Buzz Williams Working to Re-Integrate Injured Players, Manage New Expectations As Season Nears

At media day, the Hokies discussed their unique challenge of confronting preseason hype.

[Michael Shroyer]

Buzz Williams' Tech basketball teams have played the role of ACC doormats and scrappy late-season surprises, but the squad's new status as preseason darlings is certainly a new part for Williams to help the Hokies master.

Not since Seth Greenberg's tenure has Tech earned any sort of serious look from the national media in October, yet the Hokies are already popping up on top 25 rankings and NCAA tournament watch lists.

Considering that the team finished last season on a blistering pace — the Hokies won seven of their last nine games, a stretch that included wins over Pitt, No. 7 Miami, and an opening round NIT victory over Princeton — and the team's bevy of returning players, it's hardly a surprise that Tech is already attracting attention.

Williams hasn't had to manage expectations much in his brief tenure, but now he'll be forced to draw on skills he learned in his Marquette days in keeping his players motivated even if they aren't the underdogs anymore.

"For the most part, most of our team, maybe other than Seth (Allen) and Chris (Clarke), they have an edge to prove they belong," Williams said. "We probably don't address it the way that you think that we do. What we do address is how we need to get better and what our plan is in order to accomplish that. If we accomplished that the first time, then we're done for the day. If we don't, we come back a few hours later and try again. That's the way we've always been."

But even if the team does end up with a ranking, senior forward Zach LeDay thinks the Hokies still won't have to work terribly hard to find reasons to stay motivated. After all, they'll be battling with some of the blue bloods of the sport in the ACC each week.

"I don't really think you've got to really create motivation for us," LeDay said. "We know what type of team we are. We don't bring in five 5-star, top-20 players out of high school every year. We know we're gonna have to give it our all every night and every night is gonna be a battle. I don't really look at the expectations. You can tell me about them, I honestly haven't looked at them. I don't get on much social media to look at stuff like that. (I'll) just be working and being in the gym and I'm just trying to tell my team that. We pretty much took on that mentality ourselves, being the underdogs."

The Return of Ahmed Hill and Ty Outlaw

Anyone who watched Ahmed Hill play as a freshman two seasons ago was salivating at just how much better he would become in his sophomore campaign. Unfortunately, a partial tear in his patella tendon would ultimately cost him his entire season, forcing the talented guard to redshirt.

Now healthy, Hill is chomping at the bit to get back onto the Cassell Coliseum court, and his return provides a key piece for Williams experiment with as he looks to take the team to the next level.

"(It) feels great," Hill said. "(I'm) just taking it all in. I've been going everyday to get treatment even when nothing hurts. I don't wanna miss another season, I missed it too much. I've just been going to rehab even it it doesn't hurt. In there probably every day just to get better."

Williams seems just as excited to see Hill's impact this year, after a year of watching, and more importantly, learning.

"Ahmed, in my opinion, epitomizes what it's supposed to be about on and off the floor," Williams said. "He's the toughest guy, he's the most respected guy in the program. Glad that all of that worked out with the medical staff."

Indeed, while Hill sat on the bench last year, he took that time to study not only his game, but the game of basketball — and the way Williams likes to see his teams play it — as a whole.

"Probably just reading off screens," Hill said. "What happens, a lot of ball screens happen in the ACC, so I just paid attention to every ball screen. What's your next thought got to be? It was really great to sit and watch how slow the game goes. Now when I play, the game goes really, really slow. When I first played, it was going so fast."

LeDay has never gotten the chance to play alongside Hill in the orange and maroon, but based on his experiences with him in the practice gym, he knows what the Hokies will get when Hill steps back on the court.

"Med's a defender," LeDay said. "He's a tough hard worker and he wants to play defense. He can knock down open three's. He can finish big free throws. He's a scorer, naturally, out of high school. He's gotten a lot better with his off year because he's watched a lot of film and worked out with our coaches and he's worked out every day, three times a day. He's been working, grinding."

The path to playing basketball in Blacksburg has been a tough one for Ty Outlaw. A highly touted JUCO transfer, Outlaw was forced to sit out last year after doctors at the Mayo Clinic didn't clear him to play. Originally born with a hole in his heart, team doctors diagnosed him with hypertensive cardiomyopathy — a thickening of the heart muscle — just mere weeks after stepping foot on campus.

