Sources: Virginia Tech guard Hysier Miller, a transfer from Temple, is no longer with the program. This relates to the Temple gambling inquiry that was underway last March, as @SInow reported at the time: https://t.co/n56N7Upew8— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) October 23, 2024
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Gambling inquiry? Yeah no thanks, good riddance.
We might miss him, but better off cutting him now.
Any UVA PGs available?
Seriously though that's a real kick in the teeth at this point eleven days before first game. Leaves a real depth issue at point. Opens the door for Ben Hammond to see significant time behind Rechsteiner.
On a serious note- Can we reach out to Keihi Clark? what is the rule around that?
Unlimited eligibility even after being pro right?
He played professionally somewhere?
NBA G league
Currently playing in Japanese B League for Kumamoto Volters as starting PG.
He is playing against Keve Aluma, who is with the Ryukyu Golden Kings
I think I am more surprised that he finally moved on. Seems like he was at UVA for decade.
Not a decade... just 6 to play 6. And if we filed a lawsuit on this to get Clark, we would win. There are no rules if you sue.
For those who care, but don't want to look it up, Kihei was just 5 to play 5.
IIRC - didn't he have an extra year if we wanted it though?
Hammond and 'Lil Poppa Pump up next, right? 👀
Our men's basketball program can never ever have nice fucking things. Ever. We will miss that sell out Pedulla now and I was hoping we wouldn't.
Knowing this is gonna blow up in my face...I'm missing whatever context here or whatever happened to Pedulla, why're you calling him a sellout?
he transferred to ole miss, presumably for more NIL money, and DC has to be perpetually angry
Because dcwilson resorts to name-calling when he's angry.
It's true, but whatever. Pedulla was always a big Mississippi kid growing up. He didn't leave for the money. Always wanted to play for Ole Miss. He didn't leave VT after four years for more money or anything.
I don't love where we're at with football and basketball but I'm assuming part of the reason you left your last job was because you were offered more at your new job?
I have never left a company that recruited me, developed me, promoted me and offered me a comparable amount to stay and then took a rando job in Kansas when I was born in Michigan and worked in DC, no- never done that. Look, Pedulla can leave for a rando school for more bag, after Young developed him for 4 years. That's his right. I can have an opinion on it too.
I don't disagree, I just don't think Pedulla is the (main) problem here.
Pedulla is not a problem per se- like I said, he can transfer to a mid at best SEC team and not close to home (Ok State/Oklahoma) or stay at VT for similar salary, and I can opine that. The bigger problem is the lack of amateurism rules period- there are basically none now, and if you try- you get sued.
We did win the ACC tournament a few years back, that was a nice thing.
I have the flag tacked to the wall in my tech room to prove it!
Props to you for this! My home office is my Tech room.
(Mine might also double as my home office 🤫😂)
The banner hangs in my tech room too, although the FedEx truck that delivered it ironically backed into and broke my bball hoop. No honesty or morals from that driver/company so they never did pay to fix it.
No honesty or morals from that driver/company so they never did pay to fix it.
That sucks. It's corporate America for ya, and why I say terrible things that will get me thrown in jail about most corporations I deal with.
Corporations are full of people. People are the problem.
I'd leg this, but it's already at +25, so here's another leg.
If you're using 'sellout' as a pejorative, that's just preposterous.
We know your stance on this. You are still a Kenny Brooks fan, we get it. The good news is we now found the ONE actual rule in modern major college sports- you can't fix games. I'm happy there is ONE fucking rule now at least.
I'm not a Kenny brooks fan, but I don't hate him. He spent 7 years here, brought the program to its peak, raising our WBB floor and ceiling. 7 years at one school is a long tenure for a college coach. Thank you for your service, best of luck with wherever life takes you.
Not sure how that's a hot take?
I was intending to speak more generally on your stance that the sooner this turns into the UFL/G league the better.
I mean, I've compared it to euro soccer, not minor leagues as we know them in America. But yea, I think it's inevitable, so let's get it done and let's do them right.
*sigh*
Edit: Sorry if I made anyone mad with my comment above. I just miss the innocent days of amateur sports.
I don't really care about the 'innocence' but I think the sport would be far more entertaining if conferences were smaller and regional as they once were. That's the biggest problem (from a fan perspective) in college sports today IMO. But, that could be fixed.
