We lost our top 5 scorers from last season, 8 of our top 10; our top 3 rebounders; and 7 of 8 who contributed at least 10 minutes per game; and the projecting starting PG was kicked off the team right before the beginning of the season.
We are not and never will be one of the blue bloods who can fill a roster of McDonalds All Americans, send them all to the league, and replace them all with another full roster of McDonalds All Americans.
And yet despite all of that, we're only averaging 4.9 ppg less than last year, while allowing 1.6 ppg more, rebounding at 1.5 rpg better, while holding opponents to 0.7 rpg less, hitting 3s at 2.5% better rates, holding opponents to 0.8% less
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Also factor in that, at least this year, the Hokies were not one of the teams to play the NIL game (CMY didn't have a choice). So the wins/$ is considerably higher than some other programs.
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After the non-con 6 game losing streak I wasn't sure if we'd win 3 games in the ACC, so my expectations have already been surpassed. I think 8-12 is likely in conference but it could happen if we steal a few. The team is starting to play more cohesively and if we miraculously can keep the right core intact to stay, we could have a decent outlook in a weakened ACC in the next few years. CMY still knows how to coach...but can he keep anybody on the roster? We shall see
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Keeping the team together is my big worry. It is against the rules to tamper, but you know other teams are going to be calling Lawal and offering to back up a dump truck of cash.
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Pretty sure Lawal has already been contacted by various agents for other schools. Anyone who thinks rules are being followed in the land of 'pay to play' is not paying any attention.
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I'm pretty sure the status quo is everyone tampers, and if you're not tampering, you're not trying.
One reason VT has had such great success with bring VA guys home is they're constantly in the ear of the HS coaches, families, etc. Pry tampers with the best of them (which is technically allowed by the NCAA rules, anyways). And I think Price openly admitted it at one point.
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Love the optimism of this question!
It would be difficult to meet that goal. I'll be rooting for them to make it there and beyond every game. Let's Go!!
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Is it a realistic goal? Yes. Is it a realistic expectation? Probably not. Here's how it breaks down:
Virginia Tech is 10-12 and 5-6 in the conference with 9 more conference game. So they'd need to go 6-3 in those 9 games to finish at 16-15.
-They play 17-5 SMU next.
-Then their next 4 games are against 10-11 ND, 10-12 UVA, 10-11 BC and 5-17 Miami (4 bad teams with a combined record of 35-50)
-They finish with 4 games against 16-6 Louisville, 10-12 Syracuse, 13-10 UNC and 18-4 Clemson (combined 56-32).
Do we see 6 wins in there? Probably not. But if they somehow do finish above .500 Mike Young deserves at least some coach of the year votes.
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.500 in ACC play, much better prognosis at this point now that we have seen how bad the rest of the conference is this season. As mentioned above they should have a good chance in 6 or 7 of the remaining ACC games. Five wins is believable.
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I would love to see what Young could do if he was provided the resources to buy a proper ACC roster (I also really hate that this is what it's come to)
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Young has always been able to coach, that was never in doubt when he was hired, recruiting managing a program this size, those were the worried, but he can flat out coach. I don't think he's ever really had an "ACC" roster . He had some good players but if you look at all acc selections he's had two players selelected and most of the top ACC have had 2 in a single year since 2020.
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Kinda my point - now it's less about recruiting and more about dangling a bag of cash - if he had the resources to buy a roster, we'd have a killer squad
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Imagine this lineup: Maddux, Rice, Buchannon, Schutt and Poteat. - With Hammond, Rech, Burnham role players. That is a tournament team, IMO. Young actually landed those players. Keeping them has been his issue and a different story.
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Maimi paid Lynn Kidd half a million dollars and they fucking suck- James Johnson level suck. 1-20 in their last 21 ACC games. Kidd really made a difference there. Huge with endorsements in south beach too. What Young needed this year was a veteran point guard- a guy like Caleb Love - to run the show. That would have helped. Also could have used a 6 to play 6 guy in the paint like Hunter Dickenson. Those 2 would have been huge for us.
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He had a veteran point guard two weeks before the season started. Then that guy was dismissed because he was being investigated for point shaving. Young also had a really good scoring 2-guard from UTSA committed, then that guy got a better offer and went somewhere else.
Putting Hysier Miller's legal issues aside (because Young almost certainly didn't know about that until he booted him), if we have those two guards on the team, this is probably a tournament team.
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"Then that guy was dismissed because he was being investigated for point shaving."- Something that escalates that quickly should have been caught by the staff. That's on Young, IMO. There are no secrets anymore. That Temple investigation was front page news long before Miller signed. He was in that program- maybe not take that chance?
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I see your point, but given where the program is right now (funding, etc.) can CMY afford to not take chances? I can envision a scenario where Miller talked a good game about his lack of involvement, maybe enough to fool a staff that just lost damn near everyone in the portal.