The 6'6" guard, who figures to be a big-time shooting threat on the perimeter, was cleared for physical activity in May, and immediately got back to work. That's excellent news for Williams, who now has another swingman to add depth to the rotation.

"He's really excited to finally be able to play," Williams said. "For one calendar year, almost, he wasn't allowed to sweat. For him to be able to be back on the floor, I think his lens on it is a little different than most kids his age. I think both of them will help us. I don't know who Ty can guard yet. We need to figure that out as soon as we can, and we will, but who he can guard is probably where he will help us the most offensively, too. He can really shoot."

But even with Hill and Outlaw's return, the Hokies are hardly free of injury woes.

Sophomore forward Kerry Blackshear had surgery in the offseason to address a bone spur in his left foot, and ended up experiencing a stress reaction affecting his right shin. He's been wearing a walking boot for the last few weeks, and by late November, team doctors will evaluate whether or not he'll need season-ending surgery.

So far, Blackshear says the medical staff hasn't told him to avoid any particular activities, and the Hokies surely have to hope that their best big man will get a chance to contribute and help the team meet its lofty expectations.

"I'm pretty good right now, just ready for the season," Blackshear said.

[CLICK HERE FOR A FULL MEDIA DAY PHOTO GALLERY]

Buzz Williams

ON HIS EXPECTATIONS FOR ANY JUMP HIS TEAM MAY MAKE THIS YEAR:

"I think how things transpired were for sure unexpected, but I think, also, they were earned. I think our schedule is different. Haven't studied all of the league schedule, but for sure, I feel like our non-conference is harder. I don't know, I think it's hard to predict, just like it was last year. But I think we're going in the right direction. I think we're going in the right direction relative to the guys, the talent, the experience — we need to get more experience. We only have nine years of experience on our roster. I think, just in my career, that's a really low number to expect a lot from. We need to continue to find ways in recruiting to get old. Whether that's older chronologically or older relative to classifications. We're not quite there yet, but I think we're heading in that direction."

ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH DUSTY BAKER:

"I probably know more people than you think I do. I try to hide that. I don't ever want to have a relationship so that it becomes public record. I love Coach (Baker). I don't know if you know Coach — I don't know who you are — but he's the best. I've been around a lot of coaches, I don't know — he's for whatever reason — I've always had all-access to their organization with the Reds and those guys. I know nothing about baseball. I know no players, I know zero. But what he's been able to do from a leadership perspective, I have the upmost respect for him. He sent me a big package with all that stuff in it. I didn't even know the playoffs were about to start, but somebody told me. I met him in Milwaukee seven years ago at a soul food restaurant. I was the only white guy in there. I love the place and the owners knew who I was. I went in there all the time. It just stays busy and I just happened to sit down and we got to talking and about the end of the conversation he said, 'Do you ever go watch the Brewers go play?' I said, "Sometimes, I've thrown out the first pitch a few times but that's the only time I've been there.' He goes, 'Do you wanna go to the game tonight?' I go, 'No, I don't really like baseball.' I didn't know who he was and he was not acting as if he knew who I was. He said, 'Well why don't you come out to the game, I'll leave you some tickets.' I said, 'I appreciate it, but no thanks.' He said, 'Well why don't you drive me out there and you can just stay.' That's how it started. I didn't know who Dusty Baker was. I spent the whole afternoon and evening with him. In the two years that he was out, stayed in close contact with one another."

ON IF THE EXPECTATIONS WILL CHANGE THE WAY HE APPROACHES THE TEAM:

"I think the way that we've always done that, whether that was here or elsewhere, that's who I am. That's all I know. I don't mean that to come across in a condescending way at all. But I also think you look at our staff, other than Ernest (Eugene), you look at their resume, you could argue that they have an edge to prove that they belong. For the most part, most of our team, maybe other than Seth (Allen) and Chris (Clarke), they have an edge to prove they belong. We probably don't address it the way that you think that we do. What we do address is how we need to get better and what our plan is in order to accomplish that. If we accomplished that the first time, then we're done for the day. If we don't, we come back a few hours later and try again. That's the way we've always been. I do think it's very hard to maneuver in this league. And I also think that whether it's college football, the NFL, any sport, once you get past the top 10, 12, 15 teams, then everybody's just kind of reaching for this team; I like how they're built. That's probably what's happening to us a little bit. We finished on a semi-good note over the last month of the season. It sounds good, it looks good, we play in maybe the best league, so it's like yeah, but it's the 25, nobody cares about 25. We only care about the top 10 or 12 teams. I don't pay attention to any of that."

