MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - My fading memory can still recall my first visit to the West Virginia University Coliseum to see Gale Catlett's Mountaineers play third-ranked Notre Dame on Feb. 17, 1979.
 
At the time, it was the largest crowd to ever watch a college basketball game in the state of West Virginia … 15,118, as I recall. That exceeded by nearly 2,000 the prior Coliseum best of 13,323 who came out to watch Kentucky outlast West Virginia, 106-100, in the third game ever played in the arena in 1970.
 
I remember sitting as close to the dome of the Coliseum as humanly possible in the upper reaches of the student section, where the action happening on the court was sometimes secondary to whatever college students in the late 1970s were doing back then.
 
But on this night, everyone was focused on the action taking place down below, particularly in the first half when the scrappy Mountaineers had Digger Phelps' Fighting Irish down 28-25 at halftime.
 
The atmosphere was fantastic. The pep band was spot-on, the cheerleaders were tremendous, and it was loud - very, very loud. It was a Saturday night game, but I swear my ears were still ringing when I went to school on Monday morning.
 
I came back to the Coliseum several times afterward, including some of those early 80s games when Catlett got things going. I wasn't at the Coliseum for the Pitt game in 1982 when a record 16,704 (more than 2,000 over capacity) stuffed themselves into the arena to see the Mountaineers outlast the Panthers, 82-77, but I remember listening to the game on the radio and feeling the excitement and electricity in the building.
 
I wasn't there for the Sunday afternoon game against No. 1-ranked UNLV, which brought out 15,638, but I watched that game on television and was amazed at how chaotic things seemed to be for veteran coach Jerry Tarkanian, who remarked to Catlett when they met before the game, "Gale, how in the hell did you ever talk me into coming here to play you guys?"
 
That's an accurate quote because Catlett told me that years later.
 
By the late 1980s, I was getting paid to come to the games so I was there for all of those memorable encounters with Temple when John Chaney had the Owls at the top of the polls; I was there for the UMass game in 1995 when the No. 1-ranked Minutemen came back from 18 points down to win the game in overtime; I was there for all of those Pitt matchups that usually reached capacity, and I was there for the first Big East game ever played in the Coliseum against Georgetown on Dec. 2, 1995.
 
More than 15,000 showed up for that one to see the Mountaineers fail to hang on to a double-digit lead and lose in overtime.
 
I was there for the great victory over sixth-ranked Connecticut in 1998 when Dick Vitale turned the WVU student section into his personal mosh pit.
 
I was among the 14,160 who showed up to see West Virginia knock off second-ranked UCLA, 70-65, at the Coliseum on Feb. 10, 2007.
 
And I was around for Bob Huggins' big wins against Syracuse in 2008, Marquette in 2009, Ohio State, Louisville and Pitt in 2010, and Purdue, Connecticut, Louisville and Villanova in 2011. More recently, I was there for his memorable victories over Kansas in 2014, 2016 and 2017, as well as the win earlier this year against Oklahoma.
 
All of them were exciting, electric and enthusiastic.
 
But what we witnessed on Saturday night with ESPN College GameDay and Kentucky here was the atmosphere of atmospheres in this building, as far as I am concerned.
 
In the past, the excitement was always generated by the students. There was hardly any prerecorded music playing before and during games, and the pregame introductions were done in a traditional manner with the band playing after each player was announced.
 
During the opposing team introductions, the students shouted insults in unison as each player ran out onto the floor.
 
It was fun and exciting, but much, much different.
 
These days, the atmosphere is more the result of the outstanding work put forth by West Virginia University's sports marketing staff, led by Matt Wells and Nathaniel Zinn.
 
When the lights go out, the fans now have their LED light sticks and downloadable cell-phone apps to wave around making the place resemble that concert scene from the movie "Apocalypse Now."
 
Hell, back in the day if you turned the lights off in the Coliseum it would have taken 2 ½ hours just to get them back on!
 
They've had the Red Panda, a dog dribbling a basketball while a dude does headstands, magic acts, dunk teams, stirring renditions of the national anthem, terrific pregame entrance videos and just about anything else imaginable today that helps make the WVU Coliseum such a memorable place to watch a college basketball game.
 
ESPN's Maria Taylor tweeted this Saturday night: "Seriously, one of the best game day atmospheres I've ever seen!"
 
Kentucky, which treats basketball like a religion and is no stranger to great atmospheres at Rupp Arena, tweeted this before tipoff, "Props to @wvuhoops. Pretty electric atmosphere in here. We'll have our hands full tonight, but this is why you come to Kentucky for games like this."
 
Kentucky player Kevin Knox was equally impressed with the big-time environment he took part in on Saturday night. "I love atmospheres like this. I love playing away games and I love going against people on the road," he said.
 
Kentucky's John Calipari, who has been in this place many times before, was once again complimentary of WVU's passionate fans, "To come on the road and be down (17) … in this environment, means we're growing up," he said.
 
ESPN's Jay Bilas, who has been everywhere, simply tweeted this:
 

pic.twitter.com/ZV6EyYjQfT

— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) January 28, 2018

 
And that pretty much sums up the Coliseum atmosphere.
 
The only thing missing is the "Moon Shot," but knowing Matt and Nate, that could one day be in the works if they can get a willing sponsor, unlike Jackie Moon:
 
At any rate, great job WVU sports marketing!

And great job Mountaineer fans for continuing to make the WVU Coliseum one of the truly outstanding venues in college basketball!