Amateurism and regional ties made college football unique- nothing else like it anywhere in the world. Now maybe being unique sucks and nobody cares, but it was unique. Like it or not the "amateurism" aspect is what grew the sport to the level it is today. You could have watched Randall Cunningham or Donovan McNabb on TV or live in 1999, but you watched Michael Vick because he was a VT student. You had that in common with him if you were an alum. He wasn't some millionaire pro whose job it was to make defenders look silly, no he was a college kid- like you, like your older brother, etc. How many people in your family are pro football players? none. To pretend that the student aspect did not propel the sport to a multi billion dollar industry is horseshit. Its THE key thing. I have never met an Atlanta Falcon's fan anywhere near as passionate as a die hard Bama fan. Until 2 years ago, what was the difference between Bama football and the falcons? College kids. Amateurs. Kids you share a bond with beyond money. Yes I will concede that many schools and players made a sham of this over the years. Auburn paid 250K to win a natty. Johnny Football found a school that did not require going to class. I get it. But now- primarily because of ESPN and Fox overpaying for a product to show/sell there is nothing that is unique about college football. Nothing. It's a multi billion dollar business- They do that on Sunday. These kids will very soon be employees of VT with a 6 digit number like a professor or police officer or groundskeeper. Nothing unique about being a VT employee- there are thousands of them. That is simply reality. My OPINION is that the insane passion for the sport- people will lie cheat and steal for their team to win 7 or 8 games, they will commit crimes, they will do anything for GOOD OLE U.... My OPINION is that passion will wane in a huge fucking way when these are simply school employees with a number that get paid half a million dollars for a semester's work. I think college football will go the way of Nascar... Still a thing, still draws a crowd for certain events, not near what it was. From the swimmer's dad whose daughter gets her scholarship cut to pay one of Prys players, to the student working his ass off in the dining hall to pay for his tuition, to the folks that work for a living and have to pay 50% more for season tickets to keep the machine going, the list goes on. I feel strongly we have seen the pinnacle of college football... I think it will go sharply down hill once joe football player is university employee #132456 - I can watch a better employee do it on Sunday. Final point- Yes I understand that business X brings in X millions and the folks delivering the work/product are not paid hard cash from that bucket and that is an issue for some. I get it. The fact of the matter is, after expenses, facilities, coaches salaries etc- the windfall has never been so ridiculous to justify what we have today- not even close. Bama football didn't have 300 million left over that they hoarded and invested each year. That's what the justification is for unlimited transfers, no rules etc and its not close to being true.
I've never felt this way.
Maybe it's generational, or otherwise related to my 'bubble' because most of my friends don't either. We're all early-to-mid 30's, and I guess we grew up believing the whole thing was a sham.
I was listening to a podcast discuss the Miami and FSU rivalry, and the host was talking about how recruiting is so national that rivalries aren't the same. He was saying that Miami and FSU recruit their state so much, that guys on these teams have been playing with/against each other since they were 7 or 8, and how that's very uncommon in a lot of rivalries now (unlike 20 years ago).
Made me pause to think how much conference realignment is the actual issue vs a symptom of nationalized recruiting. Probably a bit of both.
Either way, it does suck to see this piece go by the wayside.
To me, the student aspect is different from the amateur aspect. I don't know how much of it has to do with the player being a student vs the player being part of the same tribe as me.
This is another thing I disagree with. I think any relation to VT - student, employee, blacksburg resident, etc - makes you part of the tribe. If I'm wearing my VT gear out and about, and you come up to me saying you worked there or lived there or played there or went to school there, I'm instantly pumped to talk to you about it.
This - as you know - is not an issue with just college sports, but everything that touches the 'college experience'. It's something that people care deeply about, so they will milk us for every dollar
We will see... College football in 2035 will without a doubt be very very different from what it was in 2015. But I'm not ready to say it will suck. It very well might. But I can see a world where it doesn't.
"I think any relation to VT - student, employee, blacksburg resident, etc - makes you part of the tribe" - absolutely part of the tribe, but I am not donating to professors and connor stalions is not risking his reputation for a groundskeeper, lets be real. Fandom is about the ballers.
I concur with a lot of this. Maybe I'm wrong, but it is what comes to mind. I have little desire to watch someone do their job. I work for a living too. I guess maybe I was naive to think that on Saturdays I could watch student athletes compete for Virginia Tech - my school - for the love of the game and university. I'm glad this hopefully improves the situation of some athletes, but I think that the way we are going there is going to be a huge redaction in engagement and an overall negative trend similar to what we've seen in other sports markets. I've grown tired of the business side of sports.