ON IF CHRIS CLARKE HAS MADE A JUMP THIS OFFSEASON:

"I think that's one reason why it's hard to answer Berman or Barber, even Hank's question completely. Chris played the first 11 games and then missed 12 consecutive games, and then I think he played the last six games. I think Chris is a really good player. I think Ahmed Hill is a really good player, and Med didn't play any last year. And then our first recruiting class, when I mention whoever I said it to, we've gotta figure out how to get older. I don't think Virginia Tech — I don't think Buzz Williams maybe more so than Virginia Tech — is ever gonna sign the best players in the country. I think you have to be built a certain way to want to be around me every day. But one thing that we do, that we have tried to do, is get older. I thought Ty (Outlaw) was the most experienced player we signed in recruiting class one. At this time last year, Ty wasn't playing. We were trying to figure out if Med was gonna play, but it wasn't looking very good. And at that time, Chris was healthy. And obviously none of those things ever worked together. We may have some issues like any other team this year, but Chris is a very good player. We need him on the glass. We need his energy. He's an 'OKG,' an 'our kinda guy.' He doesn't have a position, can play a ball screen however you wanna play it, can pass, can dribble, can shoot, is an above-average athlete that plays really hard, so he has made great strides since his injury. He's had a good summer. He's had an above-average fall so far. But to an extent, he's making up for lost time. I hope that it all works together where all those guys can get on the floor together. 'Cause we were a distinctly different team when he played, I remember that."

ON HOW HE WOULD DESCRIBE THIS YEAR'S SCHEDULE:

"I was telling Jimmy Robertson, he came by the office, I don't know what the right answer is on scheduling anymore. I mean that sincerely. Next year, I think our mirror opponents are Duke, Virginia, Miami, and Louisville, so that's eight games. Eight really tough games against the best in the country. So what's the right thing to do in the non-conference? I've always felt like the best answer for scheduling in the non-conference should be to prepare your team for conference. The issue on that, anymore, is the competitiveness to get in those exempt events around Thanksgiving — unless you're in the industry, there's no way that I can quantify how to explain that to you. So when I got here, they had been, and we were in zero exempt events. So we spent all summer of my first summer here trying to get into exempt events. We signed on to play in five, the next five. We've played in Anaheim before. It's a great event, it's a long way from Blacksburg, but we signed to play in that event in June after I took the job here. The event that we're playing in next November, we signed in June when I took the job here. Because you want to have exposure for your team, you wanna have exposure for your program, you wanna play against the best, you wanna play on TV, but sometimes that may not necessarily be what's right for your team. The conference are already done, you're gonna do the exempt event, well from the exempt event, you're gonna play in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, so when we sign up to play for the ESPN game on Thanksgiving, we did not know then that we would travel from Anaheim to Ann Arbor. And I'm gonna get in trouble by certain professors because we're gonna be in Anaheim over Thanksgiving, and then we're not coming back to Blacksburg. Because if we came back, we would literally be on campus eight hours, and then turn around and leave again. I don't know what the right answer is anymore. There's certain guys in our league that play one game away from home and the rest of them, they buy. I never thought I'd be a Division I head coach, but along the way of doing that, that doesn't necessarily fire me up. But at the same time, it doesn't necessarily fire me up to be 8-5 going into conference play. But if you lose to Alabama State, then you're never gonna be a bubble team. You know what I mean? If you lose to Michigan, I guess that's better than losing to Alabama St. at home. I don't know what the answer is. And I study all of those numbers and then I've talked to the people on the committee, and I try to learn what they're looking at, but you have to schedule it so far out. While I like Chris on our team, I like Ty on our team, I like Med on our team, but only one's gonna play 33 percent of the year, but the schedule was done upon my arrival here. So I don't know what the answer is, I honestly don't."

