Virginia Tech men's basketball coach Buzz Williams announced Friday that Malik Müller has decided to leave the program with the intent of transferring to another school.
"Malik and I had multiple discussions about his future over the past several weeks, and he has decided it is best to finish his career elsewhere," Williams said in a prepared release. "Malik is a great person, and we are thankful for how he represented the Hokies on and off the floor during his tenure here. We wish him well in all of his future endeavors."
The Frankfurt, Germany native averaged 6.2 points and 2.5 rebounds per game in 2014-15 for the Hokies. He started 20 games last season and played in all 33 games.
Müller is free to contact schools outside of the Atlantic Coast Conference to engage in discussions about his possible release and transfer from Virginia Tech.
Comments
Outlaw scholarship
yep. the whole walk-on thing didnt seem to make sense
I kinda get uneasy feelings about that. I realize somebody had to go to. But. Yanno.
Me too.
I'm OK with Muller getting the axe to open up a scholarship for Outlaw. (And that seems likely at this point.) If that's true, then why restrict Muller's transfer. He should be free to go wherever he wants.
I don't think it's neccesary either, because I don't think any ACC school would take him.
But it's sound strategy if you think the player leaving has some talent, (just not enough talent to play major minutes in your rotation). You don't want him coming back to haunt you in league play.
I mean I understand why they restrict transfers. But you have to admit it's a bit messed up if it appears he's not really leaving on his own accord
Of course it's a sound strategy, but nevertheless it is messed up.
messed up, yea.... but you gotta do some things that are in the best interest for you/the team
It's always come down to this...if you're gonna make an omelette, ya gotta break some eggs.
well it better be a pretty damn good omelette! Cuz we've broken a bunch of eggs...
True dat.
ehh...not really. Most of those eggs were spoiled.
hah..interesting take
Don't get me wrong, I love our teams as they are when they play, regardless of achievement or talent, but VT put all it's eggs in one basket with the hiring of a big name coach as chef. It is not a surprise to me that we have a total turnover as a result. If we were doing ok with the the team we had, things might be different, but we weren't. I never love forced attrition, and hope Buzz was as fair with the kids as he could be in the circumstances, but we have a date with the ACC and NCAA tournaments and weren't getting there with the menu we were bringing to the table. I fully expect we'll see the proof in the pudding this year, and I look forward to the expected dessert.
You're making me hungry...
I am so freakin' hungry for a competitive basketball team it's got me drooling!!
I'd credit those broken eggs to Jim Weaver, who fired Seth Greenberg at an inopportune time and then hired JJ in his place.
We're only just now digging out from that, and there's a new chef in town.
You know Berman is loving this, any way to put the program down.
Funny, I don't generally think of him at all, but he does sometimes seem to put things in the most negative framework possible.
Uneasy how? Would you rather Buzz ignore Mueller this offseason, and not give him the heads up about the realities of playing time this fall? That would result in a wasted year of eligibility for Mueller after he averages <5min per game and transfers in 2016.
I wish him luck. He played well for us last year.
Crap, I had hoped that if someone had to go it would be Wilson or Henry. Loved Meuller and his scrappy attitude, and don't forget that he had a few games with 20+ points. Sad to see him go, but there were too many at his position, he was obviously the odd man out.
Yeah, he was a true Hokie. I remember the one time I looked at his twitter account that he was really big on supporting other Tech sports teams. Really sucks to see him leave.
I'll miss him scrapping tooth and nail.
Adam Smith and The Umlaut gone.
Cheesy name related jokes will be harder to come by next year.
Naw, we'll figure some out
We will just have to be more economical with our puns.
How can we become economical with our puns when the Father of Capitalism Adam Smith is gone?
We have a guy coming in named Outlaw. He doesn't need a nickname but that's gonna be fun.
There goes our 2 ACC regular season wins.
I enjoyed watching him play for the Hokies, and I'm hopeful that he'll land somewhere where he can play guard and log major minutes.
Hmmm. Muller has already redshirted, so the only way to play 3 more years is go down a classification for this year. Then he could move back up the following year, including to an ACC school. Is that correct?
Thats only true if he wants to play this season. If not he will sit out this year at his new school and have three years eligibility remaining. Redshirt shouldn't effect it based on transfer rules. NCAA doesnt fight the sixth year anymore for those events.
thanks! i was only aware of the medical exception to have 6 to play 4.
All jokes aside, he was my guess for next one out
Thanks, Malik, and best wishes. Always a Hokie.
I'll always remember Müller D'ing-up guys 6-8 inches taller than him at the 4 spot last season. He has a hell of a lot of heart, and I hope he lands somewhere where he can show that heart off.
Was just about to post this. Dude held his own against guys way larger than him largely through pure grit and effort. I really, really hope this was a mutual thing. Good luck Malik.
While this does stink, maybe this will quit happening once Buzz has a team of only players he recruited. I understand negative things have to happen to get the best players. I still don't understand restricting his transfer. If he's good enough to beat us then maybe we should keep him.
Yes, we all like Muller. I hate to see him go, and it's a bitter pill, but I think we all knew this was a likely requirement in order to get the team where it needs to be this year.
We don't need VT transfers on all the other ACC teams.
I, for one, am happy that he'll get to play in the tourney now.
Historically that means Malik, Adam Smith, Joey are likely to make the NCAA tournament. Lets hope the new guys coming in change history and make the NCAA tournament too.
It truly would be historic if JVZ makes the NCAA Tournament since Northwestern is the only major conference team to have never made the field. Right now I consider the success of our transfers a good laugh for the most part, but that might take it to a new level.