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I seem to recall early VT football taking flack for giving guys with questionable pasts a 2nd chance and in some cases having success and not in others.
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The huge one was Derrius Monroe. Before the twitter days, you got bits and pieces of info. He was labeled a "coke dealer" and Beamer took huge flack for not booting him off the team. He was a productive DT- a tough position to fill- had he been a scout team guy he would have been cut. And then there was the summer of love - 96 IIRC- where football players thought it was cool to beat people up at TOTS and Sharkeys as if there were no consequences- a bunch of arrests painted the program as rogue.
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The 90s for VT athletics is wild. There is a reason that we kick guys charged with felonies off the team immediately and it has a lot to do with 90s football.
Those people were the track team, yes the track team and football team got in a Brawl in downtown.
Multiple starters charged with sexyal assault and other similar issues. (multiple cases not one single case)
The university literally told Beamer to knock it off.
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I don't know how much was known and when, so I won't dispute that. My point was mainly that if Young was able to put together just a slightly more rounded-out roster (with a veteran PG and another scorer, for instance), this team would probably be pretty good. I'm sure some of that is on Young, but it sounds like VTs basketball "salary cap" is probably holding him back as well.
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Highly doubtful, CMY is already punching up as is. The athletic department has shown Bball is still second to football, I just didn't expect it to be so far below. It's almost embarrassing for a school that wants to be considered a major athletic program.
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CMY did once take a middle-tier ACC team and win the ACC tournament. Perhaps he could take a lower-tier ACC team move them to the upper-tier of the ACC.
So, I'll say yes. CMY will take this team to .500, win the ACC!!! (Speaking it into existence!)
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A random. shitty NC State team won fucking 12 games in 12 days - or whatever while Duke and UVA were on double byes... to make the NCAA tourney and then went randomly to a final four. Because? they were really good? fuck no they sucked... they went to a final four in -insert random year- because I am not an NC State/Alum and fan. MY team never fucking does that shit in sports.
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Maybe this will be the year? Doubt it, but we can wildly high hopes. I am happy that we are already better than we were afraid we would be at the end of the year.
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Comments
.500 would be a coach of the year achievement
We lost our top 5 scorers from last season, 8 of our top 10; our top 3 rebounders; and 7 of 8 who contributed at least 10 minutes per game; and the projecting starting PG was kicked off the team right before the beginning of the season.
We are not and never will be one of the blue bloods who can fill a roster of McDonalds All Americans, send them all to the league, and replace them all with another full roster of McDonalds All Americans.
And yet despite all of that, we're only averaging 4.9 ppg less than last year, while allowing 1.6 ppg more, rebounding at 1.5 rpg better, while holding opponents to 0.7 rpg less, hitting 3s at 2.5% better rates, holding opponents to 0.8% less
Also factor in that, at least this year, the Hokies were not one of the teams to play the NIL game (CMY didn't have a choice). So the wins/$ is considerably higher than some other programs.
After the non-con 6 game losing streak I wasn't sure if we'd win 3 games in the ACC, so my expectations have already been surpassed. I think 8-12 is likely in conference but it could happen if we steal a few. The team is starting to play more cohesively and if we miraculously can keep the right core intact to stay, we could have a decent outlook in a weakened ACC in the next few years. CMY still knows how to coach...but can he keep anybody on the roster? We shall see
Keeping the team together is my big worry. It is against the rules to tamper, but you know other teams are going to be calling Lawal and offering to back up a dump truck of cash.
Pretty sure Lawal has already been contacted by various agents for other schools. Anyone who thinks rules are being followed in the land of 'pay to play' is not paying any attention.
Sadly true. If that is the case, I hope he blows the whistle and gets all of those programs at least a slap on the wrist for tampering.
I'm pretty sure the status quo is everyone tampers, and if you're not tampering, you're not trying.
One reason VT has had such great success with bring VA guys home is they're constantly in the ear of the HS coaches, families, etc. Pry tampers with the best of them (which is technically allowed by the NCAA rules, anyways). And I think Price openly admitted it at one point.
Love the optimism of this question!
It would be difficult to meet that goal. I'll be rooting for them to make it there and beyond every game. Let's Go!!
Is it a realistic goal? Yes. Is it a realistic expectation? Probably not. Here's how it breaks down:
Virginia Tech is 10-12 and 5-6 in the conference with 9 more conference game. So they'd need to go 6-3 in those 9 games to finish at 16-15.
-They play 17-5 SMU next.
-Then their next 4 games are against 10-11 ND, 10-12 UVA, 10-11 BC and 5-17 Miami (4 bad teams with a combined record of 35-50)
-They finish with 4 games against 16-6 Louisville, 10-12 Syracuse, 13-10 UNC and 18-4 Clemson (combined 56-32).
Do we see 6 wins in there? Probably not. But if they somehow do finish above .500 Mike Young deserves at least some coach of the year votes.
