Wednesday night, Channel 10's Justin Ditmore gave the ticket sales and ticket allocation figures for the NCAA East Regional in Greensboro, and the numbers are enough to make even the most casual Hokie fan bust with pride.

The four teams at the East Regional will be Duke, ODU, Tech, and … who was it? Oh, yeah, Tennessee. With the relative proximity of Duke, ODU, and Tech to Greensboro, you would think this thing would be a big-time sellout, and it is, but the detailed numbers tell an interesting story.

Total seating capacity for the regional will be 12,000 seats. The Greensboro Coliseum holds more people than that, but nearly all of the upper deck seats will be "curtained off" so the Coliseum has a more cozy feel to it.

Here are the ticket allocations per school, and let's just say that one school is winning the battle of the tickets in a big way:

• Tech: 3,000
• Tennessee: 600
• ODU: 500
• Duke: 200

That is not a misprint. Tech's ticket allocation outnumbers all three other schools combined by more than 2 to 1.

But wait, it gets better. Justin reported that out of the tickets purchased directly from the Coliseum, Tech fans had bought "the majority, so expect to see somewhere around 5000 or 6000 Hokie fans in Greensboro."

Wow.

Justin also reported that Tech still has about 500 tickets remaining out of the original allotment of 3000, and the Greensboro Coliseum has about 300 remaining. So get 'em while they're hot, Hokie fans!

You might have noticed that in my Auburn game report, I made no mention of who Tech would be playing in the next round, mainly because I didn't want to ruin a perfectly good game report.

The opponent, of course, is Tennessee. The Lady Vols have won three straight national championships and are gunning for their fourth in a row, and I think I read a couple of days ago that in their three year run, plus their first two games this year, they have won by an average of over 20 points. Man-oh-man-alive.

One week after hosting three of the top 10 winningest coaches of all time in women's college basketball, the Hokies will tangle with another coaching giant, Tennessee's Pat (Head) Summitt. If you're not impressed by the Tech women's appearance in the Sweet 16, just consider the company they're rubbing elbows with. Our own Bonnie Henrickson, revered by Tech fans, is taking the court with legends, and our players, known and loved by all Tech fans, get to go head to head with the likes of UT's Chamique Holdsclaw.

Defeating Tennessee sounds like an impossible task, but stranger things have happened. Tech fans who were in Lane Stadium last October 17^th witnessed a bizarre sports happening up close. And no, I'm not going to use the "T" word in a sentence.

Tennessee has been rated a 14-point favorite by one service. The game will be at 2:00 on Saturday, and will preceded by the Duke / ODU game. And yes, the game will be on television, on ESPN. It will be Tech's first appearance on ESPN. The Hokies have been on ESPN2 a number of times.

Football-starved Hokie fans are about to get another dose of their favorite team. The Hokies start Spring practice this Saturday, and conclude with the Spring Game on Saturday, April 17^th, at 2:00 pm.

Yes, I will be having one of my casual, bring-your-own Spring Game tailgates. I hold them in Lot 5, across Southgate Drive from Lane Stadium. I'll post a map as the day of the game approaches, so look for further information. And maybe it won't rain this year….

I think that scrimmages will be held twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday. I don't know if I'll be able to make any of them, but even if I can, I can't make all of them.

So, you local Hokies, if you stop by a scrimmage, drop me an email and tell me what you see. Who looks good? Who's doing what? Where are people playing? I need the info, so I can pass it on to the HokieCentral faithful, who love their Hokie football.

I'm hoping that The Roanoke Times will cover spring football a little closer than they have in the past, but we'll have to take a wait-and-see attitude on that one. I'm sure that Randy King, Jack Bogaczyk, and maybe even Mark Berman are going to be in Greensboro for the East Regional, so finding time - and a body - to cover the Hokie football team could be difficult.

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