Buzzketball Looks to Make Up Ground in Year Two

The beginning of Virginia Tech's media day felt oddly familiar for an event that's supposed to signify the start of of a new basketball season. The same group of reporters piled into the same tiny interview room buried in the bowels of Cassell Coliseum in order to talk to the coach that they've spent the last year and a half conversing with.

The only thing off was that Buzz Williams was wearing a suit, something that he'd have sweated through long before he sits in that same seat a month from now after the Hokies' first game against Alabama State.

But in that press conference, just like in this one, he'll answer the same questions about some of the tall tasks facing his team. Problems, you'll notice, that are quite similar to ones Tech faced a year ago.

What can Virginia Tech do about its lack of size, and how will it impact their major rebounding deficiencies?

Is this team deep enough to handle injuries that come their way?

How steep will the learning curve be for the six players that haven't worn maroon and orange on the basketball court?

How can the Hokies avoid finishing last in the ACC for a fifth straight season?

All valid questions, and all ones that look like they bring Williams discomfort. He grimaces when talking about the offseason knee injury to forward Ahmed Hill. He cuts his eyes when he briefly mentions that JUCO transfer Ty Outlaw will miss the entire season due to a medical condition. He concentrates intently when describing his squad's focus on "getting better," but looks down when acknowledging that he doesn't want them to focus on certain specifics.

"We had our own get better cards, what are we trying to get better at, what does that look like," Buzz explained. "On the floor, off the floor, without using numbers. Because I think numbers sometimes set you up for failure."

Spoken like a man going out of his way to avoid artificially raised expectations.

And there's reason for cautiousness. The team lost last season's leading scorer (Adam Smith) to transfer and one of their few big men (Christian Beyer) to graduation. The injuries to Hill and Outlaw put a huge dent in the depth on the wing, and the dearth of post players is still as present as it ever was.

On top of all that, the overall lack of experience for a team with a full load of scholarship guys is pretty jaw dropping. Seven of the theoretically 13 rotation players are underclassmen, another two are junior college signees in their first D1 season, and two more haven't played in over a year due to transfer rules. In other words, there is ONE holdover from the last year of the James Johnson era, and that same player (Devin Wilson) is the only person in the whole locker room who's been on campus for longer than two years.

Those are a lot of things all stacked up against this team and their path to success, but don't let any of it fool you. This roster is markedly better than a year ago, and could quite possibly be the most talented unit to set foot in Blacksburg since Malcolm Delaney and Jeff Allen departed.

The Hokies may have lost Smith, a tweener/volume scorer who struggled on defense, but replace him with Seth Allen. The former Maryland guard has already proved himself on the ACC level. He scored 13.4 points a game during his sophomore season in College Park, and looked to be a key cog in Mark Turgeon's development of the Terrapin program. In fact, the redshirt junior does much of what Smith once did for the team but at a slightly higher level.

Though Smith posted a career high season from three point range (42.4%, 81 of 191), his lack of size (both height and weight) meant that he needed a lot of help getting his shot off. Be it through numerous screens or simply isolating on his man for an extended period of time, his numbers often came at the cost of bogging down the rest of the offense.

Allen provides a comparable lethality from distance (38%), but is a more complete player. Though both are listed at 6-1, Allen is 20 pounds heavier and doesn't have to stand on his tippy toes to reach six feet. He's better equipped to handle the contact and physicality that'll come in conference play. Add his better floor vision to the fact that he can't possibly be as bad on defense means if the newcomer plays up to his potential, there's an opportunity for an upgrade at the position.

Speaking of improvements, look at the other 2014-2015 departures and their replacements. Beyer, Will Johnston and Malik Mueller turned into freshmen Justin Robinson (who may be the only point guard on the roster that's a threat to both score and assist), Kerry Blackshear (a mobile big man with a jumper) and Chris Clarke (a hyper-athletic wing who can defend multiple positions). Not a bad trade for two former walk-ons and a guard asked to play power forward.

Add in relatively unknown center Johnny Hamilton and forward Zach Leday to the mix, and all of a sudden you're looking at a team with players at every position. The additional team members fill in holes everywhere, including ball handler. For the first time in years there's depth at point guard with Allen, Wilson and Robinson. This not only means that Wilson won't have to play a third consecutive season's worth of exhaustive minutes, but that Justin Bibbs and Jalen Hudson won't be asked to play out of position in an attempt to give him a rest.

And while it's still not an ideal situation, there are bodies that can be thrown into a front court rotation. No longer does so much hang on the foul trouble of Satchel Pierce or the ability of undersized guards like Wilson and Bibbs to grab boards (though they'll still be asked to do plenty of it).

A wider array of options for Buzz and company will show its benefits in less apparent ways as well. For instance, if one person is in a slump, it's now possible to let them ease their way out of it by taking them off the court, but without a prodigious drop off in production. Remember when Bibbs lost his shooting stroke? The coaching staff did all they could to lessen the burden on him, but the difference between the freshman and someone like an undersized (and under-athletic) Mueller or Johnston was clear within 30 seconds. At least now there is at least one comparable replacement at every spot on the floor.

Yes, there are still questions aplenty. And yes, most of those questions are the exact same ones from just eight months ago. Inside defense and rim protection will still be a challenge — Leday and Shane Henry are undersized, and Hamilton, Pierce and Blackshear all sound like they need to add strength &mdash as will the ability to find scoring that doesn't come from the hot-and-cold threat from chucking a ton of threes.

Sure, with all of the new faces there will be missed rotations and blown defensive assignments. There will definitely be passes that sail four rows into the stands and jumpers taken far too early into the shot clock. These all come with youth and inexperience, and will probably be enough to make Buzz want to pull out any hair he had left.

Williams will never admit how difficult this rebuilding job has been. He'd never throw anyone under the bus, or talk about the smoldering crater that was the Virginia Tech basketball program when he took the position. But in what may have been his most interesting quote of the day, the head coach spoke on the concept of culture that surrounds a program and its importance to what he and his staff are doing. Whether it was intentional or not, he was able to highlight how much they had to build upon their arrival.

"It has to be part of who you are on a daily basis," Williams said. "Are we there yet? No. Have we made up some ground? I believe so. That's the hardest part about all of this, whether you believe in culture or don't believe in culture, the hardest thing to make up in life is ground.

"As a coach, as an employee, as whatever the situation is, when you're having to make up ground, that's really hard. Because your competition, they're not just ideally standing by. And so when you're trying to make up ground, your culture has to partly answer 'this is how we're going to make up some ground,' and that culture is going to carry it through the growth process. And so, I think we're on the right track."

The metamorphosis from Hokie Hoops to Buzzketball was always going to take more time than anyone wanted to admit, but a step's been made. As for those questions? They'll be answered, only to be soon followed by new ones about other problems that face this team. But if the hardest thing in life really is to make up ground, the Hokies have an opportunity to accomplish something pretty difficult this year. It may be small, but the foundation has been laid for Buzz's bunch to start clawing their way out of the ACC's basement.