.500 for the season, most likely not.
.500 in ACC play, much better prognosis at this point now that we have seen how bad the rest of the conference is this season. As mentioned above they should have a good chance in 6 or 7 of the remaining ACC games. Five wins is believable.
I would love to see what Young could do if he was provided the resources to buy a proper ACC roster (I also really hate that this is what it's come to)
Young has always been able to coach, that was never in doubt when he was hired, recruiting managing a program this size, those were the worried, but he can flat out coach. I don't think he's ever really had an "ACC" roster . He had some good players but if you look at all acc selections he's had two players selelected and most of the top ACC have had 2 in a single year since 2020.
Kinda my point - now it's less about recruiting and more about dangling a bag of cash - if he had the resources to buy a roster, we'd have a killer squad
Imagine this lineup: Maddux, Rice, Buchannon, Schutt and Poteat. - With Hammond, Rech, Burnham role players. That is a tournament team, IMO. Young actually landed those players. Keeping them has been his issue and a different story.
Give me David N'Guessan starting over Poteat. Poteat only playing 22 minutes to NGuessan 29 minutes.
I should not be surprised that Gnessan is still in college of course, but I am.
But are you? Are you really? ;^)
Maimi paid Lynn Kidd half a million dollars and they fucking suck- James Johnson level suck. 1-20 in their last 21 ACC games. Kidd really made a difference there. Huge with endorsements in south beach too. What Young needed this year was a veteran point guard- a guy like Caleb Love - to run the show. That would have helped. Also could have used a 6 to play 6 guy in the paint like Hunter Dickenson. Those 2 would have been huge for us.
He had a veteran point guard two weeks before the season started. Then that guy was dismissed because he was being investigated for point shaving. Young also had a really good scoring 2-guard from UTSA committed, then that guy got a better offer and went somewhere else.
Putting Hysier Miller's legal issues aside (because Young almost certainly didn't know about that until he booted him), if we have those two guards on the team, this is probably a tournament team.
"Then that guy was dismissed because he was being investigated for point shaving."- Something that escalates that quickly should have been caught by the staff. That's on Young, IMO. There are no secrets anymore. That Temple investigation was front page news long before Miller signed. He was in that program- maybe not take that chance?
I see your point, but given where the program is right now (funding, etc.) can CMY afford to not take chances? I can envision a scenario where Miller talked a good game about his lack of involvement, maybe enough to fool a staff that just lost damn near everyone in the portal.
I seem to recall early VT football taking flack for giving guys with questionable pasts a 2nd chance and in some cases having success and not in others.
The huge one was Derrius Monroe. Before the twitter days, you got bits and pieces of info. He was labeled a "coke dealer" and Beamer took huge flack for not booting him off the team. He was a productive DT- a tough position to fill- had he been a scout team guy he would have been cut. And then there was the summer of love - 96 IIRC- where football players thought it was cool to beat people up at TOTS and Sharkeys as if there were no consequences- a bunch of arrests painted the program as rogue.
The 90s for VT athletics is wild. There is a reason that we kick guys charged with felonies off the team immediately and it has a lot to do with 90s football.
Those people were the track team, yes the track team and football team got in a Brawl in downtown.
Multiple starters charged with sexyal assault and other similar issues. (multiple cases not one single case)
The university literally told Beamer to knock it off.
VT football players beat up students in the mid-late 70's, too. Always swept under a rug.
It's my understanding that the hoops program knew that Miller could have been involved, but his NIL cost was super cheap so we went for it anyway.
I don't know how much was known and when, so I won't dispute that. My point was mainly that if Young was able to put together just a slightly more rounded-out roster (with a veteran PG and another scorer, for instance), this team would probably be pretty good. I'm sure some of that is on Young, but it sounds like VTs basketball "salary cap" is probably holding him back as well.
Highly doubtful, CMY is already punching up as is. The athletic department has shown Bball is still second to football, I just didn't expect it to be so far below. It's almost embarrassing for a school that wants to be considered a major athletic program.
Doubtful but you never know what can happen when a team gets hot. One thing is for sure: No one is doing more with less in the ACC than Young.
CMY did once take a middle-tier ACC team and win the ACC tournament. Perhaps he could take a lower-tier ACC team move them to the upper-tier of the ACC.
So, I'll say yes. CMY will take this team to .500, win the ACC!!! (Speaking it into existence!)
A random. shitty NC State team won fucking 12 games in 12 days - or whatever while Duke and UVA were on double byes... to make the NCAA tourney and then went randomly to a final four. Because? they were really good? fuck no they sucked... they went to a final four in -insert random year- because I am not an NC State/Alum and fan. MY team never fucking does that shit in sports.
Maybe this will be the year? Doubt it, but we can wildly high hopes. I am happy that we are already better than we were afraid we would be at the end of the year.