ON WHAT HE LEARNED FROM THE ALABAMA STATE LOSS:

"This is what I think, I think it was my fault because of this: in year number one, 51 percent of our minutes were played by freshmen. Year number two, 61 percent of our minutes were played by kids who had never been in our program. I didn't know for sure that it would have been 50 percent. I didn't know Med was gonna play 34 minutes a game, Bibbs, those guys were playing literally as much as they could play. But in hindsight, I've always believed the least legislative thing that the NCAA does is scrimmages. It's great, right? (The media) can't come, that's the first thing. Second thing is, is you can scrimmage all day long. You're a coach, we're gonna scrimmage your team. Hey Mike, 'Let's do these special situations from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.' Then you're gonna say, ' Hey Buzz, we do this deal in practice every day, and we wanna do it against you.' Then let's eat lunch and then let's come back and let's play a 20-minute segment of nothing but zone, a 20-minute segment of nothing but press. And I just feel like you get so much more out of that than playing an exhibition game. But in looking back, maybe if we would have played an exhibition game, the lights are on, there's fans here, the media's here, at least we get a rep of what it's gonna be like. Maybe the opponent wouldn't have been great and the game would have been over quickly, but at least we would have put on a uniform, been in the locker room, etc. I still think we should have beat Alabama St. I wrote the coach every 15 days for the rest of the season. Wrote the letter to the coach, his team, every two weeks. The utmost respect for what they did, but I've always felt like two scrimmages were the best use of time. And we're gonna do two scrimmages this year, so what we're trying to do to balance that is, when volleyball's not here, as often as we can, we're gonna try to be in Cassell when we start practice."

ON WHAT HIS LETTERS TO THE COACH OF ALABAMA STATE SAID:

"Hope you're doing great. Keeping up with your team. Much respect, know how hard you're working. They're taking a bus to 12 places to pick up a check. I love those stories. And they earned it, they beat us."

ON HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT NOT HAVING ANY HOME ACC SATURDAY GAMES WHEN STUDENTS ARE IN SESSION:

"I got in trouble last year because everybody said I was being a jerk when I said what I said about the ACC schedule. So I'm gonna abstain from that question. And just to reinforce my point the last time I said something about it...I was right."

ON HOW HE FEELS ABOUT NATIONAL ANTHEM PROTESTS:

"I wouldn't have a problem with it. I think the issue on any of this is it's become such a big thing, whether it's the national anthem or the presidential race or all the things going on, it's hard to answer succinctly what the appropriate answer is. But as an educator, I think part of my responsibility is way bigger than basketball. I don't think that at any point in time it's my responsibly to judge anyone. But I do think that part of being on a team — whether that's as a coach, whether that's as a player, or as a manager — is to make sure that collectively, as a team, we understand why that person believes what they believe. We haven't gotten to that point yet. As a team, we've spent some time talking about it. What we want to make sure, as a program — this is how I feel, this is my belief, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's right — we want to be know for what we're for, maybe more importantly, than what we're against. If a player had a problem with that, I wouldn't have a problem with that. I want them to do what they believe is right."

Seth Allen

ON HOW OFTEN BUZZ WILLIAMS REMINDS HIM HE WAS 3RD IN THE ACC IN TURNOVERS:

"Always."

ON IF HE THINKS THE GOAL FOR THIS YEAR IS THE NCAA TOURNAMENT AFTER WHAT HE'S SEEN THIS OFFSEASON:

"We don't really practice (yet), we just do a lot of running right now. I look at this team and say this is probably one of the most mentally tough teams that I've been on. The way we bounced back from mistakes and stuff that happened, within our workouts and stuff, we're real mature as a team."

ON WHAT HE THINKS IS THIS TEAM'S BIGGEST IMPROVEMENT FROM LAST YEAR TO THIS YEAR:

"That's a good question. I'd say the biggest improvements are that everybody, individually in the summer, works on their game to make (themselves) a better basketball player by themselves. Right around this team, I've seen a big improvement. Our ability to bounce back and our toughness as a team and our chemistry, that's key. It builds everyday from watching film with the guys that haven't played yet. We're doing stuff that we wouldn't do last year, such as watching film as a team. Nobody would ever do that. Like, 'Man, come to my room, out of the gym, out of Hahn-Hurst (practice facility), let's go to the gym and let's play one-on-one full court all night.' As a team, we've made sacrifices — putting this season first as much as we can. We have school and stuff, but we've been fitting basketball in there and (it's) a main, main, huge priority."

ON IF HE ACTUALLY PLAYS FULL COURT, ONE-ON-ONE GAMES AFTER MIDNIGHT:

"Yeah, all the time (with Zach LeDay). I'm up three (games) right now, 36-33. We've got a chart."

