A little while ago, Johnny Hamilton signed his paperwork to come to VT. First announced by his coach:
Excited to announce Mighty Jaguar, Johnny Hamilton @johnny_tall has signed his NLI to Virginia Tech. @hokiesports @TeamCoachBuzz— Jody Bailey (@CoachJodyBailey) April 22, 2015
Edit: 7 foot JUCO post from Texas. Apologies for not originally including
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NICE!
Johnny Basketball?
A rim protector for the Hokies, priceless.
7 footer? Aight, aight.
a legit big man? man, seems like it's been a while, right? a LONG while
Can't wait to have a tall big man in the paint
Buzz finds himself a blocking machine.
but can he make free throws?!?!?!?!?! or is this Deandre Jordan pt 2
I don't know about you, but I would take a DeAndre Jordan clone.
if he can shoot better than .437% from the line ill take him as a Deandre clone
still a tremendous pick up for the team, don't want to give the wrong impression
Hell, as long as we're getting to the line its an improvement over last year.
No need to apologize. Plus, the offensive game of big men usually come around in their upperclassmen years. Wouldn't worry too much about a lack of scoring so far.
Hell if he plays like Deandre Jordan, I don't care if he shoots 10% from the line, I'd take him. Just sit him at the end of games.
Oh no, he can't make any FTs. 42% last year.
He can't do much if anything offensively, but game changer defensively.
Two 7 footers on our team? I'm pretty confident Pierce is going to be pretty decent next year, he has the tools he just needs to put it all together. The future is exciting indeed for buzzketball
I'm a big believer in Pierce. I think he's going to be a big time big man in the ACC by his senior year, which is saying something because there were times last year he looked straight lost in the shuffle. I just think he got thrown into the fire way too much and played way too many minutes last year. Having Hamilton around will really take some pressure off of Big Satch and will allow us to rotate more so less playing conservative when there's foul trouble.
How can he play too many minutes? You learn by doing mainly not by watching. I think the experience was invaluable
They have to be effective minutes, if your worn out what are you gaining by playing?
Endurance.
Not really, it takes a lot of practice and working out long term to build up stamina and endurance.
Very true. But just like practice snaps don't always translate to in-game performance, there's an added mental component to grinding out a game that's hard to simulate with endurance training.
Remember when our biggest weakness this year was a lack of depth at size down low?
Yeah... this should help that out... a lot
Put some weight on that kid and he will be a force on D
Someone introduce him to the #1 dining facilities in the nation...and get him a lobster. ACC bigs need poundage.
Also, Rivals bumped Justin Robinson up to 4* making him now a 4* on the 247 Composite and 102nd nationally. That makes three 4* in this class (could be four depending on what Hamilton gets rated) and nearly three top 100 players. The future is bright, my friends.
And all of them under a 5* coach
If you haven't seen Robinson's film, go look it up. He does a lot of things well. Has some swag, too.
He may be my favorite player in this class.
Blackshear is still a 3* (albeit a very high 3*).
However the difference between a low 4* ranked #107 and a high 3* ranked #112 is...FIVE. As in meaningless.
High 3star according to Rivals maybe. But overall Blackshear is a consensus 4-star prospect and is a top100 prospect according to 2 of the 4 services.
TSL put together a nice summary of the ratings for our incoming class:
http://virginiatech.sportswar.com/free-content/2015/04/23/updated-virgin...
quick summary:
Clarke: unanimous 4-star, unanimous top100 player
Blackshear: consensus 4-star (3 of 4 services), top100 for two services
Robinson: consensus 4-star (3 of 4 services), top100 for one service
Who does the best bball rankings these days? It used to be that Rivals was bad and Scout was the go-to for basketball (opposite of football) but that was years ago.
I think that 247 and ESPN are the best, honestly.
I think ESPN's rankings are just okay, and I don't think Rivals puts enough stock into basketball for their rankings to be highly credible. I wonder why Clarke has been dropping in the rankings as of late.... Oh wait it's because he committed to VT
I think these rankings are outdated. Robinson is now a unanimous 4 star and Clarke has been lowered in the rankings by 247, but he is still a four star.
Poor man's Kentucky!
A 7 foot defender is just what this team needs. Now let's teach him to shoot.
Edit: how many years of eligibility does he have left for us? I can't see if he's a fresh/soph/jr on here or his 24/7 page.
He has 2 years left...
Excellent. It'll be good to see Seth Allen alley-oopin' to this kid for the next two years.
So he can play right away?
yes
We're going to do some damage next season. A lot of teams in the league had some unexpected turnover, and meanwhile we just picked up exactly the kind of player we needed.
Rev up the hype train.
It feels wrong to be this excited about basketball. But that's probably cause I've never known our program to have a ceiling this high before. I'm into it
I feel making the tournament is not a pipe dream. This many 4 star guys, a 7 footer, and the development of the current players will manifest in a 20 win season.
Not to mention the addition of the 2 players who sat out this year who were quality division 1 starters, Allen and Leday.
In a perfect world they would jelly quickly but I see more of a stumble out of the gate and then by ACC play find their form but still finish around .500 in ACC play. I have NIT expectations anything more would be ahead of schedule.
