Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 28, 1995 TAG: 9503280061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
It's easy to call Madison Square Garden ``cavernous'' when there's no one there.
Of course, it also makes for a great game to watch when you can sit most anywhere you want to.
Such being the case, being a Virginia Tech fan at Monday night's National Invitation Tournament semifinal against Canisius College ... well, there couldn't have been a better place to see a return (unless maybe if it was Michael Jordan's tonight, but that's another league).
It was just the semis, after all.
But whether you were packed in with the gang and the band and the cheerleaders behind Tech's goal, or interspersed among the clusters of fans and empty seats elsewhere, it was hard not to like where you were.
It helped, too, when Tech jumped to a 25-11 lead in the first 12 minutes behind Damon Watlington three-pointers, Shawn Good slams and Shawn Smith rebounds, and never trailed.
Pulling for the Hokies in the place where they won - everyone knows this by now, don't they? - the 1973 NIT championship meant a bird's eye view of Watlington's bull's eye jumpers.
Bill Atkinson Jr., a swarthy, robust, Grizzly-Adams-looking man, took his seat right behind the team bench.
Dressed in Hokie-orange shorts and sweat shirt, Atkinson, 72, of Virginia Beach, boasted of not missing a Tech football bowl game since the '48 Sun Bowl. Of course he was here for the '73 tournament! He'd rather Tech had been declared the underdog - Las Vegas picked Tech to win the tournament - but he'd come, just the same.
Chris Kappas, owner of Souvlaki's in Blacksburg, canceled a return flight home after a 10-day stay in New York to see the game, even though it's the ``junior prom'' compared with that other college basketball tournament, in Seattle. He, too, was here the last two times Tech was. The 1973 tournament - ``It was incredible,'' he said.
Lisa Poer sat behind the band with her husband, Chris. A 1988 Tech grad, she lives in New Jersey now. ``We were trying to think of the last time we saw a game,'' she said. ``It must've been ...'' - 1988.
By the end of the game, those easily found early seats were paying off, as the Garden filled to a respectable level. ``Ace of spades'' posters popped up all about, the familiar Cassell cheer of ``Sit down!'' - yelled by Tech fans whenever an opposing team's player hits the bench - filled the arena, and Tech's pep band played on. Of course, its members knew how good they had it. Heck, they even played the national anthem.
Thomas ``Mad Dog'' Bail played his tuba with abandon. A senior math major, he's never seen Tech's team in postseason play, much less the '73 championship.
The band was told they definitely were staying to play Wednesday, whether Tech competed in the early consolation game or played later for the championship.
``We're leaving Wednesday night or Thursday morning, depending on which game we go to,'' Bail said. ``I'm pretty sure we're going to leave Thursday.''
Indeed you are, Mad Dog. Final score: 71-59, Hokies. No need to return home - just yet.
by CNB