ON IF THERE'S ANY WAY TO CAPITALIZE ON THE MOMENTUM OF THE FAN BASE OF THE FOOTBALL TEAM:

"I think, as Hokie Nation, whatever season is in, I think everybody is going to support (you). I think if you win, you get more fans. Seeing Devin on the team, on the football team, I'm happy for them and happy for what they've done. Their first year (under Justin Fuente) has been great, it's fun to watch. I've been to more football games this year than I've probably been to in my last two years. For us, just stay even-keeled and focus on day-by-day and not worry about it. We know Hokie Nation has some of the best fans in college basketball. When 11/11 comes, we know Cassell's gonna be rocking. It's gonna be fun."

ON WHAT HE'S IMPROVED ON THIS YEAR:

"I've watched a lot of film. I've probably seen all the games a billion times and all the clips of everything. Seeing how I turn the ball over, when I turn the ball over, why I turn the ball over. A lot of it was decision making a lot. Some of it was loose with the ball. Some of it was, early on, I would just make passes to people I shouldn't make passes to. I think what's gotten me better is this year I'll be playing with a better pace to my game. I was so anxious to come back that last year I was 'vroom, vroom, vroom.' I was trying to keep going and make plays every time I touch the ball and that's not how basketball is. You've gotta let it swing and come back around to you. Throughout the season, I did that more and more. I let the game come to me and I started playing better. Early on, when I was trying to force things, that's what really hurt me. That would probably the best increase to my game. I've been shooting the free throw a billion times better. I'm trying to shoot 90 percent this year, so I've been really working on that. Decisionmaking and that would probably be the biggest things. And then just leadership, overall. I feel like all these guys trust me and believe in me. I believe in them more than they know it. I believe in us, too, as a unit. I'm just ready to take on the season."

Zach LeDay

ON WHAT THIS TEAM CAN DO AS AN ENCORE TO LAST YEAR:

"I've just been working. I've been trying to stay in the gym — literally sleep in the gym. I've tried to get some blankets, pillows, a little fan going, just staying in the gym the whole summer and just working to get better and help my team win more games than last year."

ON IF THE TEAM ACTUALLY SLEEPS IN THE GYM:

"We've literally been sleeping in the gym like crazy. We try to sleep in the gym, stay in the cold tub, take care of our bodies. We had a good summer. We went home and got to play with some guys at home and it was pretty good for us just to rest our minds a little bit from basketball and then just come back with an all business mindset."

ON HOW IMPORTANT CHRIS CLARKE IS TO THE TEAM AND HOW YOU HAVE TO BE BUILT TO WANT TO BE AROUND WILLIAMS ALL THE TIME:

"Chris is very important. He's very versatile, he can play a lot of positions. He can play pretty much any position other than the 5 really. He's as good as he wants to be and he's working really hard to get better every day and try to improve his game. He's played point guard for us at points of time during the summer. He's as good as he wants to be. His potential is through the roof. He's very important as we go along. Everybody's important, though. Everybody is playing their role. And then coach...everybody just likes being around him. We're just around him all the time, so we just do work with him. He works out with you. You see it on Twitter. He'll wipe the floor for you, he'll do anything for you. He'll go through a wall for you if you'll go through a wall for him. So that's all I try to do is try to go as hard as I can and be good on and off the court."

ON WHAT HAVING AHMED HILL AND TY OUTLAW BACK MEANS TO THIS TEAM:

"Med's a defender. He's a tough hard worker and he wants to play defense. He can knock down open threes. He can finish big free throws. He's a scorer, naturally, out of high school. He's gotten a lot better with his off year because he's watched a lot of film and worked out with our coaches and he's worked out every day, three times a day. He's been working, grinding. Ty's a knockdown shooter. He can play the three, the four, he's a mismatch, versatile player. We're looking forward to having him, too. He gives us another scoring punch coming in."

ON WHAT THE TEAM HAS TO DO TO MAKE THE NCAA TOURNAMENT THIS YEAR:

"We've gotta get better on the defensive end, consistently. Every game, just keep getting better consistently. Getting stops after stops — we call them Turkeys — getting three stops in a row. We gotta get as (many) of those as possible. We've gotta scrap, we've gotta get loose balls. We've gotta do what we do, play as hard as we can, make every game a battle. If we do that, and scrap the biggest teams, we'll be alright. If everybody plays as hard as they can, I think we'll be alright in that potential."

Kerry Blackshear, Jr.

