Collegiate Times

North Carolina guard Larry Drew II steals from Radford's Amir Johnson. Top-seeded UNC and Duke comprise the only remaining ACC competition.

I originally purchased tickets to the NCAA first and second rounds in Greensboro, N.C., with the hope that Virginia Tech would somehow make the field of 65 and find itself there come Selection Sunday.

That was at the start of January.

But as the end of the regular season neared and the Hokies' tournament chances faded, it became more apparent that my friend Will and I had really signed up to see what could only be described as my worst fear at the time - both North Carolina and Duke.

Greensboro would play host to four first-round match-ups on Thursday - No. 9 seed Butler against the No. 8 LSU Tigers, No. 16 Radford against the top-seeded Tar Heels, No. 10 seed Minnesota against seventh seed Texas and lastly No. 15 Binghamton - in their first Big Dance - against the No. 2 seeded Blue Devils. That would be followed by two second round match-ups played between the winners two days later.

In a desperate attempt to break away from the reality of the consolation prize that is the National Invitational Tournament, which had been haunting me as a Tech fan, I rolled up to the Greensboro Coliseum on Thursday in a cherry-red Radford SGA shirt (the equivalent to our maroon and orange effect shirts) that featured the lackluster slogan, "Dread the Red," complemented by "540" and "RU" painted on the sides of my cheeks.

The costume worked well enough to where I was high-fived and elbow bashed by every Radford fan that I passed in the mezzanine section or in the stands. The only appropriate thing I could ever think to say to them was, "There's always a chance!" implying that it was within the realm of possibility for the Highlanders to upset the Tar Heels and become the first 16th seed to ever beat a No. 1 seed.

It wasn't. The turnout for North Carolina was impressive and, at the same time, nauseating. At times it felt like a nightmare - thousands of front-running rednecks all around me, dressed in Carolina blue cheering for Tyler Hansbrough. It definitely made me cheer a little harder for Radford to do the unthinkable.

Of course, the game was never close.

And after sitting through a sloppy, anticlimactic opening game in which LSU soundly defeated the Bulldogs of Butler, one couldn't help but be a bit anxious, wanting to see something special. But instead, in predictable fashion, UNC won by 43.

The crowd, which was probably 85 percent Carolina fans, did not lose enthusiasm as the lead grew. You would've thought the Heels had won the national championship right then and there when Hansbrough hit a free throw early in the first half to break the Atlantic Coast Conference's career scoring record, surpassing former Duke sharp-shooter J.J. Redick.

Although their team did not seem to show up, several hundred RU fans made the two-and-a-half-hour drive from the New River Valley and proved to have the best showing out of any of the eight teams, save for national powerhouses North Carolina and Duke, of course.

As the sun set on the Greensboro skyline and the first session of games, the shirts of the majority fans in attendance seemed to darken from the light baby blue to a more royal blue. Still, it proved to be equally repulsive.

But first thing was first, and Texas easily defeated Minnesota in what was an appetizer for the Blue Devils' game. But the Longhorns' victory over the Golden Gophers was by far the most interesting game of the day in the eyes of a college basketball fan who had grown up watching the same east coast schools battle each other year after year.

It was a sound match-up between two generic Midwest teams that would only play each other in this area if they were in the tournament. The aura of Texas was particularly memorable. The fan section was full to the brim, the cheerleaders wore cowboy pants, and the classic Longhorn mascot seen on so many football sidelines in the fall now roamed the end lines of the court.

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