Recent Comments

Both Frank Beamer and Coach K had previous Head Coaching experience at any level before their current jobs.

You are the man! I could not remember River Raid to save my life. That was the bees knees (I know I'm lame, but it just felt right)

Well, first of all, you're choosing all the coaching anomalies that fit your narrative. James Johnson is certainly not Frank Beamer or Mike Kryzchewski. It is basically impossible for him to be, those are the two winningest current coaches in their sports history. Much, much, much more likely is that James Johnson is Ricky Stokes. Stokes was 8-19 and 2-14 in his second year. He actually was a game over .500 his first year. Stokes followed up those two seasons with 10-18 and 12-17 seasons. By your rationale, Stokes should have been saved, after those four seasons, because "think about Frank Beamer!"

Second, Frank Beamer was coming off of NCAA Sanctions in his second year. No matter what your opinion of how Seth left and Johnson came in, it wasn't NCAA sanctions. JJ was hired to minimize the Seth damage and he failed to do so (Harrell) and has failed to do anything, literally anything, with the players and schedule that he was left with. Someone mentioned Utah, great comparison.

Finally, the media landscape is so drastically different and the expectations of fanbases that come with those changes that it should be clear today for people to stop making these comparisons. Literally, it is a different world.

It's Malcolm Gladwell's concept of blink. It was clear from the start that JJ was over his head and now he has given us 60 games of proof. His teams have dreadful awareness of game situations. He has taken Seth's offensive schemes and somehow made them worse meanwhile losing the emphasis that Seth had on defense. Yesterday, yet another example of late game situations and how they should be handled. I haven't seen anyone who follows college basketball say, "You know, he's a pretty good coach!" This doesn't even touch on the off-the-court fanbase support issues.

James Johnson will be relieved of his duties in the next few days and the VT fanbase will quickly move on because we have the greater interest of the program in mind. James Johnson had an opportunity to coach an ACC team, a dream for many assistant coaches across the country. I'm sure he is thankful for that opportunity and disappointed that more success was not realized.

For VT Hoops, its the dawn of a new era.

I would not be opposed to another year of JJ, but like the football team, there needs to be some shake-up on the staff. Maybe we bring in a retired guru the likes of maybe a Bobby Knight to change the offense for next year.

I would disagree. The record doesnt show it but the player development does. Multiple guys improved this season and the overall play showed signs of getting better. JVZ and Wilson improved their games, as did Thompson. Those are 3 very young players that matured. Our inbounds plays got better, as did our defense towards the end of the season. Loosing Eddie hurts but I think this team(read as "not the Erick Green show from 2012") improves a lot next year, just as it did this season

Hey Mel Kiper...

no, they're not. We relied a lot on freshmen this year, but that is a convenient excuse IMO. i don't dislike JJ, and i always cheer for our kids regardless of their record, but i didn't see anything this year to indicate that we are moving in the right direction. i don't want to fire JJ just to replace him with another project, but if we can identify and land "the guy" for taking our program back to the top 4 of the ACC and back into the NCAA tourney, then i think it's time to change direction.

OK I feel easy now ... not uneasy

AB- Great info here (as usual) I like that you-re tackling the big question mark postions first.

Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but unlike the QB situation, the running still feels uneasy. The fact that people still jokingly bring up Drew Harris is indictative that we dont have that one guy that we are itching to see him show his stuff, imo. DH and jokes should be a distant memory at this point.

HOWEVVA,

I still see potential. I recently re-watched the Marshall game. So much happened in that game but one thing that surprised me was how big a contribution Chris Mangus made. If he can step it up a notch on a regular basis, along with Edmunds putting up consistant numbers and staying healthy, and with help from the supporting cast, and... SAM ROGERS ... the running game could turn some heads. Lets hope so. GO HOKIES!

Mangus also had the best YPC average of any of the backs. This might have been because JC was banged up early, but I think that Mangus was probably a better option that JC most of the year and I would have liked to see him utilized more in the running game. I think it was right after he signed, CFB compared his highlights to Eddie Royal and I think the coaches definitely need to find ways to get the ball in his hands more.

Regarding competitive spirit, I would say there was the effort there for the last ten games just not the number of people needed and the talent equivalent to the competition. They could easily have laid down and quit after four consecutive blowouts of over 20 points. They didn't. JJ changed the style to something he admits he doesn't want to run in the 2-3 zone on defense but he felt he had to do it to protect what was left of this roster.

I am not sure as fans a lot of you understand how difficult it is to try to compete in the ACC limited to a six to eight man roster. Even if you have equivalent talent, those few extra minutes a game of resting make all the difference in the world in the final couple minutes of a game. Look at how many times Tech was in a game until the final three or four minutes or overtime in the case of Pitt. We lost most of those games because our players didn't have the legs left to keep up with fresh opponents even in our slow paced game. Brian also brought up some great points in other posts about how the change of pace impacts all aspects of the game so once we get down six or seven points its extremely hard to flip a switch to try to create opportunities to come back.

As to fundamentals, that again is really challenging to measure when you aren't playing the style of basketball your coach really wants to utilize and your roster is depleted to the point of exhaustion.

Was this a successful season? No Was it all JJ's doing? No, not even close. I think its amusing that most of the predictions of this team at the beginning of the season had Tech exactly where they are now and no one really seemed fazed by the predictions of 9-21 and last place. Maybe folks didn't really believe it would be that bad. Just really interesting to see all the negativity come out from fans now that the predictions have become reality.

Have I postulated on who could replace JJ if it comes to that? Yes, and in all honesty if they were able to secure one of those coaches because Whit decided to let JJ go I would not have an issue with it. But if Whit decides JJ stays than I will do what I can to support him as a fan of the team and move forward. Will that keep me from speculating on his replacement next year if we have this same kind of record then? Nope. If we play like this next year, there wont be any other recourse than to let him go. As it is, I wouldn't be shocked if Whit ask's JJ to review his current coaching staff and determine if he has someone capable of working with his shooters. Improving on the shooting game would go a long way towards a winning record. We finished the season with a 40.2% shooting percentage, which is 327th out of 345 teams in Division I. That has to improve by taking more high percentage shots and by running offensive possessions where we get open looks rather than being forced to beat the shot clock.

Is it football season yet?