ON HIS LEG:

"I'm pretty good right now, just ready for the season."

ON IF IT'S KEEPING HIM FROM ANY ACTIVITIES:

"Not really. Just progressing, trying to take the right steps to be ready for the season."

ON IF THERE'S ANYTHING HE CAN'T DO BECAUSE OF HIS LEG:

"No, they haven't really told me not to do anything."

ON HOW FAR THE TEAM HAS COME SINCE BOOT CAMP:

"Everybody's competitive. Everybody wants to win."

ON IF HE FEELS THEY HAVE MORE POST DEPTH:

"Yeah, we feel like we have depth at every position. We have a lot of guys that can play multiple positions, so that helps us a lot. Guys like (Justin) Bibbs, Ty (Outlaw), Med (Ahmed Hill), Zach LeDay, we all can play different positions, so it doesn't really matter."

ON WHO STOOD OUT FROM BOOT CAMP:

"I was just impressed by the whole team. Everyone came together and just fought. It was really tough this year, it was good. I was impressed by everybody."

ON WHAT IT'S LIKE HAVING HILL BACK:

"Med's been back all year. He practiced and stuff last year. He's been really good, we're so excited to have him back. It's good to see somebody work so hard like he does, finally get able to play again."

Justin Bibbs

ON THE DEPTH OF THE TEAM:

"Everybody's excited. We're fortunate to have to play a large amount of walk-ons."

ON HOW WILLIAMS WILL BE THIS YEAR WITH THE ADDED EXPECTATIONS:

"He's on us hard. We've already forgot about last year. We know what we did, but we can't think about it at all. Just have to look forward."

ON HOW MUCH HE'S GROWN IN HIS TIME AT VIRGINIA TECH:

"I think I've improved both as a person and as a player, helping my teammates out. I wasn't that involved my freshman year."

ON HOW WILLIAMS IS HANDLING THE EXPECTATIONS:

"To be honest, he's not really talking about what rank we'll be. We obviously know, but we just think about getting better every day."

Ahmed Hill

ON THE DEPTH OF THE TEAM COMPARED TO WHEN HE LAST PLAYED:

"It's really cool, to be honest. It's really good now that if you mess up, I can come in. It makes the best come out of you, actually. Every day in practice, everybody has a great competitive edge here. It's really great."

ON HOW HE WATCHES BASKETBALL GAMES:

"I used to just watch people all-around. Now, I watch certain things. Like, if I see a ball screen coming on, I will watch the help guy and see what he's doing. It helps a lot to just watch and learn. I sat down with (Devin Wilson) and we'd put up film."

ON IF IT WAS STRANGE TO BE A LEADER WHEN HE WASN'T PLAYING:

"It was really, really weird. When I first got hurt, Buzz told me to become a leader but I told him I didn't know how because I wasn't going through what those guys were going through. Once you see it and talk to them, guys listen. It's really hard at first because you're not out there going through it, but after a while, it gets easier."

Devin Wilson

ON WHAT HIS ROLE WILL BE THIS SEASON:

"I'm obviously that guy that tries to really, really lock down on defense. I'm a defensive-minded guy, and then more of a pass-first point guard on the offensive end. I think that's a role that I'm gonna be able to step into once I come in and come back to basketball. Hopefully I'm able to work my way up and get my conditioning back to where it needs to be to be able to help the team."

ON IF HE WILL PLAY BASKETBALL GAMES WHILE FOOTBALL IS STILL GOING ON:

"I'm not sure how that works in the NCAA or at Virginia Tech in general. That's something that I'm gonna have to talk to Coach (Justin) Fuente about and Coach Williams to see if I'm able to do something of that nature. That's something for the future."

ON WHAT HE WOULD PICK IF HE WOULD HAVE TO PICK ONE SPORT OR THE OTHER:

"As of right now, I don't know which way I would lean. It's kind of early in football season. You don't know how the role...injuries can happen, guys can need backups, that kid of nature. But my role is limited in football, as you can see already. I didn't expect to be playing a lot. Football is something that I wanted to be able to try, so hopefully as the year goes on, I can get a larger role."

ON IF HE'S ENJOYING PLAYING FOOTBALL:

"I am, I think it's fun. It's definitely a learning experience. That's something that Coach Williams talked to me about before I decided to play was just to be able to think about it when I'm 40-years-old, think about all the ties I was able to make and all the connections I was able to make while I was doing it."