So players should play for the love of the game, but it's okay for everyone else involved (coaches, videographers, doctors, trainers, nutritionists, etc) to do it transactionally?
Yes... that seems naive.
I'm sympathetic to this - truly. I get wanting to turn on the TV and just watch amazing athletes doing amazing things, but then the media frames it as a contract year, or an NIL deal, or a salary cap issue, etc. I just don't think the fix is stop paying athletes; it's for the media to be more thoughtful. Unfortunately, that's not reality.
"So players should play for the love of the game, but it's okay for everyone else involved (coaches, videographers, doctors, trainers, nutritionists, etc) to do it transactionally?" - not pointed directly at you, and not trying to be an ass but... fucking yes it's OK. Of course it is. Videographers often DONT get paid BTW- nor do they get scholarships room board nike gear. But in general, you are fucking right it's OK for a player to trade services for a world class education VOLUNTARILY... BTW and his coach- who has been in the work force for 25 years, has a masters degree, and is accountable for the success and well being of 110 kids to draw a paycheck, you are damn right that is OK. Millions of kids PAY to go to school each year.... and yet Pry still gets paid a salary to do his job. Why wouldn't he? Now should Lane Kiffin make 10 million dollars per year to coach 14 football games?? probably not, but 100% yes- internships, scholarships etc while coaches and groundkeepers earn a paycheck is 1 million % OK.
My roommate did video for the team from 2008ish-2013. He got a scholarship, and all the swag the team got. For the orange bowl against Cincy, he got all the gifts the team did, and got a ring after the win. All his bosses (also video folks) were full time employees.
Yours truly did video for the team in 1992... and no no scholarship or nike gear.
So that and the friends who don't pay for anything explains why you are so grumpy all the time /s
That's cool. You keep in touch with many of the folks you worked with? I assume you were before Jed and Tom's time?
No offense to DC but Jed is barely that old, he would have been in middle school then I think...
But no one is making schools pay the players. Schools can opt-in to this likely soon to be approved revenue sharing deal if they can afford it, or they can not, if they can't afford it, or don't want to (Army, Navy, Air Force). Collectives can pay "NIL" money to players if they want to. They do not have to. And I know it's not "good business", but for people outside the universities' administration it's about winning, and not business. It's a more direct way to support the players, same as any donation used to be, but probably without the tax deduction.
Is the ideal college system experience regular students playing sports because they love them, and for their pride in their university like you're describing? In a lot of ways it is, but we're too far gone, and there's no going back. There's too much money in it. When coaches were making $100k/year, then yeah, there wasn't that much money to go around, and scholarships were fair compensation. But when the worst P4 coaches are making $4m there's money in the system to go around, it just has to be reallocated.
That reallocation is going to be different at bigger schools, and smaller schools, and revenue producing sports, and non-revenue producing sports, because remember, it's revenue sharing, not salaried employees. If you don't have the revenue, you don't have to share anything. You're not going to have Longwood paying it's men's basketball players $500k/year, because you, "have to pay the players now". How that goes probably changes when the NCAA, and schools wise up, and call the athletes employees, so they can collectively bargain, but this is what it is for the near future.
I somewhat concur in the current landscape where coaches make $10M/yr , but I think the current landscape is ridiculous. The market is far too saturated and there's too much money in college athletics. To the point, which has been discussed to death, that college athletics have very little to do with colleges other than name and location association.
In my extended naivety, I guess I would prefer professional athletes to move on to professional leagues and leave college to what it was - student athletes representing their school who play other student athletes in their region. This is what the sport was born on and what made it great, I think. I don't have a problem with paying a stipend and providing benefits to players, but I don't like bidding for a team every year and having money be largely what dictates success. It separates the sport from the main reason I follow it - Virginia Tech as an institution of higher learning. Call it naive, but I think you're going to see interest in college football wane significantly in coming years. People are growing tired of the rat race and cash grab. NASCAR is a recent prime example.
I hear ya - look, the easy fix is that the NfL gets rid of their age requirement. That fixes 50% of your complaints by instantly leveling the playing field.
Here's the thing....NFL teams are businesses. Run by Billionaires who didn't get there by losing money.
