By Nate Warters

Published: March 24, 2008

BLACKSBURG — March Madness has taken on new meaning at Virginia Tech. The Hokies men’s basketball team is filling up Cassell Coliseum for the National Invitation Tournament and dispatching opponents in record-breaking style.
Tech, the No. 1 seed in its region, continued its red-hot play Monday night with a 75-49 NIT second-round win over fifth-seeded Alabama-Birmingham in front of a near-capacity home crowd of 9,757 and a nationally televised ESPN audience.
The Hokies, who beat Morgan State 94-62 in the first round five days earlier, have now won back-to-back postseason games by more than 25 points for the first time in school history.
They host either Mississippi or Nebraska in Wednesday’s quarterfinals. Game time was not announced.
Tech is one win away from a trip to New York’s Madison Square Garden, the site of next week’s semifinals and finals.
Forward Deron Washington scored 16 points and grabbed six rebounds for the Hokies, who are vying for their third NIT championship (1973, 95). Guard A.D. Vassallo scored a team-high 18 points, 12 in the second half.
Tech made 9-of-21 shots from behind the 3-point line. It shot 47.4 percent for the game and held the Blazers to just 36.2 percent overall and 16.7 (3-of-18) percent from 3-point range.
The Hokies (21-13) won back-to-back postseason games for the first time since 1995, when they won the NIT in their last appearance in the tournament.
Tech coach Seth Greenberg is now 4-2 in postseason games. He is tied with Don DeVoe on Tech’s all-time postseason wins list, trailing only Charles Moir (10-8 in eight postseason appearances) and Bill Foster (6-1 in two appearances).
DeVoe was in attendance Monday night. He is one of seven members on the NIT selection committee.
The Hokies have now won seven of their last nine games.
UAB junior wing Robert Vaden entered the game with a team-leading 21.4 scoring average. The Hokies held him to nine points on 3-of-17 shooting, his second-worst offensive game of the season.
His previous low was six points Nov. 21 against Eastern Kentucky.
Tech made seven of its first eight field goal attempts and took control early. It maintained a 10-point lead before going on a 7-2 run in the final 4:28 of the second half.
Vaden, a transfer from University of Indiana, struggled early. He was whistled for his second personal foul 3:20 in and he scored his first points with 4:28 left before halftime. He missed eight of his first nine field goal attempts, including all five of his 3-point tries.
The Blazers (23-11) went 0-for-7 from behind the arc in the first half.