The Roanoke Times from Roanoke, Virginia • 25

The Roanoke Times game back where it belongs Roanoke? Richmond? Ricky Stokes never quite understood the geography of the Virginia Virginia Tech basketball series played football on campus" Stokes said teams played basketball on campus I used to wonder why we were Stokes has swapped sides from UVa guard to Hok ies coach in the se ries which returns to campus tonight at Cassell Coliseum the 115th game in a rivalry that has been played for 67 straight seasons dribbled in nine different cities since 1915 but in nei ther home for 24 years back where it belongs A decade ago you have said that Winning big programs were making more money with sellouts in Roanoke and Richmond Then Virginia became a football crazed common wealth hiGoing to Cassell tonight? Watch out for the cobwebs In 1985 86 Tech had a then typical six ear splitting sellouts It has had only three in the last 10 sea sons the last a Xavier visit in ebruary 1996 57 games ago jjlThe steep setting when filled with partisans can be a Ralph Sampson sized sixth man I with Tech students gone for Thanksgiving break the game is within a few hundred $20 ticket sales of a sell out of 10052 Much of that is thanks to playing a preliminary to Saturday UVa Tech football date at neigh boring Lane Stadium Tech athletic director Jim Weaver pushed to return the hoops series to collegiate sites in hopes of providing a needed draw for a low interest pro gram irst time Big East visitors will warm Cassell this winter too Virginia with longtime ACC visitors need such a spectator spike would have preferred to keep the neutral UVa AD Terry Hol lAnd said of talks that at one time con sidered a return to two dates annually in Richmond and alternating between Blacksburg and Charlottesville ever this is probably the right thing to dfoS fe or the last four UVa Tech games three in Richmond and at the Roanoke Civic Center in the av erage crowd was 6882 There has been only one sellout in the past decade 10056 in the Star City in lWhile Stokes says for rivalry game you could have two people in the stands and play shirts and the atmosphere for a series that starred Buzzy Wilkinson Allan Bristow Wally Walker Glen Combs Dell Curry and Sampson deserves better than a half ejnpty house Holland and Weaver agreed to a five year plan finishing neutral last sea son in Richmond a UVa overtime win then two and two on campus 1 we can get it going and take it back to neutral sites Holland said I Weaver wants the game to stay at Cassell and University Hall just happen to believe a rivalry game belongs on the Tech AD said jStill playing the hoops game on the football eve means one of the games wyi be played in the shadow of the oth er So this one dribbles in tonight Weaver likes the twin bill weekend pointing out lorida and lorida State have played their men's hoops match oh the eve of a giant football rivalry for several years Ji Historically this one has a tough apt to follow The last UVa Tech game at Cassell was a 74 73 win on Larry jumper with nine seconds left in first season as coach The last on campus tipoff for the two was 79 75 double qvertime win at Hall on eb 25 1976 That team went on to win only ACC Tournament championship Yes each was a sellout Jack Bogaczyk can be reached at 981 3124 or Jackbroanokecom JACK BOGACZYK Si Sports LANCERS COME TOGETHER C4 LIONS VI KES WIN C6 NEW ENORCER C7 OUTDOORS CS Sports newsonline or the latest sports news and scores go online at reaMketlaetcen 4 sBIDAY NQVEMBER 242000' at 4 Jr iSECTIONC UVa Tech rivalry back in Blacksburg Hokies stoked for home game GENTRY THE ROANOKE TIMES Virginia Tech basketball coach Ricky Stokes has also played in the Tech UVa series Players and coaches are looking forward to hosting their in state nemesis By MARK BERMAN THE ROANOKE TIMES Ricky Stokes has played in Virginia Virginia Tech basket ball games in Roanoke and Richmond Today he gets to coach in the game without leaving town The ri valry moves to Cassell Coliseum for the first time in 25 years when Hokies play host to the No 25 Cavaliers at 7 pm adds special meaning" said Stokes a former UVa guard have some electricity in the air playing on campus Our fans sure will be crazed sure our kids will thrive off the Tech which plays host to UVa in football Saturday is hoping for its first basketball sellout since a 1996 loss to Massachusetts This is the first of four straight years that the rivals will square off in Blacksburg or Charlottesville instead of at a neutral site The teams last met College in an on campus arena basketball in a 1976 game at UVa report C2 Tech athletic director Jim Weaver suggested to UVa counterpart Terry Holland that the series return to on campus sites rival games need to be played on Weaver said gives more students an opportunity to see it and playing it in conjunction with the football game gives a lot of our fans