Doug McKinney | Staff Writer

3/08/02

With about 4 minutes to play, after yelling out "Yeah C-Wat" for about the umpteenth time, I remained standing. I carried a confident smile on my face, as I knew the Highlanders would come out of this game as winners over Coastal Carolina. I slowly turned my head around carrying that same smile, as I began to do something that I tried to do before the game. I was looking for something. I wasn't looking for the scoreboard because I was well aware of RU's nine-point lead. I wasn't looking for any food vendor because I knew at a Big South Quarterfinal game you had to get up to get food (this isn't the ACC tourney). I wasn't looking for any young attractive girls; well maybe I was a little. But I was looking for the answer to my question of how important is school spirit. I was looking for two fans from the Big South message board on Espn.com and I only knew their post names. I had no clue of what they looked like, no idea where they were sitting, or even if they were there.

As the seconds ran down and I began to celebrate I turned around for one last time to look at two suspects who sported Winthrop t-shirts that had caught my eye earlier. I gave them a quick glance and realized I hit the jackpot. I noticed the Maryland hat on one of the guys and as my group of friends asked if I was ready to go, I totally ignored them to run up to the back row in the first section and finally meet my rivals. On my way up to greet them the confident smile transformed into a smile of awe.

So I reached out my hand to the man wearing the Maryland hat and confirmed that I knew who it was by saying his post name and he acknowledged by saying my post name in reply. I turned to ask who his friend was and with a smile his friend introduced himself, and of course it had to be one of my most heated rival posters on the board. So we talked briefly about how it was nice to finally meet each other, our thoughts on the games played today, and if we have seen any other posters. They brought up the point that High Point, the #7 seed that sent home the Highlanders early, looked very good in their win and we should be careful. If any other RU fan would've heard that they would've thought that these two guys were just keeping message board character by sticking up for their team and downing Radford, but I knew it was some damn good advice. And in all actuality I wish our team were there to hear that. As we departed our separate ways and shook hands, I carried that same smile of amazement, and told them "we will see you in the championship game," not knowing that was the last time I would see them.

When talking to them through the message board I thought of them as rivals. When leaving the building and heading to the car in the damn near freezing weather, I realized they were true basketball fans. I tried to tell my friends what just took place and how awesome it was, but there was no way they could understand. All I thought about on the way home was what would be the first thing I was going to post on the board and of course how sweet Correy Watkins is. So when I did post my message to reveal to the board that Radford won and that I did meet two of the board's own, I decided to write on what I and 20 other posters, not to mention the fair-weathered ones, (I know you posters will like that one) have gone through all year long.

So leading into this week's column, I need to give a little background. I've been a huge college basketball fan my whole life and growing up in Maryland I have been a huge Terps fan my whole life. Just watching them and guys like Dick Vitale broadcast the games, it was revealed early on that I wanted to live around college basketball. Anywho, a few weeks into my first semester at Radford U, I happened to be surfing the espn.com profile page of Radford U. It was a pretty lame excuse of a profile page compared to the likes of the coverage on my Terps, but the link to the RU message board got my attention. I clicked over and didn't see too many messages. So I typed in my login and password from my fantasy games and I was in. I posted from time to time the first week until I stumbled on a post from a Radford fan titled "Help Radford Fans!" and being the school spirited guy I am I clicked on the link he gave. And there I was: the Big South Message Board.

I examined over the posts seeing how much support there was for each school. So for weeks I began posting, hyping up the Radford team in the upcoming season. I began to realize who to talk to, who to side with, who to disagree with, who were my rivals, who were the drunken posters that made no sense (that was me from time to time), and so on. In seeing how much support these guys gave to their schools I began to question the school spirit at Radford University. (I'll go into that topic later in the future) Nevertheless, hearing negative remarks by students and alumni from other schools about my team, my interest in RU basketball increased as well as my interest in the board.

Since September of 2001 I have been posting on the Big South board and have been through a lot. Early on my computer was broken for around 2 months, and I would jump from dorm room to dorm room just to review the many posts I missed. But finally the wait was over: I got to use my computer again and in addition college basketball season was here. I couldn't tell you the average of posts the board had received on a given day. From the board alone, I've found out who are the incoming recruits for RU next year to what hotel everyone coming up for the game was staying at. That's how I found out Winthrop Alumni Jeremy Dunlap, the guy bearing the Maryland hat, was from Maryland. I saw one person stand out in a crowd of 2,000 just because I read a post he had. I found out that other school fans that came up to RU home games sat right in front of me. I found out recaps of RU away games.

I found out from the message board that for the next two years the tournament will be held in Lynchburg, VA at the most northern Big South school, Liberty. This will mark the fourth year straight the BSC tournament has been held in the state of Virginia. Now I thought I was a huge college basketball fan but those who made the trip up from South Carolina and such to this year's tournament, deserve a pat on the back where most of the RU faithful couldn't even drive 30 minutes up 81 to root for their team, the host school of the tournament. (Like I said I'll talk about RU spirit in a later column) It's not such a bad trip for us Radford fans, but then again I go to school in Virginia. Others disagree.