.500 in the ACC will get you on the bubble, if not in. Especially if you win a couple against the Cuse, or Lville, Duke, UNC, etc. NC State cobbled together a tournament team with not that much this year. And even though VT had only 2 ACC wins, they were 3 points a game from having about six more. If Zergeren had stayed...who knows. I'm just optimistic that all the infusion of talent can get over the hump and go .500 in the league combined with probably 5-6 cupcake wins and 4-5 wins over other decent teams gets you to 20.
Eff that, cut the brake lines, we got a hype train to catch!
I am all about the Hype Train but let's not ride this thing off the cliff before it really gets going.
Lucky for you, we fixed that with some....additions
Agree, I don't think it's a pipe dream either. Allen is really good, like in the ACC POY conversation good. Between Hudson, Bibbs, Hill and Clarke, we need two of those guys to be on the court all the time and be good.....seems reasonable. We need Blackshear and LeDay to own that four spot. We need Pierce to improve and for Hamilton to provide some valuable minutes (he is so raw offensively, don't picture him as a starter).
Did you forget about Henry?
No
So we're going to have five big men we can go to next year in the rotation. FIVE. That may not sound like much but it's a huge difference from just two bigs that we finished the season with last year.
He is going to make one hell of a Tight End! *ducks*
Great signing, now we need Freeman to sign and this can be a balanced team. Go Hokies!
We don't have any more sholarships.
Gut feeling Wilson and Mueller could be on their way out. #NoSources
Ten points to Slytherin.
I'm not going to lie... With the depth and quality we're developing right now, we are getting to the point where one elite player coming in could turn us into a National Title contender...
Its crazy to think about, but its true... Add an elite one and done player to the 2016-2017 roster and this team is a legitimate contender with possible staying power. Considering where we came from, Buzz is a miracle worker right now.
We don't know really how any of these players are going to be playing in 2016-2017. I think we all need to take a deep breath and hope for more than 2 ACC wins before we start penciling the Hokies into any final fours. Also won't Buzz's buyout be way low starting that season? Who knows if he will even be here.
I stand by what I said. This is a good program, and it will show going forward. Our foundation is extremely strong, and its getting to the point where an elite player can and will push up to the top.
Sorry, not letting you piss on the parade
Buzz sure looks like a guy who's digging in tight as a tick and won't be leaving for a while. Remember he took a pay cut to come here. He's got the support of the AD, he's got buyin from the players, and he's starting to get a little traction with the fan base.
Of all the interactions I've had or heard about with him, the one that stuck out to me was his vision for remodeling the practice facility (not a bad place at all, let's be clear). He's completely redoing everything, every single thing will be taken out and replaced except for one thing. He's keeping 1 wall and on that wall is a mural of all the guys that finished this year on the roster, so that in years to come he can look back and see where it all started. This is a guy with a vision, not a guy looking for a stepping stone to replace Coach K or make a quick buck.
Oh, and he couldn't find a house he liked in Blacksburg, so he's apparently making a SWEET multimillion dollar mansion.
Plus, his "dream job" at Texas has just been filled.
The ACC Basketball Coaching legends are starting to get old and it won't be long until they start retiring. I believe there is a huge appeal to be next in line to the ACC Coaching legacy.
Buzz is a self made man and I feel like he wants to retire from a self made legacy, not in the shadow of what Coack K or Dean Smith built.
I think that is what he is saying...when Coach K, Roy, Pitino and Boheim retire, he assumes Buzz wants to be the face of ACC and more importantly VT Basketball.
Exactly!!
I bet that is what fans were saying at Marquette as well. All i'm saying, is that you never know. While I love everything he is doing. I'm not even close to sold on him being a VT lifer, or even him staying past his current contract. I surely hope he does, but I have my doubts.
The difference is the Big East completely imploded with the conference realignment. Buzz saw that the publicity of the conference for basketball would diminish (and it has, who the hell watches FS1 for Big East games anymore). As much as we rip ESPN, it is very important to a program (and recruiting) to have your conference and your team play games on the network regularly. I'm not saying this alone will keep Buzz, but it definitely was a difference maker in his decision to jump ship.
This is absolutely the truth, we will keep Buzz if we give him control of his program.
ACC is actually a power 5 conference with a strong basketball reputation and it isn't going anywhere. Buzz saw the righting on the wall with the Big East falling into obscurity.
well, to be fair to Buzz the situation at Marquette was diminishing. The school administration wasn't giving full support any longer and they were mired in the Big Least which is only going to get worse. You could say the writing was on the wall.
I personally believe Buzz wants to build a legacy, not take over one, however I fully agree that I am not completely sold on him carrying through with that at VT. The good news is he is only one year in and even if he does jump next year he has already elevated our program out of the shithole it was left in and Whit seems like he could find another high calibre coach if necessary.
True. I don't see him leaving soon, but anything can happen. And even if he does, he's already done a heck of a lot for the program. We're in much better shape now than we were at this time last year.
