Sources: Maryland is hiring Virginia Tech assistant Mike Jones. He's the longtime DeMatha High School coach and USA Basketball staff linchpin who brings deep ties to the DMV area.— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) April 3, 2023
Enormous loss for Coach Mike Young's coaching staff.
Need to put the full press on to keep Rodney Rice in the fold.
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oooooooooooooofuh
major problem for Mike Young, basically just doubled the difficulty in our most fertile recruiting grounds.
We didn't need this.
For our recruiting purposes, this is as close to worst case scenario as it gets
Hate to say I told you so but yeah. Hopefully we can convince Rice to stay for at least 1 year and it may be possible because with Maryland's roster (and transfers they are looking at), he theoretically could get more playing time at VT next season. But I expect Swinton (2024) to open up his recruitment and other high profiles to bump us down their list. We had some good recruiting coaches with Fraizer and then Jones, gonna have to really pony up and get someone that at the very least can maintain that level (hopefully exceed it). Not an easy task right now. There aren't any obvious candidates out there unless you really do want to pay to lure away.
This could destroy next three years classes overnight. Just about the worst news we have gotten even though we knew it would come eventually in form of a HC job. Hopefully Young has someone in mind that is also a serious defensive coach.
After the way this year played out on the court, Mike Young better have an excellent pivot here because he really cannot afford the way this year played out to keep happening again, and having our recruiting implode overnight would be a critical blow to his future here.
I think we can say goodbye to Swinton and pray that UMD doesn't have the space for Rice.
Going to be interested to see if Maddox or Buchanan also end up taking visits to Maryland as well. Both have been visiting other DC area schools.
God dammit, so they outbid us? We didn't have money leftover from Rudolph and Glenn leaving?
Maryland has a full Big Ten share. They have more money to toss around as petty cash than we make in total from our TV deal each year.
Don't know the details yet, but its likely the combo of money and going back home. I'd venture to guess its more favored to the cash side, especially considering Maryland is making a play for Hunter Dickenson, who really likes Jones from his HS days.
Having a little more money lying around for football doesn't mean there's more money for Young to offer staff. The football staff salary pool is separate from the men's basketball staff salary pool.
Might not be a money thing - his job for the 15+ years prior to VT was a 10 minute drive from UMD. Speculating - but he might have wanted to get back to the greater DC area.
He wasn't able to sell his house up there in that market, and figures he can move one in the NRV easier.
It might not be all about money, but Maryland was able to make a move without sacrificing elsewhere like this because of their B1G payout. This is the kind of little move that the extra pile of cash that the B1G and SEC schools can make that eventually add up to serious competitive advantages that the ACC just cannot compete with.
UMD to VT -- You take my Dematha coach, I take yours.
Dang twerps!!!!
Wait... is this for a HC position? Or lateral move? Seems like the latter from what I can find online... bad look if so!
Lateral move, but back to his hometown(ish).
It'll buff out. Especially if we start winning football games again
kind of a big IF tbh
I have a solid alternative FBS allegiance for my upcoming MBA, and Whit Babcock needs to realize my dollars as a fan are mainly because I want to be a Football School. Like the good ole days, when we Beamerballed the ACC.
And Frank Beamer is seen universally as a good dude all over Texas, in my chats with all these other FBS School Alums.
Irrelevant, we're a WBB, Track/Field, and Wrestling school this year.
Excuse my ignorance on MJ, but what exactly did he do or accomplish in his 23 months at VT? (not /s, I'm seriously asking because I have no idea)
Opened doors and avenues to a lot of HS/AAU talent in the DMV area. DMV and in NC have always been a talent rich area for basketball but VT was never able to make in roads into it. Buzz and Frazier raised the profile and we started getting better talent (from other places though some local) and cracked the door with more of that upper crust of talent to consider VT. Mike Jones' connections from Dematha and reputation expanded that greatly. He didn't stick around long enough for it to pay off in a tangible way that we can see on court, but more of that upper crust of talent in the area have been considering VT since we got him.
It's vital that whoever the next hire is can be a strong recruiter to keep those channels open. If we end with someone that isn't a strong recruiter and/or doesn't have a lot of connections to the area, we're back to square one in a lot of ways. I don't mean square one with Mike Young either, I'm talking square one from when Buzz first arrived as far the recruiting talent stand point.
EDIT: Not to be too doom and gloom, reading it back, it seems that way. Just stating the possible reality. For a positive spin, Mike Young is very well liked and respected in the coaching community. If the cash is there, he should have options of people wanting to work for him. So its entirely possible he can nail the hire. I mean it was a total coup getting Mike Jones in the first place. Plenty of schools tried for years to get Jones to leave Dematha and we were the first to do it.
TY for that and I do appreciate it. So I'm going to paraphrase here, so hang with me...
we kept him on our payroll to get kids in the DMV to consider VT.... and he didn't sign anyone?
In the age of NIL and the transfer portal, I'm failing to see how exactly this is a major loss. Loss for sure, but sky-is-falling-and-CMY-is-f'd kind of a loss? I'm not seeing it.
We did sign Rodney Rice and also got a commitment from AJ Swinton (who hasn't signed yet and may reopen his recruitment). Not around long enough to see the recruitment juice yield the tangible progress on the court you'd like to see
He was here for 2 years. It takes time for those results to pay off. And in the short time he was here he was able to get Rice and Swinton, both touted recruits. Some top 50 guys like Juke Harris and Jaeden Mustaf likely wouldn't even be in as high as we were without Jones' influence. 10 years ago players like that don't even bother with VT. Under Buzz, we started getting in the convo. Under CMY with Jones, we started getting into the final cuts with guys and making more and more in roads with talent rich DMV programs and more national travel teams.
