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Well for today the players were in basketball shorts and tank tops (the nike ones that they wear with the numbers on it), easy answer being no pads and no helmets.
Where on the site is this, the Tourney Challenge? Do I have to set up my own account 1st to get to this group? Sorry, never spent much time on this, trying to get involved.
Careful, this is a public forum...
Sounds like David Teel reads TKP from that list...
Fair points, particularly the one about seeing "Tech as a step up." There are a lot of coaches out there, and I imagine many aren't in the market to make a switch particularly if it is lateral. But with Cronin's connection to Babcock it seems like a possibility. He wasn't even on my radar either until PhillyHokie007 was down in Blacksburg this past weekend and mentioned it.
This is great! Thanks Birdman. Question(s): what exactly do these workouts look like? Are they dressed in pads, or simply in "basketball uniforms" as Lefty once suggested? It sounds to me kinda like two-a-days...helmets being the only football apparatus.
I just completed my series of random guesses bracket. Thanks for setting up the group!
This damn well better be green by the end of the night.
First of all, we're not talking about basketball culture here, rather the culture of a university community as a whole. I don't care if a guy runs an up-temp offense or a gritty defense. Like Whit said this morning, I favor whichever style puts more points on the board than the other team. Second, no one ever mentioned making culture the end all, be all decision on who to hire. But it's a factor that has to be considered. Whoever gets hired has to get along with the administration, the boosters, etc. Those people certainly have a culture and way of thinking/acting. There's a certain "game" the new coach will have to be willing to play sometimes. I understand as a student it's awesome to see some new, hot, fiery coach come in. Trust me, it is for alumni and other fans as well. I remember Greenberg picking up the mic during the UVA game one year and yelling at the fans to stop throwing stuff so they could keep playing and win that game. I also remember running into him in the bar at Bull & Bones with a buddy and how he talked to us and thanked us for being at all the games. It was great. He was awesome. But how he got along with the students is just one factor of the culture as a whole. All accounts are that he was not great with boosters and not great with the administration and those are also two very important parts of the culture. I also don't think our culture would prohibit us from hiring a guy that has always coached in a city as opposed to a farmer with a pitch fork. Whoever we hire has to buy in to what is trying to ultimately be done at Virginia Tech.
As far as the culture shift, see above. That's one factor. I don't think anyone would argue that the athletics department isn't going through a shift as well with Whit taking over. The alumni and boosters have a culture as well. Multiple in fact seeing as some are in their 20s like myself, 30s, and some that are more than double that age. The culture as a whole is what matters. It's certainly not the only thing to consider. But it's no small part of the equation either.
So it would be like more VT students watching VT practice then UVA had fans at there spring game
Should TKP start recruiting students to watch practices for insight? Get about 10 students who all report on a position they were around.
well i still have 3 more years to be able to watch the football practices and such.
We have an inside guy. We need to keep this asset.
Well if you're right about being in the midst of a cultural shift; 1. that makes me sad. 2. it won't matter for about 20 years when your generation of alumni start donating and influencing decisions.
Just look at what happened with Greenberg. He didn't get fired for not winning enough, he was fired for rubbing certain alumni/boosters and people in the athletic dept the wrong way. That's what we're talking about when we talk about needing to fit with the culture. I don't think and I hope that it's not THE most important thing but whether we like it or not, it's high on the list.
Now all that being said, Whit could be changing all of that. I'm very interested to see what direction he heads in, I think we can all agree that this new regime is vastly different from Weaver's tenure.
We should accept that we will need to find a coach with some flaws and hope his good outweighs his bad.
I was a fan of the Seth hiring at the time because I remembered him at LBSU. He then went to USF and performed like Capel at OU. He needed to get out and he wanted to show he was the same hot-young-hire he once was at LBSU. For better or worse, Seth did a lot for us (remember the Stokes era?)
I see this search going similarly, we need to find a coach with some flaws who has some upside. I Capel would be a good choice.
The way I see it, why would you be excited to go play for a guy that only got 9 wins this year? As a recruit, I'd be more interested to commit to VT for a better chance at early playing time. New coach = clean slate and equal playing opportunity to showcase talent from day 1 along with all the returners. For the current roster, you gotta be excited about the opportunity for a new direction in the program unless you really don't want to be at VT anymore.
Like a video game! Cool.
Maybe when the super hot player goes for dunk the floor could also react and propel them from 1/2 court for a dunk!
I'll try and get a good look at the LBs tomorrow.
Of course I meant Tommy, but Tony would be an improvement as well! My fingers sometime(s) take the easiest route to the keys.
I did find out from him is that its a knee problem that he's been hampered by since the UCLA game. He has been doing better in the training room as I've been helping with some of his knee training exercises.
Do we want him to come in and spend five years getting the program respectable again and on the brink of really winning and then jump ship (EG: Pete Hughes)?
I would love to have a coach come in and build a top 25 team. If he leaves after 5 years, and leaves the program in better place than he found it, I will be pleased.
If that's the main thing we're looking for in a coach, we are handcuffing ourselves so much. We have not, nor will be in the near future, a basketball job that when a coach obtains the job, feels he has "made it." We don't have the tradition in basketball to make it a dream job, unless you grew up a Tech fan. And if that's the case, good luck finding the ONE candidate out there who fits the "culture" while also being a coach that can help us reach our goals.
Please, define what exactly our culture is. Because I can tell you as a current student we're in the midst of a culture shift. This late 90's early 2000's culture we used to have is slowly becoming extinct.
By placing such a high importance on having a "cultural fit" coach, you can limit yourself a tremendous amount. I know I'd damn well take a great coach with a bit of a cultural disconnect who generates wins, rather than a lesser coach who "belongs."
This.
Perhaps a radical thought - but why not hire a coach with vague but desirable values (Hard working, loves winning, doesn't cheat, good character) and let him help shape the culture at VT?
Just because our football team is defensive minded doesn't mean we can't hire a basketball coach who focuses on offense. Just because we're in a rural area doesn't mean we can't consider coaches who previously coached in a city.
It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out. Obviously QB is the most intriguing but given that our D is likely going to have to carry the load again this season, I'm very interested in the DL and LB races.
Thanks for being our boots on the ground!
Unfortunately I did not see any of the linebackers in position drills pr during the training drills. I did hear Foster give high praise to Montupuaka at the end of the day though. Also both Van Dyke brothers were limited in the position drills.
Sign me right the heck up.