"I think the tournament should be in a Neutral location that is CENTRALLY located for the entire conference.  That way you can maximize the amount of people that will come.  I mean, seriously, how many Coastal or Charleston Southern fans will drive the 6-8 hours to go to a tournament in Lynchburg," Oldham states.

I never would've found out about next year's tournament if it weren't for the board. That brings me to the point on how much technology has made this all possible. Dunlap, a 2000 Winthrop graduate comments, "I find the message board to be very useful. Though the media at large has become much better at covering the smaller conferences, nothing beats first person accounts and analysis of games and teams."

Obviously us smaller conferences don't get as much attention as we deserve, but I think its safe to say us message board posters have done a good job broadcasting information via the board.

"Without the board, I know I would not have followed or understood the conference as well as I do now," Dunlap continued.

Throughout the year the board has featured many heated rivalries. In my opinion, I think the Radford/Winthrop one was brought up throughout much of the year, where WU could turn to their three in a row championship wins and where the RU faithful could turn to their 2-0 record against Winthrop this year. I remember in the closing minutes of the RU home game against Winthrop, RU had a large lead and us RU fans sitting behind the WU bench started waving our keys in the air and chanting "warm up the bus," and pointing towards the door.

After Gregg Marshall, the Winthrop coach received a technical foul, and the chants got louder, he soon turned around and started responding to the fans. I am not at liberty (no not the last place team) to say what he said but I do think it's pretty cool how we were that loud that we stirred a response from a coach. But seeing that there are nine teams in the conference there have been many great rivalries.

Adam Oldham, a 1997 graduate from Elon University (then it was Elon College) says, "The biggest arguments stemmed from High Point and Elon fans talking about sports at each school, the history of the programs between the two, and the past results of games dating back to the 1920's."

Oldham also thought UNC Asheville was a rival with Winthrop. I think it's fair to say that Winthrop was the powerhouse of this year and they did win the championship for the fourth year so I guess I can see why the rivals are there for Eagles fans.

Dunlap agrees by saying, ³There seems to be a big rivalry between Winthrop and everybody else.  Winthrop has some cocky fans so there tends to be a lot of friction between us and the other schools.²

However like the revelation of meeting Jeremy and "Shoes" and finding out what nice guys they are, there was one time when the Big South fans came together to defend their conference. The Southern Conference posters had leaked into the Big South board and while ESPN gives the freedom of speech they took it too far. Some of their fans commented on how poor the RPI was of the lower teams in the Big South, how we get run over by the So.Co teams, and how we don't even deserve the little respect we get. No matter if you were worst enemies, best friends, or brand new posters to the BS board, we all fought off the SoCo posters and to be honest they've been quiet since. I think they were quite surprised to see the amount of spirit we had and the fight we gave to prove our point.

"I find it fairly important for there to be some school spirit at these smaller schools because nobody else is going to help you out.  You aren't going to be on TV and you aren't going to be known around the country, but if you are out there, supporting the team, then people will realize that the school and its students take pride in where they go," Dunlap states.

I, along with pretty much most of the rest of board, nominated Dunlap as the fairest poster on the board. Even though he is from Winthrop (you can now see why I didn't deserve to be nominated), he always presents the accurate facts, brings up strong points, always takes time to respond without being too argumentive, and always seems to bring the board to a calm when it is needed. On the other hand, we have some fans that have been very unfair, but that wouldn't be fair if I were to list the nominations.

I strongly recommend all RU fans, let alone Big South and college basketball fans, to head over to the Big South board at Espn.com (http://boards.espn.go.com/cgi/ncaa/request.dll?LIST&room=ncb_bsou) and state your opinion.

If you're not convinced heed the words of one poster, whose post name shall be left unknown (to give a hint it has to do something with a certain school I go to implying we choke), whom says "is this board useful? No. But enjoyable? Yes." This certain poster has been around since Mid-January but has definitely made a name for himself by stirring up insults of every other team except for Winthrop, especially like I said my own school. He makes a good point by saying "where else can you really talk about Big South sports without people saying who gives a crap. It may not seem like it but I'm pretty unbiased as a sports fan in any sport. I just like to get peoples heads boiling. It's pretty funny to do so. I think most people are fair in here, just get blinded by their school spirit sometimes.²

I've been one of the posters who have had my head boiled over his comments, but nevertheless he makes some great points. Most of what comes out of the board has been great things, because I've really gained so much from this board. I've gained knowledge of the teams in the BSC. I've grown to Radford basketball and gained aspects on how to carry more school spirit. But most importantly, I think it's fair to say I've gained valuable friends and rivals, who can call themselves basketball fans like myself. And I assure you if I do see Dunlap and "Shoes" at next year's tournament in Lynchburg, I will say the exact same thing I did this year, "we'll see you in the championship."

Next year I'll be saying it and hopefully it will actually happen so I can bring back my confident smile.