If you just look at what the result was over the last 2 years of the commitment list and what's on court, you're not gonna see much. But if you take a top down long range approach from where we've been to where we want to go, you'll see that VT has been making steady incremental progress to being a legit basketball school over the last decade. Had Jones stayed at least another year or two, I think we were really close to being able to bring in top 50 caliber guys and you'd start seeing more tangible results from connections he brings. He was gonna play big role in helping us take that next step. It's a sizable loss that he won't be here now to see it thru at least one full recruiting cycle. How big of a loss will depend on who the replacement is, but either way its substantial. And if we miss on the replacement hire, we risk messing up a lot of the progress we've made
It's the proverbial double whammy because he will also now he recruiting against us
I mean, when he came I expected it to only be a two or three year thing. I'm surprised he wasn't more in the running for the George Mason job.
Why so doom and gloom? Where were we before Mike Jones? We weren't doing so bad, and at least we played some D. We lost Frazier and hired Jones. Coaches come and go, so time to find the next super stud assistant. I have confidence CMY can do that.
And we're not going to lose our recruiting classes to UMD, unless they have no one on their recruiting books for the next few years, and last time I checked, they already recruit pretty well. They, like us, only play with one basketball. If we lose recruiting battles in the DMV, then maybe we need to concentrate our recruiting in other fertile areas of the region. There's more than one. Some of our best players have come from outside the DMV.
VT has never gotten great basketball recruits. Almost all of our high performing teams in the last 2 decades have been veteran teams. It would be nice to change that. When Mike Jones was here, that felt like a legitimate possibility.
I don't know if you've watched how the transfer portal is impacting basketball, but it's looking like it might not be unusual to replacing 6ish players per year. I think it's unlikely, but plausible, that our recruiting class could have gotten completely blown up (not that everyone is going to UMD, but Jones might have been the only thing taking some of them to VT).
If the NBA gets rid of the one and done, which it seems they are at least considering, that plays in our favor since the on-court results will be more determined by coaching and team building rather than pure talent
not so fast my friend, the one-and-done is probably around for a little while as it was not removed in the recent CBA agreement.... and per reports neither league nor union made it a point of negotiation
this is what I get for commenting on something I saw in a passing tweet lol, thanks for the good info
I would argue that the era of 1 and done is helping us. Currently the UNC/Duke/Kentucky recruiting of 5 star 1 and dones is leaving a lot of solid 4 year players for the rest of us. When the nba takes the 1 and dones then the hogh recruiters will jist shift and take our current level of recruit. We will also lose the benefit of having a 3 star senior playing against a 5 star freshman (the reson IMO that the acc blue bloods have been slipping lately)
Thanks, I hate it. For real though--why can't we have nice stuff? We always get big-dogged.
Yeah - I bet Bronny James doesn't come to VT now...
Funny joke, but guess who was our best shot at getting top-100 recruits like Bronny James?
Question: Who?
Answer:
And getting big-dogged by Maryland is a special level of humiliation. Like getting kicked in the junk, then realizing the hot girl you like saw it and is laughing.
This is why you aim for mildly attractive women so you are less upset when they laugh at you!
B1G Money. This is just the beginning.....
Jones didn't just open doors to the DMV area, he opened doors across the country on both the national AAU circuit and the premier basketball academies. It can't be understated how big an impact this is.
Saying we aren't going to lose our recruiting classes is not accurate as most of the top talent is tied to Jones. Rice, Swifton, and most of our other high level targets were possible because of his relationships. Maryland will find a way to make a space if Rice or Swifton both want to jump. It would be at the expense of another scholarship kid but that's college basketball these days. Maryland has zero commitments right now for their 24 class so Swifton is easy. Rice would be taken in after a decision is made by Dickenson out of Michigan on whether Maryland is his next choice (Dickenson played for Jones at Dematha) and is Maryland's top target.
Rice in my opinion should be wary of the jump because Marylands 23 class is loaded at guard/wings so he might jump and sit way down the bench. He might bump his former Dematha teammate though in Jahmir Young, who transferred into Maryland this last season. Donald Carey should be on his way out at Maryland so that might be a spot for Rice as well.
Either way, this is the second Associate Head Coach we have lost to lateral Big 10 jobs in the last 4 years. Get used to having fourth tier coaches outside of Young finding another hidden gem. Not many options that are close to Jones stature.
at least spell the players' names correctly in your doom & gloom posts
Swinton (autocorrect not checked) Swinton (autocorrect not checked)
Swinton (autocorrect not checked)
Checked
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Put back
Put back
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Doom & Gloom
Better?
And no I didn't downvote you on this...no point in any of that.
Well...poop
So how is spring football practice going?
TOO SOON!
See my Hammerin' Hokies post earlier... the Softball team deserves
somea lot of attention as wellFuck Maryland. Anything and everything Maryland.
Add tolls to all roads from MD to VA and only bill cars with MD plates. Maybe then we can get Jones back
I love this idea
Now THIS is disappointing!
Why can't we have nice things?
As Hokie fans, we all know that bad news accompanies good...I think Jones getting hired away was the sports gods taking us down a peg for being too happy about Kitley and King coming back
Fuck Merlin!
Anything and everything Merlin!
I mean this in no slight to the Lady Hokies, but does this mean we're a women's basketball skewl now?
With all due respect to Jones, I would like to look at the bright side of this for a moment. I seem to recall this team took a step backwards in terms of defense after Chester Fraser left and was replaced by Jones. So it would stand to reason that this is an opportunity to bolster our defense and get it back up to snuff. There is no denying the impact on recruiting, and I am not saying one offsets the other,, but I see a chance to make an upgrade on in-game coaching.
In game strategy seems to have been on Kevin Giltner this season so hopefully whoever it is can also have some influence there.