The article talks about Buzz's history with different programs, how he writes his own contracts, how he views the money that he earns, etc. Very thorough and well written. Makes me appreciate the investment the university has made in him. Seems to be paying off so far!
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
No mention of the awesome sweaters though? Great article that omission aside
Great article. Really nice to see the insight into Whit and Buzz's focus
Good Find... thanks for sharing!
I hesitate to say this, but man...
That sounds like a guy who has found a place to stay.
No...that sounds like a guy who always needs a challenge.
Yes, and a guy who actually has a lot of money.
Lots of great tidbits in here, but this part really stuck out to me:
"In 2014-15 and 2015-16, Virginia Tech reported $848,630 spent on basketball recruiting, which almost equals what the programs spent in the previous four years combined ($913,554). In Williams' first season, Virginia Tech spent $497,598 on recruiting, which was nearly $20,000 more than the football program spent on recruiting over the same time period."
If you ever wondered why our recruiting in football wasn't up to par with our peers....
Buzz and Beamer both got the same recruiting budget. Buzz only has to sign about 5 players. Beamer has to sign about 30. For being a football school, the math on that kinda sucks.
FWIW, the article quotes Whit saying that Beamer's health was a factor in that statistic in that it caused him to not be able to travel nearly as much. Not sure I buy it completely, since his health wouldn't keep the assistants off the road, but it's at least part of the equation.
I'd be interested to see what the numbers are right now, with both Fuente and Buzz fairly well entrenched with their recruiting styles by now.
I'd like to see the numbers on who racks up more miles in the private jet. My guess is that a large portion of Buzz's recruiting budget is from the cost to operate the jet.
Buzz must really trust his accountant. Taking all the money out of the account and giving out $200 a day between him and his wife.
I hope he has a second accountant auditing the first accountant. That and the first accountant is paying all the bills.
I should tweet Buzz and see if he needs a personal auditor. I'd be willing to move to Blacksburg...
Gotta separate the roles of book keeper and money handler. Rule #1 in preventing fraud and theft.
Bingo, falls directly under the opportunity side of the fraud triangle. Segregation of duties!
And people worry about Buzz leaving.
The piece that jumped out to me is the school being required to support the Visa process of any staff member that requires it. I didnt realize that McNeilly was Canadian. That probably explains a lot in terms of our recent foray into recruiting north of the border. We have been associated with at least six offers to Canadians in the last two seasons.
Buzz just gets it. He is a life coach as much or more than he is a basketball coach to these kids. That is why these kids want to come to Virginia Tech, play basketball, and (I hope) get an education.
Interesting article. I knew VT opened the piggy bank to get him. However, I didn't realize he was the 10th highest paid coach. Next year, his recruits will be seniors so it will be all "his guys" in the program. Either next year or the following year should be the time that the rebuid is complete. I always expect teams to compete up to the coaches pay. Should sweet 16's be the expectation for having the 10th highest paid coach?
Can you believe Beamer was near the middle of the ACC pack in salary (London got paid more) for all those 10 win seasons.
I would say in 2 years we'll be at full rebuild status. That first class, while absolutely outstanding for what they clearly brought to us, and will forever remain favorable in our memories, I'm not completely sure it was a full on Buzz class so much as he took anyone with skill and size who would return a call. He was in a desperate spot to get bigger faster, a point he reiterated at a couple of the Hokie Club events he attended right after his hire. That said, really couldn't have worked out better, and found some incredible players to round out the program, but I think the last two years have really started to show the kind of team and players he wants to bring in. The 2018-2019 season I think we'll begin to see a program with staying power that can roll deep with talent and legitimately start to ask the question how high do we really want the bar to be set. Even next year is still a bit of an unknown with all the players who didn't play this year getting their feet wet.
Its crazy to think, but 2018 might be the start of a run where we're in the NCAA Tournament more often than we're not in it. And the article made one great point. Roy Williams, Mike Shishefky and Rick Pitino aren't getting any younger. They might only have a few more years left in the tank before they hang it up. The conference is looking at some massive turnover in the next couple years. With Buzz, we're currently positioning ourselves to make a move once that process begins. As long as Whit is the AD and we're backing up our basketball ambition with steady funding, who knows how far this thing can go.
I think you meant:
I still think next year could see a bit of a step back, only because we have a bunch of players who will be seeing playing time for the first time under Buzz. Not that I don't think they can continue our progress, but I'm not going to completely buy into the thought we won't see one step back before two steps forwards until I see how they all perform together in the early part of the year.
That said, if they can gel from the start, I completely agree with your correction.
I'll be shocked if we're not better.
LeDay 2.0 and Pig will have been in the system a year...from Buzz's postgame, if Pig came play, he'll be a hell of a player. Just watching his HS film, my guess is whatever situation kept him from playing is what kept him from getting more offers.
NAW looks to be everything we need. Perimeter defender. Elite scorer. Size. Length.
