It was good to see that the Tech basketball team played before its largest crowd of the season last Saturday against Xavier, a gathering in excess of six thousand. Apparently several among the student body discovered that Cassell Coliseum, where they normally pick up their football tickets, also occasionally hosts basketball games, and crowds are allowed. For some, that would be a revelation on a par with that first discovery that a cold wind blows across the Drill field in January.

I imagine some were there to see whether Dennis 'Hurricane' Mims would indeed take out an opponent, referee or teammate, and a handful were on hand because they actually follow the basketball team. I suspect the main reason, however, for the crowd size roughly double who usually show up were the free football posters being given away. It is unfortunate that the Athletic Department has to resort to bribery to get people in the seats. It wasn't always that way.

I often attend games at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium, through the generosity of a gentleman who is an alumnus of both Virginia Tech and the Duke Medical School. Cameron is generally regarded as possessing the best atmosphere in basketball, with lively and enthusiastic crowds that always pack the place to the rafters and usually make life miserable for the opposition [although Maryland was a rather notable exception]. I can remember a time when the Cassell, or Tech Coliseum, as it was known during my student days, was every bit the snake pit for visiting teams.

Cassell's configuration of steeply banked rows of bleachers puts all fans right on top of the floor, unlike, say, University Hall over in Hooville, where the primary design criteria seems to have been to place the fans as far away from the playing floor as possible. Not so at our house, where everybody is right on top of things. Or would be, if fans bothered to show up.

I was a student when the 1973 team shocked the world, winning the NIT. That tournament was worth winning in those days, as only sixteen teams were invited to the NCAA Tournament and only one from each conference; plenty of very good teams ended up in the NIT in those days. Cassell in those days was one of the most feared venues in college basketball. It was always full, or nearly so, even on weeknight games. Tech generally fielded pretty good teams [as hard as it may be for younger students and alumni to believe, back then our basketball team was generally better than football] and was very close to impossible to beat at home.

Tech experienced basketball success from the mid-Sixties when Cassell was built [the first game was against Kentucky and Adolph Rupp, regarded as the top program in the country at that time. Tech won] through the Howie Shannon teams that once came within a blown overtime lead of going to the Final Four, through Don Devoe's teams that included the 73 championship team, through Charley Moir, who fielded teams that included Wayne Robinson, Marshall Ashford, Dale Solomon, Jeff Schneider, Bobby Beecher and Dell Curry. Tech won a lot, and the Cassell rocked. It can again.

I hear and read all sorts of reasons given for the low attendance, especially by students, who should be easily able to fill a 10,000-seat arena [we filled it in the early to mid-Seventies with a student body less than half of today's size]. Granted, the team is not very good. But, they are not losing games on purpose, and I wonder if some of the more embarrassing home losses might have gone the other way had a large and vocal crowd been in attendance cheering the team on.

Rolan Roberts and Brian Chase are Hokies just the same as Michael Vick and Andre Davis, and they deserve the same level of support. The football team feeds off of the emotion of enthusiastic crowds, and the basketball team would do the same. Plus, the basketball team is going to get better; this is an outstanding ground floor opportunity.

Another reason often given is that we play in a lousy conference. This is true, but is also going to change and the star quality of the opposition will soon receive a significant upgrade. More on the A-10 later. You can attend now and beat the rush of fans.

One of the more perplexing excuses given by a student for not attending Tech basketball games is that campus social life does not revolve around basketball. Well, it should. I never once missed a basketball game during all of my time at Tech, including each of what were optimistically referred to as my Senior Years. Surely not all of you are spending all of that time in the library. God knows I didn't. While I recognize that the majority of today's students are much more academically minded than I was, most of the students back then were too, but still found the time to fill Cassell.

As far as social interaction, I would point out that it was at a Tech basketball game that I met the young lady who would later become my son's mother and after that my first ex-wife. You shouldn't let that scare you away. The odds are low that you too will meet someone who will later sit smirking in a courtroom as a judge hands her every nickel you possess. Take your chances.

Tech's final home game will be March 4. The game will put a wrap on the home careers of four-year seniors Brendan Dunlop, Andre Ray and Russ Wheeler. They have represented the team and university well during their time at Tech. While they haven't achieved the number of victories they or we would have preferred, they are fine young men that we will soon be proud to call fellow alumni. Let's send them off with a big crowd.

It will also be Tech's final home game as a member of the Atlantic 10. Good riddance, I say. It was never anything more than a temporary home while we waited for full Big East membership. I have an idea on how to bid adios to that league. In football games, as yet another feeble football opponent has been beaten into the turf of Worsham Field, the Marching Virginians always break into the 'Goodbye' theme. Let's spend the last two minutes of life as an A-10 member doing the same and saying so long. It would sound really cool in the Cassell.

I plan on attending the March 4 Dayton game. Join me and let's fill up the Cassell again. It will be loads of fun and good practice for the upcoming BE days. Come on out and tell them Jim sent you.