It's that time again. As I entered University Hall Friday night, I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the fact that college basketball officially was set to get underway in only a few hours. Granted, the first regular season game still is over a month away, but witnessing a couple of lay-up drills and three point contests was enough to get my basketball jones going. Fortunately for Virginia sports marketing and promotions, just seeing the team in uniform was enough to get me going, because it certainly wasn't the activities planned that drew me to U-Hall.
You will have to forgive me if a band of kids just entering puberty, a 40-year old, bald balloon man dancing around, a contest of catching more balloons in a hula hoop (which neither I nor my friends understood) and a paper airplane contest isn't the reason I came early. The free T-shirt handed out to the first 500 fans was that motivating factor.
While 1,000 or so fans were hypnotized by the flashing lights and sounds of Charlottesville's boy band, I roamed the lower halls of U-Hall. Not long after I passed by the men's locker room did I see coach Pete Gillen exit, headband in tow, with a smile that would suggest he has luckily forgotten all about last February and March.
No sooner had I bid Gillen adieu when I saw the rest of the team enter, filled with something that was lacking for much of last season -- laughter. Team chemistry, which was questioned during last season's demise, seemed to be restored as the players all walked in as a group, slapping each others' back and making jokes.
One might suspect it was simply because they were about to start a new season, or that they had to don a certain persona in front of thousands of fans. This is what I might have imagined had I not had the chance to visit with all the players the day before during Virginia's annual media day.
Amid questions of "what happened last year" and "what will the attitude be this season" you could hear one player's voice above all in the small media room. Sophomore Elton Brown was loud and clear about what he imagines the team will be like this season.
"We are a family, man," Brown let all in hearing distance know. "I hate when people ask about what happened last year. If you are gonna judge us, judge us by what we are gonna do this year. We are all one group."
Players drove this point home as they lined up on the new V-sabre floor for team pictures. My experience with most college teams told me that the players would be tiring of seeing the media's faces when the time came for The Cavalier Daily to take pictures of the team (which was about three hours after media day started -- a long time in college basketball players' world). But as we took pictures of each player, they continued joking and playing, seemingly enjoying each other's presence. It didn't look like the devastating loss to South Carolina last season was still haunting any of them.
Even more surprising was when the photos were "technically" done, the players offered to put on a show of spectacular dunks (better than anything we saw on Friday night), all the while slapping hands and talking smack. The most enjoyable part of it all was the fact that the entire team was together, and they seemed excited about the fact that they would spend the next six months around each other. Whether that fact will help translate into wins, who knows? It's a little too early to tell.
But newcomer Devin Smith's smile said it all Thursday afternoon and Friday night. He told me he was excited by the prospect of being surrounded by almost 9,000 fans this season when Duke and Maryland come into town, and this weekend was only the beginning.
Let's just hope he didn't get a chance to see any of midnight madness at Kansas (his second choice during his recruiting process in the spring). They filled up Allen Fieldhouse for "Late Night for Roy Williams," (over 15,000 screaming fans) and I guarantee it wasn't because they featured the excitement of the balloon man and a 13-year-old local band. But I digress, that story is for another column. Let's just be glad basketball is finally upon us.
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