It was one of those times when I occasionally wish I could grow a third arm on demand. I was shoulder to shoulder with literally hundreds of other Hokies and had a plate of food in one hand while the other was tightly clasped around an adult beverage, and I was attempting to determine exactly how I was going to eat. There was no area visible where one or the other could be placed to free up a limb to dig in.

It is not often one associates Tech basketball with too many people, but this was one of those times. Last weekend's Hokie Celebration, sandwiched between the men�s basketball thrashing of Villanova and the women�s beating of WVU, drew a terrific crowd, easily twice what showed up last year. It also demonstrated that while the skills of the Tech team might not be sufficient to draw large numbers of people, alcohol and barbecue will do the trick.

I always enjoy events such as the Hokie Celebration, as it gives me the opportunity to meet old Hokie friends that I don�t get to see during the highly-regimented and traffic- and parking-driven events surrounding football games. This happened very early on, before we even got to Cassell, as a guy hailed me across the University Mall parking lot with a computer under his arm. I discovered that he did not always travel with a computer under his arm, only when it needed more RAM, as he introduced himself, then quickly ended my embarrassment of not recognizing him by explaining that we had tailgated together at the Gator Bowl in '01 when we beat Clemson. I then remembered instantly.

This happened again later in the Bowman Room when my flash of comprehension followed somebody else who had come up to me and, noticing the puzzled look on my face, mentioned that we had tailgated together at East Carolina in '00. I may have difficulty with faces and names, but I never forget a tailgate.

I was able to make some new acquaintances at the Hokie Celebration, such as Terry Taylor's mother, who is a delightful woman brimming with such laughter and good cheer that I have never noticed in her son on the basketball court, but then, after meeting Terry, it seems he also possesses those traits but declines to carry them onto the court. I also met Allen Calloway, a fellow alumnus of Tunstall High School. He seemed astonished that we could have possibly attended high school in the very same building, obviously figuring that it should have collapsed from decay long before the passing of three-plus decades between my attendance and his.

This year�s festivities, as noted, brought quite a few more people than last year�s, and if there were any assistant football coaches around, the crowd prevented them from coming to me and seeking my counsel, as happened last year when I suggested to Jim Cavanaugh that profit might be found in recruiting the Tidewater area and advised Brian Stinespring that he would be well served by running the ball with Lee and KJ. At least that�s the way I remember it.

I was not able to chat with the Athletic Director as happened last year, so he did not ask my opinion on the future of Ricky Stokes. I suspect that decision has already been made, however, and it had more to do with the thousands of empty seats at most games rather than whether Tech sneaks into the Big East Tournament.

The chances of making it to Madison Square Garden for what will likely be a quick exit were greatly improved following the 88-63 pounding of Villanova. It has come down to one big game for Tech, if a game to determine who avoids the divisional cellar can be classified as �big.� If Tech beats the Canes they are in.

There was much riding on last Saturday�s game, and it was played before a Cassell that was two-thirds empty. The students had scooted for Spring Break, to be sure, but that such a sparse crowd was on hand speaks volumes about the lack of enthusiasm for and excitement surrounding this basketball program. I am convinced that there is passion for Tech basketball and offer as evidence the hundreds who crammed the Bowman Room following the men�s game [I didn�t stick around for the women�s], mostly older Hokies like myself who can remember far better days in Tech basketball.

Later that evening, I watched the televised game between Rutgers and Notre Dame, played in Piscataway, as usual, in front of a packed RAC. Rutgers is a team that has achieved precious little basketball success despite having been in the BE longer than Tech, and were playing for the same stakes as Tech, escaping the cellar from their side of the conference, yet they had a full house that provided a terrific atmosphere.

One way or another, that kind of excitement has to be brought back to the Tech program. The main reason given for firing Bobby Hussey is still with us.

As for the Villanova-Tech game, the Hokies blew the game open in the second half, as the Wildcats gave every indication of being a tired team whose legs were shot. Nice conditioning program there, �Nova. I laughed out loud when I read an account on the official Villanova site of a log kept by some VU functionary on the trials and tribulations faced by the �Cats during their grueling road trip of playing at Seton Hall Thursday night and then at Tech less than forty-eight hours earlier. Too bad.

A short bus ride to the Meadowlands and a jaunt to southwest Virginia doesn�t exactly stack up with what Tech faced earlier in the season when a trip to BC was followed up in the same short turnaround period by a trek to Miami. I would also point out that Villanova�s scheduling difficulties came as a result of the Seton Hall game being a makeup one lost because of snow, while Tech�s much longer trips came from normal BE scheduling practices that seem designed to do Tech no favors. Good teams deal with it, and the Villanova team on display in Cassell hardly qualifies as a good team.

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