An age limit makes 1000% sense for the NFL. More evaluation time, less time under contract, and players get developed on someone else's watch. Even with that, there are major "busts" every year. That is lost money, they aren't going to accelerate that process by paying even younger players who are more likely to fail to be contributors.
No NFL owner is going to fall for the "starving college athlete" fallacy that dragged College Sports into an unregulated NIL nightmare.
It's another of the really dumb things about NIL--its like trophies for the last place team in Little League--in Professional Sports, there are no Charity cases (unless your Daddy is Lebron).
Correct on every count. The last thing the NFL wants is the NBA where literally 70% of the first round is busts. The Wizards took a guy second in the draft this year that sucks and will be out of the league in 3 years max. The NFL doesn't want that bullshit.
You're absolutely right. I'm just saying that if players didn't have to kill time in college ball, a lot of problems in college ball would be solved
The ACC Ref's and Miami might argue with you regarding you can't fix games. But a lot harder to fix BB games.
FFS, no one is fixing games.
Also, just for fun, even if they were, I don't think you're right. As a single ref, seems way easier to fix a basketball game than a football one, no? Foul trouble can change a game, either calling a borderline or swallowing a whistle on a foul a few times could make a big difference. You're rotating around, so you're in position to make calls on any given player regularly. Counting on there being a weird, reviewable call in a key moment as your match fixing strategy for football seems way shakier.
The fact that Miami has been the benefit of multiple bad calls, reverses, and no-calls in efforts to help them win is undeniable. But you are right in that they have to be in a position to win. But multiple weeks now, the Refs have definitely helped Miami.
In fairness, it isn't necessarily the refs AT the games; it's the replay review center at the ACC overturning the "call on the field" WITHOUT "indisputable evidence".
By far the easiest fix in any sport- outside of players being on the take- is the holding call in football negating a touchdown. By far. You see a long TD, throw a holding flag. Done. You can't review it, you can't prove it.
Also, there is mostly holding on every play that isn't called.
Bingo. it is super simple for refs to negate TDs and big plays with holding flags.
Oh well if we already knew about the gambling investigation when we brought him in, can't go shocked Pikachu face when he gets deemed ineligible before the season. Seems like this was always a distinct possibility
Well this sucks
Is every player on Temple's roster last year getting the boot from their team? Was Hysier a prime culprit or something? The article was pretty light on specifics outside of the unusual wagering getting flagged
Other schools that are 100% focused on winning- cheating or not- will find a way to keep their Temple transfers eligible. VT isn't good at that stuff. Brock Hoffman, Ty Outlaw- millions of examples. If a Temple player transferred to Kansas, Louisville, Memphis- you bet your ass they are eligible.
Well. I guess I don't have to figure out how to pronounce his name now.
2 hours and 37 minutes later, I'll be the one to let you know that it's pronounced "Keh-vin"
This marks two seasons in a row we lose a player right before the season starts that we were going to rely upon and with the NIL exodus, will miss him. We don't have the talent or depth to deal with this well.
I see me recording every game and learning the outcome before watching this season. Every damn game.
Well. Fuck.
It's almost like we are cursed or something lol. At least Rechsteiner got some minutes last year, so hopefully he's ready to take a Pedulla-esque leap and start at PG.
I guess we look like this now?
PG - Rechsteiner
SG - Brown or Young/Schutt?
SF - Burnham
PF - Lawal
C - Poteat
That seems like a very uninspiring starting 5.
If Rech is starting, that's cool- who is his backup? That is the scary part. and hey now, can't blame our top 8 players from last year leaving for more bag... IIWII.
the scary part is that the answer to the question "Who is X's backup?" is pretty much the same across the board -- some sophomore with little experience or a freshman. Going to be an interesting year!
His backup will be freshman Ben Hammond. I think fans will be pleasantly surprised by him seeing the floor more. Kid is a havoc on defense and his ball control/passing will be a big positive.
Yeah, things look pretty rough on paper for sure. On the bright side, we will have lots of young unproven talent so it will be interesting to see who surfaces and becomes a main contributor. To me, this year feels really similar to CMY's first year because this is the youngest roster we've had since then, and even the older guys are unknown quantities at this point. Out of the four players who are juniors and seniors, three of them are transfers.
I am excited to see what Lawal is going to do
oof...this is gonna be a long, forgettable season
Unfortunately, it might be a long couple of seasons.
