March 21, 2001
By Bill Roth

Here's something for you to chew on as you sit down to watch the NCAA Tournament this week.

If you didn't know, Penn State spent 11 relatively mediocre seasons in the Atlantic 10 conference, compiling a record of 87-101 (.462) with its best season coming in 1990 when the team finished second in the league with a 13-5 record. These are some numbers - and a program - worth examining when you consider that Penn State is now in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 following an upset victory over a powerhouse North Carolina team.

The win can't be ruled a fluke when you consider Penn State has wins over both Michigan State and Illinois this season - both are number one seeds in this year's tournament. Penn State also won at Kentucky earlier this year and beat Temple at home as well. Any team that beat Michigan State, Illinois, Temple and Kentucky is legit, considering all four of those teams are also in the Sweet 16.

It took Penn State 10 years to make its mark as a basketball program worth noting in the Big Ten, although the Lions have had some success in the NIT. They advanced to New York and the semifinals of that tournament in 1990, 1995 and 1998.

Penn State's basketball program is worth watching for Tech supporters because of the many similarities it shares with the Hokies'. We've drawn the comparison between Tech and PSU before in these pages, but usually when comparing the football programs, coaching staffs, campus topographies and overall settings.

By the numbers, Virginia Tech was a more successful Atlantic 10 team than Penn State. The Hokies finished with a .500 conference record during their five years as a member of Linda Bruno's seemingly ever-changing league (40-40). And Tech, it should be noted, compiled that record when the Atlantic 10 was at its strongest -sending four or five teams to the NCAA Tournament each year. Penn State didn't have to deal with a Massachusetts program that was a national power or other ranked teams like Xavier or George Washington - a team which was a bottom feeder in the late 1980's.

The overall point here is that had Penn State stayed in the Atlantic 10, could this program have made the NCAA's Sweet 16 or recruited players capable of winning a game at Kentucky? Likely not.

Two big things happened for Penn State basketball.

First, in 1993, Penn State began playing Big Ten basketball as that league's 11th member. Then, in 1996, the school opened the $55-million, 15,261-seat Bryce Jordan Center on its campus in State College.

Like Penn State, the Hokies have basically treaded water in the big pool of college basketball mediocrity for 20 years. Tech has won a grand total of one (yep, one) NCAA Tournament game in the past 20 years and haven't come close to getting an official visit from a top-50 national recruit or (gasp) Dick Vitale during that period.

Not to rub it in here, but you know the score. Who have been Virginia's top high school players over the past 15 years? Grant Hill, Alonzo Mourning, Curtis Staples, Allen Iverson, George Lynch, J.R. Reid, etc. Not one of 'em considered Tech, and without those players, Dickie V. and his cameras drove right by Blacksburg to Raleigh, Winston-Salem or Charlottesville. Penn State got better players by being in the Big Ten and -logically - Tech should get better players by being in the BIG EAST.

You could counter-argue that Penn State also built a facility that could compare favorably to the new buildings at Ohio State or Michigan State, and thus, the Lions' coaches have a big edge - a state-of-the-art facility - that Tech's Ricky Stokes and staff don't have. Now, if you like food courts, super boxes and a Ruth's Chris in the lobby, then you won't like Cassell Coliseum. But as a basketball facility, it's got the locker rooms, replay screens and amenities that make it a fine home court for Tech.

Sure, Penn State is by no means a hoops power in the Big Ten. The Lions were 7-9 in the league this year and their best mark was 9-9 during the 1994-95 season. But Penn State has built a nice program that wins its share of games, is more than competitive in one of the country's top leagues and draws well from its students and supportive community in State College.

There's no reason Virginia Tech can't do the same thing in Blacksburg.

Here come the Irish
Notre Dame's baseball team - ranked eighth in the nation - makes its first ever trip to Blacksburg this weekend for a doubleheader with Chuck Hartman's Hokies. Tech opened BIG EAST play with a three-game sweep of Boston College this past weekend.

"I told our guys before the season that sweeps would be a plus, so to get one in our very first conference series was a real plus," Hartman said.

With their first seven BIG EAST games scheduled for English Field, the Hokies hope to get off to a quick start in their new league.

"I felt like we really dominated Boston College, especially in the pitching department," he said.

The Hokies rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win 13-5 in the series finale and they sit atop the league standings with a 3-0 mark.

"We've got eight or nine guys hitting the ball really well right now, which is a big improvement from earlier when only four or five guys were swinging the bats well," Hartman said.

Tech will play a doubleheader with St. John's on Friday before welcoming the Irish to town Sunday.

"I just hope we can get them in," Hartman said with one eye on The Weather Channel. "It will be an interesting weekend for us and we'll really know how we match up with the top teams in this league after this coming weekend."

Although the plans could change, Hartman plans to throw Jason Bush (3-2, 3.62 ERA) and Joe Saunders (2-2, 4.76) against St. John's and then Ian Ostlund (4-1, 2.73)and Chip Runyon (0-0, 3.20) against Notre Dame.

"We're tough to beat at English Field, and I think this will be a very exciting weekend for us," he said.

Tech is 6-1 at home this year and has won five of its past six games overall heading into the weekend series.

One Final Note
During the final Advance Auto Parts Hokie Hotline of the year, Tech men's basketball coach Ricky Stokes and I made our Final Four projections. If you weren't listening, those choices were:

Roth - Duke, Maryland, Michigan State and Arizona.
Stokes - Florida, Iowa State, Illinois and Duke.

With a steak dinner on the line, ye ole Voice has all four teams still alive whereas Coach is already making reservations at Morton's having seen the Gators and Cyclones bow out during the tournament's first weekend.

We'll see how it turns out. But for the record, Roth has Arizona and Stokes has Duke to win it all!

On the Air in Danville
Good news for Tech fans in the Danville area.

Radio station WDVA-AM 1250 has signed a multi-year contract to carry Virginia Tech football and basketball games and the Advance Auto Parts Hokie Hotline on Monday nights.

Danville has been one of the areas where our Tech ISP Sports Network staff has focused its attention over the past few months, so we're happy to welcome WDVA and station manager Larry Smith to the network.

Hopefully, we'll have more good news in the coming weeks on other stations throughout the state who are joining Tech's radio network.

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The Roth report appears weekly in hokiesports.com-the newspaper and is posted for the general public on hokiesports.com.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Virginia Tech Athletics Department, hokiesports.com, or it's advertisers.