🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/q1KeJCeJiJ— Boots👣 (@Tyreceradford23) August 18, 2021
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🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/q1KeJCeJiJ— Boots👣 (@Tyreceradford23) August 18, 2021
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Well that's a Buzzkill
Buzz getting so desperate that he has to steal our players.
We wouldn't have had Boots if it wasn't for Buzz...
So he can just give back the money and we'll call it "even".
Very bummed to lose Boots but I am glad he found a spot that will work for him. Good luck to him!
Makes sense. Buzz is his initial recruiter & coach afterall. He gave him an ACC offer when Boots didn't seem to have any high major offers.
Based on Jimmy Turk's words, I wonder if Boots would have even been allowed to enroll in school at VT again, let alone the basketball program:
(https://richmond.com/sports/college/basketball-future-of-virginia-techs-...)
I'm gonna miss him though, he's been my favorite over the last 2 years. Wishing him the best on and off the court. Nice that he got his degree at VT at least
edit: Also, he is tailor made for Buzz Williams, he should play great there and hopefully have a shot at going pro
Buzz had to be convinced by an assistant to offer Radford a scholarship, so I would not frame him as Radford's initial recruiter
Thanks, I hate it.
damnit brent.
Interested to see the strategy from here. If the staff is going to replace him for this year, they gotta book. I'm sure they've had feelers out. This is also where Mike Jones's Rolodex could come in handy.
Snakes in chat 🐍🐍🐍
Thanks for ruining my vacation
Man Fuck Buzz Williams...
FTFY.
Why tf are you so salty?
Should Buzz not have offered Radford so that he goes to LSU or wherever instead just to make you happy?
Oh btw if it wasn't for Buzz, we never would have had Radford
For real. The mental gymnastics that some people must be going through to be still pissed AF at Buzz all these years later is kind of embarrassing tbh
While I agree that being pissed at buzz is stupid, all these years is 2, 2 years. I know it feels like longer but technically only 1 NCAA tourney has happened since Buzz left. Wasn't that long ago, still stupid to be pissed.
2 years is a long time to hold a grudge on a coach that elevated our basketball program to the point we could attract another good coach and players.
Hard agree. I don't understand how someone can fault any person for leaving a job to go to a better situation for them or their family.
We're just damned lucky Whit attracted Mike Young, who was in many ways an even better fit for the program, and for whom establishing VT at the top of college football is the dream job.
On one hand, if Boots was going to leave TAMU is a place that makes the best sense for his future. On the other hand, I'm now downgrading my expectations for VT's season from Final Four to Elite Eight.
Agreed. Though Final Four is still 50/50 :-)
Depends on the matchup
So now thinking big picture for our roster... I'm assuming we won't add anyone because it's so late:
We have a about 5 players that I feel really really good about (Murphy, Alleyne, Cattoor, Mutts, Aluma), but I think the depth has the potential to be a big concern.
If N'Guessan/Kidd/Ojiako are ready, maybe Young goes big and starts one of them and has Cattoor as 6th man. In the frontcourt there is also Jalen Haynes, but I'm guessing he's not ready yet.
The only backcourt depth is Maddox and Pedulla, so that is pretty concerning IMO unless Maddox makes a big jump.
That's one hell of a line up. My concern with losing Boots is that we also lost Joe Bamisile earlier. In this system a hyper athletic guard/wing that can create for himself and bring big energy is pretty crucial. We had two (Boots and Joe) that fits that role, so I get why one would transfer out. Now we have zero.
I think N'Guessan will be more than serviceable, and if Ojiako has put in the work, I think he can also be solid in limited minutes.
I'm expecting big things from Maddox in an increased role.
I would put our depth at 8 right now, depending on Bede. That gives us 3 bigs, 4 Wings, and 1-2 PGs
Don't get me wrong, Buzz was fine when he was here, and did some good things for our program.
But I don't miss him as much as I thought I would.
Let's just say I'm not surprised he'd snipe our players if he got a chance to.
That said...
As far as Boots is concerned, thanks for the memories! You had some great games here. Though I'd have loved for you to stay another year, best of luck!
Put yourself in Buzz's shoes. Put yourself in Boots' shoes. Why would either of them do anything different? I'm not getting this salt either
Buzz is like an old girlfriend. I loved him at one time, but I don't think his jokes are funny any more.
But yet so many Hokies seem to be like the obsessive ex-boyfriend. Acting like they've moved on with Mike Young, but still salty about their ex...
Oh, we've moved on.
But when our bicycle goes missing, we know we should have changed the locks.
