Tech Sports Blog

About midway through the second half of Virginia Tech’s win over North Carolina on Saturday, I turned to my buddy Kevin and said something to the effect, “If we pull this off, this game will make our season tickets worth it.” Before the season started Kevin and I bought a pair of season tickets from my brother-in-law’s aunt and uncle. They are big time Hokie Club donors, and they were able to get extra season tickets. We were a little hesitant to pull the trigger, because it’s pretty easy to get tickets to most games. However, we probably would have paid through the nose for 2 tickets to the UNC game on Saturday.

Even though it made sense monetarily to purchase those season tickets in light of the UNC, I wasn’t really referring to that when I made the comment to Kevin. I was referring to the fact that the UNC win will be one of those games that everyone who was there will proudly remember their attendance. For older fans of Hokie basketball, they will remember this win along with our win in 1983 over #1 Memphis State, as well as our 1973 NIT Championship. For younger fans of Hokie hoops, this is the marquee win of our generation. Presently 27 years old – I was a freshmen in the fall of 1997 – I am too young a Hokie to know anything about men’s basketball prior to football’s reign over Blacksburg, so I am included in the latter group. That said, I firmly believe this win is the greatest in VT basketball history. There is one simple reason I believe this: the victory over then #5 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium the week before. Duke and North Carolina are considered to be two of the most elite programs in Division I basketball. They are ACC basketball.

Who would’ve thunk it? Beating Duke and UNC, both ranked in the top 5, within 8 days of each other. These are the kinds of wins that programs build on. In the right hands, these wins are used to take programs to the next level. Will Seth Greenburg build this program into a perennial tournament team? I don’t know, but the future certainly seems bright.

Regardless of what happens down the road, I can now amend my “I was there” list:

• The overtime win over Miami in football in 1998.
• The 1998 homecoming loss that didn’t happen.
• Almost every home football game in 1999 – notable wins: Syracuse, Miami, Boston College
• The 2000 Sugar Bowl loss to Florida State.
• The Ernest Wilford 2-point conversion drop in the loss to #1 Miami in 2001.
• The downtown “riot” the night before the LSU game in 2002, as well as the our win over LSU at Lane Stadium the day after.
• The win in 2003 over then #2 Miami.
• Our loss to #1 Southern California at FedEx field in 2004, the win at Lane over then #6 West Virginia, the crazy 4th quarter comeback at Georgia Tech, and the loss to #3 Auburn in the 2005 Sugar Bowl.
• And finally, I can add a basketball game to this list: our win over then #1 North Carolina in Cassell Coliseum in 2007.

Categories: VT Basketball, VT Football
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