Bede looks like a Seth Allen prototype, but with better ball handling. Not sure he'll be able to get to the rim at will like Allen could, but I think that's where Pig will come into play.
Let's not forget...we don't lose any starters and we get Devin and Blackshear back. Clarke might not play, but he's been out a lot in his career and we've proven we can play without him.
PG: Five, Wilson
CG: Pig, Bede
G: Bibbs, Med, NAW,
F: Outlaw, Blackshear, LeDay 2.0; Clarke (????); Horne
C: Sy
That's deep. Little drop off from starters to bench players. Sign me up for the hype train. Honestly, thought we were a Sweet 16 team talent level team this year. We're more talented next season. Another first round exit will be highly disappointed, tbh.
You think he'll play KJB at 4 with Sy at 5?
I can't remember, did he play KJB with ZLD much? Or did he swap them out like he did with Sy and ZLD?
No...sorry. Meant that as an overall depth chart. Don't think Sy gets much more than 5 or so minutes a night unless KJ is in foul trouble.
You and I agree about Sy (I agree with pretty much all your hoops takes, you clearly know the game).
I don't think Sy is any more than an ACC backup, a 5-10 mpg guy. Nothing wrong with that, he's got good size. But he's not rebounding or protecting the rim enough for his size to play up its advantages vs. how much his size and lack of athleticism takes away other things we want to do. If he gets much more aggressive on the boards and at the rim, he can provide value there worth the detriment he brings (and likely always will bring) on the O.
My concern about KJB is foul trouble. He was a nightmare about that last year, hedging hard on G's 35' from the basket to pick up fouls. Hopefully that was more illustrative of him growing in to his body from the 6'8" wing he was 18 months before. I'm excited to see how KJB looks after a year out, hoping to see him aggressive on the boards with post moves and some pick/pop skills.
Yep. Bingo on KJB, as well any big really.
Horne's tape reminds me a little of Shane Henry as well (who I would have loved to be here for four years, tbh). Not very refined. But length and lanky and has a motor out of the gym.
LeDay 2.0 is more a winger than power forward...but LeDunk is definitely here to stick. It's just where do those minutes come from at that spot in the rotation?
Our depth is going to be way better, with many more players with legit chances to contribute at all positions... but Seth Allen and Zach LeDay were our top 2 players, even though they didn't start. Plus Chris Clarke is going to miss at least half the season. So saying we're returning all of our starters isn't really accurate. We're returning 2 "starters" and a 3rd might be back halfway through the season, although Buzz's history leads me to predict Clarke misses the whole year, even if he is "ready" in January.
I do expect plenty of 2-PG, 2-SG, 1-F lineups mixed in with more traditional 1-PG, 2-G, 2-F so there will be playing time to go around if these new guys prove they are ready.
P: Robinson, Jackson, Bede, Wilson
G: Bibbs, Hill, NAW, Outlaw
F: Blackshear, Sy, LeDay, Horne
IR: Clarke
Garden variety ACLs in hoops are 6 months to be cleared. Do you know it's not garden variety? If not, CC is expected to be cleared in August.
I think 6 months is overly optimistic, not because of any specific info about his injury, but because an ACL isn't fully healed for 18 months and athletes typically aren't capable of performing at near-peak levels with that leg for 9 months. For every Adrian Peterson who returns to top form in 6mo there's a Derrick Rose who takes 2 years to get back to full performance. Buzz is careful with his players' health and I don't see him putting Clarke in a position to re-injure the knee with a fast recovery.
If he's 100% in time for training camp I could see him playing next season, but I'm not betting on it.
All sounds good now but lets wait till attrition happens and it will happen. When and who, I don't know.
My thoughts on this are that talent wise and what we see on the floor will be better than what we had this season. Two reasons I think this. The first is that we will have more flexibility in terms of roster to respond to an opponent's strengths if necessary (see second half of Texas A&M game). The second is that overall I believe there is a higher level of talent in the building.
That said, I also believe in terms of overall record we could see a small regression. I believe that our OOC schedule will be much tougher than this season's which could cause a few hiccups early on especially as these players learn to gel on the court in real game situations. I also think that we are going to see a stronger ACC to contend with this next season, especially in terms of the lower tier teams being stronger.
I will be interested to see what NC State does late in recruiting as they have several holes to fill. I expect a strong positive reaction from their players though for the coach they hired.
Wake Forest is bringing in two more bigs in their freshman class along with a top tier wing player in Chaundee Brown, who is sitting just outside the five star ratings right now as the 31st best player in the class.
Boeheim has a couple Canadian kids coming in that I think will impact their season next year as well.
Clemson also has two bigs and two guards coming in and their coach is definitely going to be on the hot seat to reach the tournament next year.
Florida State may regress a bit but once again they have another 7 foot tall, 230 lbs, #4 ranked Center coming in as part of their class.
Larranaga and Miami have five star guard Lonnie Walker (19th ranked in the class) along with two four stars, one a guard, one a big as well as one three star big. All four are in the top 144 in the class. I also expect Miami to identify a grad transfer to step in and start where Davon Reed graduated.