You're posting on a topic about a fan favorite transferring out to the school he coaches. It's not like people are just trashing him at random. Also, he did leave the cupboards almost completely empty when he left, including taking several of the folks who had committed to him at Tech with him. The fact that we're where we are right now in terms of talent and success is astounding.
I still think Buzz is a fun dude to watch, I'm not actively cheering against TAMU, but I'm not sure why you seem to expect people to be pumped about this.
People always bring this up, but am I crazy in thinking this was a good thing?! It forced Mike Young to go out and get "his guys" right away. No awkward transitional phase. Buzz's recruits apparently didn't want to play for VT, they wanted to play for Buzz (although some of those kids have transferred, two recruited for a 3rd time by McNeilly at TCU). So I don't want those players here with Mike Young, that sounds like bad chemistry waiting to happen. We instead got the freshmen and transfers that suit the new coach, dealt with growing pains for a year, and then were ready to go. In the transfer era, the cupboards being empty isn't a huge problem. Not to mention, Mike Young also got his pick on assistants. At the time, it sucked and was annoying albeit understandable. But in hindsight, I don't think we get to where we are today if we kept those Buzz recruits (Miller, Gordon, Gultekin)
It worked out OK, because Whit Babcock and Mike Young.
Reading this, I think you really do appreciate the job MY did, and I still think you're vastly under-appreciating how hard and unlikely it was for him to pull it off. Like I said, I'm really not a Buzz hater in general, but this feels like a revisionist take on the state of the program that he left for whoever was next.
Our ex just liked our profile pic when you really just want her to disappear
Hard to call it a snipe if we don't even know if Radford was going to be allowed back by the University.
You make an excellent point, and maybe it's off-topic, but shouldn't the standards on this sort of thing be the same at any NCAA program?
Preciate everything Boots did. Was def my favorite player to watch. Games like UNC 2020 where most of our line-up was shooting cold, Boots stepped up and took over that game and just kept driving aggressively over and over. Tech won 79-77 in double OT.
Hope he goes and balls the fuck out like he did with us. Good luck Boots!
May he have a long tournament run that ends against us.
Not surprising after all that happened with him, but it's still disappointing. I wish him the best, he was fun to watch.
Not happy to lose Radford as I have stated before. But hoping this works out for the best for all concerned.
I am not surprised the Buzz would go after a player like Radford because it's his MO. He is under 6'6", he is very athletic and fast and can rebound with the best of them. I love Buzz and I am very thankful that he was at VT but CMY is our guy. My biggest problem with Buzz was he doesn't like height and in the the ACC you can not win without big boys. So good luck to Radford and Buzz but at the end of the season VT will in the NCAA's and Buzz once again will be on the outside looking in.
As much as I agree with this, I think it's obvious we're a better team with Radford than without him. The dude is gritty.
To try and clear up the whole misconception about height, while you do need some height for rebounding & defense, your main scoring output should always be from guards/perimeter players. As we've seen over and over with guard stacked teams winning titles and big men reliant teams crashing out early.
I said it before on this board, but Baylor laid it out last year. 3 athletic scoring guards who can all shoot *and create their own shot* alongside 2 rebounding and mobile bigs who play physical defense. Another couple shooters and another rebounding big off the bench.
My dream is for VT to one day have a lineup like that. Buzz was close a couple times, but we were about one mobile rebounding big man away from it once or twice. Mike Young is kind of close, but he seems to prefer a traditional smaller point guard and more traditional big men/post play.
The advantage of the big men/post is when shooting is cold from outside you are still making progress. Also with those big guys inside, the little guys have more of a chance to get wide open for their shots from the outside.
Very true. Although usually come tournament time, it's very hard to get looks from the post though. Hence, why the teams reliant on post scoring tend to lose earlier than expected. Tourney games typically come down to shot creating and shot making from the perimeter. Look at our game vs. Florida from March. The only reason we forced OT was because Alleyne and Radford were making tough plays.
This is all of course just my personal philosophy (esp. the Baylor stuff I mentioned), but it's based on what I've seen
Radford still a bum
I hope it works out for everybody. There is something wrong, IMO, when a player can be facing suspension from one school and walk into open arms at another. The offense should either be bad enough to punish after transfer or the original school should be able to work things out.
My thoughts, exactly.
Transfer portal has turned into a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Probably speaks to the universities more than the athletic departments.
Not starting a new thread on this but this seems good a place as any to share.
Buzz suspended 2 games
Probably warrants it's own thread, and now it has one.