I'm pretty drunk and might regret this forum, but I just have to do it right now.
I watched the game at a restaurant in Morgantown, West Virginia. I'm visiting a friend this weekend.
Virginia Tech is not popular WHATSOEVER in Morgantown. Despite the fact that we have played once since 2005, the hate is still there. With that being said, that entire restaurant was rooting for VT. When Med's shot bounced off the rim, everyone was whatever level is below heartbroken.
We captured the hearts of America not only by being the team who was playing Duke but by playing a fun style of basketball. Shooting threes and throwing down.
I'm not sure when we will make it back to the Sweet Sixteen. With Whit Babcock as our AD, it won't be 50 years. This sucks though. I'm glad we were America's team for a night though.
Hokie nation TILL I DIE.
Let's go Hokies!
Comments
Every MSU and LSU fan at the arena was cheering for us and I ran into a UVA fan who told me he was rooting for us.
Literally every UVA fan I know had told me they were rooting for us (and to be fair, I've been rooting for them...but I love Purdue and would love for them to beat UVA). When we're standing on relatively even footing, I'll almost always cheer for the state and the conference, even if it means cheering for UVA.
Then again, I'm one of those guys that wants to feel like we could easily lose to UVA in football so I can just FEEL something for the "rivalry" again (this year was great, but on the opposite end of "teams performing well" that I wanted), so take everything with a grain of salt.
I had more UVA fans come over to my house than VT fans last night....
Cool story, but I have no response to that.
Then why respond?
I'm just elaborating on the fact that everyone seemed to be pulling for VT to win.
When you give an open invite to your office to come over and chill and watch the game then half of the 20 people that show up are UVA fans, it says something about people wanting VT to advance. That, or they just think I'm awesome and want to kick it with me, but I'm going with the beating Duke thing.
Nah, it's cool.
I was just trying to make a joke. Even UVa jokes fall flat sometimes. You just live in a bad neighborhood (also a joke, OK?)
Nice to know we captured the hearts of so many, including UVA fans. No UVA team will ever capture my heart. Don't like any of them, ever. :-)
I'm sorry you watched it in Morgantown. Actually I'm sorry you're in Morgantown.
I'm in SC at a bar with some wannabe Duke fans that didn't start cheering till 2 min left. Ib went surrender cobra as the Hill shot missed. Tough life waking out of that bar.
That's an interesting story because there's been so much talk about how 'likeable' this Duke team is. Zion Williamson has been such a captivating player that viewers gravitate toward him. Mainstream sports talk shows that don't normally talk college basketball in the reg. season spent an inordinate amount of time talking about Zion and Duke. So I wondered if we (or UCF) actually pulled off the upset, would we be celebrated/commended or seen as a buzzkill for taking away such an entertaining part of the tournament.
Well, Duke is Duke at the end of the day. Even if they like Zion, people wanna see Duke lose. So, I'd imagine a bunch of casual fans were cheering for us. I'm glad this Hokie team was able to have this kind of spotlight, because it was a long road to get here. Who would have ever thought that Morgantown would be cheering for a Buzz Williams-coached team, let alone Virginia Tech?
I really hate to say this (especially as a math major)...but 1 > 5. Zion was the difference in this game. That said, this team showed what being a Hokie is all about. I'll never forget them, hope you have amazing careers and rich lives, so proud of you tonight.
Yeah, Zion was fantastic, but he's probably gone after this year, right? Then, Duke will be brought back to Earthly status, and Coach K will have to find the next one-and-done, rent-a-player to replace him.
And that he will.
I'm sure he has 3 more lined up
You're right that Zion was the difference in that game, but Duke has 4 first rounds picks on that team and Barrett and Jones were amazing last night too.
I watched with my good friend who did his divinity school at Duke. His response when we kept hanging around - "Damn I love this VT team."
Even our opponents recognized.
What a team. What a season.
Yes we can hang another moral victory banner for VT sports. But for the rest of the world, they will forget VT as soon as today and remember the winners. Since VT has never won a national championship in any sport every (and only one in the power five), we take pride in what others who have been to the mountain top as still four wins away. We just don't know how far away we are to celebrate.
I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there.
We were in the Sweet 16, and we made our presence known. We were on everyone's "March Madness" sheet, and if they didn't choose us to win a few games they lost points. In sports, even awareness that you exist at that level counts for something.
And if you wanted to know who was going to win that game, you had to stay to the last shot.
Just getting to the Sweet 16 is an accomplishment, not a "moral victory". And it's now Whit's mission to ensure that we have the coach to get us there again, whether it be Buzz or someone else.
Was a fun ride, and left us all wanting more.
That's NOT nothing.
This point exactly! I segue into this graphic from OX-VT's twitter:
That's some good company to be amongst
Agreed. No one is going to talk about "Remember that time UCF almost beat Duke but missed the last shot". Same thing
Eh, but you know UCF was in the dance, and you likely won't forget that.
And you know VT was in the sweet 16, and you're not likely to forget that, either.
I'm not likely to forget, but I'm a Tech fan and alumni. And I watched the UCF game. But I will forget UCF was in it. History books are written by and about the winners, not the almosts.
Well, true, but getting to the sweet 16 is something that is recorded and acknowledged.
And sports fans are always talking about stats. Getting to the sweet 16 is, in fact, a significant stat.
Well, if you watched that UCF game I don't know how you'd be likely to forget that Tacko Falls guy. He was absolutely an oddity of nature and I doubt I'll ever really forget him, and then, by extension, them almost beating Duke for us.
I'll forget it, I don't know who won last year only UMBC went to the dance last year. I don't know anything about the year before.
I remember a #1 seed who lost in the first round to a #16 seed.
They didn't win, but I still remember.
I think BOTH HITS & vtkey are correct.
I don't mean to be a sore loser...but how lucky is Duke? They've won the last two games on missed layups by their opponents.
I just know that the harder you work, the luckier you get.
In Duke's case, it might be "the more talent you have".
You're certainly not going to accidentally beat them. You're going to have to work your ass off and STILL get lucky.
Having an immense amount of talent and making the other team play the game of their life in order to beat you, is not luck.
Yeah, lucky we abandoned a winning strategy for the bulk of the second half...