Many colleges across the country have already had their opening night for basketball; and Eastern’s night of excitement was Tuesday.

Opening night at Lantz Arena pits the Panthers up against the University of Illinois-Chicago. All the months of wondering and working that Eastern has put into the basketball team for the 2003 season was for what took place last night.

The atmosphere in itself makes opening night so special to most college basketball fans. The excitement of not seeing a college basketball game for a matter of months is a welcome addition to the sports environment at any college or university.

This is especially the case for many of the states in the midwest, who unlike schools the other parts of the country really take their basketball tradition seriously.

Illinois and many other of the Midwestern states love basketball, especially the kind that hasn’t been tainted with the money that now dominates the NBA.

High school and college basketball even at schools that are not in major conferences or in the national championship picture look forward to the winter diversion that is college basketball.

There seems to be an innocence to college basketball and the smaller level schools in college basketball. When teams like Eastern and the other members of the Ohio Valley Conference deal with players who actually want to stay all four years in college basketball instead of jumping ship to the National Basketball Association, more passion is the result for the product on the court.

The term amateurs is not very often used for college basketball players who play at the highest level because many of those players will be leaving the college atmosphere very quickly for the much richer waters of the NBA.

These players are often taken care of since they hit stardom, at least in a scout’s eyes, midway through high school.

But here, players love the college atmosphere they want to win not only for themselves but for their coach and for the university they play for as well.

It is refreshing to see this after watching the greedy players of the NBA since October.

The smaller arenas fill up on chilly winter nights, and all of a sudden the entire place is warm with the excitement that is college basketball.

For those who truly love the game, this is it.

So here’s hoping that the excitement continues throughout the year as the Panthers youthful group of players learn the game and try to take the program to a higher level.