Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 15, 1994 TAG: 9403150034
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I tell you, I'm dead," Braine said morosely from his Virginia Tech office. "I don't know when I've ever felt like this. I'm sure there must have been a time I did, but I can't remember it."
In the town that calls Tech home, the athletic director was among the overwhelming majority Monday. It was Bleaksburg. Change the school colors to black and blue. For the second time in five days, Tech couldn't bear to swallow news from the Big Apple.
It was bad enough Wednesday when the Hokies were told that they and Temple weren't going to become all-sports members of the Big East Conference - as had been expected. Then, on Sunday night, the National Invitation Tournament didn't call Bill Foster's 18-win basketball team - as had been expected.
The New York-based NIT did invite three of Tech's Metro Conference brethren. The Big East, in a vote in New York, did admit Tech's fellow Big East football players West Virginia and Rutgers. What's next? Will David Letterman list "What's a Hokie?" among the top 10 questions asked on the New York subway?
Their feelings salved only by the first Metro Conference championship and NCAA Tournament berth for the women's basketball team, the Hokies see more than coincidence in the belt of this double Manhattan. The basketball influence among the Eastern establishment is very strong, its ties to the Big East tight.
St. John's is part of the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association that operates the NIT. The Seton Hall roots with the MIBA are deep, too. Pete Carlesimo, the father of Pirates coach P.J. Carlesimo, ran the NIT for years.
Maybe the New York hoops mafia shoots with more than basketballs.
"Maybe somebody is trying to send us a message," Braine said of the city that never sweeps . . . er, sleeps.
"There are a lot of people reading between the lines," Foster said. "The more I say, that's all the tougher it's going to get for Tech down the road."
He's right, but consider that Tech did its NIT lobbying through Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, the same commissioner who assured Braine a couple of days before the Big East vote that it would become a 14-team basketball league or the eight football members would form their own league.
As for the growing sentiment that Tech and Temple would be excluded - passed through the Big East for three weeks - Braine's supposed buddies left him in the dark.
"With the NIT, we tried to go through people who know the people," Braine said. "I trust Mike Tranghese. He said when he saw the NIT pairings, he was shocked."
He wasn't alone. Wonder if Tranghese was shocked when his overrated league got six teams in the NCAA field of 64? At the Roanoke Valley Sports Club's next meeting, March 28, the scheduled speakers are Braine and "a representative of the Big East Conference." The Marriott may have to install metal detectors at the door.
Of the 32 teams in the NIT, 15 have records worse than Tech's 18-10. Among the top 12 conferences in the Ratings Percentage Index - used by the NIT as well as the NCAA - the Hokies have the best record that isn't in the NCAA or NIT.
Tech was hurt by its schedule. Did the Metro try to help the Hokies with the NIT? Why should it? Tech has spent the last three years trying to get out of the Metro and into the Big East. Besides, what can you say about a conference that has its commissioner on the NCAA selection committee and stands fourth in the RPI and gets one team in the field?
Foster couldn't imagine that rebuilding Tech's program would be this difficult. He knew about the admissions requirements that put his program on a different page from many of its opponents. He knew the Metro was a tough sell and that ESPN appearances wouldn't be likely anytime soon.
"These two, this is the toughest since I've been here," Foster said. "You know about some things, so you expect them. But when you're broadsided, there's no way to tell that's going to happen.
"The NIT can do what it wants. There's no accountability of any kind."
Foster said he was jobbed by the NIT in years at UNC Charlotte (a 23-3 record) and Miami (19-12). How is his program going to recruit now? It can't sell the Big East anymore. It gets left out of a tournament for leftovers. Is it any wonder Foster is demoralized after a good season?
As much as Tech would like to tell the Big East where to stick its football, the Hokies cannot afford to do that because it will get more dollars and exposure than it can from any other option. "It's an awful lot to walk away from," Braine said.
What's happened to the Hokies in the past week is an awful lot to walk away from, too. Is is any wonder the Hokie bird should feel like Fay Wray in King Kong's mitts atop the Empire State Building?
by CNB