Buzzketball: A Tale of Two Hokies' Classes

In 2011, the Virginia Tech men's basketball team seemed like it was on the verge of a breakthrough. Despite four years of just falling short of the NCAA Tournament, Seth Greenberg managed to reel in the best crop of talent in his entire tenure. Ranked as the No. 12 class by ESPN, the Hokies had a freshman at all five positions and set the building blocks to leap higher than the Malcolm Delaney/Jeff Allen era ever could.

Headlined by five-star Dorian Finney-Smith, the group simply had everything. It brought in a heady, stretch-power forward in C.J. Barksdale who could form a formidable high/low combination with Finney-Smith, an athletic slasher in Robert Brown, a gritty point guard in Marquis Rankin and a European wild card in center Joey van Zegeren. Five newcomers, all with different skill sets who just needed to gel together to send the Hokies on their way.

But, as we all know now, the opposite happened. Finney-Smith and Brown had freshman shooting slumps of epic proportions, both players hit just over 30 percent of their field goals — 34 and 33 percent respectively — in conference play (which included Dodo's still-incredible stretch where he hit four shots in the entire month of January), Rankin and Barksdale were never able to get on the floor consistently, and van Zegeren ultimately redshirted.

By the time their senior night was supposed to arrive (in March of last season) all five members of the supposed "greatest Hokie Hoops class in history" were no longer on the team. Finney-Smith transferred to Florida after one year, Brown made his way to UAB after two, Rankin decided to leave during his junior season and eventually landed at Queens University of Charlotte, Barksdale walked away after James Johnson was fired and van Zegeren is set to round out his career at Northwestern.

Greenberg's whiff and ultimate demise teaches one huge lesson; the importance of recruiting for culture and fit. Obviously a team wants to bring in the most talent they can, but remember, everyone else is filling out their roster too. There are a disproportionate number of schools to compete with on the recruiting trail. Unless you can recruit like John Calipari or Mike Krzyzewski, and just throw your doors open to future NBA stars every year, it's more important to make sure you target high schoolers who will be able to fit seamlessly in whatever you do as a coach.

This means there has to be a sense of self-awareness as a recruiter. Know who you are, what you do and who best fits those two things. If that player is a three-star sleeper from a small town, you'd go after him the same way you would a future top-10 draft pick. What you can't do is chase highly rated players whose arrival generates waves around your program, with a general disregard for how you can use them.

Greenberg's best teams always had one thing in common, they were tough. I'm not just using a cliche, they were the "punch me in the face and I'll get back up" kind of tough. Zabian Dowdell, Jamon Gordon, Coleman Collins, A.D. Vassallo, Malcolm Delaney, Terrell Bell, J.T. Thompson and Jeff Allen all spanned different eras of Seth-coached teams, but all of them had that trait in common (yes haters, even Allen). Lost in the failed bids to make the tournament were the number of times those guys beat the best teams in the ACC. They weren't more talented than Duke or North Carolina, they just stood their ground and threw body blow after body blow until the other team fell.

No disrespect to the young guys brought in at the end of the Greenberg era, but they weren't those type of players. Finney-Smith was a 6'8" matchup nightmare with the skills to play a potentially lethal point-forward, but the Hokies were never exactly known for their offensive ingenuity. It was a messy fit from the beginning, and it never got better. Barksdale was a finesse player who could be bodied at times inside. Brown and Rankin each had talent, but neither had the kind of in-your-face grit the guards before them possessed.

The program was different for that final season. Everything just fell apart as they dropped tight game after tight game, unable to grind it out for wins. Seth looked like he was sleeping about three hours a night as he looked for answers, was eventually canned, which leads us into the modern day version of the program.

If it hasn't been clear over the last 18 months, Buzz Williams is a pretty smart guy. And if you've paid even the smallest bit of attention, you can see from the high rate of roster turnover he's a big believer in getting guys in the door who fit his philosophies and coaching style.

While he and his staff smartly went out and nabbed a few transfers and junior college players, they ended up with three prospects who could be the foundation of Buzzketball in Blacksburg.

"We need all three of those freshman to help us," Williams said at the team's media day. "Help us culturally, but also help us on the floor."

Each player was sought after the minute Williams took the job and fits a clear role both on and off the court.

The Headliner

Chris Clarke, 6'6", G/F, Virginia Beach, VA

Clarke was a critical get for a few different reasons. He was considered one of the best in the state last year (first by ESPN, second by 247Sports), potentially legitimizing the Hokies among other top recruits in the commonwealth down the road. He also played for Boo Williams AAU, one of the most powerful organizations on the east coast and an essential relationship for the staff to have.