Regardless it will be quite interesting to see which trend wins out.
Just curious but how does anyone know he was given the axe? Telling a kid he won't be as big of a part of the rotation because players are better than him isn't "axing" him in my opinion. Everything we've heard on this has been purely speculation.
Outlaw signed with us and wasn't about to pay his own way for a year (don't kid yourself there).
So that means Devin Wilson is the only player that was coached by JJ on this roster...wow
This is not a bad thing....
Well this stinks for him. I really hope Buzz didn't just outright pull his scholarship, but just laid out how many minutes Mueller could expect and he decided on his own accord to leave.
Either way I hope he makes the trek 350 miles southeast and becomes a Camel...
That'd be my guess. Buzz is too caring of a person and has too much respect and gratitude for his players this year (might sound funny to hear, but it's true) to just say, "you're not good enough, go away." I'm sure he simply informed Malik that he would face some really stiff competition to see the floor and he'd likely be able to find a great deal of success elsewhere. Buzz puts the program first, 100% of the time, but he's never gonna kick a guy out and just say, "good luck, nice knowin' ya."
I totally believe this is true but at the same time when your coach calls you in and says something like:
"I'm just going to lay it out, next season your going to be in a tough battle and I'm just not sure you're going to get much time in games. I just don't see it. I totally respect if you want to stay and fight it out, or you could transfer and I will sign off on it, but I just wanted to be upfront about it."
Yeah, sure that's a coach being straight with someone... BUT, it's also basically saying "I don't want you here." That's tough for anyone to hear. And I am sure that Buzz was 100% more forthright and respectful than what I am exemplifying but it's pretty much the same.
As a fan of even as that particular player being told that, I'd rather here that and the player have the option to leave than not be told anything and they ride the bench all season and the rest of their career. I think it's MORE respectable to say something to him than not.
Agreed. I'd see it as much more disrespectful for Buzz to have led him on and just said something along the lines of, "keep grinding and see what happens," when he knows full well the deck's stacked against him and he doesn't have a great chance of getting a lot of playing time. Hard to advance as a player if you're not on the court. There's no perfect way to do it cause it's just not an ideal situation. However, I think just being straight with the guy and letting him make that decision is the best way to go about it.
I think you are both missing my point. I agree with what you are saying. I definitely would not want to see Buzz leading anyone on like that. Prefer he be straight with them. What I am saying is no matter how respectful and caring Buzz is, and no matter how he phrases it, it is still a punch to the nuts because you've just been told "you're not wanted here." That doesn't mean anyone has bad feelings, but let's not downplay how devastating being told shitty news respectfully can be.
I don't doubt it, but let's face it, there are several reasons why we've finished last in the ACC the last few years, and talent was one of them. Unfortunately, you can't upgrade talent without hurting some feelings. It sucks, but that's how it goes if we want to get our money's worth with Buzz.
You could easily upgrade talent without hurting feelings. It would just take a bit longer. But fug it, I'm down to win sooner rather than later
Maybe Seth Allen and Malik should have a talk. Seth saw the writing on the wall regarding melo trimble. After a talk with coach, he left. Everyone thinks Malik roster spot is for outlaw and technically yes but Maliks roster spot went to Seth allen.
hey, welcome to big time college basketball. We wanted it we got it. I loved Maliks tireless hustle but if Buzz feels the roster is upgraded then let's go hokies!
I know this had to be a big disappointment to Devin Wilson, he and Malik are very close. I would not be shocked if he made a decision to leave also, hope not.
For me, its one of those "it is what it is" kind of things. None of know how exactly it went down between Malik and Buzz, but I'm not fretting over it. People on the outside will always have their opinions. Once the opening tip happens, no one will care anymore.
I'm conflicted on this.
We've all seen the 'force out' where a guy who we thought had some ability does not see the floor before Christmas as the coach does not see a future for him, and then transfers out (Ben Boggs comes to mind). Never liked that at all.
Although this bugs me too, it seems far more up front to handle it Buzz's way- talk it through right now and give the kid some time to think and then a full year once eligible.
I heard some troubling news today from someone who is very close with Christian Beyer, said that Buzz told Malik he wasn't good enough to play for him. I know he operates differently but that's brutal
I'm not jumping to conclusions. You never know if words were twistes or over exaggerated. I'd rather Buzz tell him he's not good enough to play and him have a chance to transfer and have a great career at a smaller school than drag him along. Let's be real, Malik wasn't an NBA prospect here.
At best, that's a fourth-hand account.
In any event, sports are like musical chairs in that there are so only so many spots, and there is competition for those spots. This is Buzz William's team, and he's got to assess the players and get the best talent on the floor for Virginia Tech. To do anything less would be not doing his job.
none of us knows exactly what words Buzz used with Malik (in my experience in doing performance reviews, the recipient of a poor review usually doesn't remember either) but go back and listen to the post game interviews last year...Buzz has been consistent and open in saying that we needed better players
this isn't tee-ball
That's also clear from the ACC record.
If you want to win consistently in the ACC, you need some pretty good players.
This could also be a case where Buzz told him that he was going to be seeing a lot less minutes this year because the team has evolved and said that he could stay or was free to go if playing time was that important to him. Malik probably didn't like hearing that and told the other guys Buzz said he wasn't good enough. Total speculation but there are multiple ways to say the same thing and I am sure we aren't all ignorant enough to think that Buzz didn't have some sort of nudge here but I doubt he just said "you aren't good enough to play for me".