Recent Comments

None of these questions can be asked/answered until a coach like JJ who wants to run uptempo style has more than 7 scholarship players for an entire year. If, with 10 fresh bodies next year, he lays an egg, I'm right there with you,

Will "being right there in it for half to three quarters of a game" be enough next year as well?

At some point do we ever get to evaluate James Johnson on...you know, winning?

Also, I'd love to see some links to all of the gurus who can't stop talking about what a great coaching job he's doing, you and I are not getting the same message from gurus.

Do you extend JJ if he has around a .500 record next year and doesn't make the post season? Or are we just having this conversation all over again?

You honestly see this team getting 7 more ACC wins than they did this year? And your whole prediction is based on not having a single injury? We expect that to be the case?

Also, are the current assistants working for free?

Just remember fans, no one said "think of all the money were saving!" During any of the double digit losses this year, I imagine that won't keep us warm next winter, either.

We were right there in every game to the end or well in to the second half over the past month or so including at Duke. In the games we we lost by 10+ you could see the tank run dry where there were just not enough bodies and energy. There has to be some basis in reality here... this is a team that generally over the past 6 weeks or so was playing with 6, SIX scholarship players and a grand total of TWO guards, one of which is a walk on.

Gurus- longtime VT hoops recruiting folks and couple hoops writers

Is a borderline .500 record and no postseason enough to keep his job next year? Enough to get an extension or are we having this same conversation again?

I'm not sure I buy the "mass exodus of players reason. Did we have a mass exodus of players when we fired Ricky Stokes? No. Players want to win too, firing a losing coach and replacing him with someone who has a history of winning as a head coach at any level will bring excitement back to this program.

What do you think is James Johnson's ceiling here? Do you think he's the guy to take this program where we want it to go?

Thanks for that.
I'll still schedule the brew day for a different day than Monday but, thanks for the update.

Lady friend huh?? *wink wink nudge nudge*
As far as there not being any snow, this is actually very welcome news to hear. This winter has absolutely killed me as far as my financial well being goes. Idk what old man winters problem has been this year, but I'm gonna need him to calm down

Thank god we dont have to go to dinich anymore. Ive been able to completely detox myself of anything she writes thanks to this site. TKP is pretty much my facebook at this point

On another thread I said I was not sure about JJ; but was leaning toward giving him another year. After reading this article, I am convinced. The pieces are going to be in place. Let's see what JJ can do with a full deck.

Happy belated birthday thekeyplay!!!!!!!!! This place is so awesome and is second to none on football info and hokiesports/Virginia tech news in general thank you all so much for everything you do and contribute!!!!

The teams local to DC usually participate in something like that. The BB&T Classic, although I think it may not happen this year, usually brings four teams in for a single day.

http://www.ccfdc.org/bbandt-classic

I like your premise of making it an entire weekend event, although you would need to make sure that the Sunday games were done by early afternoon if you wanted to keep a large contingent of fans that travelled. People aren't going to want to miss work.

It might be a challenge getting the ACC to work with you and this could be the better opportunity to work on our in state relationships. Plan for it to be a rotation of Virginia teams. VMI, Richmond, VCU, George Mason, George Washington, JMU, Radford, Old Dominion, Longwood, Liberty, Hampton would all be options. Tech could probably host something like that every year if they rotated through that entire list with an agreement to Home and Home series on the return for the slightly larger schools on the list.

I just had a thought watching these tournaments. Someone let me know if they think it's feasible or not:

How often do we play two games on consecutive days?

I ask because it would be great to bring a few ACC teams into Blacksburg for a weekend and sell out the Cassell for a collection of games. For example, bring UVA, Wake, and Pitt into Blacksburg and host a doubleheader on Saturday and another one on Sunday.

Saturday: VT vs. Pitt, UVA vs. Wake
Sunday: VT vs. Wake, Pitt vs.UVA

This would accomplish a few things, I think:

1) It would give us a chance to knock out a couple of games in a weekend where we wouldn't have to sacrifice school days for games and travel.
2) It would look like tournament time. Two games in rapid succession in the same location. But it wouldn't matter if you lose, as you'd still have the game the next day.
3) It would turn a basketball game into an all-weekend event, making it nicer to travel for the games for people who aren't in the area. People above have mentioned that they don't really want to travel for a game. Well, what about four?
4) It would sell out the Cassell. I mean, if we can't sell out a home game with our fan base, why not try to sell out using four fan bases?

Some other thoughts:
a) It would increase tourism to Blacksburg. We already know the town can kinda handle 70,000 people because football does it, so the town should be able to handle the extra crowd for the smaller coliseum.
b) We could sell tickets to the two Saturday games or the two Sunday games in a package so you could chill and watch basketball all day. Or you could buy a weekend pass and watch all four.
c) The host team could obviously rotate so each team could host a mini-almost-round-robin once a year or once every two years or however often it would happen, and all ACC teams could get big crowds in their towns.
d) Bring a few women's teams in, too, and increase the number of games you get in a day. Think of all the basketball you could play in a day!
e) Build a big ass screen outside Cassell and project the games onto it so you could have general admission tailgaters hanging out in the parking lot, watching ball all day. A few roach coaches and street vendors and you'd have a veritable farmer's market of basketball. Now that we have a big ass video board in Lane, you could do it there. There's already a bunch of seating! This outdoor thing might be tougher because basketball happens in winter.

