Virginia Tech's Marketing Events Team is helping to enhance the rowdy atmosphere in Cassell Coliseum for Virginia Tech Men's Basketball games

February 21, 2024

By: Miles Jordan

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        Cassell Coliseum is home to Virginia Tech’s Mens Basketball team, who faced off against their in-state rival, UVA, on Monday, February 19th, defeating them 75-41. 

 

        While head coach Mike Young and his team will take the credit for their handed victory against the Cavaliers, Virginia Tech’s student section, the Cassell Guard, also played a tremendous role in rattling Virginia as they came to visit Blacksburg. However, they would not have been able to do that without the help of Virginia Tech’s Marketing Events team, who supplies the student section with free Virginia Tech merchandise each  home game to get the fans more involved in the game. 

 

        “My favorite part about having this internship is impacting the games,” said Senior Marketing Events Intern Abigail Neff,  "For basketball, there are normally promotional items each game. For example, we’ve distributed tee shirts. For the white out game, there was a white tee shirt, and the blackout game had black tee shirts."

 

        Cassell has been known to be one of the hardest stadiums to play in simply due to how rowdy and intimidating the Cassell Guard can become. In a recent interview segment on ACC Network, North Carolina guard RJ Davis said, “The toughest road atmosphere would have to be Virginia Tech, just kind of how the way the court is set up and how the fans are super loud in there.” 

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        Virginia Tech’s Marketing Events team recently introduced a massive “Let's Go Hokies” banner that fills most of the student section right as the second half starts, which fired the crowd up, making Cassell even louder than imaginable. The Cavaliers witnessed this new tradition for the first time on the 19th, and it is safe to say, by the game's final score, that the Cassell Guard, with the help of the Marketing Events team, was extremely intimidating. 

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        “The inspiration behind the spirit tarp was to increase fan engagement regardless of the score at the time," Neff said, "I think getting the fans excited also gets the team excited and increases their enthusiasm, and I think the spirit tarp encourages that."

        It seems that Virginia Tech's team did get excited after the spirit tarp was revealed, as the Hokies outscored the Cavaliers by 14 points in the second half, which led to the largest victory over Virginia Tech’s in-state rivals since 1961, according to Hokie Sports.