It wasn't easy, however. Clarke originally committed to Tennessee before swiftly switching allegiances. Not so coincidentally, sanctions fell on then-Vols coach Donnie Tyndall soon after, which lead to the coach's dismissal and justified his star recruit's defection.

The Hokies lucked out. The youngster is a bouncy guard/forward hybrid who Buzz describes as "wiry strong", can defend multiple positions and attack the rim. What's even more intriguing, however, is Williams' success with players similar to the freshman from Virginia Beach. If you go back and look at those Marquette teams that made moves in March, all of them had a key cog with similar skill sets to Clarke.

The most obvious comparison is current Bulls guard Jimmy Butler, who thrived in Milwaukee under a similar role. While the 6'7" Butler had a little more size to compete for rebounds, Clarke may already be a more explosive athlete. And yes, it's unfair to ask a freshman who has yet to play a game to live up to a comparison of an NBA all-star, but Butler is not the only player Buzz saw blossom. Wesley Matthews posted career highs (18.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists) in his lone year under Williams, and Lazar Hayward was a similarly undersized forward who averaged double digit points his last three years in school.

It's going to be interesting to watch Clarke develop over the course of the year, because his talent is undeniable. Could he be the first Tech player since Dell Curry to be drafted in the first round of the NBA? His talent seems to suggest so. In the meantime, however, his versatility will allow the Hokies to use a number of different lineup combinations and be more flexible defensively.

The Floor General

Justin Robinson, 6'1", PG, Manassas VA

Robinson got a call from Buzz the day his new coach got to town. Like Clarke, the Robinson signing is important in a number of ways both on and off the court. He's from the fertile Washington D.C. beltway area, growing up in Northern Virginia and going to St. James School in Hagerstown, Maryland. He also played for the Boo Williams AAU team with Clarke, again potentially forming ties with the organization.

But like his former (and current) teammate, Robinson's value will be apparent on the court as well. Buzz is up front in that he asks his point guards to do a lot. When you go back and look at his time with the Golden Eagles, his lead guard's stats very rarely stand out, but the further you dive the more you can see their importance.

Marquette never had a Delaney or Erick Green type, a ball dominant player who lead an offense primarily designed around them. Instead, guys like Junior Cadougan, Dwight Buycks and Dominic James were asked to do a little bit of everything. They had to facilitate high volume scorers like Darius Johnson-Odom and Vander Blue, make sure their big men stayed involved, all the while attacking the basket selectively.

That's a tall task for anyone brought into the program, and takes a specific type of person to be able to weigh all of those responsibilities, especially as the speed of the game increases. Robinson seems like a very solid candidate to pick all of it up. He's not an explosive scorer, but always seems to be in control (particularly in the half court), and can get to the free throw line when he needs to. Scouting reports throw around words like "high I.Q." around all the time, but he plays with a cerebralness necessary to run an offense.

It wouldn't shock me if Robinson surpasses Devin Wilson by the new year as the starting point guard, and plays alongside Seth Allen in a newly explosive (if not undersized) backcourt.

The Big

Kerry Blackshear Jr., 6'10", F, Orlando, FL

The biggest wild card of the three, Blackshear has no true comparison through Buzz teams of past. He's a highly skilled big man who can shoot, but it's unclear how much he can contribute close to the basket right away (Buzz still stressed the need for strength inside at media day, which is not necessarily the highest of praise for his front court).

But his combination of abilities is appealing. The Orlando Sentinel wrote an interesting article this winter about Blackshear's upbringing that illustrates how he learned the game overseas while his dad played professionally in Spain. It's why he's so confident with his handles (a plus), and can also see the floor splendidly (an even bigger plus).

When I met him at media day, we talked about his unique style and it just lead me to prod a little bit. He says he has experience guarding centers, something vital for the Hokies, especially if he can lure opposing rim protectors away from the hoop. He also says he's confident with his shot out to the three-point line, and looked incredulous when I tried to call him out for exaggerating.

His signing filled an immediate need for depth, but his ceiling is so much higher than that of a rotation big. Should he add strength, everything is set up for him to be a formative player who provides a bigger matchup advantage than anyone else on the team.

Williams and his staff should take pride in the way this freshman class panned out. They didn't just grab three players, they signed three fits within their system who can become formative pieces to build around. And yes, this too was a highly rated class. But unlike its 2011 counterpart, the path to a potential breakthrough is not just hypothetical. It's a part of a painstakingly thorough process on the path back to respectability.