THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 29, 1995 TAG: 9503290572
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Twenty-two years ago, the Virginia Tech men's basketball team was asked to take a vote: NCAA or NIT.
They chose the NIT.
You can bet nobody would have asked this year's Hokies, who meet Marquette tonight in the National Invitation Tournament championship game, which Final Four they'd rather play in.
``It was a bigger deal then,'' said Craig Lieder, who played on Tech's 1973 NIT championship team. ``But it's still a great tournament.''
Lieder, an all-state player at Maury High in 1969 and '70, was one of two players who wanted to go to the NCAA tournament. As it turned out, Tech didn't get a bid, and Lieder is just as glad. The Hokies won four games by a total of five points in the NIT and defeated Notre Dame, 92-91, to give Tech its only national title.
``The NIT was big; it basically rivaled the NCAA,'' said Bobby Stevens, whose shot at the buzzer gave the Hokies their overtime victory over the Fighting Irish.
Stevens looks back on the '73 NIT as the pinnacle of his playing days. A wall in his Rock Hill, S.C., home is adorned with memorabilia from that week in New York City.
The two-year starter at point guard for Tech, who has been an assistant coach at Tennessee and Florida, and is now an assistant at Winthrop University, says the game-winning shot has opened many doors for him as a recruiter.
``I lost three state titles in high school and one in junior college,'' said Stevens, who played at Norfolk Catholic and Ferrum College before enrolling at Tech. ``Basketball-wise for me, that was huge.''
And in the early '70s, when the NCAA tournament admitted 32 teams and televised coverage of college basketball was in its formative stages, Madison Square Garden was the place to play.
The Hokies, who finished 22-5 that season, were in pretty good company. The NIT field included Minnesota, with future baseball superstar Dave Winfield, as well as Alabama and North Carolina.
``When we went up there, we wanted to win one game,'' said Lieder, who later played in France and now lives in Asheville, N.C. ``We didn't expect to be staying that long.''
The Hokies edged New Mexico, 65-63, in their opener and got by Fairfield, 77-76, in the second game, guaranteeing them a weekend stay.
``Many of us had never been to a big city,'' said Stevens, who marveled at the subway, the diversity of the people and even the food. ``I remember the cheesecake. Great cheesecake. And big club sandwiches for lunch.''
Playing in the Garden had its own mystique. One afternoon, as the Hokies walked through the tunnel to practice, they passed New York Knicks legends Walt Frazier and Willis Reed, who were coming off the floor.
``That's absolutely the one memory that sits with me,'' Stevens said. ``You're practicing, you're dressing in the same facility as the New York Knickerbockers.''
``It sure beat practice in Blacksburg,'' Lieder added.
The Hokies defeated Alabama, 74-73, in the semifinals to earn the finals berth against Notre Dame, starring center John Shumate.
Although Tech fans remember Stevens' 17-foot jumper at the horn, it was Lieder's bucket that sent the game into overtime. The plan in the final seconds of overtime called for Lieder to get the ball again, but Stevens saw his teammate in trouble and shot it himself from the foul line. He missed but got the ball back when Allan Bristow, now coach of the NBA's Charlotte Hornets, tipped it to him.
``I didn't have time to think, I just reacted,'' Stevens recalled. ``That night, in the middle of the night, I woke up in a dead sweat thinking about what we had accomplished.''
Hundreds gathered at the Roanoke airport to greet the victorious Hokies, and a police escort brought them back to school.
``A national championship is a national championship,'' said Stevens, who, like Lieder, has followed this year's team from afar.
``Whether it's the NIT or the NCAA, you can never take it away. There's only two winners at the end of the season, and I hope one of them this year is Tech.'' ILLUSTRATION: FILE PHOTO
Norfolk Catholic grad Bobby Stevens hit the game-winner against
Notre Dame: ``I didn't have time to think, I just reacted.''
by CNB