The Hokies come to town tonight night and the Pirates owe
them one. In fact, the Pirates owe them five.
Virginia Tech has won four in a row on the gridiron and the
Hokies won 90-62 in hoops last year in Blacksburg.
The last East Carolina win in football was in 1992 when the
Pirates won in Greenville 30-27.
These two programs had much in common in the late eighties
and early nineties. When the Big East came knocking on Tech’s door, the
football program really took off. It’s not a coincidence that East Carolina
hasn’t beaten Tech since.
The last Pirate basketball victory over the Hokies came in
1993 in a 66-49 runaway. Eddie Payne coached ECU. Bill Foster coached Tech.
A lot has changed for both programs. Virginia Tech’s
football program has skyrocketed. The Hokies played Florida State for the
National Championship. Tech now draws crowds in excess of sixty-five
thousand for most home games.
Hokie basketball however, has not had the same kind of
success. Coming into this year, Tech was 18-37 in its last two seasons. The
Hokies have had losing seasons in five of their last six years, and the lone
winning season was just one game over .500 in the 1999-2000 season.
East Carolina, meanwhile, has built a solid football program
that took a step back this year. The basketball Pirates have been up and
down but there’s legitimate hope for the future.
Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum is reminding me of Cassell
Coliseum at Tech back in the eighties when the Hokies had a top twenty-five
program. It’s starting to rock’n roll here like it did there years ago.
Sadly, for Tech, its attendance has severely dropped in recent years.
News ‘n Notes
Airtime Monday night for Pirate basketball is 6:30. Si
Seymour joins me for the broadcast. We get many positive comments about
Si’s work. He is a real asset to the Pirate Sports Radio Network.
Bill Herrion’s Radio Talk Show begins Thursday night at
8:00 p.m. Bill will join me at Logan’s Roadhouse Restaurant on Greenville
Boulevard each week. Stop by and see us and we’ll talk some hoops.
Bill’s Television Show on WITN Channel 7 begins Sunday at
twelve noon.
A good showing by Conference USA football teams in bowl
games is important this year. The league has taken some hits and there are
issues that need to be addressed. Issue number one should be attendance.
Some of these schools just don’t draw fans. It’s hurting the image of this
league when only a few thousand fans show up at these games.
