Va Tech basketball

[hokiegrad]

Some of those late offers to Ben were Marquette, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, SMU, Washington, ...

 

[hokiegrad]

some good quotes from JJ:
http://blogs.roanoke.com/courtside/2012/10/johnson-talks-about-his-players/

 

[Hokie Swagger]

Some of those late offers to Ben were Marquette, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, SMU, Washington, ...

some really solid offers there for sure

 

[Ragingcroc]

some really solid offers there for sure

It seems we got a lot of late boomers for the 2013 class.

 

[Ray]

It seems we got a lot of late boomers for the 2013 class.

agreed, marquette, tcu and washington for Ben. clark has great offer sheet, thompson has tennessee, mississippi state, usc, xavier, and arizona state. kirby will give us some beef at PF, but we need a true SF or combo forward, anyone know of the remaining recuits on our target board

 

[Lumbee09]

Racer and Johnston are both back. Where (and when... before SG was fired?) had you heard that they were quitting?

Joey actually earned a scholarship for the spring semester last year. I'm guessing that is still in place for this year, since we're nowhere near the scholarship limit.

Sorry, I've been away for a while between CPA test studying and overall avoiding negativity after UNC and Cincinnati losses. But I can tell you Racer is on scholarship, this year. I imagine Johnston earned one too this year due to the extra scholarships lying around.

It will be interesting to see how much these guys play due to our lack of depth. I heard at points last year that some of the assistants wanted Racer to start because of his work ethic, but SG wouldn't do it. One of those assistants is now a head coach so we'll see what happens. I think these guys will have to play, though, especially if injury bug strikes again.

Any news on how Joey Van Zegeren is doing in practice and what kind of role he will have?

Last year a lot of people liked Van Zegeren, but he was redshirted so he could put on some muscle. I imagine we'll see him a lot this year providing depth at the 5 spot.

 

[HoHumHokie]

I gotta admit that I am kind of excited about this season. I won't miss SG and his facial expressions one bit. Glad I don't have to watch Davila anymore as well. I think we have a good group of team players (no me firsts) and I like the fact that Johnson wants to run. You can win a lot of games simply by out hustling the opponent. What should this teams expectations be? We should at least be in contention for an NIT bid.

 

[Hokie200proof]

I gotta admit that I am kind of excited about this season. I won't miss SG and his facial expressions one bit. Glad I don't have to watch Davila anymore as well. I think we have a good group of team players (no me firsts) and I like the fact that Johnson wants to run. You can win a lot of games simply by out hustling the opponent. What should this teams expectations be? We should at least be in contention for an NIT bid.

I am also looking forward to this season, but I'll miss Seth. For whatever he might have lacked in X's & O's, player development, that man picked us up off the mat and gave us everything we have today (sellouts for basketball, how many W's over #1-ranked opponents, our first ACC tourney bye, some of our best recruits). He was a good ambassador for Tech and great in front of the camera and that helped us as well.

I think it was time to move on, but I won't forget what Seth gave to VT.

 

[Ragingcroc]

Joey Racer started the last regular season game at NC State if I remember correctly.

 

[Ragingcroc]

I am also looking forward to this season, but I'll miss Seth. For whatever he might have lacked in X's & O's, player development, that man picked us up off the mat and gave us everything we have today (sellouts for basketball, how many W's over #1-ranked opponents, our first ACC tourney bye, some of our best recruits). He was a good ambassador for Tech and great in front of the camera and that helped us as well.

I think it was time to move on, but I won't forget what Seth gave to VT.

I agree 100%. I really loved the way he got the students involved. His chalk talks were very informative. There was depth to what he was talking about but he did a good job of explaining stuff to us.

It was time for a change though. We wouldn't have been able to reload on assistant coaches with Seth being a lame duck coach. The negative did lose Finney Smith and Harrell but Finney Smith was gone regardless. I do wonder what would have happened had we not been snubbed out of the tournament 2 years in a row.