It would be like the WHFStival...for ACC basketball!

My life was pretty sad before I found TKP. I used to rely on Heather D. for my Hokie news. The big story was always about how tall Logan was. Wonder what she will think of Hodges?

I specifically answered your question as to what I think the record of this team will be next year under this coach. Can I say without a doubt that it will be 15-17, 16-16, or 17-15 without knowing whether we will play Michigan or Purdue in the BIG10(first vs last) or run into a buzzsaw of Kansas in a holiday tournament? Not comfortably and that would be the same answer if we had Calipari coaching this team or if I was making predictions for how Duke will do next year.

As to your hypothetical B.S. of other questions, they don't wash in the actual environment. If JJ had to go up against the other candidates in my other thread right now head to head I doubt he would be Whit's first choice based on two years of losing compared to a list of highly successful NON-ACC coaches. Whit will still have had to guess how those coaches might do in the ACC.

The fact is JJ doesn't have to compete head to head though, he is in the job, so you have to ask if Whit will replace him with one of those other candidates and what impact does that have on the program short and long term? I have laid out several reasons JJ and this team have underperformed, call them pages of excuses if you will but if I had been the head coach in the same circumstances I would hope my brand new Athletic Director weighed all of the information when making a decision about what I put so much effort into doing. One of the articles in the last couple weeks speaks to how little JJ has been able to sleep trying to find something to balance the scales. That to me is a coach that cares about what he is doing and I legitimately think with the players he will have next year that he CAN be close to a .500 team and the year after that with a third class, have a chance to compete against the legends you refer to.

If we fire him, I think you will likely lose three or four players from the current roster. You can never be sure about recruits but if things go the way they have recently, we would lose Bibbs which would be a major blow. We would be worse off than when Greenberg got fired and have to hope the next hire could put it together fast. I would rather fish with the equipment I have now and see if I can steal a Bass Fishing National Championship in a couple years than have to start over and hope The next guy is the guy.

PS: You didn't answer my questions either in your sweeping generalities of FIRE, FIRE, FIRE

The thing about almost every coach that has the pedigree to do this: THEY WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH THE VIRGINIA TECH JOB. What reason have we given them to want it? What about how our program has gone the last five years would make someone want to give up even a good thing at a mid major to come into our current potentially poisonous environment? The Challenge? You aren't going to bait many people with that.

Where is your answer without throwing a ton of big giant bundles of cash at the problem? Cash the Athletic Department doesn't have right now. And personally, putting the big, giant bundles of cash out there as the primary reason for taking the job doesn't give me confidence that the coach will stay if they have a good year or two. I do believe that if JJ is able to right the ship next year that he does have strong feelings for Virginia Tech and could be a long term coach at Tech. Otherwise he would be sleeping like a baby regardless of his record. He has HOKIE pride, wears it on his face in some of those really tough losses down the stretch. I personally want that kind of coach leading our team.

Thanks for clarifying on the girls. I forgot they got those last couple of big wins to move up the rankings. I don't disagree with Whit's decision to retain Wolff either. He has a solid core right now and several good recruits coming in. They showed competitiveness down the stretch and look to be in position to have a winning season next year. Replacing Ugoka will be tough but they should be all right. I see many of the same signs on the men' s team.

I'm very grateful to have found TKP a couple years ago I absolutely love this place and before I discovered our community I would get all my info from the ESPN webpage and their sports "writers" it makes me cringe thinking about it now. I usually check TKP within the hour after I wake up everyday and the one of the last things I check before going to bed. Happy Birthday TKP! And a big thanks to Joe, Billdozer, French, and the rest of TKP staff for all the time you put in to make this the best place on the internet!

Girls finished 12th this year in which they were predicted to finish last. Everything else is spot on, especially

There is something to be said about honoring a contract or at least honoring the spirit of the contract. I know in today's....me, me, me, right now, got to have it world of what have you done for me lately it seems ok to just can someone when they go through a rough patch. In this case though, I would hope that Virginia Tech is better than that especially with how much of the rough patch was of the administrations making more than the coach.

And without having a schedule out yet, just looking at the roster and the potential, I'd gladly take somewhere around .500 and flirting with the NIT. Those extra practices would be great for the young guys coming in.

You literally didn't answer a single one of my questions. In doing so, I think you answered all of my questions.

We all know he's not the Freaking guy for the job, the difference between you and me is that you have 10 paragraphs of excuses and half hearted rationalization a why we need to wait another year to make it official.

You're educated in this sphere, you wouldn't have researched 10 viable candidates a month ago if you thought this guy was the guy for the job.

What are we waiting for exactly? Let's fish or cut bait here.

You think this team is fundamentally better than it was one to two years ago? Really? I don't even know what to say to that...basic, I mean very basic basketball fundamentals is one of this teams biggest weaknesses under JJ.

You can see the loeffler offense. It makes sense, you can verbalized what the mission is and you can speak to what the players are doing to accomplish it. It's right there. It not only passes the laymans eye test, it passes educated scrutiny.

Can the same be said for the offense OR defense under JJ in MBB? Because I keep asking and no one answers.

What is VT men's BB under JJ? What is it and why? No one can answer this . That's not only a problem , it the problem.

My life before TKP:
I'm Bored

My life after TKP:
Screw homework

Seriously, thank you guys for making this site the most awesome place on the interwebs!

Pages