Tech Sports Blog

Well, I was dumb on Sunday afternoon. With a Winter Weather Advisory posted for Charlottesville (yes, I live in Hoo’ville) and the surrounding area, as well as an Ice Storm Warning for the New River and Roanoke Valleys, I drove to Blacksburg Sunday afternoon in the middle of a winter storm. It wasn’t a blizzard, and it turned out not to be a major ice event, but it still took me about 3 and a half hours to make what is normally a 2 hour drive. I-81 near Roanoke was an absolute mess. There’s nothing like barely doing 40mph in 4WD on the interstate and having tractor trailers and SUVs blow by you as if you were standing still. I caravaned with my friend Kevin (with whom I go to games) and his wife, except they started near Newport News and met me in Charlottesville. I think they were on the road for 8 hours. The prudent action would have been to not go to Blacksburg for Sunday night’s game versus the University of Maryland. In fact, I was regretting the decision to head down when I arrived at Kevin’s house with less than one hour until tip-off.

However, that feeling of regret began to wash away as we walked in to Cassell’s west entrance and heard the starting lineup. We began to hear the crowd, and it sounded pretty good. Then, as if they waited for us to take our seats, Enter Sandman was blaring over the PA system as we walked out of the Section 16 tunnel, and we got a taste of what was in store for the night. Cassell, while maybe 85% full, was rocking! Because of the inclement weather and the likelihood of many no-shows, the Athletic Department decided earlier in the day to allow students in for free, even if they didn’t have a ticket. It was a brilliant move. My guess is that there were 7000 students in the crowd, and every one of them were yelling and bouncing prior to tip-off. Kevin and I took our seats just moments before tip-off, and I was already glad I made the trek to Blacksburg.

With the exception of the last 6 minutes of regulation, when Tech’s offense went stagnant, the game went fairly well. Maryland played much better than they did at Virginia last week, but the Hokies played hard the entire game with the hordes of screaming students willing them on. I have never experienced an environment for a basketball game like that before Sunday night. It was a home court advantage like I have never seen. Good thing I’m like the postal service, otherwise I would’ve missed it.

Categories: VT Basketball
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.