Even if Buzz takes off, what is important about what's going on right now is that Buzz is quickly building a program with a solid foundation that will be attractive to any head coach when he does leave. That's what I am excited about. I would absolutely love it if Buzz unpacked everything and stayed in Blacksburg for the next few decades, but if he doesn't, he's the kind of guy who is going to leave it in a great spot for the guy behind him.
I really do feel like the cycle of starting from scratch might finally be over for VT hoops, and dammit if that isn't something to get excited over.
Ya'll we're only as good as our next hire once Buzz leaves. This whole "solid foundation" thing is only solid for about a year, maayyyybe two after a coach leaves. Look at Memphis after Cal left. Look at UNC after Dean Smith/before Roy. Wake Forest after Prosser (RIP). I'm sure I could go on but I think you get the point.
Look at VT after Johnson and you'll get the idea of why the starting point is important.
Oh I totally agree with that but that's why I'm saying, "we're only as good as our next hire." Had we roped in someone much better after Seth then we would likely be in better standing than we are now. Buzz can have us set up beautifully but if we botch that hire then everything he did is meaningless other than the great memories.
In each case, there's more to the story than just listing names and examples. Coach Cal screwed Memphis before he jumped ship to Kentucky, and they're still feeling the impact. Dean Smith left UNC in a great spot, which is shown by just how well Guthridge carried the program after he left before Doherty came in and screwed it up. That being said, its worth noting that the foundation was so good that Roy was able to immediately pull them back up after he was hired. And really, Wake was already circling the drain before Skip passed away, but if you want to get technical about it, Dino Gaudio was their head coach when VT went into LJVM Coliseum and knocked off #1 Wake Forest in 2009.
First of all, that wasn't just about the foundation being good. That was about a massive basketball brand - UNC. You get a great coach again (Roy) and he leverages that brand to make it a powerhouse again. Second, Bill Guthridge was literally Dean Smiths assistant coach for 30 years. They weren't passing the program off to just some guy. He knew that program and players as well as Dean. Then they pass it off to an unproven alum and it tanked. Next, look at Memphis when Cal got there. They were a .500 team in the 3-4 years leading up to his hire. That was when they were in between good coaches and they turned average fast. Also, Cal didn't really leave a mess. They vacated the wins from the season. That's it. No loss of scholarships or ban from postseason play. I'll give you Skip Prosser. He hadn't been there long at the time of his passing.
The point is, one year of Buzz is not a foundation. If he left after next year or even the year after, we wouldn't be any better. Not yet. Coaches make college programs. Kentucky is the perfect example of that. They are the most decorated program in college basketball history and were bad in an average conference because they didn't have great coaches. They didn't get players. Once the coach came again, the players came again. Now they have another NT and a 38-1 season.
Also, we aren't even close to a national contender. Even if we did get an elite one and done. It took 3 elite freshmen for Duke to win it all with a HOF coach. We aren't going to do it with a handful of 4 stars, a couple talented JUCO transfers and a really good coach.
I'm as excited about this player as everyone else. Johnny Hamilton looks like a good player. We just need to keep it in perspective. This is another step in the right direction.
Not arguing that he's going to leave anytime soon. But we all need to be realistic about why he came here. He came for the challenge of building a solid team in the best bball conference out of nothing. I really doubt he came because this is the "perfect" place. This "pay cut" everyone keeps bringing up was minimal and I would bet the cost of living difference more than makes up for it. I just don't think we should get all touchy-feely until he's been here like 5+ years. Guard your hearts ladies and gentlemen!
Buzz can do no wrong, but if he takes the teabag Paulus off the wall I'm going to be pissed.
this is huge. Great 'get buzz.
Can he play this season, or does he have to sit out a year?
-- Sorry. found the answer earlier in the thread. Yes.
Correct, he doesn't have to sit because he is a JUCO transfer. Will also have 2 years of eligibility remaining with VT.
This guy is no 7 foot stiff folks,... Long, athletic 7 footer with good hands around the hoop, blocks shots and keeps the ball in play. He can run, plays with some energy. Huge get. He will make Pierce get WAY better in practice for sure. This is really exciting stuff- I'm stoked.
Watched the highlight tape that Joe posted, but I'm honestly not sure how his game will translate to D1. Hopefully all the athletic plays he made in JUCO can still be made in D1 with more skilled players. Looks like he overmatched his opponents a little bit with his height and athleticism, but still impressive for someone who has little basketball experience
Agreed, this kid is high risk/reward. He has no offensive game and he was 8" taller than anyone in those highlights. But he's got great spring off the floor and timing. He could really alter some shots....or he could be a foul machine. Another positive is that he looks to have nice soft hands offensively.
Offensively, he's so raw that we need to get him setting good screens and crashing the boards. He can't do anything else yet (at least by this video). I don't see how he can play more than 10 mpg this year, but could be a valuable 15mpg guy his senior year. It's also valid that he's going to make Pierce better in practice.
We are still going to see many games where we play more than 20 minutes with a guy like LeDay or Blackshear at the 5 and Clarke or Bibbs at the 4.
But can he rebound? Blocked shots are great, but getting 50% of rebounds will help the team win more than anything else.
Averaged over 8 a game this past year.