I have very little bad to say about Mike Young, but his coaching style fits like a square peg in a round hole in the NIL Transferfest that is current College Sports. I think there are also legit questions about how much (or at all) that VT is investing into Men's BB. If you aren't willing to pay, they ain't coming to play.
Slightly OT, but when Bennett suddenly retired, I had a friend who used to coach MBB at the D-II level tell me that the eventuality of this is most of the real teaching coaches are going to be pushed out and MBB is going to become AAU.
And if you have experienced the AAU World first-hand, you know that is not a good thing. Flashy coaches (aka Coach Prime) with little X/O knowledge who are acting as part-time side-agents brokering shady deals with schools, apparel companies, or pretty much anyone who will give them money for access to their players.
"NIL Transferfest that is current College Sports"- Since players merely had to settle for special admissions, 250K worth of scholarship, room, board, free medical, free gear, exposure on ESPN- that wasn't fair, so the fans wanted this. The fans called players slaves. The fans shunned scholarships as worthless. So if VT hoops is relegated to never competing again, thank the fans.
"MBB is going to become AAU" - Arguably the most accurate thing ever posted on any message board.
"VT is investing into Men's BB." - yes they are. Just not on the level of schools that place basketball above all else- including Engineering, Academic reputation etc.- Like Ole Miss. It's 2024- Prestigious Michigan cheats in the open in sports... Go Blue! is much more important than being a world class school.
Also we had to put all our NIL money into football so we could lose to Vandy and Rutgers.
Jokes aside, we aren't going to take money from football to prop up basketball. And if football goes 6-6, don't expect the NIL money to keep flowing for any of our sports.
I couldn't get si.com to load from work, but I did find a CBS Sports article stating that Miller has been dismissed from the program, and quoted a statement from VT.
I'm willing to bet that Miller says he has nothing to do with the allegations. ;^)
That's what rubs me the wrong way. Either we took him at his word that he would not be implicated or we failed to do any investigation or vetting about the allegations and potential outcomes/consequences. We our eggs in this basket and now have nothing to show for it. I just wonder if there was another guard for this position of need that we could have landed who wouldn't have had this baggage and could have contributed something to our program. Guess we'll never know
Knowing how misaligned our administration is I would not be surprised if the athletic department vetted and deemed Miller had nothing to do with the allegations and then Sands got wind of it and concluded that he could not be a part of the team
Miller is now subject of a federal investigation
Man, I find it hard to believe that we didnt know he was somehow highly involved with this when he transferred in.
we could just be really dumb!
I mean, the FBI isn't exactly known for being open and forthright with everyone.
I think it's pretty likely we didn't know anything until the day before he got dismissed
This seems more likely to me.
Why in the world would we have brought in someone who we knew, or even highly suspected, was being investigated for self-betting and point shaving? Coaches are pretty forgiving of a good player who had some conduct issues somewhere else (often to a fault), but anything that could directly impact your team and their ability to win feels like an obvious bridge too far.
They're a talented player in a position of need and because they were dismissed and associated in the point shaving scandal, their NIL cost was super low.
We should have kept him. As long as his point-shaving days are behind him, let him play for us while he is under investigation. Innocent until proven guilty, amirite?
honestly, yes. Who care if he's under investigation, he plays until he's convicted, gets us a few wins, and then if he has to go he has to go. It's been proven no one cares about law breakers in sports.
This makes me think they either were shown evidence that he was most likely guilty OR Miller knows and after conversations decided he wanted out. No idea if either are true but honestly if they had let him keep playing and he was convicted it would have been ugly press that we are better off without....and how would we really know he had stopped shaving if he was?
"and how would we really know he had stopped shaving if he was?"
We can just see if his beard grows. Oh wait, sorry, the dad jokes thread is over there.
Points to you
you can't shave points that this team doesn't score.... so no harm, no foul in my opinion
Even if it's not point shaving, you can always reduce your point total to be under. If VT is 20 point underdogs to every ACC team this year, he can work to lose by 21+.
I don't see any scenario in which your team is better with someone intentionally playing worse than projected.
I understand that, but I was simply making a joke about how our basketball team doesn't score points.
Would it have been uglier press than we're receiving after losing to Jacksonville?
half sarcasm
at this point, I would take all the bad press in the world if it equated to winning and championships. Hell look at Michigan. Bad press all season and they won it all and now no one gives a shit.
"Oh, wow," I said to myself. "35 new comments on this."
[opened thread to find 1 new piece of information and 34....other....comments]
le sigh