Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 23, 1995 TAG: 9503240060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
All through the game, the announcers asked fans to keep objects off the playing floor.
But at game's end, when Travis Jackson scored a 3-pointer with just over a second left to bring the Virginia Tech Hokies into the NIT semifinals, the floor was covered - with people. Yelling, cheering, screaming people.
Jackson waded through the crowd like it was quicksand, his back red from joyful slaps, his hand frozen in a permanent high five.
In the stands, fans screamed the word ``Hokies'' with a passion suited for Marlon Brando yelling ``Stella'' in ``A Streetcar Named Desire.''
If excitement has an odor, it's this: a mingling of fresh popcorn and sweat.
And if there's a color to it, on Wednesday night it would have had to have been orange. Or maroon. Those were the colors that trimmed the white home uniforms Tech wore in front of a full house in the men's first postseason basketball play since 1986. Those were the colors fans wore on their faces - and other extraneous body parts - in preparation for Tech's 64-61 quarterfinal victory over the Aggies of New Mexico State. And in an effort to get on television.
There was more blaze orange in Cassell Coliseum than in a Southern diner during hunting season.
And it was louder than the coal cars rumbling through ... well, you get the picture: This was big-time college basketball.
``Wait, what are you? I'm an `N''' said Ryan Stitzer, a Tech freshman who stood in the hallway with a bottle of orange paint and five bare-chested friends. The `N,' as in ESPN, went on his back. His chest bore an `S,' as in Superman. Or HOKIES.
Scott Mattison, the `K,' swore the paint would come off after the game. ``I tested it on this finger," he said, wagging an orange digit.
In the stands, lots of folks - even those who weren't around in 1973 - reminisced about the last time Virginia Tech won the National Invitation Tournament championship.
And those who were around - like Bill Blair of Staunton - believe this year is even better.
``I've never seen a group of young men with so much against them come out with such a winning attitude,'' said Blair, who rode the bench as the Hokies' mascot/ball boy back in the '40s, when a live turkey strutted down the sidelines. ``There's not a selfish bone in any one of their bodies.''
A Tech team full of injured players made fans extra-supportive this year of those who stuck it out on the court. And between talk about strategy, there was talk about heart.
``Even if they lose, they're our favorites anyway,'' said Charmaine Cress of Roanoke, who was second in line to get in Cassell's front door Wednesday night. (In front of her, with government homework in hand, was her daughter, Christy Allman, who will attend Tech next year.)
Meridel Jackson of Pearisburg, who showed up at 4:30 p.m. with her husband, Jim, to be assured of getting a good seat, flashed her gold ``VT'' earrings and smiled.
By 5:30 - two hours before gametime - fans were practicing their screaming before the ESPN crew. Wednesday's game was the second time in five years that the sports network has featured Hokie basketball. The first time was Monday night, when the Hokies beat Providence.
``It used to be filled like this pretty often,'' football coach Frank Beamer said, gazing at the stands. ``The atmosphere here and at the Gator Bowl ... I wish it could be like this all the time.
``These guys can't wait to cheer.''
The long wait for game time was good for Steven Stevenson, a graduate student in chemistry who called the box office from his 4 p.m. lab to find out that there were only 100 tickets left.
``I ran over here," he said, then spent an hour in line for seats. ``My feet hurt.''
By, Tech fans were standing up, hands over their heads, practicing ``the wave.''
The loudspeakers blared the Village People's ``YMCA'' to get people moving - a move that could've backfired, were it any other day.
And T.J. Kerekes started to dole out his first gallon of snowcone syrup. He used up 4 gallons of the stuff against Clemson and expected to go through 6 gallons against the Aggies if Cassell got hot enough.
It did, especially in the second half, when the Aggies rode a run straight to a 61-61 tie with 13 seconds left.
There were more than 52 aces of spades on yellow signs in the crowd, and a couple of people stenciled eyeliner tattoos on their shoulders as a tribute to Tech's Ace Custis.
From the beginning, the fans expected victory.
``There's no ifs," Cress said.
Allman, who wants to be a sportscaster when she graduates from Tech, tried out an ending for a Hokie win.
``How about that, Wahoos?'' she said.
Uh, Christy: It was the Aggies this game. But we know what you mean.
by CNB