach. (Games are Saturday morning. It's free basketball, and it's wildly entertaining.) But when you have to continuously remind yourself how young the players are, it means that, as the great Bill Pidto says, "they're doing things we didn't think they could do!"
Such is the case with Virginia.
Watching Sharnee Zoll run the break with absolute confidence and control makes it easy to forget the All-American candidate is only a sophomore.
Seeing Lyndra Littles assert herself down low en route to a double-double makes one wonder what kind of havoc she must have wreaked last year in high school.
Takisha Granberry came off the bench for the first time all season and squashed two Tech runs with clutch three-pointers in the second half.
The road to the postseason may be just beginning, but Monday night Virginia gave the rest of the ACC fair warning as to just how dangerous it will be down the stretch.
Running the break or grinding it out in the half-court, the young Cavaliers are soaking up everything they encounter this season. Confident and composed, it is possible that Ryan's squad can turn a potential rebuilding year into a winning season.
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