Have to imagine we're hunting for an upgrade here
BREAKING: #Hokies sophomore center Patrick Wessler plans to enter the transfer portal.📸- Jon Fleming pic.twitter.com/4DzdIlGkyA— Tech Sideline (@TechSideline) March 17, 2025
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He might have been a sophomore but wasn't this his third year in the program? While he was better than last year, that doesn't say much.
Slightly more than a stiff. But not an ACC starting big.
At this point, who are we hoping to keep besides Lawal? Rechsteiner?
Lawal, Hammond, Schutt, and perhaps Rech... and the 3 incoming freshman.
tyler johnson
Still want to see what Ryan Jones Jr brings if he is recovered
I've said this before but I think the most important pieces to keep and build around are Lawal, Hammond, and Johnson. Schutt would be nice to keep in the fold. I'm okay if Rech walks, but if he improves his ball security and defense, he's worth keeping around as another option in the backcourt.
tbf, when your coach is saying in the post season presser that "we have to get more talent or I am going to quit" ..... it means you have to have roster space to do so.
Did he actually say that? I haven't really been keeping up with the BBall teams lately
https://www.si.com/college/virginiatech/basketball/after-acc-tournament-loss-virginia-tech-s-mike-young-says-his-program-has-to-get-more-talented-01jp58tnhqhs
"A lot was missing. A lot was missing, just call it what it is. They are great kids and a pleasure to work with. We have to get more talented and we are going to quick, all right?"
Did they change the quote, because that's quite a bit different.
Sounds like mishearing "we're going to quick" for "I'm going to quit"
Mike Young on fixing issues with roster through the transfer portal:
"It better be,'' Young said. "It better be. I'm not living through that again.''
The program now has six players on the roster who will likely not be on the roster next year; 3 graduates, 3 transfers.
They equate to 85.5 minutes per game, 30.9 ppg, 13.5 rpg, and 4.5 apg.
If we can find 4 new players, counting the incoming freshmen, to average 21 minutes, 8 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 assist, each, we would have replaced their production with 2 fewer bodies.
Money ball doesn't work in any sport. Never has. The A's never beat the Yankees in the post season . The rays never won the world series. The Diamondbacks were not competitive with Texas in the world series a couple years ago. It doesn't work and won't work for VT mens hoops. If we want to finish higher than 10th in the ACC, moneyball won't work. We need to do what Louisville, St. Johns, Missouri did. They went out and got actual good players at each spot. Better players at each spot. They didn't run metrics on how 6 guys could potentially get them 5 rebounds. No. They went out and got better PGs, Cs, Scorers, etc. Period. Money ball has never worked in any sport in terms of winning titles/big games.
First - process is repeatable, results are not. Moneyball ABSOLUTELY worked. It made the A's a playoff team after they had been the worst team in the AL for a decade.
Second, you can argue the Patriots were a moneyball team because Bill B was exceptional at finding market inefficiencies: drafting Brady late and underpaying him, using swiss army knife players like Vrabel/Ty Law/Richard Seymor to build a defense that was essentially a flex 3-4 / 4-3 depending on the opponent.
The world series, and baseball playoffs in general, are INCREDIBLY random. The team with the best record rarely wins it all. Winning over 162 games is a much better way to determine the "best" team, playoffs determine the champ.
When you have the best player in the sport- it's not moneyball period. Moneyball is Scott Hattieberg, not Pudge Rodriguez. That's the point. Yes the As scratched out wildcards with low payroll. Congrats. the better players made more money, weren't on the A's and won something meaningful. Also the A's scouted Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson- they hit on those 2- that's not moneyball, that's scouting. the moment those 2 wanted a wage comparable with performance the A's let them go and tried to find 5 pitchers that sucked in reality, but could equal mulders strikeouts over a season. It's never legitimately worked in terms of winning when it mattered. Never. The patriots had Randy Moss, Mike Vrabel, Richard Seymour in his prime, etc. They never had low payroll, they never tried to duplicate Ty Law's 8 interceptions with 3 backups. If VT mens hoops goes moneyball, I'm sure we can find 3 centers to grab a certain number or rebounds in december but we will also be sitting home in March again.
If anything the NFL is a great example of the core principle of moneyball - maximizing return on limited resources. The NFL has a hard salary cap, so teams need to get the most out of every dollar spent. I'm saying that's what the Patriots did. To your point about winning titles - they never did with Moss on the team.
My bigger point was that exploiting market inefficiency is the core of moneyball and that is absolutely an effective strategy. VT will never be Ohio State/Texas/Georgia in terms of resources in any sport. We can spend more than we did last season but we have to spend efficiently.
"VT will never be Ohio State/Texas/Georgia in terms of resources in any sport. They can spend more but they have to spend efficiently."- very true and I bet you any amount of money that any successful football season in the near or distant future will be because we had a stud QB, a true standout at several positions, vs. a team of Sam Rogers. Or a QB by committee moneyball approach. Both are true.
I took a way different message away from moneyball than everyone else it seems. It wasn't about market efficiency, that's just what happened because teams at the top weren't going to change their approach. The core concept to me was finding what actually mattered in winning games.
Go watch 90s and early 00s basketball. Tons of guys taking a step inside the 3pt line and taking the longest two you can take, its insane watching it, litterally less than 2 ft. Had they not moved they would have made a much bigger play. Or look at 2004 when the pistons had one of the largest upsets ever of LA. If the Lakers had some one jacking up 12 3s a game they would have won, but Detroit didn't guard the perimeter at all. Moneyball to me was about how they approached composing the roster by identifying what is actually important in the sport, which went against conventional knowledge. If they had a bigger salary they would have gotten better guys, again just the limitation, not the point of moneyball.
Moneyball - not spending money and using situation agnostic deep stats to justify having a 30mil payroll in MLB. That is what Billy Beane did- he had to try to win a july baseball game with no money. So he comes up with a briliant marketing ploy ignoring that the key to his success was drafting 2 very good pitchers who left as soon as they could. The Chiefs hit on Mahomes in a big way - drafted him... If this was Billy Beane, mahomes would have left as soon as he looked like "mahomes" and Beane would argue he could get 15 TDs and 4ints from Geno Smith platooning with Tyrod Taylor.
Sounds like CMY had some tough conversations.
This is how college basketball works these days. We performed up to expectations with the resources we had (We were ass but we weren't that bad). Now, the NIL coffers are starting to get filled and it's time to go shopping for better players.
Sucks there's no loyalty in college basketball but at least it goes both ways now and you get a "severance package".
Good luck to him, but it was frustrating watching him post up and someone 9inches shorter could push him around. He was not ACC caliber, especially after being developed for 3 years.
Will be a grad transfer as he expects to get his degree in business marketing in May. Gives him a great chance to find a good masters program at wherever is next.
Bummer, I liked Patrick a lot. He had that dawg in him, even if he wasn't always the most athletic dude on the court.
Neither here nor there, but last Easter I was wearing a Hokie shirt to a church Easter egg hunt and discovered that Patrick Wessler's uncle goes to my church and sometimes Patrick attends during holiday breaks. I just thought that was a cool connection, and he's got a great family.
Patrick is one of our favorite players. His modest skills notwithstanding, he always gave it his all and kept up his enthusiasm regardless of how things were going. Didn't seem to be a whiner, and when on the bench, he was a fervent cheerleader. Hope he lands somewhere he can shine a bit. Can't teach size, and the dude is tall. Somebody will find a place for him.