I love your article with one tiny exception. If you think the women's basketball program is showing promise, you haven't been to a game lately or following events. Look who their wins are against. The program is in disarray. A coach who misled her fans, over-hyped her recruiting classes, and was a far better self promoter than coach, is gone. It will take another quality hire to get that "ship righted again" too.

Shank was the coach I wanted for head coach when Steve Logan was hired. roger

I truly believe Shank is the 'not so hidden gem' on this staff ...

Al, always enjoy your thoughts but especially this article. Mirror what Pirate Al states about having Shank back. Nice to have in depth comments from Shank. Good job. Deva Reece

Great read. Thrilled to have Shank back!!

A great win! I had tix but could not attend at the last minute. It looked like a LOT of fun! We look forward to being at our next home game. GO PIRATES!

Really? Sadly you're right as the fans did seem to enjoy each other but to say the AD is not well liked is just like Trump saying Mexico would pay for the wall..LOL Fake news! Hokie fans love their AD!! I'm sure a few don't but their is a lot of stupidity out there! BTW, we're you planning to travel to the game this year? You think ECU at minimum would have been better served by traveling to VT, and practicing there on their fields or indoor facility if they could NOT have played, instead of flying so early to Florida? Especially in the wake of the hurricane missing the Blacksburg area. ECU was suppose to wait til Wednesday and agreed! But whoever jumped the gun and did not wait. OK who knows who really made that questionable call.why did they NOT play the makeup with VT instead of the better NC State team? Sadly someone screwed up at ECU and they're not even taking the responsibility of an irrational response to a long time friend, one of the ONLY P5 schools willing to partner with them! Makes no sense!! Screw me once shame on ECU but screw me twice shame on VT!! Yes it IS sad for both fan bases but reporters writing a one sided biased article only makes the breakup worse. If it's TRULY a win-win for ECU, why all the hard feelings and misinformation being spread? Move on! Best of luck to both programs! If you can't admit it was a stale relationship then you're just butt hurt. It should have been cut some anyway as both fan bases prefer different opportunities for playing other CFB teams! Now both have their chance but they should agree to play occasionally! One side needs to step up! The question is which one will?

Amen! But don't confuse this low,rated reporter with facts!! Reporters like him have given the profession a bad name Sadly used daily by the lotus! ECU could have made it lright if NOT for scheduling the makeup game with NC STATE which was as bad a decision as their others. NC State was a better team and an instate team. My take on that is they wanted to lose to a instate team to put a stamp on firing their HC, who had NO say in the makeup game. He allegedly said he'd preferred to stick with VT. Who wouldn't have this year? Well whoever was.makimg decisions down there needs some extra education on.how to deal with friends! No doubt VT was the real loser in this long term relationship as they could only lose! If they won, they're suppose to but a loss was very tough. I don't get ECU'S handling nor their response to VT dropping the home games with a lesser rated program. But.now ECU can get their in/state university friends to play them. I'd think they could fill it with 1 of the 4 North Carolina schools each year on a rotating basis. Sounds like a win win for ECU. Good luck.

Sad you feel that way. We've always enjoyed the comraderie we've had with VT and were the first team to play you guys after the mass shooting at VT and provided you with $100k check. We hurt for you guys, as did much of the nation. Hate to see it come to this. Your AD sounds like the one we just got rid of here at ECU. From what I've heard from some VT faithful, he's not well-liked. So long VT!

Good riddance to ECU. Happy to have them off the VT schedule for good.

This article is littered with false information. Wheres the info about why the game was cancelled? ECU agreed to wait until Wednesday to call the game and then posted in theirnofficial twitter hours later that they were headed to Florida. VT was scrambling to find safe haven for you and your players to be out of harms way including flights with our charter to Florida. You decide not to play VT and then not even a courtesy call to say you’ve changed your mind. Then agreed to talk about rescheduling the game and the day before VT and ECU are scheduled to talk about a makeup game you announce youve scheduled a home game against NCST! Again, not even a courtesy call. Idk about you but if a friend did this to me, I wouldn’t be friends with them anymore. Best of luck pirates but our AD is not at fault here. ECU really dropped the ball here. Best of luck finding someone to play so close for the amount of money and P5 prestige.

Amen. And I will use the term "Hokie Tantrum" going forward!

VT was once my second favorite school as my son attended Tech one year. Not anymore, they have joined those in CH as my less favorites. Fact is I was pulling for Cincinnati in the Military Bowl who came through to provide Tech with a losing record this year. Great, after all UC is an AAC member and Tech is mud.!

I would like to see Gilbert reach out to USM to get that series restarted. I wouldn’t mind playing USM and Marshall on a rotating basis every few years.

As long as Badcock is the AD up there we should never schedule anything with VT. We have enough problems without dealing with that kind of irresponsibility.