Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 31, 1995 TAG: 9503310083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY AND KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
It was only fitting: Shawn Smith, the man who earned Virginia Tech the 1995 National Invitation Tournament trophy with two dramatic free throws in the last second of the championship game, was the man who brought that gleaming silver trophy home Thursday afternoon.
To the rafter-shaking cheers of a crowd that filled about a third of Cassell Coliseum, Smith walked onto the court holding the trophy high over his head, his smile as bright as it was.
As happy as the players were, they also seemed tired after their big-city odyssey, but there was no telling when they would get some rest. They were mobbed by autograph-seeking students and well-wishers after a brief introduction at the coliseum.
"Yeah, I'm tired," said Damon Watlington. "It's been a real long year, and we didn't have a lot of players."
Still, there was no shortage of energy and enthusiasm in Roanoke and Blacksburg Thursday.
Several hundred people greeted the players at Roanoke Regional Airport, their excitement undiminished by the fact that the Hokies' flight from New York was a half-hour late. The players themselves were a little dazed by it all.
Then it was on to Blacksburg, where untold numbers of students decided to skip class and cheer for their favorite team. It was a chance for youthful exuberance, made all the sweeter by irony - irony that the NCAA's snub of Virginia Tech may have worked in Tech's favor and irony that a season that began with dim expectations ended with a gleaming trophy, big-city lights and small-town fireworks.
That the Hokies failed to get an NCAA bid was a memory.
"We'll get more publicity out of this," said Ralph Cecchini, a 1943 Tech alumnus who was wearing a clapping Hokie hands hat.
"I wouldn't miss this for the world," said Cecchini, who listened to the game on the radio while lying in bed Wednesday night. He was playing it safe, he joked, because he broke a couch spring in 1973 when he jumped up in celebration at Tech's last NIT victory.
Noni Bungard of Blacksburg got her daughters out of school early so they could be at Cassell to greet the champs they had cheered throughout the season.
"Will this happen ever again for any of us?" she asked wide-eyed.
Tech students gave a standing ovation as the players entered to dry-ice mist and music. They mugged for the television cameras and yelled even louder when Ace Custis waved back. As Shawn Smith entered holding the championship trophy aloft, students bowed in "we're not worthy" fashion.
Guard Shawn Good told the crowd he and others may have had little hope when the injury-plagued Hokies started the season.
"I wasn't sure how the team would do .. . But then everybody just stepped up for us ... and now we're the champions of the NIT," Good said. "We couldn't have done it without you. Thank you."
People who know the Tech players say the championship couldn't have happened to a better bunch.
"They worked so hard, and they work so good together, they deserve it," said Nakeina Douglas, a Tech freshman who is friends with some of the players and who met them both at the airport and at the coliseum.
"I think another good thing is they're all friends," said her friend Kelly Roszak, who took some time off from biology class to greet the team. "They're all really, really close off the court."
Added Douglas, echoing a sentiment that thousands of Tech students no doubt feel: "It makes me feel proud to go to Tech when they have a winning team."
by CNB