Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 9, 1994 TAG: 9403090094
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRIAN DeVIDO STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG LENGTH: Medium
Rumors of thousands of students back at school cramming into the university's dining hall to watch the game on ESPN.
Rumors of mayhem in the streets after the game.
Rumors of dancing, just because the Flames made the Big Dance
This is getting out of control.
"We can't dance here," said Liberty junior Carrie Wiser. "But we were jumping up and down. We were dancing unto the Lord."
Such actions are to be expected after a school qualifies for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in its history. Liberty, a Baptist-affiliated university with an enrollment of roughly 9,000 students, came into the Big South tournament as the fourth seed. It knocked off No. 1 Towson St. in the semifinals, then got an encouraging word from university founder/chancellor Jerry Falwell before the championship game.
"He stated two hours before the game that we could have the greatest athletic accomplishment Liberty University has ever been associated with," Flames' senior guard Matt Hildebrand said.
After the game, Falwell helped cut down the nets. Hildebrand, who had been hacking away, got to hand Falwell the scissors.
"I was up there just before him," Hildebrand said. "I gave him the scissors, he got up there, and everybody went berserk."
An estimated 2,000 students packed into the university's dining hall to watch the championship game, and afterward, a wildness not usually seen at the school broke out.
"People were going to the extreme," said Liberty freshman Craig Cliff, wearing an orange baseball cap backwards with a skateboard at his feet. "Just total screaming. There was a guy in a Red Bronco, dragging a mattress around."
Many of the trees around the Vine Center, where Liberty plays its home games, showed the effects of such a big win. Toilet paper, wet from the steady drizzle Tuesday, still clung to the branches where it was placed the night before.
"It was anarchy," Liberty sophomore Lance Olshovsky said. "A total depravity of man. People set off fire alarms. There was a lot of energy around here."
Campus security said no students had been arrested from the celebration.
The Flames (18-11) drove back to school from North Charleston, S.C. at 4 a.m. Tuesday. Because of the time, there were not many students ready to greet them, but team members have already heard about the school's reaction to their win.
"It's unbelievable," Hildebrand said. "They had a big screen television in the dining hall, and I heard they were mimicking around with the Liberty students who were at the game, doing the chants they were doing."
It doesn't matter that the Flames will most likely be a No. 15 or No. 16 seed. Not to the fans, and not to the players.
"We're going to be enjoying ourselves for a while," Hildebrand said. "We'll get back to the real world, but we'll live this fairy tale for a while."
Some students are clinging to that fairy-tale hope that goes along with the Big Dance - that anything can happen.
"I have confidence in the team," said freshman student Arnell Kendall, bouncing a basketball with his left hand while walking to class. "Me, I say they made this, they can make it all the way."
by CNB