Anyone know if Coach Johnson is going to do chalk talks like Seth did? I know he filled in for a few chalk talks that were scheduled when Seth was making recruiting trips.

 

[hokiegrad]

I'm not sure Seth was all that bad at X's & O's, at least in game prep / scheme. Not as good with in-game decisions.

I could have really gone either way on his firing. Seth could drive you nuts, the program was on the downward slope with not enough players coming in (and at least Doe-Doe leaving either way) and assistants jumping ship. But he was a pretty good coach, and I wasn't sure we could do better. He'd done a lot for VT, and maybe he could bring things back around. He did have a lot of good players, if not enough. In the end, I was willing to give Weaver the benefit of the doubt. And the more I learn about JJ, and see how he's recruiting, and hear how practices are going, the better I feel about the change. We shall see how it goes when the games begin.

 

[hokiecheme11]

Joey Racer started the last regular season game at NC State if I remember correctly.

Well yeah they always do that for senior night, I think that was before he was sure he would return.

 

[757Hokie83]

I am also looking forward to this season, but I'll miss Seth. For whatever he might have lacked in X's & O's, player development, that man picked us up off the mat and gave us everything we have today (sellouts for basketball, how many W's over #1-ranked opponents, our first ACC tourney bye, some of our best recruits). He was a good ambassador for Tech and great in front of the camera and that helped us as well.

I think it was time to move on, but I won't forget what Seth gave to VT.

well said.:popeye:

 

[Lumbee09]

VT tied for 10th in the ACC preseason coaches poll. Odd poll since there are only 12 voters. NC St, Duke, and UNC were 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

 

[hunzworth]

And the more I learn about JJ, and see how he's recruiting, and hear how practices are going, the better I feel about the change. We shall see how it goes when the games begin.

I see him at all the home football games, idk about his X's and O's but he seems to really interact with people well, I'd hope/figure that carries over to recruiting. FWIW i spoke with him (very brief) before the GT game and he seemed pretty driven to put a good product on the court.

 

[wildturkey]

Some of those late offers to Ben were Marquette, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, SMU, Washington, ...

Pretty solid right there. Looking at offers is really about the only thing I look at for basketball recruiting. The star system isn't near as good as it is in football. There's also a lot of shady stuff going in b-ball recruiting that skews a lot of stuff. So for me, I just look to see if a kid has offers from notable b-ball schools to get a general idea of his talent. You can also look at his AAU history to see the caliber of guys he's playing with/against, but again, that typically leads to shady areas.



As for this season, I may enjoy it since I've set my expectations at zero. It should be a relief not watching a Greenberg team trip all over themselves from the same mistakes.

 

[wildturkey]

Players Happy To Be Away From Seth? | The Key Play

I disagree with the poster's belief those are shots at SG, but I'm linking because of what Green said, specifically "running the up and down the court".

PLEASE let this be true. If they start playing more up tempo, I'd be happier than a witch in a broom factory (side note: I hate those Geico commercials). Has anyone been to a practice to see if they really are playing with more pace?

 

[ACC_HOKIES]

Players Happy To Be Away From Seth? | The Key Play

I disagree with the poster's belief those are shots at SG, but I'm linking because of what Green said, specifically "running the up and down the court".

PLEASE let this be true. If they start playing more up tempo, I'd be happier than a witch in a broom factory (side note: I hate those Geico commercials). Has anyone been to a practice to see if they really are playing with more pace?

JJ said from the start that he wanted to run more, trying to get easy baskets. With that, Seth said the same type things almost every season.

 

[Chrish1023]

Has it ever come up on here that Eric Green was interested in transferring because he didn't like Greenburg? Everyone talked about DoDo, but I'm pretty sure Eric disliked Greenburg just as much...

 

[Lumbee09]

JJ said he is projected Eddie to have a breakout year. Said he shoots better off the dribble and improved his game in the post. I'll believe it when I see it, but if true this team may not be so bad.