Foster was followed by his assistant on that NIT championship team, Bobby Hussey, who presided for two seasons at the helm in Blacksburg. After Hussey was fired following a 10-17 season in 1997-98 and a 13-15 ledger in 1998-99, he was replaced by Ricky Stokes for four years. Stokes compiled a 46-69 record in his four seasons, missing out on conference tournament play in his final three seasons, when Virginia Tech was part of the Big East Conference, before being dismissed and replaced by current head coach Seth Greenberg. The Hokies were a member of the Atlantic-10 conference in both of Hussey’s two seasons in charge, as well as the first year of Stokes’ reign.

The women had an outstanding year back in 1995, in their Metro swan season. They compiled a 10-2 conference regular season record under former head coach Carol Alfano, before being upset in the first round of conference tournament play by Southern Mississippi. The Hokies then dispatched St. Joe’s in the opening round of the NCAA tournament before going down in the second round to future nemesis, and the # 1 ranked team in the country, Connecticut by a score of 91-45.

The fortunes of the two programs parted rather drastically soon afterward, only to merge again this season with both still alive in postseason play, albeit different tournaments with different stakes.

The women followed their ’95 season with two substandard seasons in which they compiled records of 11-17 and 10-21, which was enough evidence for former Athletic Director Dave Braine that the program needed a new steward. Braine replaced Alfano, who had been in charge of the Hokie program for nineteen years, with former assistant Bonnie Henrickson, who immediately reintroduced postseason play - along with twenty-win seasons - as a customary yearly occurrence. Henrickson stayed in Blacksburg for seven years, and the Hokies compiled twenty-win seasons in every one of those years. Henrickson led the program to five NCAA tournament appearances, along with two WNIT appearances. Her 1998-99 team advanced to the “Sweet Sixteen” of NCAA play.

The men’s program took a different road after the NIT championship. The following year, 1995-96, saw Foster guide the program to a 13-3 conference record in the A-10 and a 23-6 record overall. The Hokies were upset in the first round of the conference tournament by Rhode Island, only to bounce back and defeat Wisconsin-Green Bay in the first round of the NCAA tournament, before going down to eventual national champion Kentucky by a margin of 84-60.

The final Foster year in charge was 1996-97, when the Hokies went 15-16 while missing post-season play, before he turned the program over to Hussey for his two brief years, followed as I mentioned earlier by Stokes’ four years, all of which found the program sitting out post season play.

While both teams are still alive this season, the exposure each is getting could not be more different. After their opening round home victory against Temple, Greenberg’s men’s team is poised to go on the road and face a talented, and perhaps schizophrenic, Memphis team that will be defending their home court. Memphis has already won twenty games this season, but in doing so they have also already lost more games than Virginia Tech. The Hokies are 16-13 going into Saturday’s match up, while Memphis has lost fifteen games, some of them handily.

The Tigers have lost to Maryland by 23 on a neutral court. They have lost to three teams with losing records: Louisiana Tech by 9, Providence by 13 points, and Mississippi by 12, all at home. They were soundly beaten by Pittsburgh on a neutral court, by 19 points. The Tigers also lost to 9-21 St. Louis on the road late in the season when they were still a bubble team, and they went into their conference tournament on a four-game losing streak, only to advance to the championship game and lose to Louisville.

The Tigers are a very deep team with as much talent perhaps as any in the NIT field. They are also a maddeningly frustrating and inconsistent team that is capable of winning or losing almost any game on their schedule. The home court will help Memphis, but the more important question is which Memphis team will show up on Saturday.

The Virginia Tech women might have received the final at-large invitation into the NCAA tournament, and in doing so were awarded with a #12 seed and first round match up with # 5 seeded DePaul. The game will be played Sunday night in College Park, Maryland, and it should be interesting to see which Virginia Tech team shows up for that game as well. The women have quietly seen most of the attention thrust upon the men’s program this season, even though it has been the women who have carried the banner in postseason play in the past seven seasons. The Hokies take a 17-11 record into the DePaul game and were thought to have fallen off the bubble after their first round loss to tenth-seeded Wake Forest in the opening game of the ACC tournament. However, the NCAA committee probably looked at the very strong out-of-conference schedule that the Hokies played (#9 in the nation according to CollegeRPI.com), along with their strong RPI rating (#30), awarding them with one of the final berths in the tournament.

Under first year head coach Beth Dunkenberger, who will be coaching in her first postseason anywhere as a head coach, the Hokies saw their twenty-win season streak snapped at seven this year. They also were a team that seemed to be suffering the growing pains that are often associated with a change in coaches and styles. Where Henrickson was a proponent of a measured, controlled pace that depended on defense and execution in the half court offense, Dunkenberger’s style might be more conducive to one of applying pressure, along with a healthy dose of uptempo, fast-break basketball. At times, the players have seemed ready to emerge from the past into Dunkenberger’s desired style. At other times, they have reverted to the comfort level of the methodical, half-court approach that Henrickson so desired. That might be one of the reasons that the team has performed with more inconsistency than was expected by many.

Whatever the reason, for the Hokies to pull the first round upset over DePaul, they might need to take a page or two out of the Henrickson playbook and go back a little in time. DePaul finished the season 25-4, and they led the nation in scoring at 83.3 points per game. They also led the nation in assists with 19.3 per game and were the nation’s leading team in scoring margin at 22.7 points per game.

Playing in ACC territory should help the Hokies in this game. What they need to do most of all is to control the pace of the game, something that they have had uneven success with this season. DePaul has the depth and talent to go head to head with anyone this year in pushing the pace of the game and getting out and running. The Hokies have shown this year that they are starting to make the transition into becoming more of that same style program under Dunkenberger. For this game however, it might be better for the Hokies to revert back to those old habits that don’t die a quick death and keep the score lower.

For the men, it might be in finding that key that will unlock the door and allow the team to perform at a road venue in the manner we have become accustomed to seeing in Cassell Coliseum, where it is looking like the Hokies and their fans are starting to feel bulletproof. Memphis has not been that way defending their home turf this season, and what better time to make a post season statement that you can win at a venue other than Blacksburg?

Both programs can achieve their goals this weekend, one by proving they can still effectively operate using a past personality, while the other is looking to create a road demeanor and personality that will shape this postseason. To have both playing at the same time is a treat that all of us hope to see served regularly on the menu.