from across the common wealth the opportunity to get two 4 events in one trip Hopefully end up selling it out and have a great crowd and an enthusiastic 1 crowd we do it four years step buck and take a look and evalu ate it and see best I per 1 sonally believe it belongs on campus Why do we need to go and rent a fa cility when each of us have a pretty decent The Hokies (1 1) are looking forward to facing UVa (2 0) at Cassell going to make the rivalry more Tech junior center Dennis Mims said it at PLEASE SEE RIVALRYC2 Emmett Johnson has become the No 1 receiving option Catching an opportunity Johnson leads Virginia Tech in 4 major receiving categories after little action in his first 2 years By RANDY KING THE ROANOKE TIMES BLACKSBURG Until re cently split end Emmett greatest claim to fame in the Virginia Tech foot ball program had been his liv ing arrangement Johnson you see shares an address with the most fa mous guy in town some dude named Vick with Michael Vick is a whole lot of said Johnson of the nation ally recognized star sophomore quarterback is always joking around making every body laugh all the time a Speaking of trips Johnson now has his own route on the map Since Tech lost big play flanker Andre Davis to injury 3 'a games ago Johnson had no choice but to merge into the passing lane and become the sixth ranked No 1 re ceiving option the go to guy Vick said most im portant thing now is he knows the guy So that gives him confidence he can go out there and beat anybody and I think he can beat anybody So Em mett a guy looking for all the After two years of bit duty the junior from Chesapeake had three receptions for 10 yards his freshman season and 10 catches for 147 yards last year Johnson finds himself leading the Hokies in all four major receiving categories receptions (28) yards (503) yards per catch (180) and touchdowns (three) Not eye popping statistics but nonethe less significant numbers for an offense lived on the ground and ranks 100th in the nation in passing felt like for the team I had to step up and play my said Johnson the only Tech receiver to record at least PLEASE SEE J0HNS0NC3 am St 1 WE A ai gene DALTON THE ROANOKE TIMES Virginia Tech receiver Emmett Johnson has size at 6 3 and speed running 40 yards in 43 seconds Hokies rely on junior varsity team to develop players Cavs do not Virginia Tech's training ground By DOUG DOUGHTY THE ROANOKE TIMES It has been almost 20 years since his last year as the head football coach at the Na val Academy that George Welsh has had the benefit of a junior varsity program He only needs to look at Virginia Tech to see what been missing You don't have to scratch the Tech roster too far to find a player who has experi ence on the JV team Pile Kadela many guys in here have played in a JV Tech offensive line coach Bryan Stinespring asked Thurs day counting hands at a position meeting 10 out of 13 What does that tell you? take a guy like offen sive guard Matt Lehr At the point in his career when he played in a JV game just get ting 50 plays whoever it was against was invaluable to PLEASE SEE JAYVEE7C3 I Beamer to UNC? Talks I on hold for now Any contact rank Beamer and North Carolina have will to wait 1 until after the UVa game By ROB DANIELS IAN0MARK NEWS SERVICE rank Beamer has emerged as North top football coaching candidate but the process of convincing him to leave Virginia Tech and come to Chapel Hill is on hold until at least Sunday the day after the Hokies host regular season finale Highly re garded and connected UNC athletics contributors and people close to the 54 year old coach said his lawyer has suoken with Carolina officials this week but has made it clear that face to I face talks are off limits until 7:30 pm contest is i finished and analyzed In Tues 1 weekly press conference I in Blacksburg Beamer was most adamant about one thing: interested solely in pre I paring for the Cavaliers at this point i A person familiar with the search said the deal is not a certainty Even if an agreement were to be reached before Sat urday it would be killed if it became public knowledge i Therefore any talks will take a Thanksgiving recess I Beamer is the only coach with whom UNC is known to have had direct or indirect con tact The contact in this case has been through agent Craig Kelly an attorney from Cohim bia SC This represents the third consecutive season and the fourth in five years in which Beamer has been the target of I outside interest i In 1996 Alabama inquired before hiring Mike DuBose which announced his impend ing departure three weeks ago In 1998 Auburn made a pitch for Beamer before hiring Tommy Tuberville from Missis sippi and Clemson made pre liminary inquiries considering Beamer a backup in case talks with Tommy Bowden failed They but Beamer wound up with a raise to a current an nual package of $750000 Virginia in Beamer Tn A ga PLEASE SEE BEAMERCJ I fe:.