ON IF HE'S BULKED UP FOR FOOTBALL:

"Yeah, a lot. Usually during basketball season, I would always lose weight. Right now I'm around 200 pounds, I weighed 200 this morning. So coming back to basketball, I might be a little heavier than expected."

ON IF HE'S WORRIED THAT MAY SLOW HIM DOWN:

"No, I think it helps me out. It enables me to be able to guard more positions and be able to put a body on people. Last year you'd see me guard guys like (Malcolm) Brogdon, who's a bigger bodied guy, (Jaron) Blossomgame (is a) bigger bodied guy. Hopefully I can expand my guarding range this year."

ON HOW TOUGH IT'S BEEN DOING BOTH FOOTBALL AND BOOT CAMP:

"I actually didn't do boot camp this year. I was able to come to as many sessions as I (could) to be able to just help the team out in any way, shape, or form. Boot camp's more than just the conditioning and the physical part, it's about getting the mental reps and being able to help the teammate side as well."

ON HAVING HILL BACK AND HEALTHY:

"It's great. It's fun to watch him play. He's been working his tail off in the offseason, he worked his tail off in his redshirt year. He's really dedicated to really having a great, great year after the redshirt."

ON HOW THE TEAM IS MANAGING THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE SEASON:

"I don't think anyone here is really acknowledging that. We're the same team we were three years ago when Coach Buzz first got here. We're jumping around, we're having fun with the game, but when it's time for practice, we have a different game face on. We really take in that whole hug your brothers type of mentality."

ON THE CHEMISTRY OF THIS TEAM AND WHERE IT STARTED:

"I think just kind of the things we go through in practice forces you to really bond with the people next to you. It's really, really hard to not like someone here. Then, we also all stay in the same apartment complex. Freshmen can't live with us, we'll go pick them up and bring them to the apartment. We're always literally around each other 24/7. It's kind of hard to not like each other."

ON WHAT THEY DO IN THE APARTMENT:

"Anything. 2K (NBA 2k17) to — Med Hill and Justin Bibbs' apartment, they have a big projector screen where they have Mario Kart on it. We watch movies. We just hang out and try to be around each other as much as possible."

ON IF WILSON EVER PLAYS THE LATE NIGHT ONE-ON-ONE GAMES THAT ALLEN AND LEDAY DO:

"I've gotten in on it a couple of times. They used to do it a lot their redshirt year. They don't do it as much now because it's more time consuming. We try to get as many people in here as much, we try to play as much in the gym as possible. Really try to make it a team effort instead of an individual one."

Comments

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I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction:
“I served in the United States Navy"

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'Its easy to grin, when your ship comes in, and you've got the stock market beat,
but the man worthwhile, is the man who can smile, when his shorts are too tight in the seat'

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2023 Season Challenge: TBD
Previous Challenges: Star Wars (2019), Marvel (2020), Batman (2021), Wrasslin' (2022)

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Exit light. Enter night. Enter the Hokies.

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The Orange and Maroon you see, that's fighting on to victory.

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Another white bronco? The first one didn't go too far.

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2023 Season Challenge: TBD
Previous Challenges: Star Wars (2019), Marvel (2020), Batman (2021), Wrasslin' (2022)

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"GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM LITTLE BROTHER, THE CUP IS COMIN’ ON HOME!”

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Pain is Temporary, Chicks Dig Scars
Glory is Forever, Let's Go Hokies!!

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"That move was slicker than a peeled onion in a bowl of snot." -Mike Burnop

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"That kid you're talking to right there, I think he played his nuts off! And you can quote me on that shit!" -Bud Foster

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Plan for the worst and hope for the best, not the other way around.

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The Orange and Maroon you see, that's fighting on to victory.

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Warning: this post occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)..

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Another white bronco? The first one didn't go too far.

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Here lies It's a Stroman Jersey I Swear, surpassed in life by no one because he intercepted it.

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___

-What we do is, if we need that extra push, you know what we do? -Put it up to fully dipped? -Fully dipped. Exactly. It's dork magic.

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VT CEE Class of 2016/2017

5 years, 2 degrees, 33 football games as a student, and 2 Cassell court stormings later, I bleed Maroon and Orange

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Warning: this post occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)..

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I found TKP after two rails from TOTS then walking back to my apartment and re-watching the 2012 Sugar Bowl. I woke up the next day with this username.