Pitino has five star center Malik Williams (7 ft, 200 lbs) coming in along with three four stars, two other bigs and a guard. Scarier yet is that Louisville only loses one of their top 6 scorers from last season in Mangok Mathiang, but between Williams and the other four players 6'9 or taller returning they should be able to replace Mathiang without much trouble.
Duke once again adding that top tier class, brings in the #4 player in the country in Power Forward Wendell Carter (6'10, 262 Lbs) along with the #10 player in the country in Shooting Guard Gary Trent (6'5, 213 lbs). The slacker of the class is four star (#62) Shooting Guard Alex O'Connell (6'5, 170 Lbs)
The surprising class to me is UNC, who is bringing in a four star Combo Guard Jalek Felton (#26 in the class) and three three stars (all ranked outside the top 200 in the class). I know they lost out on a couple close recruiting battles for five star players to Kansas and Arizona but still would have expected a stronger ranked class from the Tar Heels in terms of overall talent. Maybe Roy Williams sees something others didnt this time or just needs some bench fodder for next season although they are graduating two of their top four scorers.
I also think that the graduate transfer market is going to play a major role in the ACC this next season especially at Boston College and UVA. Be prepared to see at least four or five teams bring in starters from other schools this year.
Great rundown is ACC comp. I like Lville and Miami a lot. ACC is very strong across the board even if UNC, uva and FSU drop a little.
Who are you expecting in Ooc who will be tough? NYC tourney has Providence and UDUB/Saint Louis, both of whom could still be 200+ rpi. Rumors of Wisky in B10ch is interesting. Anybody else? Wvu?
I don't have any specifics but I trust Buzz and every game we played against really bad teams, Buzz in his post game would almost always comment that these are the games we don't need to be playing in. I foresee almost all games against 300+ rpis will be worked to get off the schedule. I also expect to see a few more Ole Miss type games, especially with the weaker opponents in this year's Thanksgiving tournament.
UNC has gone to two straight Final Fours, I think Roy has done a good job not playing the one and done game, or failing to attract one and done talent and still succeeding, and stocking up talent. However that does seem like a weak class for him. They'll lose Meeks (replaced by Maye), Hicks (replaced by Bradley), and Jackson (replaced by Pinson). Bradley was their only freshman to really contribute this year and the other guys were top 100. UNC will still be in that upper echelon of the ACC for the next few years.
Holy crap! ACC will repeat as the gauntlet...
I don't see "Sweet 16" as a tier, it's more of a situation. I would say the tier is defined as "being ranked most of the year" and top 6 seed in the NCAA. For instance, Iowa St had a really nice year, winning the B12 tournament and getting a 5 seed. They lost to a pretty good Purdue team and didn't make the Sweet 16, but that shouldn't tarnish their season.
The Sweet 16 is a great accomplishment and comes with one full week of being in the media hen everyone is really talking basketball. But it's a condition of the draw and the state of your team in March as much as it is a marker of a teams overall status.
The part that stuck out the most to me, though isn't anything about how Buzz operates, but rather the schools that have attempted to do the same thing - pour more money into their basketball program hiring a coach with winning records - with mixed results. Really drove home that not only did we need to put up more money (and continue to increase it) but we needed to hire the right guy and we did. Even with an increased budget, I don't think JJ would have gotten us any further than bottom third of the ACC.
Thing is, the size of Buzz's contract is a massive part of the budget. Plus he's proven to be a good recruiter.
You're right, you can't give a poor coach a ton of recruiting money and expect results, they have to go hand in hand. NCAA has plenty of examples of great recruiters who can't coach for crap.
That picture is both hilarious and unsettling every time I see it.
Lane has to be one of the more famous examples, we'll see how he does with a downsized budget.
Anybody else think it was Bania for a second?
Nope, but Seinfeld always get the leg
I really like this quote:
I always thought the criticism that Buzz got for coming to VT was a bit short sighted and I never agreed with the mentality that Blacksburg is too rural to have a good basketball program. It's good to see this motivates Buzz... I really expect great things out of this program going forward.
""Virginia Tech is traditionally a pretty good football school, so why would they choose instead to start focusing more attention on basketball?" said Rodney Fort, a sports economist and professor of sport management at University of Michigan. If Virginia Tech is as good as they want to be in football, they're going to have money left over because (revenues) are going to keep going up. What are they going to spend it on? They have to sit down with their university administration and decide that. I guess the answer at Virginia Tech was, let's get better at basketball."
I'm not seeing it as "either/or" or 'instead of". I'm seeing one as helping the other. If you want to be competitive in the ACC, I think both are important. I certainly don't think Fuente is any less fired up about football just because we have Buzz Williams trying to grow Virginia Tech's basketball program.
Apparently, the rest of the ACC (and the other Power 5 conferences) sees both as important as well. Including Michigan, where the professor providing that quote is from.
Totally read that as Rodney Fart.
That would explain why I had this look on my face when I read it.